Superman, Swamp Thing, and Solomon Grundy

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

The recent entry by besamim showing an encounter between Superman and Swamp Thing, which brought up the topic of whether sentient plants count as life, brought to mind another, much earlier encounter between the two. In fact, I think it might have been their first encounter.

I wonder if Rick Veitch had it in his mind when he wrote his issue, because it puts a quite different spin on his story. Also, recall that Grundy is a sort of plant creature in his own right, having a body composed of swamp matter.

Basically, the real Solomon Grundy was in Metropolis some time back, and his body somehow contaminated the sewers. Now there's a chemical reaction going on down there amidst the sewage, and it's generating new Solomon Grundy clones.

One of them climbs to the surface and gets into a tussle with Superman. Meanwhile, another clone is underground with Swamp Thing, who hopes that by examining him, he'll learn something about his own similar nature.





The news sends Swamp Thing's Grundy into a rage, and he heads to the surface with intent to kill. By this point, there are a bunch of Grundys lurking about the sewers.

Comments

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

This is a really good issue of an otherwise hack series. Alan Moore and co. pick up on i during their run on swampthing. When did Grundy cross over from Earth 2.

[(Anonymous)]

Bite your tongue, man. DC Comics Presents had some really awesome issues.

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

The most deadly game of whack-a-mole ever.

WTF??

[peur_evol.insanejournal.com]

What's up with the Metropolis Water & Sewerage Dept.?

City codes only require one (1) access panel (manhole cover) per city-block; why are there thirteen in an area that would only require four?

Re: WTF??

[tanetris.insanejournal.com]

They decided it was in the best interest of the city to have more of them after the dozenth time having to rebuild streets because a horde of sewer monsters got impatient and burst right through.

[besamim.insanejournal.com]

Who's the creative team on this issue? Swamp Thing is drawn after Wrightson's style, but it's clearly not Wrightson (and not just because of the dedication to him at the end).

I imagine this crossover must be from the seventies because this Swamp Thing conforms to Len Wein's characterization in that he thinks a lot but doesn't talk much. (IIRC the only things that Wein's Swamp Thing would utter out loud were "No!" and "Arcane!" and such.)

[rab62.insanejournal.com]

The artist here is Murphy Anderson...except the first image, which is from the cover of the same issue by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. This is from DC Comics Presents #8 from April 1979, written by Steve Englehart. Anderson isn't the artist you'd usually think of for swamp creatures, but he did have some previous experience with Solomon Grundy (http://www.comicbookbin.com/showcase055.html).

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

This is pretty philosophical stuff for a comic book of this era. Superman says 'this isn't life as I or anyone else knows it, so it's not life'. Swamp Thing says 'how the hell would you know? Life takes infinite different forms - just because you don't understand what this new form is doesn't mean it's not life. This is something new to the world - don't destroy it! Who are you to say that it's not life, when neither you or anyone else understands how their OWN life works?'
OK, so that last bit was me extrapolating. But still.

[tahngarth.insanejournal.com]

For some damn weird reason, DC Comics presents seemed to be the haven for philosophical and existential Superman comics in the 70's and 80's, while the main titles were mostly plodding around with generic plots and bland badguys. There's several issues, such as this one, Starlin's J'onn/Supergirl/Spectre/Supes arc and Gerber's surreal final issue. I guess DCP was considered "experimental" enough that stuff like this could be snuck in.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Which is possibly why 'Watchmen' and stories like that were published around that time - the big brass said 'well, this is a bit out of the ordinary, but we've already played around with these concepts a bit, so - sure.'

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

I SO don't miss this Swamp Thing that you could barely do anything with, except as an excuse for a story actually focusing on everyone else. He's so passive. "I'm Hamlet in snot, oh woe."

[besamim.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, the fact that he couldn't communicate with others apart from shouting out the occasional "NO!" or "Arcane!", and that his only power was the same-old generic "ability to beat people up" thing, didn't make for the most interesting character once you got past the pathos of him being a "muck-encrusted mockery of a man." Moore's retcon, not only of Swamp Thing's origin but of his powers and very nature, is perhaps the most ingenious in comics history.