Putting Alan Moore's Swamp Thing in Context

[btravage]

Alan Moore is quite a popular writer these days with major motion pictures and all, so it's feasible fans of his graphic novels might want to check out Swamp Thing. Herein lies the problem: unlike something like V for Vendetta or Watchmen, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run is not self contained. In fact the title of the first issue of Swamp Thing, "Loose Ends", reflects this. Earlier editions of the first TPB resolved this problem by simply not including issue, however this isn't a very good solution because some of these "loose ends" return latter in the run. Seeing as the issues leading up to Moore's run were never collected, I think it's fair to post them here.
First up is issue 17 6/23 Pages, which recaps the story so far. Most the story is unrelated to the arc so it splits up easily.






This second issue, ~6/23 pages, begins with Dennis and Liz in a dinner discussing their situation and how there fate hinges on the phrase "national security". In back, Alec has reunited with Abigale from Vol 1, for her story you should check out the Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis run which collects 1-10 of Swamp Thing vol 1.




Swamp Thing and the monster fight, and the monster wins, but runs away. Abby takes Swamp Thing and Co. back to her place where we are reunited with Matthew Cabel, also from Vol 1, who has been discharged from his secret army intelligence outfit and become an alcoholic. Throughout the night Swamp Thing defends his friends from more monsters. Meanwhile.




Antone Arcane, Abigale's evil undead uncle, is yet another old friend from Swamp Thing Vol 1. again, search out the Dark Genesis TPB for his first couple of appearances.
Most of the next issue is a reprint of Arcane's second appearance in Swamp Thing Vol 1 #2,I know I'm repeating myself, but this is also collected in Dark Genesis.




This next issue is the last I'm going to cover, as #20 is included in the new hardcover TPB that came out fairly recently. About 7/23 pages

Comments

[jlroberson]

Yeah, a lot of people forget that Bissette and Totleben were there before Moore. But by the time they were on, Pasko's tangled storylines were too far gone to save. I read it from the start(I was a ST fan since I was 8 and probably would have bought anything with him in it) and honestly never thought Pasko had a handle on the character, using him as nothing more than an excuse for other stories. Though one story was good--the child-killer one in, what, #4 or 5? Which was inspired by the Atlanta killings not that long before. But that was more to do with Tom Yeates, I think.

Those two fill-ins about the crystal guy though, by the AMETHYST writers, that was the nadir and why I stopped reading it. I actually never read these issues until I backtracked after coming back on once Moore was already getting attention. I believe I came back with that famous scene with the distant, remote JLA and Don Thompson giving it a good review in CBG. I was amazed at the difference.

[jkcarrier]

"using him as nothing more than an excuse for other stories."

You could say the same about Wein & Wrightson's run, really. That's the problem with the original concept: Swampy's only motivation is "gotta find a cure, gotta find a cure", and that cure will never arrive. So all he can do is run around in circles, and occasionally get distracted by someone else's drama. Which is why "The Anatomy Lesson" is so smart -- by taking the "cure" out of the equation, he could finally do stories where Swampy grows and changes and has a full life.

[jlroberson]

I could, actually, and while I love Wrightson's work, I cannot say the same of Wein's writing, which is a sometimes-entertaining recycling of past horror tropes. His run is like a tour of them. It was only Moore that freed the character to be something in himself. And Wein, who hired him, recognized this.

[lamashtar]

Awesome, thank you for posting!

[halloweenjack]

Thanks for posting this. I didn't think that Moore used continuity in a way that was too hard to catch up to or figure out, but this Bissette-Totleben art is wonderful, especially the close-up of Sunderland, that monster with the staff, the "Arcanemobile", and that gorgeous-creepy double-page spread with the cocoon-spinning.

[bradhanon]

Good lord, I'm a big ol' geek, and I honestly had NO IDEA that Moore's first issue wasn't "The Anatomy Lesson". Thanks!

Also, it's symptomatic of my malfunction that I look at that amazing cocoon double page, with all that gorgeous art, and the very first thing I notice is a misplaced apostrophe. And then THAT'S ALL I CAN LOOK AT.

[wizardru]

The most recent collection restores that first issue...but I can see why they originally left it out. It's sort of a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' proposition.

On the one hand, "Loose Ends" is exactly that. Wrapping up many of the threads from the previous run to make the slate...well, if not clean, then well organized. If you didn't know some of the secondary characters, you wouldn't need to know much of them at this point and you could pick up most of the details in context.

On the other hand, without it, some things seem to come out of left field. The whole Liz and Dennis thing is a lot harder to grab at first, if you don't know who they are. The same applies for a few other bits. They make more sense in context.

Ultimately, I think it works better with "Loose Ends" included. And besides, more Bisette/Totelbehn art is always good.

Suggested Tags

[btravage]

# char: abigail holland,
# char: anton arcane,
# char: swamp thing/alec holland
# creator: alan moore,
# creator: steve bissette,
# creator: marty pasko
# genre: horror,
# publisher: dc comics

Re: Suggested Tags

[kingrockwell]

In the future, could you leave out the # please?
Thanks for including these, though!