Swamp Thing: The Anatomy Lesson

[alicemacher]

"This story was the first hand grenade thrown by what you might call the British sensibility in American comics. [...] Miracleman predates it, but this was the first time a [world]wide audience in modern comics had been shown a character they knew well, and told that everything they knew was wrong. Now, it's a cliché. Then, it was explosive. Structurally, it's untouchable. Perfectly paced, a complete short story, powered by hate and Moore's sudden grasp of the possibility in the 24-page form. As a British writer, he'd been restricted to the 6 to 8-page form before now. It was like seeing a clever piccolo player suddenly get access to an orchestra."
--Warren Ellis, quoted in Magic Words: The Extraordinary Life of Alan Moore


First off: lego_joker commented, on my previous post, that the original, murky colouring (by Tatjana Wood, incidentally) was more fitting for this comic than the bright digital recolouring of the latest trade editions. I agree, so from this post onward I'll be presenting scans from the old, monthly issues. I'll do my best to make the occasional white-on-black lettering legible while respecting the integrity of the original. Now on with Issue 21 (Feb. 1984; pencils by Stephen Bissette and Rick Veitch, inks by John Totleben)!

Two weeks after his men seemingly shot the Swamp Thing dead, and cryogenically preserved his body, General Sunderland secures the release of Dr. Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man, and hires him to dissect the creature at Sunderland's Washington headquarters. The general wants Woodrue to determine why exposure to Alec Holland's bio-restorative formula turned him into a plant monster while having no effect on his wife Linda (whose body Sunderland's people had exhumed and studied).





After six frustrating weeks, Woodrue comes across an entry on planarian worms, and everything falls into place.





Woodrue suggests that by the time Holland, post-explosion, landed in the swamp, he was in fact already dead. The plants within the swamp, growth spurred by his formula, began to eat Holland's body and thereby became "infected" with his consciousness, which still believed itself alive.





Sunderland says, over Woodrue's protestations, that he doesn't need a scientific background to understand the gist, just as he doesn't need to understand how the technology behind his staffless, fully-automated headquarters works in order to use it. Nor does he need Woodrue's services any more. He steps out for a moment, leaving his central computer console alone with the vengeful Woodrue, who knows exactly how it works. The scientist uses it to thaw out the Swamp Thing down in the freezer.





Later that evening, Sunderland drops by the lab and finds the swamp creature missing. He rushes back to his office.







At home, Woodrue reflects that Sunderland shouldn't be in much danger, given that the Swamp Thing isn't known to have intentionally killed anyone. Not as long as the creature hasn't read his notes on him.







Woodrue imagines that the Swamp Thing, having dispatched of Sunderland, would head back to the Louisiana bayou. He resolves to follow him there in hopes of learning more about his own part-plant self.

Comments

[lizard_of_aus]

Try most of modern comics nowadays. Pretty much every major hero has had one attempt at an earth-shattering revelation thrust upon them. Ben Reilly, Romulus, Snap Wilson, the Crossing, the list goes on.

[tcampbell1000]

Some have stuck better than others, but yes. And it's still part of the scene, from the new villain in Man of Steel claiming, "I killed Krypton! Climate change, geological catastrophe? Nah, it was all me!" to the new Avengers opening with the idea that there was some proto-Avengers running around before there were even proper people on Earth, defending the Homo antecessors.

You could argue that those revisionist spasms aren't the same as saying "Everything you know is wrong," but for all the love this story justly gets, it's not really saying that either. Swamp Thing remains a horror series about a guy who's a plant in the swamp, not a spy thriller about a woman eating bacon in Hoboken.

[icon_uk]

Agreed, this is definite horror, but it's also about acceptance and growth. Almost, and I may be speaking out of turn here, dealing with a chronic disability.

Once Alec realises he can never achieve his dream of becoming human again, he makes peace with that, and though regretful accepts his new reality and sets out to discover what that means.

[tcampbell1000]

That's a really good point.

[kamino_neko]

Swamp Thing remains a horror series about a guy who's a plant in the swamp, not a spy thriller about a woman eating bacon in Hoboken.

Nor about a drug addicted jazz critic who ISN'T radioactive.

(Sorry, that line in connection to Alan Moore pretty much required that reference...)