Swamp Thing: Roots

[alicemacher]

"Making the Justice League fit into a horror book was largely a problem of approach. What I decided to go for was a more oblique and shadowy representation of the JLA. They appear a little weirder and ominous and more frightening, unknowable entities of immense power that sit up there in space and watch over the affairs of men."
--Alan Moore, The Comics Journal 93 (Sept. 1984), 84.





Woodrue's recording states that, at the Green's behest, he's made the world's plant life output ten times the normal amount of oxygen, which will render the atmosphere flammable and destroy humankind within a year.





Back in Lacroix, Swamp Thing confronts the Floronic Man, who assumes he's returned from the Green in order to share in the destruction. Woodrue offers the "swamp god" the life of the woman he'd hoisted in vines the previous issue. Instead, Swamp Thing punches him and rescues her. Woodrue calls him a traitor and uses his control of plants to subdue him. A brave elderly local man tries to save the day by fetching his trusty chainsaw, Evangeline.





Fortunately, Swamp Thing manages to free himself in the nick of time and break Woodrue's arm. He tells Woodrue his actions are hurting the Green.





Actually, fungi also produce carbon dioxide, as do plants themselves at night. But I wouldn't tell Woodrue that.





As Woodrue runs off screaming, Abby asks her friend what he meant by saying he wasn't Alec. He says Alec is long dead, from the lab explosion.

"And who are you?" asks Abby.

"I? I am... the Swamp Thing." He assures her that he's happy with who he is and they embrace before he returns to his beloved swamp.

Also returning (rushing) to the swamp is Woodrue, who's now decided he's not a plant, but a human. Reaching his makeshift lab, he hurriedly dresses, puts on his wig and sprays on his artificial skin. However, he's let his bark grow out for too long, so when Superman and Green Lantern find him there, this is what they see:







"...and meet the sun."

Next: a visit from Jason Blood.

Comments

[lego_joker]

So! Moore's Swampy's first "superhero" adventure! It's very gripping, with great lines by the pageful, though the way Moore cheats with the science gets a little more annoying on every reread - the crux of Woodrue's crusade is that Earth's plants (most of them, at any rate) did fine without animals for millions of years, which is objectively true. For Swampy to go "Nah, man, we totes need the meatbags" shouldn't have swayed either his fanatic "VENGEANCE OF THE GREEN" side or his cold, calculating scientist side.

(Maybe Moore was aware of this, even at the time; thirty-odd issues later be seeing... whoop, spoilers...)

(Oh, and check that "Human like you" page - seems Moore got the whole "all freaks go to Arkham, even when we're nowhere near Gotham" ball rolling. Karen Berger-edited books seemed especially fond of this; everyone from Doctor Destiny to the freaking Cheetah - who's not even American - would get shoved in there.)

[zylly]

I’ve always bounced between finding the whole “over people” thing poetic and deeply cynical.