Swamp Thing: ...A Time of Running...

[alicemacher]

Warning for implied child abuse.


Swamp Thing #26 (July 1984) opens with a framing sequence of Abby and the title character running to Elysium Lawns at night. Then there's a flashback to Abby's meeting the previous day with Jason Blood, who notes in passing she's an Arcane.





Abby's first day on the job proves eventful as all the kids are unexpectedly acting so wild they need to be physically restrained for safety. When peace is restored, Abby's boss Deanna shows her that all the children have been drawing pictures of the Monkey King. Abby thinks of Paul and checks in with him.





"I believe you, Paul," thinks Abby. "Now who's going to believe me?"





Matt immediately realizes, from the look Abby gives him, that he's gone too far. He offers her the car keys by way of apology, but she's too angry to accept them and storms out. She runs straight to the Swamp Thing, who's already had a strong premonition related to Elysium Lawns, so they're off. Meanwhile, the Monkey King visits Paul's bedroom, gently takes him by the hand and leads him to the other children's rooms so it can assume the shapes of what scares them and feed on their fear.







"Mommy needn't know." Good God. That Moore at this point still had to write within the constraints of the Comics Code actually works to make this scene all the more disturbing for what's implied rather than stated outright.

As the home devolves into chaos, Etrigan perches on the roof, tears off the skylight and jumps inside, intent on battling the Monkey King. (Apologies for not including him here. Next post.)







Moore's typically dark sense of humour shows up here with the reference to the old rhyming series of roadside Burma-Shave billboards, many of which doubled as driving safety messages ("Don't take / a curve / at 60 per. / We hate to lose / a customer / Burma-Shave"). Also, Gaiman later quotes that "The night can make a man more brave" line in The Sandman, with reference to a certain character who's actually... but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Comments

[lego_joker]

Eat'cher heart out, Pennywise.

The Burma-Shave gag remains stunning, as does Matt's accident in general, but IMO, the must-quote of this issue goes to Etrigan. Anti-heroes who go "We need to kill this kid for the Greater Good" are a dime a dozen, but how many can phrase it like this?

"Why, to hear the tales they tell... you'd think no children burned in Hell!"