Swamp Thing: Growth Patterns

[alicemacher]

The prelude to the "American Gothic" arc, and the first appearance of John Constantine.


From Swamp Thing #37 (June 1985). Art by Rick Veitch and John Totleben.

"American Gothic" is Moore's longest and most ambitious storyline for the title. Its "journey through the dark heart of America" theme has influenced later Vertigo writers, such as Ennis ("Damnation's Flame" in Hellblazer) and Milligan ("American Scream" in Shade, the Changing Man).

After Nukeface unknowingly destroys his body, the Swamp Thing sends his mind into the Green and, over the next seventeen days, grows himself a new body. On the fourth day, Abby discovers his tiny humanoid form in the swamp and spends her spare time tending to him as best as she can while he's still rooted.

Meanwhile, John Constantine makes the rounds of his psychic contacts in England and America. All agree that something terrible is returning to the universe within a year or less, but none of them agree on who or what it is. In London, the drugged-out clubber Judith says it's a giant cosmic energy field. In Wisconsin, the shut-in Benjamin Cox says it's Cthulhu (even though the Cthulhu mythos is fictional within the DCU). In Washington, the nun Sister Anne-Marie claims it's Satan. John next visits New York, where his artist girlfriend Emma lives.







Constantine's next stop is Louisiana, specifically the back seat of Abby's car, where he appears (out of hiding? suddenly materialized there? It's all very mysterious) as she's driving.







John's reverse psychology has the desired effect: the Swamp Thing begs him to stay and tell him more about his own nature. However, John says if he wants answers he'll have to come find him, as he's always on the move. He tells him he'll be in Rosewood, Illinois, in a week's time.

As Constantine and the Swamp Thing talk, Emma is shocked to find her canvas, on which she'd sketched the creepy boy with the backwards head, completely blank. With a sense of dread, she searches her apartment, and notices the closet door is ajar...





The creature chases Emma, and she ends up crashing through the window.







Better get used to this, Abby. Being a plant elemental is a full-time job.

Comments

[tripodeca113]

Constantine's Friends and Loved Ones Who Died or Meet Nightmarish Fates Count-1.

[crinos]

Scans of this have been posted before (although they focused on the Constantine side more) and featured contantine talking to the three people who had visions of the Invunche killing that girl to figure out what's coming. The nerd living with his mom thinks its Cthulhu, the Nun thinks its Satan, I forget what the 80's girl thinks its in.

(BTW, the Invunche is a pretty nasty customer, they are a monster from Chilean mythology, and is a human child who had their head twisted backwards and one hand sewn to their back by a warlock, and acts as the warlocks bodyguard and enforcer).

[laughing_tree]

How did the arc come to be known as “American Gothic”? As someone who only knows the series through the trades, I noticed that those words don’t actually appear anywhere on the pages.

[alicemacher]

It never appeared within the stories themselves, true, but it did appear from time to time in the editorial promos within the letters column.

[laughing_tree]

Thanks.

[tcampbell1000]

It's easy to see why Constantine became the series' breakout character: Alan and Steve and John T. absolutely nailed that "likable asshole" oxymoron in this issue and the next. For all that he acts dismissive about his helpers to Emma, his concern for them is just obvious enough to make him compelling without dulling his obnoxious edge, and his reaction to Emma's demise will expose the lie behind the uncaring face he tries to present to a world that will hurt him for caring, again and again.

That said, John Constantine seems to work best as a supporting player. To be sure, there have been a few interesting stories told about him as a main character, but he derives a lot of his interest here from another oxymoron: he is both mysteriously powerful and all too often all but powerless. Through methods never revealed, he knows more about Alec's nature than anyone else alive, as well as the actions and plans of a world-threatening conspiracy. Yet he often has to resort to almost childish games of negging, bluffing, and denial just to get anywhere, and as tripodeca113 points out, Emma is just one of many friends, loved ones, and associates whom he has failed and will fail to protect. He seems at one moment to be a winner who's always on top of everything and, in the next moment, a loser who's failed at everything he's tried.

It's hard to maintain the intrigue of such oxymorons if he isn't allowed a little mystery, and it's hard to keep him mysterious once he gets his own ongoing series. Still, some people felt the same way about Wolverine back in the day, and that boat's sailed, too.

In any case, here he settles right into the role Moore originally designed for him: the wellspring of sassy exposition. "Here, mate, have a couple of big ideas to chew on for a bit, I'm going to disappear back to my pub in Northampton-- er, I mean Rosewood-- and leave you wriggling on the hook until you come back next issue-- I mean, next week."

[alicemacher]

Although I think Constantine, under the right author, works just fine as a protagonist, I agree that (to the best of my knowledge, since I haven't read every JC story ever) Moore's original Constantine is unique in his sheer mysteriousness. He appears and disappears out of nowhere (I particularly like his parting "How do you baffle a vegetable?" gag in Issue 51). He's always on the move and has no apparent home base, not even London. He drops out of Alec's and Abby's lives for weeks without explanation. He has friends and lovers, but no mentioned family. He's occasionally shown to have paranormal abilities (e.g. crushing a glass without seriously injuring his hand, knowing Abby's reading a book when he phones her), but never as part of a fleshed-out occult system.

Subsequent writers have overturned at least some of those points: Delano established John does consider London his home and gave him on-panel relatives (beloved sister and niece, barely-tolerated brother-in-law, estranged father) and a family history. Delano and others actually show him travelling from place to place through mundane ways, as well as consulting grimoires and performing rituals. So yeah, that does take away much of his enigmatic nature, but not all of it.

Really, what I enjoy about John Constantine is that as long as one keeps to the broad strokes (blue-collar English background, jerk with a heart of gold, willingly answers to no authority, never enjoys an unqualified victory, close association with him nearly always means your death or at least getting seriously messed with), there are so many valid ways to write him as either a protagonist or a supporting character. Delano emphasized his self-loathing, Gaiman his compassion, Ennis his contempt for both Heaven and Hell, Azzarrello his manipulativeness. All of which and more fits within the character's nature and world.