Swamp Thing: The Summoning

[alicemacher]

From Swamp Thing #49 (June 1986). Art by Stan Woch and Alfredo Alcala.

Constantine's team (or what's left of it after one betrayal and four murders) has failed to stop the Brujería from summoning the Original Darkness before creation. At that moment, he and the Swamp Thing undergo a role reversal.





As the Swamp Thing shoves his companion forward, the grand master says Constantine's right: there's no point in fleeing or fighting.





The creature makes the roots above ground poke through the ceiling, thus causing the chamber to fill with soil and drown all the Brujería members.





Outside, John and the Swamp Thing regroup and come up with a Plan B: Alec will help his contacts in the afterlife assemble a resistance, since it's there that the Darkness will manifest first, while Constantine recruits several human occultists to augment their power. His first stop is to obtain a base of operations: the home of Baron Winter (normally "Winters" but without the "s" here for some reason), as it's located within a spacetime threshold isolated from the present. Winter is dismissive of the "jumped-up London street thug" and says he's too busy to help him.







As the messenger bird flies beyond the physical world toward its destination, Dr. Fate's mask summons him to help fight the Darkness, while Dr. Occult dreams of the danger to come. In the afterworld, the Swamp Thing recruits Deadman and the Phantom Stranger, the latter of whom already knows of the threat. The three of them seek out the Spectre, who's also aware of the bird.





See what I mean about the Spectre acting like a... Anyway. John next visits Zatanna and her father Zatara. The latter hesitates to help at first, but when Zatanna readily agrees, he goes all Overprotective Dad and insists on coming with so he can keep an eye on her and Constantine.





Yeah, I'm with John on the costume thing. (*nosebleed*) Eventually, DC editorial came to feel the same way.

As the Swamp Thing's team meets up with Etrigan (who did try to destroy the bird but could only singe it), they learn he has half the host of Hell willing to fight under him, because better the Devil they know. Meanwhile, at Winter's, the occultists gather, including Dr. Occult, who's come on his own initiative. Constantine has a chat with the remaining team member, Mento, who's not really in a good place mentally, having lost his beloved Rita Farr, taken to drink, and overused his mind-enhancing helmet (as detailed in Marv Wolfman's New Teen Titans).





John explains that with the aid of his helmet, Steve can form a psychic link to the afterworld and enable his team to augment the power of their allies within. He has him do a "test run" of the helmet and give an ongoing report of what he sees. Mento locates the bird, now passing over Hell and into the chaos beyond. In its last moments, as the chaos tears it up, the bird remembers its former existence as Judith. With its dying scream, it releases the pearl of distilled fear and paranormal belief into the chaos.





Coming up: an extra-sized issue as "American Gothic" concludes.

Comments

[kamino_neko]

Ah, Baron Winter AND the Spectre. And Zatanna's ugliest costume. This was truly an issue for 'screw you'. >_>

[crinos]

I love Swamp Thing's "Okay, officially done with this shit." look in that one panel.

Evil witches: You can't possibly beat us.

Swamp Thing:....Mother fucker we're in a RAIN FOREST. This isn't a fight, this is taking out the trash.

[skjam]

Excellent use of Sargon's odd Face-Heel Turn in the Bronze Age.

[tcampbell1000]

I coulda sworn it was always "Winter," but a cursory flip through my old Who's Who reveals you're right. Must be the Mandela effect at work. That and the fact that I never really got into Night Force.

Still, this issue and the next seem to be closely coordinated with Marv Wolfman, who wrote Night Force as well as Teen Titans and Crisis and would be picking up on certain events from it (poor Steve Dayton). Moore may have even persuaded Wolfman to keep [character names redacted] alive long enough to participate in this soiree, since they seem to be the sort of characters who otherwise would have been Crisis casualties.

It's pretty great watching John transition so successfully from street thug with a bad reputation into community organizer for mystics way out of his league, modifying his approach from aggressive upstart to timid youth ("sir, we need you") to bad-boy ex. At first one wonders why he didn't assemble these guys in the first place instead of his original band of hippies and crazies, but the answer becomes apparent when we realize he's telling the kind of lies that wouldn't survive for any longer than the brief time he needs this coterie to stay together. "Wait, he told ME that YOU volunteered! And what do you mean 'this won't be dangerous,' Dayton? Of course he said it was going to be dangerous, that's half the reason I came!"

(Also, presumably, the Brujería are pretty good at staying off the radar, or someone like Winters would've opposed them independently before this. So when they were just hanging out in the Amazon and preparing, John couldn't recruit anyone with greater standing in the "aristocracy" than himself who wouldn't just take his word for things. Now that the Judith-bird is active, though, they can sense something's up.)

Count me among those who cheered when Swamp Thing took the Brujería to the cleaners. Their role in the story was never to be hugely powerful antagonists, just the sort of fanatics who can do a whole lot of damage. "Already own the Earth," huh? Well, y'all get to own some earth UP CLOSE now, mofuggas.

[alicemacher]

"It's pretty great watching John transition so successfully from street thug with a bad reputation into community organizer for mystics way out of his league, modifying his approach"

I liked that too, although I read his approach with Sargon less as "timid youth" and more as being polite and deferential, since Sargon's the gentlemanly sort. In contrast, John takes the cocky approach with the more arrogant Baron. In other words, speaking with each man in his own language. Though it's telling (and amusing) that the same "Oh, he's already agreed" lie works on both of them.

That the Brujería are such easy meat for the Swamp Thing further emphasizes the "for want of a nail" (okay, maybe a few nails) failure of Constantine's Plan A.

[deathcrist2000]

Ok, can anyone here tell me what the hell is on Zatanna's head?

[bradygirl_12]

Probably the latest in '80s magical fashion. ;)

I loved them bringing her old outfit back. The new one just was never really that good.

[lego_joker]

As much as I hate the general idea of a DC shared universe, this whole "calling all wizards" sequence is legitimately one of the coolest things I've seen in comics. There was some preliminary work laid in Annual #2 and Issue #33, but this, IMO, is where the Vertigo Universe really starts.