Swamp Thing (comic Book) - Second Series - Alan Moore

Alan Moore

As Swamp Thing was heading for cancellation due to low sales, DC editorial agreed to give Alan Moore (at the time a relatively unknown writer whose previous work included several stories for 2000 AD, Warrior and Marvel UK) free rein to revamp the title and the character as he saw fit. Moore reconfigured Swamp Thing's origin to make him a true monster as opposed to a human transformed into a monster. In his first issue, he swept aside the supporting cast Pasko had introduced in his year-and-a-half run as writer, and brought the Sunderland Corporation (a villainous group out to gain the secrets of Alec Holland's research) to the forefront, as they hunted Swamp Thing and "killed" him in a hail of bullets.

The Saga of the Swamp Thing #21 (Feb. 1984), "The Anatomy Lesson", signaled a change in the character's mythos by having the obscure supervillain the Floronic Man (Jason Woodrue) perform an autopsy on Swamp Thing's body and discover it was only superficially human, its organs little more than crude, nonfunctional, vegetable-based imitations of their human counterparts, indicating Swamp Thing could never have been human. Swamp Thing was not Alec Holland, but only believed it to be so: Holland had indeed died in the fire, and the swamp vegetation had absorbed his mind, knowledge, memories, and skills and created a new sentient being that believed itself to be Alec Holland. Swamp Thing would never be human again because he never was human to start with. Woodrue also concluded that, despite the autopsy, Swamp Thing was still alive and in a deep coma due to the bullet wounds and imprisonment in cold-storage.

Moore would later reveal, in an attempt to connect the original one-off Swamp Thing story from House of Secrets to the main Swamp Thing canon, that there had been dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Swamp Things since the dawn of humanity, and that all versions of the creature were designated defenders of the Parliament of Trees, an elemental community also known as "the Green" that connects all plant life on Earth.

Swamp Thing went catatonic due to the shock of discovering what he really was, then later killed Sunderland and escaped deep into the Green. Woodrue went insane after attempting to connect to the Green through Swamp Thing, and Abby had to revive Swamp Thing in order to stop Woodrue after Woodrue killed an entire village. Swamp Thing returned to the swamps of Louisiana, and encountered Jason Blood (the Demon), then gave a final burial for Holland.

Matthew Cable, gravely hurt in the previous storyline, was revealed to have been possessed by Anton Arcane, and Abby unwittingly had an incestuous relationship with him. After a fight, Cable was thrown into a coma, and Abby's soul delivered to hell. In the second Swamp Thing Annual, modelled on Dante's Inferno, Swamp Thing followed Abigail, encountering classic DC characters such as Deadman, The Spectre, Etrigan, and The Phantom Stranger en route, and eventually rescued her.

The relationship between Swamp Thing and Abby deepened, and in issue #34 ("Rites of Spring") the two confessed that they loved each other since they met, and "made love" though a hallucinogenic experience brought on when Abby ate a tuber produced by Swamp Thing's body. (This served as a segment in the movie The Return of Swamp Thing, where the Swamp Thing produces a fruit and the ingestion of the fruit makes Abby to see the Thing as a handsome man, and then, they make love.) The controversial relationship between plant and human would culminate in Abby being arrested later for breaking the laws of nature and conducting a sexual relationship with a nonhuman. Abby ultimately fled to Gotham City, leading to this story arc featuring the fourth encounter between Swamp Thing and Batman. Before that, the "American Gothic" storyline introduced the character John Constantine (later to star in his own comic Hellblazer) in issues #37–50, where Swamp Thing had to travel to several parts of America, encountering several archetypal horror monsters, including vampires (the same clan he fought in vol. 2, #3), a werewolf, and zombies, but modernized with relevance to current issues. Around this time, Moore had Swamp Thing encounter Superman a second time, in DC Comics Presents #85. The storyline began with Swamp Thing's old body being completely destroyed, and growing a new one. Constantine encourages Swamp Thing to use the power for transportation, and Swamp Thing learns to do so with increasing speed. The "American Gothic" storyline ended with a crossover to Crisis on Infinite Earths, where Swamp Thing had to solve the battle between Good (Light) and Evil (Darkness). He also met the Parliament of Trees in issue #47, which was where Earth Elementals like him lay to rest after they have walked the Earth, and it was here Moore solved the continuity problem of the first and second Swamp Thing: the first Swamp Thing, Alex Olsen, was a part of the Parliament.

Although Abby was eventually released (Batman pointed out that there were probably several non-humans, such as Superman, Metamorpho, Starfire (Dick Grayson's girlfriend), and the Martian Manhunter, partaking in relationships with human beings), Swamp Thing was ambushed by soldiers using a weapon designed by Lex Luthor. Luthor's weapon destroyed Swamp Thing's psychic connection with the earth, whilst Swamp Thing's body was destroyed by napalm. Unable to regrow a new earthly body, Swamp Thing was presumed dead. However, Swamp Thing's consciousness had instead fled to space, in search of a planet that was amenable to his new psychic wavelength. In the first tale of Swamp Thing's extraterrestrial activities ('My Blue Heaven,' #56), Swamp Thing came upon a planet colored entirely in shades of blue, and on which there was no intelligent life. A particularly popular issue, Swamp Thing populated this blue lonely planet with mindless plant replicas of Abby and other reminders of his lost Earth.

In issue 60, "Loving the Alien," the Swamp Thing actually becomes the father of the numerous offsprings of an alien cosmic entity after she "mates" with him against his will.

Moore's run included several references to obscure or forgotten comic characters (Phantom Stranger, Cain and Abel, Floronic Man) but none so prominent as in issue 32, when he broke with the serious and moody storyline for a single issue. In the story "Pog", we see Walt Kelly's funny animal comic character Pogo (created in 1943) and all of his woodland friends show up as costumed visitors from another planet, looking for an unspoiled world after their own utopia was overrun by brutal monkeys. More than a simple homage to Kelly, the story is a commentary on the lost innocence of the old comics, the cruelty of humans (who are referred to as "the loneliest animal of all"), and the destruction of a natural beauty that can never be reclaimed.

Moore began a trend (most notably continued by Neil Gaiman) of mining the DC Universe's vast collection of minor supernatural characters to create a mythic atmosphere. Characters spun off from Moore's series gave rise to DC's Vertigo comic book line, notably The Sandman, Hellblazer, and The Books of Magic; Vertigo titles were written with adults in mind and often contained material unsuitable for children. Saga of the Swamp Thing was the first mainstream comic book series to completely abandon the Comics Code Authority and write directly for adults.