Comic Book Review – The Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume Two

The Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume Two (2009)
Reprints The Saga of the Swamp Thing #28-34, Annual #2
Written by Alan Moore and Len Wein
Art by Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, Shawn McManus, Rick Veitch, Alfredo Alcala, Ron Randall, and Berni Wrightson

Now that Alan Moore has reset the table for Swamp Thing, he wanted to tell stories you weren’t finding in most of the books published by DC and Marvel. Having established that Swamp Thing was not a resurrected Alec Holland but a mass of plant matter imbued with life from the chemicals Holland was doused in allowed different narratives to be spun. To close out that chapter of Swamp Thing’s life, he gave us “The Burial,” the opening story of this collection. The creature is seemingly visited by the ghost of Alec Holland and relives the events that led up to the scientist’s murder. It concludes with Swamp Thing finding Holland’s remains at the bottom of the bog and giving them a proper burial. That part of his life is officially over; now it’s time for something new.

The next arc of Moore’s run returns to dealing with Matt Cable. Abby Cable nee Arcane is deeply in love with Swamp Thing. Yet she is a married woman. In the previous arc, Matt had an encounter with a demon that has left him changed. He’s being manipulated, and Abby is forced to deal with that when she returns home to find her husband with his new “friends.” Brief flashes show her these are shambling corpses, but how could that be? I feel that Moore did a remarkable job creating a comic that bridged the gap between the classic horror anthologies that seemed to have fallen out of style, superhero books, and mature, modern storytelling. That’s on display here as Abby’s predicament would have worked perfectly as a one-off story in the pages of something like House of Secrets. It also hearkens to the title character’s roots as a horror short story in those same comics.

Moore also isn’t shy about referencing Swamp Thing creator and former writer Len Wein’s character and concepts. The Matt Cable story becomes an avenue to reintroduce Anton Arcane, our hero’s arch-nemesis and probably the only Swamp Thing villain people with a cursory knowledge of the character know about. He’s Abby’s uncle, which causes this story to lean into creepy, incestuous moments while not being explicit. Arcane desires that Abby suffer in Hell just as he has, and he gets his wish, which leads to the conclusion of this arc in the Swamp Thing Annual. 

Moore brings Etrigan the Demon back into the book and extends the invitation to Deadman, The Phantom Stranger, and The Spectre. Through the story, Swamp Thing tours Hell, searching for a way to restore Abby’s soul to her body. Artists Steve Bissette & John Totleben show off their skills even more than usual, illustrating the bizarre, inhuman denizens of the underworld. Before Moore, DC had yet to nail down their universe’s magic rules. Anytime a magic-based character appeared, they seemed to operate on their own set of rules wholly divorced from other characters. Beginning with Moore, this pocket of the DC Universe became much more defined. It would continue in the hands of writers like Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, and Jamie Delano. Even today, books like Justice League Dark reference concepts whose seeds were planted way back here.

The odyssey through the Afterlife is full of interesting moments. Swamp Thing finds the soul of Alec Holland in Elysium, his wife whom he’d mourned over for so long, calling for him in the distance. It provides the final note on the relationship between Swamp Thing and Holland during Moore’s run. When we get to the deepest depth, things get much more horrific, and it’s clear the artistic inspiration comes from Hieronymus Bosch’s depictions of Hell with its myriad of surreal tortures. This content wouldn’t fly under the censorious Comics Code Authority, and we can see how those sorts of restrictions held comics back as an art form. There certainly should be a bounty of comics for kids, but there should also be books that take these ideas further as readers grow & mature. It’s no wonder DC started putting the phrase “Sophisticated Suspense” above the title on the cover.

Moore follows up this epic arc with a clever one-off that pays homage to the work of cartoonist Walt Kelly, specifically his highly influential work Pogo. Pogo was a syndicated newspaper strip that ran from 1947 to 1975. It was about a group of anthropomorphic swamp animals. Embedded in these stories about funny talking animals was deep social and political satire that made it a beloved comic for both children and adults. Pogo was a significant influence on almost everyone in the comics industry working at that time, reflected in Moore’s beautiful tribute. In his story, a group of aliens wearing full-body space suits (but clearly recognizable due to their silhouettes) are trying to find a planet like the one their people destroyed by a species of primates that became more insane as they evolved. This heartbreaking, tragic one-off story left me with tears in my eyes by the final pages.

Another one-shot follows: Abby Cable enters the world of the House of Secrets & Mystery in her dreams. She’s greeted by those comics’ hosts, Cain & Abel. They would be one of many elements that Neil Gaiman would later bring into his Sandman series, arguably the spiritual successor to Moore’s Swamp Thing. Appropriately, Abby stumbles upon the story of the original Swamp Thing, presented here as a reprint of House of Secrets #92. While it may seem like a one-off or an attempt to fill in a month while Moore prepares something bigger, this issue lays the groundwork for a more significant concept to come later: This Swamp Thing is not the first one, and there have been dozens of them over millennia. 

We cap off this collection with “Rite of Spring,” which had to have shocked unexpecting readers at the time. The entire issue is about Swamp Thing & Abby’s sex life; mainly, they’re trying to figure out what intercourse looks like when one of them is an anthropomorphic plant. Moore leans into psychedelics by having the yam-like fruit Swamp Thing grows on his body containing these properties. It’s about their relationship moving into the realm; they finally confess how much they love each other, which was evident to the readers for a while. The artwork is stunning, with Steven Bissette & John Totleben outdoing themselves once again to deliver a trippy & beautiful journey through the souls of these two beings as they unite. Seen through Abby’s eyes, she can experience Swamp Thing’s perspective of the world, a realm in the constant flux of birth & decay. She sees these as different aspects of the same process, finding beauty even in what many might see as horrific. It’s, yet again, another masterpiece from a group of artists working at the top of their game.