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

The Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume 3 (2010)
Reprints The Saga of the Swamp Thing #35-38, Swamp Thing #39-42
Written by Alan Moore
Art by Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, Stan Woch, Rick Veitch, Alfredo Alcala, and Ron Randall

This third volume of Swamp Thing stories starts with an issue published the same month Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 hit the stands. Now, there isn’t a direct link between the two things right away, but Moore eventually shows he was well aware of the storyline and finds a clever way to fold it into this ongoing series. There are times when Swamp Thing feels wholly disconnected from the greater DC Universe; this would increase more when it became a Vertigo title in the 1990s and became utterly self-contained. Before we get to some of Moore’s big moves, the book begins with a chilling two-parter about how Americans have left their home a toxic nightmare.

A disfigured & toxic human has wandered into Houma, Louisiana, and his mere presence causes plants to rot and die while poisoning all the humans he encounters. This is Nukeface, and we learn from some exposition later that he’s an anonymous homeless man who has been transformed after setting up camp in a strip mine turned toxic waste dump in rural Pennsylvania. What Nukeface is, on a thematic level, represents how we poison ourselves through consumption & destructive industries. We don’t have to look too far back from this point in time to see the toxification of America is ongoing; East Palestine is only the most prominent one, with more happening every day and not getting picked up by the national news. Moore’s storytelling here is deeply unsettling, with Bissette & Totleben bringing the horror to vivid life.

The following issue after the Nukeface two-parter is one of the most important of the “Bronze Age” in that it introduced the world to John Constantine. While Abby Cable learns about how Swamp Thing’s new understanding of himself as a plant, not a human, works, it’s intercut with Constantine checking in with his various associates. Something horrible is brewing in the occult side of reality, and the Hellblazer reckons there are about twelve months before it breaks through, and all of life is doomed. When Constantine & Swamp Thing finally meet, it’s clear the magician knows more about what powers the creature than he does. He leaves Swamp Thing with the name of a place called Rosewood.

As many of these issues have felt, this comes across as a horror anthology one-off concept turned into an adventure for the title character. That works well with Swamp Thing as we have issues about his development and others where he serves as a deus ex machina. The horror is unveiled, and the readers get caught up in the details. Then, Swamp Thing shows up and temporarily pushes back the evil; it’s always inevitable that these entities cannot be defeated definitively.

In this instance, the town of Rosewood was sunk beneath a lake and is now inhabited by aquatic vampires. Unaware of this fact, a group of boys from a nearby city go for a swim in the lake, with one of them being taken and turned. The mer-vamps also have a queen swollen with eggs, adding an amphibian spin to their unique anatomy. The story is a sequel to The Saga of Swamp Thing #3, where the title character first encountered your standard vampire in the same place pre-flood. Constantine explains that these vampires’ biology quickly adapted and are more vicious than ever. Like all of Moore’s run, it’s a story chock full of fantastic body horror imagery. 

We get a one-off that also serves as more of Constantine’s lessons for Swamp Thing. This time, a housewife from Maine finds herself transforming into a werewolf in conjunction with her menstruation. In a move possibly inspired by Poltergeist, she discovers her house was built on the site of a Pennamaquot Indian menstrual lodge. The collective anger of the women of the tribe, forced to isolate themselves from the community, seeps into the very earth and creates a violent outburst through the housewife’s transformation. Swamp Thing becomes increasingly frustrated with Constantine’s cryptic clues & guidance but finds even when he wants to break from the path, he’s still on it. 

The collection wraps up with a two-parter about a decrepit slave plantation being used as the site of a film. The spirits who linger in this place come to reside in the bodies of the actors and director, leading to an incredibly macabre and atmospheric horror tale. Again, you remove Swamp Thing from the story, which still functions as a satisfying horror story with genuine depth. Unsurprisingly, these two issues explore themes of guilt over the institution of slavery, especially how history gets buried under the guise of “moving on.” All of these stories feed into the grander Constantine arc, which leads into the following collection and some of the best comics stories I have ever read.