Hi, and welcome to Comics You Should Own, a semi-regular series about comics I think you should own. I began writing these a little over seventeen years ago, and Iâm still doing it, because I dig writing long-form essays about comics. I republished my early posts, which I originally wrote on my personal blog, at Comics Should Be Good about ten years ago, but since their redesign, most of the images have been lost, so I figured it was about time I published these a third time, here on our new blog. I plan on keeping them exactly the same, which is why my references might be a bit out of date and, early on, I donât write about art as much as I do now. But I hope you enjoy these, and if youâve never read them before, I hope they give you something to read that you might have missed. Iâm planning on doing these once a week until I have all the old ones here at the blog. Today it’s time for the best Swamp Thing run most people don’t know about! This post was originally published on 15 April 2016. As always, you can click on the images to see them better. Enjoy!
Swamp Thing by Mark Millar (writer), Grant âThey wouldnât let me turn Swampy into a Dadaist manifesto, so I quitâ Morrison (writer, issues #140-143), Phil Hester (penciler, issues #140-152, 154-155, 157-158, 160-164, 166-171), Chris Weston (artist, issue #153), Phil Jimenez (penciler, issue #156), Jill Thompson (artist, issue #159), Curt Swan (penciler, issue #165), Kim DeMulder (inker, issues #140-152, 154-158, 160-171), Tatjana Wood (colorist), and Richard Starkings/Comicraft (letterer).
Published by DC, 32 issues (#140-171), cover dated March 1994 â October 1996.
I guess there are some SPOILERS, but honestly, I tried to restrain myself. I donât know why â usually I let the spoilers fly, but not with this one!
Post-Alan Moore, Swamp Thing slowly entered the doldrums. Rick Veitchâs run is well-regarded, I guess (I havenât read it), but itâs more famous for being something itâs not (itâs not Alan Mooreâs run), for the creation of TefĂ©, Swamp Thingâs daughter, and for its abortive end when Veitch quit after DC refused to publish the âSwamp Thing meets Jesusâ issue than, it seems, the actual stories. Doug Wheeler took over, and I own his finale, âThe Quest for the Elementals,â which is a deadly dull arc, and I canât imagine anything before that is any better. Nancy Collins promised a return to horror, and she delivered to a certain extent, but she began to recycle story ideas too much, ending her run with the return of Anton Arcane and General Sunderland. Her run is criticized as being to soap operatic, which is not a completely untrue point, but itâs a bit too facile. Collins did a decent job rehabilitating the title, and she did rip apart Alec and Abbyâs marriage and send TefĂ© off to South America with Lady Jane and the Parliament of Trees, so there was that. But for 70-odd issues after Moore left the book, the title foundered a bit. And it was Mooreâs fault, really.
The problem with Moore was that he did such a radical redesign of the character that writers couldnât figure out how to have Swamp Thing interact with the DC Universe without him being the most powerful and conscientious member of that Universe. Itâs the age-old problem with superheroes â why doesnât Superman save the world? â but it was a bigger problem with Swamp Thing because Moore made him directly responsible for the maintenance of the âGreen,â and his new understanding of that role and his powers made it so that not doing anything would be too gaping a plot hole. Moore himself avoided this question by throwing Swampy into space and then, when he returned, having him give up his role so he could play house with Abby deep in the swamp. Veitch apparently avoided it by creating TefĂ© as a new plant elemental and then sending Swampy through time so he could meet a bunch of characters from DCâs history. Wheeler avoided it by creating a big enemy for the Green that Swampy had to defeat. Collins avoided it by turning the title into a domestic drama, even as Lady Jane began tutoring TefĂ© in her abilities. But the title was spinning its wheels a bit, and it seemed like no writer really knew what to do.
Then Mark Millar came on board, with an assist on the first four issues from Grant Morrison. His run on Swamp Thing, which he began writing around the time he turned 24, remains the best thing by him Iâve ever read, and itâs partly because for whatever reason, he took the character to its logical extreme. I doubt if sales were bad enough, at least early in the run, that DC decided to cancel the book once Millar finished his run, but they allowed him to go as far as anyone could with the character, and cancellation was really the only logical thing left to do. So Millar was able to create a magnificent epic that was not only terrifying, as he gave us the best horror on the title since Moore (and Millarâs horror was far nastier than Mooreâs was in many ways) as well as a wonderfully inspiring story. Millar and Morrison know they have to deal with what Moore did on the title, but instead of simply trying to deal with it by ignoring it, they embrace it. The run begins with Alec Holland waking up in Peru after having dreamt he was a swamp god. The reader knows itâs not Alec Holland â DC, Millar, and Morrison wouldnât be so foolish as to wreck what Moore did to the character â but itâs still an intriguing mystery. Why is Alec Holland in Peru, and why is a crazed, murdering Swamp Thing rampaging through Louisiana? Itâs unsettling in the best way, unlike Nancy Collinsâs run and very much like Mooreâs ⊠without slavishly copying what Moore did. Millar (and Morrison) donât ignore what Moore did as much as confront it head-on, and thatâs part of why the run is so good.
The reason we get Alec Holland and Swamp Thing, separated, makes perfect sense, and itâs part of the reason why continuity between writers shouldnât be overlooked. Millar recaps portions of Collinsâs run well (this was the first time I had ever bought Swamp Thing, mainly because Morrison was writing it, so I hadnât read Collinsâs run yet, but I wasnât too confused), but thereâs no doubt that she did the heavy lifting when it comes to isolating Swampy and causing the events of the first four-issue arc of Millarâs run. Without Collinsâs run, Millar and Morrisonâs story of a Swamp Thing bereft of humanity is terrifying but the smallest bit less tragic, even though the writers manage to make it work. With Collinsâs run, the first four issues become sadder, because we know a bit more about why Swamp Thing is killing indiscriminately. Alec Hollandâs twisted journey from Peru to the United States is horrifying on its own (in issue #142, we get the explanation for what has happened as he rides the Soul Train), but because of what happened when Collins was writing the comic, itâs even more tragic. And Alecâs and Abbyâs reunion in the Arizona desert becomes not only a crossroads for Alec, but a watershed in their relationship, the groundwork for which was laid by Collins. If it sounds like Iâm suggesting that Collinsâs run should be included in this post, Iâm not. Collinsâs run is, as I noted, not bad, but not necessary because Millar and Morrison do such a good job in those first four issues of, basically, recapping it. But the continuity with the previous run, and not just Mooreâs run, is nicely done and adds a bit of nuance to the terror of the first four issues of this run.
Millar isnât just interested in horror, either, which is nice. He uses horror and terror very well, but his overall story is more uplifting than that. Once Moore introduced the Parliament of Trees, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before someone wondered if there were other Parliaments (besides the Funkadelic kind), and Millar did just that (to be fair, Wheeler toyed with the idea of an alternate Parliament, too). So he uses his big arcs to give us the Parliaments of Stone, Waves, Vapors, and Flames, before the big surprise in the titleâs final issue. By couching his horror writing in a grander story, Millar is able to make the horror about something â Swamp Thing has to pass tests in order to gain access to these other Parliaments, and the tests are often horrific. We see this even in the first story arc, in which Alec Holland has to come to terms with being Swamp Thing, something Millar implies he never did, as he continued to act too âhuman.â Itâs a clever idea, and early in the run, Swampy canât even accomplish that â heâs the one who wants Abby back in issue #143, and sheâs the one who rejects him. This isnât too surprising â she had already rejected him at the end of Nancy Collinsâs run â but Millar and Morrison gave us a Swamp Thing who recognized his mistakes and was willing to change. Abbyâs rejection is the first in a line of events that break away his humanity bit by bit. Holland had already met the three men who guide his destiny throughout Millarâs run (the Fates?) â Don Roberto helped wake him up, El Señor Blake told him how to get out of Peru (meaning the strange hell he was in), and the Traveller explained what had happened to him. Each of them point him on his road, and then a demon in issue #144 puts him on the road to Amsterdam, where heâll find Linda Holland turning tricks. Lindaâs secret is terrifying, and I wonât spoil it, but it is yet another small rip at Swamp Thingâs âhumanity,â as he forces himself to excise that part of his past. Swamp Thing heads to the Black Forest and fights the Parliament of Stonesâ champion, and Millar has him lose a bit more of his humanity when he figures out non-human ways to fight. The humanity in the story comes from Sargon the Sorcerer, whom Millar resurrects (after Moore killed him in issue #50), and Sargonâs niece, Grace (a bit on the nose with the name was Millar, but still). As Swamp Thing becomes less human, Millar does a nice job showing actual humans displaying positive human traits. In the next arc, âRiver Run,â Millar gets to indulge in his love of Elseworlds tales but continues to strip Swamp Thing of his connections to his old self.
He has much in common with the Devolving Man in issue #152 and knows how to get it to stop killing; he refuses to destroy a Nazi-ruled world in issue #153 because the Nazis are living in harmony with the environment and Swamp Thing doesnât care about avenging their long-dead victims; he meets versions of Abby and Anton Arcane in issue #154 and isnât able to see the truth of whatâs happening; and he canât stop thugs from killing Alec and Linda Holland in issue #156. Each of these events removes him even further from âAlec Holland,â even though his compassion for Anna, the main character of âRiver Run,â is what helps him become the Parliament of Wavesâ champion. Millar continues to indulge his love of weird and obscure DC lore when he brings back Nightmaster for âAtmospheres,â the next arc, but in terms of what it means for Swamp Thing, he brings back Abby, who has changed her mind and wants to stay with Alec. In a twist, of course, now he rejects her, not because he doesnât love her, but because he knows more trials are coming and heâs afraid of what he might become. In issue #161, Millar finally makes overt what heâs been doing the entire time, as Swampy tells Abby, âMy emotions grow more abstract every day ⊠no matter how hard I fight it ⊠This erosion of my humanity ⊠has provoked something I have seldom experienced ⊠in recent years ⊠I believe ⊠in a very distant way ⊠Iâm scared, Abby âŠâ In issue #162, she leaves, but not before (somewhat unfairly, in my opinion) expressing those very same fears, that Alec is becoming more of a monster every day. By the time he passes the Parliament of Vaporsâ trial, Swampy is no longer sure he wants all those powers. He tells the Parliament, âThe terrible power already within me is stripping away whatâs left of my humanity and I fear for the world below,â but they dismiss him: âNow when we send you back to your home in the swamps your physical body will be as alien as the new perceptions prepared for you cherish these human doubts and insecurities now because they will be your last everything you have feared is about to come trueâ (the Parliament of Vapors donât use words, just thoughts, so they have no need of puny punctuation!).
In the next arc, âTrial by Fire,â Swamp Thing has left all semblance of humanity behind, as he only takes the shape of a vaguely humanoid figure to converse with the characters sent to talk him down from global destruction â Jason Woodrue and John Constantine, two people the powers that be think can get through to him. Millar has done such a good job taking away his humanity that until the very end, weâre not exactly sure what Alec will do. Of course, the world doesnât end (itâs a DC comic!), but the brilliant thing about this run is that Millar makes us believe, just for a moment, that it might.
Swamp Thingâs transformation into, basically, a god, is a theme that Millar likes to return to, but he rarely does it in other comics with as much subtlety, panache, and just good storytelling as he does here. Millar understands the cost of it, something Swampy recognizes too late, and he creates characters early in the run who also know what it will cost Alec and others who try to stop him. The three âFatesâ who send him on his way are manipulative bastards, but they realize that the world is struggling and only Swamp Thing can save it. The idea of destroying the world to save it is not new, of course, but itâs not usually done with the hero acting as the catalyst. In later Millar comics, he would use ostensible villains to explore this theme (even his Authority were, frankly, douchebags), and in most media, itâs the bad guy wanting to wipe humanity away to save the planet. Millar turns that on its head, giving us the main character, the hero, as the one who decides heâs going to do it, which makes this one of the most interesting stories in that trope to exist. As I noted above, he pleads with the Parliament of Vapors to keep their power, as heâs finally realized what it means, but the fascinating thing is that theyâre the final parliament. He could have turned away before, like all the champions of the Green before him, but of course, then he would have been destroyed himself. And Millar sets it up so that each trial is something that feels necessary at the time. Nelson Strong, who becomes the Stone champion, is hunting him, and that doesnât stop just because Nelson dies and becomes a Stone elemental, so Swampy has to defend himself. The Parliament of Wavesâ trial is a bit more subtle, as Swamp Thing needs to learn to accept different vantage points as he travels through different realities (even though he misses the point of the most crucial reality he enters, as I noted above), but ultimately, itâs his compassion that allows him to move on as the Blue champion. If Millar had taken that away, it wouldnât be the same character, so it makes perfect sense that he would triumph in that trial.
Finally, the Vaporsâ trial forced him to use his brilliant intellect, another aspect of his character that he simply could not turn off. All of this leads to âTrial by Fire,â in which Millar shows us a Swamp Thing who has become the most powerful being on the planet, and one whose essential character has led him to that place. When he speaks to Woodrue or Constantine, we still get vestiges of his former self, which makes it all the more tragic and powerful that they canât convince him to stop doing what heâs doing. When he faces off against the Word (itâs a great confrontation, marred just slightly by James Bond Villain Syndrome), we see the old Holland, imbued with the new Hollandâs consciousness. The run would work fine without readers knowing anything at all about Swamp Thing, but because Millar uses what we do know about him, it makes the work hit harder.
As I noted, Millarâs horror is nastier than Mooreâs in a lot of ways, mainly because his horror is more personal than Mooreâs was. Except for the situation where Anton Arcane possesses Matt Cable, Mooreâs horror happens to people that Moore introduces just for that story. Millar does this too, but his horror tends to gets to Swampy and Abby the most, and even when it affects someone like Anna, sheâs a recurring character, so when it does happen (in issue #157), itâs very disturbing. He has a way of digging into the true evil of horror, so that reality itself seems broken, even when we know things are occurring that canât possibly happen (in the context of the comic book universe Swamp Thing lives in). Just the idea of Alec Holland waking up in Peru is upsetting enough, and his disorientation mirrors ours. When he arrives in New York, he takes the form of Matt Cable to divert suspicion, and Millar makes it just creepy enough for it to be uncomfortable. Linda Hollandâs appearance is bad enough, but her specialty is truly horrifying, especially as we can believe there would be a market for her skills. Sargonâs plot in the Black Forest involves ritual sacrifice, and you might be able to imagine what horrible things Millar does with that. The horror comes from more overt places, of course, but Millar can also be subtle, as when he gives us a Solomon Grundy possessed by Swamp Thing in issue #155. He can also give us tragedy (often but not always tinged with horror), and thatâs also what elevates the run. The interactions between Alec and Abby are very well done, but throughout, we get people struggling to find the right words, people keeping secrets that tear them apart (which is always fertile ground for great fiction), and people losing everything due to forces beyond their control. Millarâs excellent work with Grace and Sargon makes the end of their arc beautiful, while his destruction of Anna is both horrifying and tragic. Millar does great work with Jim Rook, showing a man who was once on top of the world and appears ready to give up, only to receive a second chance at redemption. What Millar does with that chance is both gripping and tragic. It all comes to a head in âTrial by Fire,â as Abby enlists Chester Williams and Liz Tremayne to convince Alec to refrain from destroying the world, and it doesnât go quite as they planned.
Part of Alecâs plan involves TefĂ©, and the way Millar shows us what parents are willing to do to help their kids is tragic, as Abby makes a difficult choice about her daughter. Even more tragic is what happens when she helps Alec, as she learns a hard lesson about humanity or lack of it. Millar shows a wonderful understanding of human nature and its darkness, which helps make the horror worse and helps make the tragedies more devastating. Horror is great and all, but if the reader doesnât care about who itâs affecting, itâs not as powerful. Even in issue #159, âSwamp Dog,â Millar takes a terrifying situation and manages to imbue it with such humanity that the tragedy stands out, so much though that the âhappy endingâ is shot through with despair. (The less said about issue #165, the Elseworlds tale in which Chester Williams becomes a fascist cop, the better. Curt Swanâs art, done just before his death, is solid as ever, but Millar indulges in the worst excesses of bad satire, and itâs interesting today only because it shows where he was headed with his writing. If you buy these in single issues, you can safely skip this one.)
Phil Hester was also in his 20s when the run started (he was born in 1966) and this was his first big book â he had spent five years or so doing work for First, Caliber, and Dark Horse. He drew 28 of the 32 issues, and his jagged artwork helps unify the run and also provides terrific visuals that fit the tone beautifully. Early on, Kim DeMulderâs inks were similar to the ones he used on Scot Eatonâs pencils toward the end of Nancy Collinsâs run, which seemed to be similar to John Totlebenâs on the title when Moore wrote it, and I wonder how deliberate that was. DeMulder used thin, delicate hatching a lot early in the run, but later (because of time constraints?), his work became a bit rougher. Hester and DeMulder make a great team, however, as they match the ferocity that Millar brings to the writing. Scot Eatonâs pencils on Collinsâs run are beautiful (and inked by DeMulder, theyâre even nicer), but they match her more âdomesticâ tone (and, yes, Iâm still aware that Collins brought horror back to the book, but not quite enough). DeMulder, interestingly enough, is an example of inking having a large effect on the pencils, as he inked most of Collinsâs run (even before Eaton came on board), and his inks provided a unifying look for the book over such pencils as Tom Mandrakeâs, Jan Duursemaâs, or Russell Braunâs. Hesterâs angular style, however, resists DeMulderâs inks a bit better, forming a wonderful gestalt. Hester draws a terrifying Swamp Thing â the first time we see it, in issue #140 (well, after the first page, which is a recap), itâs about to kill the people crashing in Chesterâs house, and Hester draws it with stegosaur spikes down its spine, a shadowed head (with Tatjana Wood providing the wonderful red eyes â I didnât check, but I think Wood worked on every issue of this series, no matter who was writing or drawing it, which is pretty cool), a misshapen body, and long, sinewy, powerful arms.
Itâs a true monster, and Hester does amazing work with it. Throughout the first arc, whenever we see Swampy, we see the monster, and Hester is terrific at its facial expressions and body language (it canât talk), showing that itâs confused, angry, and even in pain because itâs separated from Alec. When the ârealâ Swamp Thing returns, Hester is able to draw it more like a âman,â with pleasant greenery growing from his shoulders and tenderness in his face. Hester is great at the twisted reality through which Holland must navigate, drawing perhaps the scariest Boston Brand this side of Kelley Jones, a creepy Matt Cable who canât stop the sprouts from growing out of his face, a horrifying yet vulnerable Linda Holland, a disturbingly sexy Lady Jane, and a skeletal El Señor Blake, which makes his relief after he defeats the Word in issue #150 both funny and chilling. Hester is excellent at twisting the real into the horrific, so when Grace or the truck driver who gives her a ride to the Black Forest sees whatâs happening in the town of Freiberg, it gets under our skin as much as it gets under theirs. Millar doesnât explain everything in the run â what the Word saw in Blakeâs mind, what the tattoo on Harryâs back is â and itâs up to Hester to make sure that even if we donât get the backstory, we get the charactersâ reaction to them, and Hester creates a world behind the words that we get emotionally if not intellectually. Because Hester is so good at the horror aspect of the book, itâs impressive that heâs able to do so well with the more majestic aspects of the book.
Itâs not surprising he draws an imposing Parliament of Stones, and his deep-sea Swamp Thing is impressively crusty, but his Parliament of Vapors is stunning (and may have something to do with DeMulderâs inks, as they are hatched very nicely), and his ânewâ Swamp Thing in âTrial by Fireâ is still jagged but far more regal than his earlier incarnations. His demon that possesses Timothy Raven in issue #167 is disgusting and terrifying, and what it turns Raven into (which I donât want to spoil) fits in well with the earlier artistic versions of the thing, but with Hesterâs interesting spin on it. The final issue is beautiful, too, especially the penultimate time we see Abby, which is tremendous. Hester was an unusual choice for the book, but itâs become one of those runs where itâs difficult to believe any other artist could do as good as job as he did. The four artists who fill in for him show this pretty well. Theyâre all great â Chris Westonâs clean style is excellent for a sterile world like Nazi America, Phil Jimenezâs precise lines (with DeMulder again âTotlebeningâ the pencils with his superb inks) fit with the âreal-worldâ nature of his story of Alec and Linda Holland, Jill Thompson is able to do genteel monsters very well, and Curt Swanâs meat-and-potatoes style works well for Millarâs unsubtle satire of political conservatives. But none of them seems like theyâd be able to bring the twisted horror of Millarâs writing to life consistently as much as Hester could. His rough, angular style fits the tone of impending doom that runs throughout the book, and he does so much visually to make Millarâs words hit harder (Swamp Thingâs journey on the Soul Train and through Amsterdam early in the run feature lots of scary writing, but the visuals make it far more disturbing) that itâs almost impossible to imagine another artist doing as well.
Thatâs one mark of a truly great comic, when you canât even think of another artist working as well with the writer. Hester sticks mostly to writing these days, but his art is always interesting, and on this comic, itâs tremendous.
DC finally got around to collecting these in trades â the first two volumes (through issue #160) are already out, and the final one has been solicited and should be out in July, I think. I know some people think Millarâs work on Superman Adventures is great, but Iâve never read those, so this remains the best thing by him Iâve read. A lot of the themes he would continue to explore show up in this work, but for whatever reason, he does a better job examining them here than he does in later work, and when you combine that with the excellent horror he brings to the title, this is a book that stays with you. Itâs the only Swamp Thing that comes close to Mooreâs, and in some ways, itâs superior to that seminal run (yeah, I said it). Go get the trades and be ready to read it with the lights on! And donât forget to check out the archives, where the âSâ titles continue to grow!
[DC did collect all of this, but the first collection – which I linked to below – appears to be out of print, but it’s available digitally, if that’s your thing. This is still the best thing I’ve ever read by Millar, and I have, by now, read some of his Superman comics, and I stand by it! I stirred up a bit of controversy in the original post with my comments on Veitch’s run, but I wasn’t talking about the quality of it (which some people thought I was), because I hadn’t (and still haven’t) read it. I was just talking about the general reaction to it, and it seems like in the comics press, most people don’t write about Veitch’s run as anything other than “it wasn’t Moore” and “DC killed it.” That’s all I meant.
This is, I would contend, the last great run on Swamp Thing. I haven’t read every Swamp Thing comic since, and maybe noted Swampy aficionado Mike Sterling has different thoughts on the matter, but whenever I check out Swamp Thing these days, it’s a bit frustrating. I know the nu52 version had some fans, and the art was quite good, but it did feel a bit like watered-down Moore. I liked the first trade of the latest incarnation, so we’ll see how that holds up. It seems like it’s a frustrating character to write, for the reasons I noted in this post: Moore took the character to new heights, but what can you do with him in a shared superhero universe? It makes no sense, unfortunately. But that shouldn’t deter you from reading these old comics!]
Yeah, this is a surprisingly great run. Very clearly influenced by Moore’s Swamp Thing run and his last act in Miracleman, but the execution is still very good. The cool thing here is that Millar’s conclusion actually REDRESSES a previous casual act of cruelty by the hero to provide a satisfying ending. In his later works, he’d just have protagonists committing casual acts of cruelty foe thr lulz.
That’s a good point, and also sadly a good commentary on Millar as he got older.