One of the most misunderstood and under appreciated characters in the history of the DCU is the Swamp Thing. Over the years he has reached incredible highs and diminishing lows as far as comic writing and art. The legend and adaptations of Swamp Thing actually span close to a century and he has always been one of my favourite characters in monster/horror fiction. With DC bringing back the Swamp Thing through the recent "Brightest Day," "Brightest Day Aftermath: Search for Swamp Thing" and now his own title again in the DC 52 relaunch, I felt it was necessary to give a few lines on the "ole' green plonker." quotation taken from John Constantine in many Swamp Thing and Hellblazer comics.
For the longest time Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson (probably the best horror comics combo ever and credited as creators of the DC version) had the say on the interpretation of Swamp Thing and his origins. The one thing that has never changed with "Swamp Thing" is that at the core, it's a horror comic. The story goes, a scientist by the name of Alec Holland and his wife lived in the Louisiana swamp doing research for a scientific formula involving plants. This in later years has become known as the "bio-restorative formula." Holland was under immense pressure to give up this formula to "big corporation" so it could be used to manipulate the environment towards evil intentions. He refused. On returning to the lab one night, Dr. Holland finds his wife murdered and an explosive under his desk. Sabotage! In the ensuing explosion Dr. Holland runs into the swamp during the Louisiana night completely engulfed in flames and the chemicals used to make his formula. He disappears into the murky swamp water. According to Wein and Wrightson the swamp then possesses Holland through the chemicals and the plant matter around him. He is transformed into the Swamp Thing. A monster, but who used to be a man. For a couple of decades this was the way Swampy was. A man turned into a monster, searching for a return to his humanity and loaded with many parallels to Frankenstein. In the early 80's a young British writer by the name of Alan Moore was given the reins to Swamp Thing and took comic writing to a whole different and new level. Moore would not just rewrite the origin, but build upon the transformation of Swamp Thing into something bordering upon horror, the supernatural, environmentalism and sci-fi. What we knew as readers and what Holland knew of himself as Swamp Thing was false.
Rather than continue under the storyline that Alec Holland was transformed into the Swamp Thing, Moore states in his first couple issues that Holland dies running into the swamp on fire due to muscle memory. He had already died trying to flee his lab while on fire and covered in the bio-restorative formula thanks to the explosion. Holland's body then is submerged in the swamp water and absorbed, like the swamp does with all dying matter. The good Doctor was definitely dead. So how does Dr. Holland then transform into the Swamp Thing in Moore's version? He doesn't! This is where Moore fuses science, nature and a dash of mysticism to turn Swamp Thing's origin from that of a man turned into a monster, to an elemental created by the Green (all plant life on earth) to be the protector of the planet. During the mid 80s and after the environmental horrors of the 70s, there was a push towards environmentalism. Moore decided to give the environment a "super hero." In order for the Green to create Swamp Thing it needed a consciousness to bond with the plant life (plants obviously don't have emotions and intellect the way humans do) and with the death of Holland, the aid of the formula and the swamp absorbing the remains of the good doctor, you get a new highly evolved origin. I reiterate Dr. Alec Holland does die and he does not get resurrected as the Swamp Thing. Moore actually explains this new origin by citing a credible scientific experiment, but with the fun of comic books.
Using planarian worms, a trial was conducted by coaching a single worm to navigate through a maze to find food. Very similar to the cliched rats through a maze experiment, but with worms. This was replicated with the single worm multiple times. The worm was then cut up and fed to other planarian worms, who were then able to navigate the same maze without ever having been coached to do so, unlike the now digested worm. The experience of the single worm had been passed on to the other worms. I'm not a scientist, so I don't know the intricacies of how that works, but remember we are also talking comics and there is alot of creative license used. This is actually similar to what cannibals do in their beliefs surrounding the ingestion of human flesh. Cannibalistic cultures do not just eat human flesh for the sake of eating. They believe that by ingesting the flesh of the elder or warrior after they have died the tribe will then gain the experience and wisdom of said person, but you do not become that person. Knowledge is believed to be passed this way from generation to generation. This is what happens to the consciousness of Alec Holland. As the swamp absorbs his dead remains, his morals, memories and the core of what it is to be human becomes part of the Green and Swamp Thing is created. Without the replication of the good doctor's consciousness, the Swamp Thing would truly be a rampaging beast without direction and lack a moral center. At the beginning of Moore's "Saga of the Swamp Thing" run, this elemental has to come to turns with what he actually is when it is revealed that he was never human and never Alec Holland. Imagine a being that was created with the knowledge that he was human, trying to regain it's humanity, only to realize he truly should just be a monster and was never the person it thought it was. This is why Moore's run added so much depth to this character. With this evolution and re-understanding, Moore's writing made Swamp Thing the protector of everything on Earth and shot him into realms of magic, environmentalism, science and deep outer space. He also made the Swamp Thing part of the super hero community with encounters with Batman and actually saving Superman from death once. He even appears in "Crisis on Infinite Earths." His writing added a richness and intelligence that had really ever been tried in super hero comics before. Moore's time on Swamp Thing won DC and himself just about every comic award in the mid 80s. After Moore, Swamp Thing was forgotten about by the editors of the DCU and any revival usually suffered, because no one could match or top what had now been done. You got basic monster/horror stories that were flat. Even Grant Morrison had a crack at the character and failed. Enter the latest revival of Swampy with "Brightest Day" and Geoff Johns.
At the end of Geoff Johns' "Brightest Day," we see the resurrection of Alec Holland as the White Lantern and then two giant Swamp Things battling each other in the Star City forest. One of the cheesiest things I have ever seen in comics. Comics at it's lowest. The Black Lantern Swamp Thing is the original Swampy, but Alec Holland's consciousness is now missing and been replaced with a corrupted after image of Nekron. Nekron being the baddie and leader of the Black Lanterns from Geoff Johns' "Blackest Night." By the way, Geoff Johns nicked the concept of Blackest Night from an Alan Moore Green Lantern story called "Tygers." He also takes "Tygers" from Moore to give us "Green Lantern Secret Origin" (I will do a separate blog about my disdain for Geoff Johns and his attack on Alan Moore's DC writings. I used to be a big fan of Johns, until I really started looking closely at his work). Anyway, the Swamp Thing fighting the Black Lantern version is actually the resurrected Alec Holland forcibly transformed by the White Lantern into a new Swamp Thing. All Johns did was reverse what Moore did and went back to what Wein and Wrightson were doing with the character more than 30 years ago. This is bad comic writing based on rehashing and undoing previous writing to tell a quick story. Holland doesn't even stay transformed as Swamp Thing and disappears without any explanation. Rather than try to build upon the legacy of this character, Johns takes the easy way out, by living off of someone else's work instead of coming up with his own ideas. This happens in comics all to often. At least though Swamp Thing had been central to a story and was being pushed back into the DC spotlight. Both Swamp Things disappear, but enter Constantine and the search for Swamp Thing in "Brightest Day Aftermath."
"Aftermath," for it's 3 issues was very confusing, but it did serve to re-establish Swamp Thing's relationship with John Constantine and the two biggest characters in any comic book: Batman and Superman. The point of this series is really to reinsert the Swamp Thing mythos back into the super hero realm. After Alan Moore, Swampy was made part of the Vertigo line and lost that connection to the main DC universe so carefully crafted by Mooore. So, in "Aftermath," we find a resurrected Alec Holland wandering out of the Louisiana swamp. Somehow Holland finds himself where he left off. His previous life's memories of his wife and burning to death still very vibrant, but now coupled with unfamiliar memories of the replicated consciousness while it existed as part of the Swamp Thing. Alec Holland has been given another chance at life. He is whole again, but now more, because of the incorporation of the Green's experiences. This leads us to the new Swamp Thing series written by Scott Snyder. I was very worried after Johns got his mitts on Swampy as to what might happen next. Many a good writer had failed at new stories of the Swamp Thing and Johns just doesn't seem to have a good enough grasp of the character and where to point him.
Thank the comic makers that they have handed the new series over to Scott Snyder. If you have read my "top 10 up and coming writers," he is #2. Snyder will be one of the greats. After the first issue we already see an inkling of a nod to Moore's run, but with a clear indication that like Moore, Snyder will push the boundaries of this series into uncharted water. Check out the flies in issue #1 and then read the first trade of Moore's "Saga of the Swamp Thing" or even Jamie Delano's first Hellblazer graphic novel. Arcane and Invunche are names you will become accustomed to. Swamp Thing will be back to where Moore envisioned and other writers attempted him to be, but again, Snyder seems to have a firm grasp of the reins and will steer the series places we need to see, not places we've already been. Swamp Thing will be critically acclaimed again. Mark my words. Welcome back to the "ole' green plonker."
For the longest time Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson (probably the best horror comics combo ever and credited as creators of the DC version) had the say on the interpretation of Swamp Thing and his origins. The one thing that has never changed with "Swamp Thing" is that at the core, it's a horror comic. The story goes, a scientist by the name of Alec Holland and his wife lived in the Louisiana swamp doing research for a scientific formula involving plants. This in later years has become known as the "bio-restorative formula." Holland was under immense pressure to give up this formula to "big corporation" so it could be used to manipulate the environment towards evil intentions. He refused. On returning to the lab one night, Dr. Holland finds his wife murdered and an explosive under his desk. Sabotage! In the ensuing explosion Dr. Holland runs into the swamp during the Louisiana night completely engulfed in flames and the chemicals used to make his formula. He disappears into the murky swamp water. According to Wein and Wrightson the swamp then possesses Holland through the chemicals and the plant matter around him. He is transformed into the Swamp Thing. A monster, but who used to be a man. For a couple of decades this was the way Swampy was. A man turned into a monster, searching for a return to his humanity and loaded with many parallels to Frankenstein. In the early 80's a young British writer by the name of Alan Moore was given the reins to Swamp Thing and took comic writing to a whole different and new level. Moore would not just rewrite the origin, but build upon the transformation of Swamp Thing into something bordering upon horror, the supernatural, environmentalism and sci-fi. What we knew as readers and what Holland knew of himself as Swamp Thing was false.
Rather than continue under the storyline that Alec Holland was transformed into the Swamp Thing, Moore states in his first couple issues that Holland dies running into the swamp on fire due to muscle memory. He had already died trying to flee his lab while on fire and covered in the bio-restorative formula thanks to the explosion. Holland's body then is submerged in the swamp water and absorbed, like the swamp does with all dying matter. The good Doctor was definitely dead. So how does Dr. Holland then transform into the Swamp Thing in Moore's version? He doesn't! This is where Moore fuses science, nature and a dash of mysticism to turn Swamp Thing's origin from that of a man turned into a monster, to an elemental created by the Green (all plant life on earth) to be the protector of the planet. During the mid 80s and after the environmental horrors of the 70s, there was a push towards environmentalism. Moore decided to give the environment a "super hero." In order for the Green to create Swamp Thing it needed a consciousness to bond with the plant life (plants obviously don't have emotions and intellect the way humans do) and with the death of Holland, the aid of the formula and the swamp absorbing the remains of the good doctor, you get a new highly evolved origin. I reiterate Dr. Alec Holland does die and he does not get resurrected as the Swamp Thing. Moore actually explains this new origin by citing a credible scientific experiment, but with the fun of comic books.
Using planarian worms, a trial was conducted by coaching a single worm to navigate through a maze to find food. Very similar to the cliched rats through a maze experiment, but with worms. This was replicated with the single worm multiple times. The worm was then cut up and fed to other planarian worms, who were then able to navigate the same maze without ever having been coached to do so, unlike the now digested worm. The experience of the single worm had been passed on to the other worms. I'm not a scientist, so I don't know the intricacies of how that works, but remember we are also talking comics and there is alot of creative license used. This is actually similar to what cannibals do in their beliefs surrounding the ingestion of human flesh. Cannibalistic cultures do not just eat human flesh for the sake of eating. They believe that by ingesting the flesh of the elder or warrior after they have died the tribe will then gain the experience and wisdom of said person, but you do not become that person. Knowledge is believed to be passed this way from generation to generation. This is what happens to the consciousness of Alec Holland. As the swamp absorbs his dead remains, his morals, memories and the core of what it is to be human becomes part of the Green and Swamp Thing is created. Without the replication of the good doctor's consciousness, the Swamp Thing would truly be a rampaging beast without direction and lack a moral center. At the beginning of Moore's "Saga of the Swamp Thing" run, this elemental has to come to turns with what he actually is when it is revealed that he was never human and never Alec Holland. Imagine a being that was created with the knowledge that he was human, trying to regain it's humanity, only to realize he truly should just be a monster and was never the person it thought it was. This is why Moore's run added so much depth to this character. With this evolution and re-understanding, Moore's writing made Swamp Thing the protector of everything on Earth and shot him into realms of magic, environmentalism, science and deep outer space. He also made the Swamp Thing part of the super hero community with encounters with Batman and actually saving Superman from death once. He even appears in "Crisis on Infinite Earths." His writing added a richness and intelligence that had really ever been tried in super hero comics before. Moore's time on Swamp Thing won DC and himself just about every comic award in the mid 80s. After Moore, Swamp Thing was forgotten about by the editors of the DCU and any revival usually suffered, because no one could match or top what had now been done. You got basic monster/horror stories that were flat. Even Grant Morrison had a crack at the character and failed. Enter the latest revival of Swampy with "Brightest Day" and Geoff Johns.
At the end of Geoff Johns' "Brightest Day," we see the resurrection of Alec Holland as the White Lantern and then two giant Swamp Things battling each other in the Star City forest. One of the cheesiest things I have ever seen in comics. Comics at it's lowest. The Black Lantern Swamp Thing is the original Swampy, but Alec Holland's consciousness is now missing and been replaced with a corrupted after image of Nekron. Nekron being the baddie and leader of the Black Lanterns from Geoff Johns' "Blackest Night." By the way, Geoff Johns nicked the concept of Blackest Night from an Alan Moore Green Lantern story called "Tygers." He also takes "Tygers" from Moore to give us "Green Lantern Secret Origin" (I will do a separate blog about my disdain for Geoff Johns and his attack on Alan Moore's DC writings. I used to be a big fan of Johns, until I really started looking closely at his work). Anyway, the Swamp Thing fighting the Black Lantern version is actually the resurrected Alec Holland forcibly transformed by the White Lantern into a new Swamp Thing. All Johns did was reverse what Moore did and went back to what Wein and Wrightson were doing with the character more than 30 years ago. This is bad comic writing based on rehashing and undoing previous writing to tell a quick story. Holland doesn't even stay transformed as Swamp Thing and disappears without any explanation. Rather than try to build upon the legacy of this character, Johns takes the easy way out, by living off of someone else's work instead of coming up with his own ideas. This happens in comics all to often. At least though Swamp Thing had been central to a story and was being pushed back into the DC spotlight. Both Swamp Things disappear, but enter Constantine and the search for Swamp Thing in "Brightest Day Aftermath."
"Aftermath," for it's 3 issues was very confusing, but it did serve to re-establish Swamp Thing's relationship with John Constantine and the two biggest characters in any comic book: Batman and Superman. The point of this series is really to reinsert the Swamp Thing mythos back into the super hero realm. After Alan Moore, Swampy was made part of the Vertigo line and lost that connection to the main DC universe so carefully crafted by Mooore. So, in "Aftermath," we find a resurrected Alec Holland wandering out of the Louisiana swamp. Somehow Holland finds himself where he left off. His previous life's memories of his wife and burning to death still very vibrant, but now coupled with unfamiliar memories of the replicated consciousness while it existed as part of the Swamp Thing. Alec Holland has been given another chance at life. He is whole again, but now more, because of the incorporation of the Green's experiences. This leads us to the new Swamp Thing series written by Scott Snyder. I was very worried after Johns got his mitts on Swampy as to what might happen next. Many a good writer had failed at new stories of the Swamp Thing and Johns just doesn't seem to have a good enough grasp of the character and where to point him.
Thank the comic makers that they have handed the new series over to Scott Snyder. If you have read my "top 10 up and coming writers," he is #2. Snyder will be one of the greats. After the first issue we already see an inkling of a nod to Moore's run, but with a clear indication that like Moore, Snyder will push the boundaries of this series into uncharted water. Check out the flies in issue #1 and then read the first trade of Moore's "Saga of the Swamp Thing" or even Jamie Delano's first Hellblazer graphic novel. Arcane and Invunche are names you will become accustomed to. Swamp Thing will be back to where Moore envisioned and other writers attempted him to be, but again, Snyder seems to have a firm grasp of the reins and will steer the series places we need to see, not places we've already been. Swamp Thing will be critically acclaimed again. Mark my words. Welcome back to the "ole' green plonker."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment