Official Swamp Thing Thread

[ShaneHelms]

Does anybody have a decent picture of Swamp Thing from the comics.. i cant find one anywhere..

 

[Eric Draven]

Anybody get Vertigo Horizons? It has a sneak peak of upcoming Vertigo series. In it, there was a Swamp THing preview....it certainly peaked my interest

 

[Nar Mattaru]

I'm personally not a big fan of any "Bobby Ewing" type of plot twist. It does nothing but insults the readers. "Sorry, but all those issues you've been reading never really happened. You wasted your money". I don't mean to drag Marvel in this, but the response they got with the Clone Saga proved that point. I don't think a similar response would happen with Swamp Thing, but it is insulting nonetheless

 

[Themanofbat]

Well, I just picked it up yesterday. The art looked nice.... it had a very Wrightson-esque feel to it. And while I didn't read it yet, the story looked like it had a nice horror feel to it.

I'll post a review later this weekend.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I hate being behind. I think the new Swamp Thing series looks pretty interesting, but I know nothing about the character aside from the facts that he's an elemental and that he somehow had a daughter who inherited some of his powers. Can anyone give me some more background on Swamp Thing? Enough to get into this new series, at least?

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Same here. I thought it was an ok read, but not knowing much about the character hurt the story for me a little.

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by TheCorpulent1
I hate being behind. I think the new Swamp Thing series looks pretty interesting, but I know nothing about the character aside from the facts that he's an elemental and that he somehow had a daughter who inherited some of his powers. Can anyone give me some more background on Swamp Thing? Enough to get into this new series, at least?

Well, here are some Internet quips (in italics) with some added stuff by me (not in italics).

Throughout the history of Earth, when times of great trouble has arisen, the Earth has created a plant elemental that acts as the world's protector. In each case the elemental is created when a human being dies in flames. The human being's corpse sinks into a mire and is devoured by plant life. Just as planarian worms that devour another such worm gain the latter worm's knowledge, so too the plant life that feeds upon this human being's remains develops a consciousness patterned after his. The plant life filled with this consciousness then shapes itself into a mobile form vaguely resembling that of a human being.
After living many years and gaining great wisdom, each such plant elemental finally goes to a location within a Brazilian rain forest. There each elemental takes the form of a great tree rooted to the ground. Through these elementals no longer move, their consciousnesses remain active. This group of plant elementals in Brazil is known as the Parliament of Trees.

In 1905 scientist Alex Olsen was caught in an explosion arranged by his assistant Damian Ridge, who wanted Olsen's wife Linda for himself. Ridge then buried Olsen alive in a swamp, and subsequently married Linda. Within the swamp a plant elemental, the Swamp Thing, was created bearing a consciousness based on Alex Olsen's. Ridge, believing Linda was about to discover he had killed Olsen, was about o murder her when the Swamp Thing broke in and killed him instead. Linda was terrified by her savior, who, heartbroken, returned to the swamp. Eventually, this Swamp Thing joined the Parliament of Trees.

In recent years Doctors Alec and Linda Holland, who were husband and wife, were working at a secret location in a Louisiana swamp on a "bio-restorative" chemical for the U. S. government. The chemical could make possible the rapid growth of plant life even in deserts. The Hollands were protected by government agent Lt. Matt Cable, who was absent when a man named Ferrett mad the Hollands an offer for the chemical on behalf of his superiors in a criminal organization called the Conclave. Nathan Ellery, the Conclave's leader, ordered that Ferrett kill the Hollands and destroy the formula if they rejected his offer again.

Alec Holland was indeed uncooperative when Ferrett and his men returned. Ferrett had Holland knocked out and planted a bomb in his lab. Holland regained consciousness just before the bomb detonated. The explosion not only saturated Holland's body with the bio-restorative formula but also covered his body with flame. Driven by pain, Holland ran into the swamp. He was already dead when his body plunged into a bog.

This is the Alec holland Swamp Thing that we've read about in DC comics all these years.

Once again, a plant elemental was created, this time bearing a duplicate of Alec Holland's consciousness. In fact, for years, this Swamp Thing believed it was indeed a transformed Alec Holland. The Swamp Thing's foe Anton Arcane once used sorcery to transform Swamp Thing into a duplicate of Holland, but this spell was soon reversed. An account that the Swamp Thing was once "turned back" into Holland by scientific means is false. The Swamp Thing arose a few days after Holland's death and discovered that Ferrett and his men had killed Linda Holland. The Swamp Thing killed Ferrett and his accomplice Bruno in vengeance.

The Swamp Thing then began a lonely life of wandering through the world, often finding himself in combat with various menaces, many of which were supernatural in nature. He always returns, however, to the swamp. The Swamp Thing ultimately took his revenge for the deaths of Hollands on Nathan Ellery himself. Matt Cable and Arcane's niece Abigail eventually became the Swamp Thing's friends, and Cable married Abby.

Relatively recently, the Swamp Thing learned that he was not actually Alec Holland, but a plant being whose consciousness was based on Holland's. Following Cable's hospitalization after an auto accident, Abby and the Swamp Thing became lovers, and the Swamp Thing now regards her as his wife.

The two had a child, Tefe, as she was the result of a Swamp Thing/John Constantine cross getting Abby pregnant. Again, here's a bit of info for Tefe...

When Swampy went out into out space, one of Alan Moore's storylines, there was a need for another plant elemental -- so there was a loose plant elemental life force that was going around looking for a body to possess -- similar to how Holland became Swampy; it had to be a violent death in fire & vegetation.
In the mean time, Swampy returned from space. The parliament of trees was willing to kill off the 'sprout' so to speak, but Swampy & Abby was unwilling to kill it off. After a few issue, Swampy came up with the idea of fathering a child with Abby, giving the elemental life force a 'host' to inhabit -- his child. But there was a little bit a problem with vegetation pollination mixing with human DNA -- thus Constantine enters the picture. Swampy worked out a deal that he would swap soul essence with Constantine for the night & for the use of his body to father a child. So Swampy made love to Abby, via Constantine's body, creating a child that had both the elemental life force & demon blood (via Constantine's bad blood).

After Tefe's birth, she began to develop powers, but not over vegetation, but over flesh -- a flesh elemental. Her powers were too strong & could accidently kill off humanity; she went off to study with the Parliament of Trees until she could have control over her powers. Towards the end of the 2nd Swamp Thing series, Tefe returns looking for her loving parents -- by this time Abby had split up with Swampy, going off on her own & Swampy was in the pursuit of becoming god; having received more powers over the other elements from the parliament of stone, parliament of wind, etc.

Tefe was captured and tortured by Jason Woodrue -- the government though her capture would allow some bargining power with Swampy, but by this time he has cut all ties with humanity & is rapidly thinking about wiping humanity off the earth. Tefe escaped & maimed Woodrue, Swampy was in a middle of a fight with the Word -- a new character, named for being the Word of God -- she helped Swampy defeat the Word. She was looking for praise & acceptance, but Swampy rejected her. Some other stuff happened and the 2nd series came to an end.

In the 3rd Swamp Thing series (released a few years ago based around Tefe), she is on a search for her 'humanity'. The parliament of trees want to use her as a agent to wipe out humanity, but she's not going along with it. In the mean time, some really wierd stuff is going on around her, that she's forced a little to use her powers. I wouldn't say she's evil (and some of the stuff she does does seem evil), but she's working with a different moral system.

So, as mentioned in the Tefe bio, the Swamp Thing eventually becomes more powerful by becoming more than just the Earth's elemental of the Green. He becomes the controller of all of Earth's elements, and essentially becomes a god. With nowhere else to go with the character, the series came to an end. (Thank you, Mark Millar )

I forget exactly how #171 ended (it's been a while), but somehow, Swamp Thing comes to his senses (he was going to remold the Earth into his image), and he settles down in the Bayoo to simply live his life, only to be called upon whenever needed.

The new issue issue looks pretty promising.... I'm glad that you're picking it up.

 

[Eric Draven]

I picked up the first issue as well. And it was pretty good. It does seem like the book is going back to the early Wrightson days (at least according to the stuff I did read about it).

But boy, was Tefe pretty different than when she was last seen in Swamp Thing vol 3.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

So Swamp Thing is pretty much godlike still?

And is that Word character just a blatant ripoff of Jesse Custer?

And Jesus Christ, does Constantine run into EVERY other Vertigo character? He helped Morpheus out in Sandman, too. Although Morpheus didn't use him to have sex with anybody.

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by TheCorpulent1
So Swamp Thing is pretty much godlike still?

And is that Word character just a blatant ripoff of Jesse Custer?

And Jesus Christ, does Constantine run into EVERY other Vertigo character? He helped Morpheus out in Sandman, too. Although Morpheus didn't use him to have sex with anybody.

Yep... he's still godlike, but after reading the first issue, it's easy to see that they're going to rectify that.

I don't quite remember the Word character... I'm sure he was that forgetable.

The art was terrrific, and the writing was smooth. I think DC is really going to re-establish its horror books, and hopefully, alongside with HellBlazer, Swamp Thing will lead the way.

Great first issue.

 

[Eric Draven]

Originally posted by TheCorpulent1
So Swamp Thing is pretty much godlike still?

And is that Word character just a blatant ripoff of Jesse Custer?

And Jesus Christ, does Constantine run into EVERY other Vertigo character? He helped Morpheus out in Sandman, too. Although Morpheus didn't use him to have sex with anybody.

Constantine is basically Vertigo's ****e

He's also helped out Timothy Hunter, was in Shade the Changing Man, and probably a few other books I can't recall.

That's good though because it helps to give some of the Vertigo books a sense of continuity.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh yeah, I forgot to thank you, TMOB. That information was really helpful. I'm gonna check if my comic shop still has any copies of the new series on the rack when I head back to college.

I gotta start reading Hellblazer, too. This is kind of my big Vertigo push; I've been hearing about all this stuff for the longest time but I never bothered to read any of it. Now that I've started Sandman, I want to jump onto every other Vertigo title all at once. I wish I had more sets of eyes to read them all at once.

 

[Eric Draven]

That's what happened to me too. I first started reading Preacher, then Sandman, then Hellblazer, then Swamp Thing, then Animal Man, then Books of Magic.


If only DC would release TPBs of Doom Patrol. I keep on trying to buy sets of it off ebay, but people keep outbidding me

I also hope that DC would release at least one TPB of Veitch's Swamp Thing run. I want to see how good it is

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by Eric Draven
I also hope that DC would release at least one TPB of Veitch's Swamp Thing run. I want to see how good it is

Veitch's run could have been one of the best things to happen to the book until DC pulled the plug on him. He had Swamp Thing going to the past, and he was eventually going to meet Jesus Christ, which could have been really cool (as long as it was presented Vertigo-style). Unfortunately, we'll never know....

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by TheCorpulent1
Oh yeah, I forgot to thank you, TMOB. That information was really helpful. I'm gonna check if my comic shop still has any copies of the new series on the rack when I head back to college.

I gotta start reading Hellblazer, too. This is kind of my big Vertigo push; I've been hearing about all this stuff for the longest time but I never bothered to read any of it. Now that I've started Sandman, I want to jump onto every other Vertigo title all at once. I wish I had more sets of eyes to read them all at once.

No sweat.... it's always a pleasure to get you guys into reading the books that I've enjoyed over the years.

I'm not too sure if you're planning on getting an entire HellBlazer run, or simply looking to get a few Trades. If you decide on getting trades, you MUST get "Dangerous Habits" FIRST. I've said this earlier in the Constantine forum today, but it is without a doubt, one of the BEST story arcs I've ever read.

It was Garth Ennis' first arc on HellBlazer, and it was a doozie.

 

[Eric Draven]

I heard about that. I think Veitch also vowed never to work for DC again until he did the Aquaman relaunch a couple years ago. That would've been very interesting to see how it would've been handled. That's also partly why I want to see Veitch's run reprinted. I loved Alan Moore's stuff and I want to see if Veitch's is just as good.


Speaking of which, to my knowledge, I think Ellis also did the same thing with Hellblazer. His first 10 issues were pretty interesting, but DC nixed a storyline where it dealt with school shootings so Ellis left the title. That's a shame because Ellis could've made such a good run on the book, very similar to Ennis' run

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by Eric Draven
Speaking of which, to my knowledge, I think Ellis also did the same thing with Hellblazer. His first 10 issues were pretty interesting, but DC nixed a storyline where it dealt with school shootings so Ellis left the title. That's a shame because Ellis could've made such a good run on the book, very similar to Ennis' run

Yes, Ellis had some kind of school shooting thing going which DC did in fact nix, especially so close after the Columbine situation.

 

[Eric Draven]

I could see why they would cancel the book due to sensitivity issues. And I really don't fault DC for doing that. But on the other hand, I really wanted to see Ellis write more than 10 issues of Hellblazer..not to mention his replacement wasn't as good.

 

[DavidTyler]

Originally posted by DavidTyler
I totally agree.

As much as I respect Alan Moore as a writer, I didn't like much of what he did with the character. I'd like to do a 'Bobby Ewing' and forget that elemental stuff ever happened.

The original concept was clean and direct. You could empathize with him. Len Wein's stories were every bit as engaging as Alan's but he kept it uncluttered.

Alan, if you're reading this, I still love your work on other titles - just not this one.

Even though there only seems to be a few of us, I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in my preference for the Wein/Wrightson original version of the character.

I love Alan's work on other books but he just feels this need to make all of these characters into gods. I really prefer the lone, brooding muck-monster who finds himself alone and unique.

This Lord of the Green Elemental stuff just got to the point where the character didn't interest me any more.

What worked so well in Miracleman left me cold here.

However, even Miracleman was left with a dead end. He left the series with no where to go.

In Swamp Thing, as much as I tried, I could not get myself to care about the characters anymore. Tefe was just a bore and I really missed the human Cable.

EDIT: Why the hell did I quote myself?

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by DavidTyler
Even though there only seems to be a few of us, I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in my preference for the Wein/Wrightson original version of the character.

I love Alan's work on other books but he just feels this need to make all of these characters into gods. I really prefer the lone, brooding muck-monster who finds himself alone and unique.

This Lord of the Green Elemental stuff just got to the point where the character didn't interest me any more.

What worked so well in Miracleman left me cold here.

However, even Miracleman was left with a dead end. He left the series with no where to go.

In Swamp Thing, as much as I tried, I could not get myself to care about the characters anymore. Tefe was just a bore and I really missed the human Cable.

Some good valid points there, but while Alan Moore may have created the whole "elemental" idea, I blame Doug Wheeler and his boring run for taking it to that prosaic level.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Originally posted by Themanofbat
No sweat.... it's always a pleasure to get you guys into reading the books that I've enjoyed over the years.

I'm not too sure if you're planning on getting an entire HellBlazer run, or simply looking to get a few Trades. If you decide on getting trades, you MUST get "Dangerous Habits" FIRST. I've said this earlier in the Constantine forum today, but it is without a doubt, one of the BEST story arcs I've ever read.

It was Garth Ennis' first arc on HellBlazer, and it was a doozie.

I was planning on getting all the TPBs in whatever order the stories were printed. Are they numbered by volume or are they too old for that? The Sandman TPBs confused the hell out of me until someone listed their order. There's nothing in the TPB itself to show that Dream Country comes after A Doll's House or anything. Do you think you could point me to a Hellblazer site with the order of the TPBs, please?

 

[Eric Draven]

Originally posted by TheCorpulent1
I was planning on getting all the TPBs in whatever order the stories were printed. Are they numbered by volume or are they too old for that? The Sandman TPBs confused the hell out of me until someone listed their order. There's nothing in the TPB itself to show that Dream Country comes after A Doll's House or anything. Do you think you could point me to a Hellblazer site with the order of the TPBs, please?

The ordering of the TPBs is actually very confusing.

The first one is Original Sins, that reprints issues 1-9 of Hellblazer. Jamie Delano wrote that

Then it skips about 20-30 issues and goes straight to Garth Ennis and Dangerous Habits. That reprints issues 41-46

Then there's:
Fear and Loathing
Tainted Love
Damnation's Flame
Rakes at the Gates of Hell

These issues reprint issues 62-82 of Hellblazer. This arc was also drawn by Steve Dillon and actually has quite a few themes from Preacher present. I would actually recommend these 4 TPBs the most

Afterwards, they skip about about 40 issues (they don't reprint any of Jenkin's runs) and go straight with Warren Ellis' run. This is Hellblazer: Haunted and reprints issues 139-144

Finally, there's Azarello's run:
Hard Time
Good Intentions
Freezes Over

I wasn't too much of a fan of Azarello's run.

Oh and with the first TPB, that one actually ends on a cliffhanger that follows up in a Swamp Thing issue. But it's explained pretty well in the introduction.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Nuts so I gotta hunt down more than 20 back issues?

Ah well. Thanks for the info, Eric.

 

[Eric Draven]

Sorry, I pressed post before I got to finish it. But that's all the TPBs right there


There's also a new one coming out this week, Son of Man that reprints the 5 issues before Ellis came aboard.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh wow ... That's a lot more stuff. Thanks again.