Swamp Thing Vol. 2: Love and Death

But first, a word. See, what happened was this: apparently sometimes these series books with multiple volumes have a way of confusing the system here and on occasion they can get lumped together into one entry. Hence a search for the ISBN to this volume I’m reviewing, LOVE AND DEATH, turned up THIS volume, REUNIONS, which means, unfortunately, I was unable to have the correct volume added. So, let’s pretend that the above heading reads SWAMP THING VOL.2: LOVE AND DEATH and that the cover photo shows this: http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/1662_400x600.jpg

Got it? Good. Let’s begin:

Several years ago I purchased and read SWAMP THING, VOL 2: LOVE AND DEATH because it contained two things I love: Swamp Thing, and the writing of Alan Moore.

Over the years since I still love Swamp Thing--my Swamp Thing figure holds a place of pride in my life--and I still greatly admire Alan Moore’s work. Except . . . well, reading this collection again, so many years later and with so many more experiences to my credit, it’s just not as awesome as I remembered it.

The story is basically the development of the love affair between Swamp Thing and Abby Cable, niece to Swamp Things nemesis Anton Arcane. Having read what came later--I didn’t start reading the Swamp Thing series until it was almost over--I knew about Abby and I knew their relationship, so I was curious to see how it all began. What I didn’t count on was all the other stuff. And I’ll get to that in a moment.

First the matter of the actual story, LOVE AND DEATH. In the beginning Abby is already married to a man named Matt. We soon learn Matt has been possessed by Abby’s dead uncle Anton who is trying to use her to lure Swamp Thing to him. He doesn’t just want to beat Swamp Thing, he wants to ruin him. And how best to do that than to kill--no, not just kill, “I ripped her soul from her and it pulsed in my hands, milk white and translucent and then I hurled it down into the deepest sewers of the afterworld just to hear it scream. Such is my power . . . the power to condemn a stainless innocent to the pit.” Arcane throws Abby into Hell. And Swamp Thing, because he’d do absolutely anything for Abby, goes into Hell to retrieve her.

I thought this was a pretty cool idea at first, a heartfelt sentiment, what more could a person do to prove their love for another than to descend into Hell to save their soul? And then I found out Richard Matheson had done it before in 1978 in his novel WHAT DREAMS MAY COME. Seeing now how completely unoriginal it was--and having seen and read various other forms of the same concept now so many times I’ve lost count--well, it kinda takes the steam outta the Swamp Thing story.

Swamp Thing’s journey through Hell recalls Dante’s INFERNO as Swamp Thing is accompanied by three spirit guides, famous faces in the DC Comics universe, on his descent further into the abyss. Yet again, nothing original.

I admire Moore’s obvious love for the characters and the passion with which he attacks what had been, before his run, kind of a forgotten figure. But at the end of the day, LOVE AND DEATH just wasn’t everything I know Moore’s capable of. We all do imperfect work from time to time, I know that, but you’re reading this for my opinion, and, well, that’s my opinion.

Now onto the “other stuff.”

LOVE AND DEATH played out over eight chapters of the Swamp Thing monthly title Half of that was filler material. Once in a while, during a particularly demanding story arc, a publisher will throw together a quicky story by a guest writer or artist in order to keep a book on a monthly schedule while the regular team catches up. LOVE AND DEATH contains 3 filler stories. And my question is this: if the stories are filler (and believe me, they ARE), why include them in the collected edition? These stories are in no way at all important to the LOVE AND DEATH arc, DC should have published the story on its own with the filler material saved for a later, “all-filler” collection, if it ever needed to be reprinted at all, which I don’t believe it did. Filler stories are the equivalent of clip shows on sitcoms, they’re nice, but when the credits roll, you’ve already forgotten everything that happened, and the main story hasn’t advanced one inch.

Stephen Bissette and John Totleben handled art on the main storyline, you may remember them from their work with Moore on the MIRACLEMAN stories I raved about recently. They seem a good team for a book like Swamp Thing; they draw excellent creatures and they pay such close attention to the details, but their people aren’t all that great. In fact, I find absolutely nothing special about their characters that distinguishes one from another. They do good creatures, though, and their page layouts are AWESOME. Shawn McManus provided art for two of the filler issues, while the third was simply a reprint of the first Swamp Thing appearance--and THAT is the height of “we have nothing else we can use here”. The McManus art wasn’t bad, if a little too cartoony, especially when seen alongside the Bissette and Totleben art.

I liked LOVE AND DEATH, sure. I just didn’t like it as much as I thought I remembered liking it, nor as much as I expected to like it a second time through. It’s an important chapter in the Swamp Thing legacy, but if you’re not big into the green guy, you’re not missing anything at all that would have made you sit up and take notice.

Thanks to Arianej for letting me know about the mix-up in the entries and . . . well, better luck next time, I guess. For those interested, here’s the vitals on the correct volume:

Manufacturer URL: http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=1662
Estimated Price ($): $19.95
Fiction Genres: graphic novel
Fiction Subgenres: horror
Authors: Alan Moore
ISBN: 0-930289-54-4
Date Published: 1990
Number of Pages: 206
Available Formats: trade paperback
Illustrator: Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, Shawn McManus
Editor: Karen Berger
Publisher: DC Comics