SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #20 — General Thoughts

 

Alan Moore was doing double duty with this opening issue of his run on Saga of the Swamp Thing. Not only did he need to tell a compelling tale that would satisfy readers and spur them to pick up the next issue, but he also needed to provide enough of the backstory so that readers did not feel lost. It was a high-wire act, and I feel like he did a heckuva job. 

Certainly, there were a number of fans who had been reading this series from the start, but sales were poor at the time, when Moore started as writer for this series. Heralded by critics and fans alike, the readership soon expanded, while many more backtracked as word of this new take on a classic character became known, so that issue 20 is likely more readers’ first issue of this series than issue 1. There are more than half a dozen named characters being introduced to these new readers, and Moore manages to imbue most of them with distinct, if shallow (by dint of the limited page count in any given comic issue), characterizations. Readers get an understanding of at least some of their motivations, with the glaring exception of Abby. Despite Abby’s lack of characterization, it’s impressive what Moore accomplished, to my mind, and certainly helped to engage readers more readily. 

Most impressive to me is the fact that, though Moore is providing a lot of exposition to catch up new readers, the dialogue rarely feels forced. This, to me, has always been one of Moore’s strengths as a writer. The story flows along effortlessly, the dialogue sounding natural for the most part (his attempts at dialect and accents — as with most writers —falling flat, to my ears), allowing the narrative to wash over us as we ride it to its tragic end. 

**End verbose preamble; Begin analysis of said issue**

“Loose Ends”

WHAT IT IS: 

We enter the story in the middle. Swamp Thing has gone into the forest to see if his enemy, Arcane, did indeed perish when his ship crashed. It appears he did. Meanwhile, General Sunderland is preparing an assault on all those familiar with his and the DDI’s machinations (of which we remain in the dark), including Swamp Thing and his companions . . . Liz Tremayne & Dennis Barclay, who awake in the van that broke down the night before and head for their motel, arguing about the apparent intimacy they consummated that previous night. Liz thinks it was a mistake, a result of the darkness and horror they’ve endured, an attempt at finding some light to drive out the shadows hanging over them recently. We also meet Abby & Matt, who are similarly troubled. Matt seems able to conjure demons, though he tells Abby that Alec’s (Swamp Thing’s) warning they were controlling him is wrong; he has defeated them. Abby does not argue but needs to take a walk, to “take the air,” and get out of the shadows in their house, away from the darkness in their lives. All the while, the soldiers hired by Sunderland are setting up floodlights and fueling flamethrowers to hunt down Swamp Thing, even as other agents are hunting down these two couples linked with Swampy. At a predetermined time, Abby & Matt’s house is destroyed by a missile from a chopper (while they are out), a bomb planted at Liz & Dennis’s motel room explodes (while they are at the motel office), and floodlights bathe the forest, in an effort to flush out Swamp Thing, who has no alternative. He runs, hoping to cross the light and reach the shadows before the soldiers can capture or harm him. But it is too far, the soldiers too many, and Swamp Thing is shot down in a hail of bullets and pronounced dead. 

THEMES: 

The idea of shadows and the monsters they hide runs throughout this issue. Shadows or darkness or, conversely, the idea of light or sun, are mentioned by a number of the characters — from Swamp Thing: “The dark corners are being pushed back,” to Dennis: “…drive out some of the shadows that have gotten into our lives,” to Abby needing time away from Matthew and leaving their darkened home because she needs a walk, “to take the air…” out in the sunlight. We also get images reinforcing this idea of shadows, with Matthew and Abby being introduced in shadows or Swamp Thing skulking through the darkness of the forest, even as the soldiers set up a cordon of floodlights to reveal where he is hidden. These shadows hide the monsters, both literally and metaphorically. Though Swamp Thing is the most obvious monster in this comic, it could certainly be argued he is far from that. Not unlike Frankenstein’s creation, Swamp Thing’s ugly visage belies the strong character that lies beneath. The true monsters here are hiding in plain sight, unable to be seen because of the darkness that hangs over them. Dennis reveals a dark side when his inner monologue cheers at the idea of Liz leaning against him, “scared, vulnerable, the way a woman should be.” Matthew shows us his hidden side when, after Abby leaves for her walk, he conjures up a demon to pleasure himself, like the ones he claimed he’d banished. And the General, Sunderland, hides in the shadows of his office, remaining far away from ground zero of the assault on Swamp Thing and his companions, preferring not to get his hands dirty, because a respected gentleman who wears a suit would never be seen as a monster.

And this theme will continue into the next issue, as a revelation about Alec Holland and his connection to Swamp Thing will put things into a far different light than anyone could have considered before. 

STANDOUT SCENES & LINES (some lengthy bullet points): 

• Overall, the layout of this issue, artistically, was novel, especially for its time. And we see a lot of layouts, in general, that will show up in later works penned by Moore. Most notably, there are a number of double-page spreads bookended by the same image, whether Swamp Thing ‘holding’ the side of the page or eagles perched at the four corners of the spread, and, on occasion, the layout of the panels across these two pages mirrors each other, foreshadowing the groundbreaking fifth issue of Watchmen, “Fearful Symmetry,” which is laid out as a full-on mirror image, expanding left and right from the middle of the issue. 

• An early line, on page 2, where Swamp Thing is ruminating on Arcane’s supposed death and thinks, “I didn’t see the body, Arcane…and I’ve learned that…if you don’t see the body…then the rotten stuff…just keeps coming back,” anticipates Frank Miller’s “Daredevil: Born Again” when the Kingpin gets the report on his attempt to drown Matt Murdock in a stolen cab, and he repeats to himself, “There is no corpse. There is no corpse. There is no corpse.”

• On page 12, the soldiers discuss how the General is “…tying up some loose ends…” which obviously references the title of this issue, “Loose Ends.” This title is doing double duty for Moore. First, Moore is working to tie the narrative threads from the first 19 issues of the series so that he can start fresh with the following issue. But also, it describes what the General is doing, as noted by the soldier, as far as cleaning up the loose threads of those people who know about Sunderland and DDI.

• On page 14, Moore has the motel clerk share the ending of a movie she watched last night — prompted by the similarity between the Sunderland people who entered Liz & Dennis’s motel room and Donald Sutherland, who starred in the movie she watched. As she relates, Sutherland was walking up to what appeared to be a young child in a red cape, but when he reached the child it turned out to be an ‘ugly dwarf’ who used a cleaver to kill Sutherland. This story is told over images of a stranger helping out Liz by taking her room key, while the clerk has detained her with the telling of the story, in order to be neighborly and grab her belongings. He is walking toward a motel room he believes to be safe, only to be killed when the bomb, set by the Sunderland people earlier, explodes in his face. 

• Finally, on page 22, the overhead shot when Swamp Thing is gunned down in a hail of bullets is incredibly effective. We can see the terror on his face, while the angle also allows us to see the trajectory of the bullets more readily than if it were a head on shot. And the elongated shadow behind Swamp Thing, hearkening back to the idea of shadows and darkness and monsters, only enhances the scene. It’s a masterful bit of comic art. 

So, Swamp Thing’s dead. Guess that’s the end of the series. Oh, well. Better luck next time.