Swamp Thing Annual #2

   It may be fate or coincidence that I’m reviewing this comic; Alan Moore’s tirade in The Guardian for the most part has been kinda brushed off as the ranting of an old man yelling at clouds. He did have some thought provoking points but there was one comment he made about comic book characters being written for seven and eight year olds. However, the title we’re looking at today is not just for kids…I had to look over my shoulder just now, I was sure I was being stalked by a white rabbit.

    Swamp Thing Annual #2 from 1985 was the climax in one of the first storylines written by Alan Moore when he took over the book in Saga of the Swamp Thing#20, he put Swampy through the ringer and made compelling and thoughtful drama out of the idea of the search for self, mixing it with a healthy dose of hell borne adversaries along with one long time enemy who broke out of hell to gain revenge, that being Anton Arcane. Arcane failed in his campaign to destroy Swamp Thing so as a consolation prize he stole the soul of Swampy’s love Abby, who just so happens to also be Arcane’s niece.

   So this is where we pick up, with Swamp Thing looking over Abby’s lifeless body placed in a patch of grass in the swamp. He makes the decision to follow the trail to retrieve Abby’s soul from hell, hence the title of the story “Down Amongst the Dead Men”. Or Swamp Thing goes to Hell, which ever you prefer.

Who would you go through hell for?

    One of the many abilities that Swamp Thing has discovered since the revelation of his identity( which I’ll get to later on in this review) is to be able to travel through dimensions, and he uses this ability to enter the realm of purgatory where he comes across a woman who has just died and is looking for her son. Happily her son finds her and takes her into a bright light, once the light fades we meet Swampy’s first guide through the nether realms: Boston Brand, better known as Deadman.

    Deadman leads Swamp Things across purgatory and along the way seeing all sorts of shades and poltergeists that David Cronenburg  probably would have cast in a few of his films. Swamp Thing tells Boston of his quest to retrieve Abby’s soul and Deadman’s reply is that if she hasn’t gone into the lights and gone in the other direction, then it’s best to forget about her. I don’t think anyone was expecting a cheery, upbeat response from someone called Deadman, where you?

    The bright light once again appears and from that light comes a stranger, The Phantom Stranger to be more accurate. Swamp Thing and Phantom Stranger had met before and seem to be on friendly enough terms that he’s willing to lead Swampy into the light and guide him through the Heavenly Realms. With this we leave Deadman behind as he wishes him “rotsa ruck”. As I was reading this story for this review I couldn’t help but imagine the fourth Doctor Tom baker’s booming voice as the Stranger’s. It certainly made it more enjoyable for me and gave what he was saying a lot more weight, at least in my mind and yes I thought the 50^th anniversary episode was awesome too, moving on.

    As The Phantom Stranger guides Swamp Thing amongst the green rolling hills of Heaven which kind of remind me of Germany they come across an unexpected person, none other than Alec Holland. Okay this is where I need to explain what I meant before about the revelation of Swamp Thing’s true identity. If you followed the character since its inception we’d had always been told that Alec Holland was actually Swamp Thing who was burned in a chemical fire and reborn in the green muck of the swamp to become what we see today. This was the identity that was in canon before Alan Moore took over and was kinda restored with the 2011 relaunch of the DC Universe which included a new Swamp Thing book which I highly recommend.

    When Moore took over, he changed things up drastically by reveling that Swamp Thing was not nor never was Alec Holland but a creature that had Holland’s memories but was never a man. It was this revelation than began Swampy’s experimentation with his abilities such as the ability to transverse dimensions, it also led to Swamp Thing finding Holland’s corpse and finally laying it to rest. Pretty deep for a kid’s story, huh Alan? By the way, even after that revelation Abby still insists on calling Swampy Alec so in the name of variety I’ll start doing the same.

don't you hate when you get those floaty
things in your eye first thing in the
morning? 

     So after this meeting the pair move on and realize that Abby’s soul was indeed dragged to hell by Arcane, so this means having to go through the gate keeper between the two sides. The world goes dark, but light comes when the eyes of The Spectre open. He recognizes the Stranger and is surprised to see Alec, having believed that the elementals were all dead. The pair ask The Spectre to let them pass to retrieve Abby’s soul but get stonewalled because of The Spectre’s desire to keep the balance, that someone coming back to life could disrupt the balance even if that soul (like Abby’s) was wrongfully taken. Alec is ready to rage but the Stranger stops him and ask The Spectre if that included Jim Corrigan, the man who died and returned to life to become The Spectre. Charmed by the clever question he allows the pair to pass into the next realm, Hell Awaits.

     Alec and the Stranger cross over into a realm of chaos, a land of rotting life and bones. This is not a land of fire but a land of perpetual dying; this is hell as imagined by Alan Moore. Again I say, so much for kid’s stories. Alec is resolved to continue and the pair is met by Etrigan the Demon, a character we saw earlier in the story arc. After some verbal parrying between Etrigan and the Stranger the demon offers to guide Alec through Hell for a price, the white flower in the Phantom Stranger’s lapel which blooms as brightly as Abby whom the demon has seen to which all parties agree and Alec goes with Etrigan leaving the Stranger behind who is trying to say that this is against the rules to which Etrigan replies: “The rules? And if I break these rules, pray tell shall I be punished? Sent, perhaps, to Hell?” I have to agree that following the rules seems pretty pointless from here on. Bye, Bye Stranger, see you in Trinity War!

   As Etrigan leads Alec through the lands they come across many demons, but soon they come across Arcane who has become a kind of hatchery for insect eggs and Abby’s soul is not far now. The pair finally comes across her soul being picked at by a horde of demons. Swamp Thing attacks and rescues Abby which doesn’t sit right with any of them including Arcane who might be a bit pissed that he has been robbed of his revenge. The demons led by Arcane chase the trio through hell, but Etrigan is able to slow them down with the use of his hellfire. Soon they get to a point where Etrigan can open a door out of Hell and begins the incantation to open the rift. I have to mention that symbol floating in the air that the Demon uses looks suspiciously like the insignia from V for Vendetta, a little subtle cross promotion perhaps?

     The rift is open and just before they can leave Alec finds Arcane chomping on his ankle to try to keep them from leaving. But Alec shakes him off and leaves Hell with Abby’s soul. Swamp Thing wakes up back in the swamp and Abby opens her eyes to see snow has fallen in the swamp and that Alec is crying, happy to have her back and alive.

Beautiful

    Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing in the 1980s was one of the watershed marks in comics, it’s a highly recommended series that reinvented its main character, brought a more literary feel to comics, and this issue is a high example of how great this series was. When I read news about the Justice League Dark movie that Guillermo Del Toro supposedly has planned this is the story I imagine could be that movie. A lot of Moore’s stories have been transferred to the big screen and they’ve been anywhere from decent to really bad, see League of Extraordinary Gentleman for proof of that. If this was the story that would get the treatment I think it would finally do justice to an Alan Moore work and I do believe that Del Toro is more than capable to make this happen. Sure it would be banking on the nostalgia of comics past, but the argument that it was made for kids would get thrown out in a hurry.