A Kirkus Style Review of The Saga of The Swamp Thing Book One by Alan Moore

 

From the bubbling, brewing murky swamp waters of swirling science-fiction, superheroes, and dark occult magic, comes creeping the creature known as The Swamp Thing.

Alec Holland is dead. Seminal comic book creator Alan Moore wants the reader to understand this just as much as he wants the wandering green monster to understand this. In this 1984 series, Moore’s introductory work for DC Comics already makes bold and drastic steps to reshape the image of the (at the time) middling and forgettable horror character. Blending the science fiction roots of the Swamp Thing with Moore’s own experiences with ceremonial magic and the occult, where before the creature had been the scientist transformed into the plant creature, Moore kills and revives the character metaphorically and literally. Where once The Swamp Thing believed it was Alec Holland transformed by science and circumstance into an unholy hulking monster of living walking plant matter, “His body goes into the swamp along with the formula… Those plants eat him… they eat him… and become infected by a powerful consciousness that does not realize it is no longer alive!” Through simultaneous gorgeous and oppressively gloomy artwork as chilling as the Goya paintings that inspired it, penciled by Stephen Bissette, the reader descends into the dank muck of the swamp with the creature, as it embarks on a spiritual journey within the metaphysical realm known as The Green, a kind of shared consciousness among all plant life on earth, to know its place in the world. Can the Thing let go of the man it thought it was in time to stop the eco-terrorist Floronic Man from bringing the world to ruin?

Fans coming from Moore’s Watchmen or V for Vendetta will want to pick up this chilling collection with atmosphere as thick and suffocating as the humid swamp air, with vines and roots creeping to drag them under.

 


 

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