Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 2 - Alan Moore's Trip to Hell and Back

Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 2

Written by Alan Moore

Art by Stephen Bissette and John Totleben

Published by Vertigo/DC Comics.

Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 2 - Synopsis

What Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, and John Totleben accomplished during their time on the comic book series Swamp Thing shouldn't be underestimated in the history of comics and, specifically, the history of horror comics. The modern comics landscape has been changed by the Vertigo line of books--an imprint that traces its roots back to this version of Swamp Thing. By taking a horror character fully entrenched in a superhero world (as silly as that might seem), this creative team put a new face on horror comics and on horror in general. Swamp Thing: Love and Death is the second collection of the team's work on the series, presented here in full color. Don't let the mediocre Swamp Thing movies fool you, this book is filled with sophisticated suspense and terror.

Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 2 Review

This continues my gradual trek through what has long been considered the crowning achievement of Alan Moore - at least when you chuck Watchmen and V for Vendetta - to the side. In the first volume of Saga of the Swamp Thing we were introduced to a Swamp Thing that had assimilated the consciousness of Alec Holland and struggled to come to terms with everyone it knew, including Abby, treating it as Alec Holland. Through a myriad of mis-adventures, which included having to deal with Abby's feelings and the return of DC Comics bastard-extraordinaire Anton Arcane, the first volume closed out with Swamp Thing starting to accept who and what it is.

Which leads straight into the events of Saga of the Swamp Thing volume 2 - where Swamp Thing journeys beyond and relives Alec Holland's past and the pain of dying - to helping Alec Holland move on to the afterlife. It's this level of acceptance which helps Swamp Thing understand more about his place in the grander scheme of things and how he can contribute to being the guardian of the green and being a friend to Abby, Alec Holland's old flame.

But, for me, this second volume doesn't quite hit its stride until Arcane returns to corrupt Abby's husband and slowly kill Abby, causing Swamp Thing to vanquish Arcane, and journey to hell, heaven or whatever you religious types want to call it - to rescue Abby's soul and reunite it with her body. Where this high stakes rescue attempt is aided by useless demon, Etrigan (who you Sandman fans will remember), who is somehow useful in a warning Swamp Thing about the dangers of hell but doing the bare-arse-minimum to help him kind of way. The now vanquished Arcane is seen during their travels throughout Hell, where he looks like something out of a Lovecraftian novel, but is quickly dispatched. Before Swampy and Arcane rescue Abby's soul and they, and by "they" I mean he (Swamp Thing) is able to return to the real world and implant Abby's soul back into her body. It's incredibly amusing to see Etrigan get shafted yet again and, this sequence of events, quite literally leans into Alan Moore's early days of 2000 AD writing where he executed the symbiosis of sarcastic humour and slapstick amongst terror, horror and science fiction - quite expertly.

Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 2 - Page 14

As this is going on, a chance meeting between Abby and the caretakers of the House of Mystery and House of Secrets, Cain and Abel, take place. Where Abby learns certain truths about her existence and Swamp Thing, truths she can't use because they are bounded to the House of Secrets. When Abel tries to sneak Abby out with secrets that can help her, he is killed by Cain who tells Abby not to worry as he'll come back alive soon. Before Cain, Abel's corpse, the houses and the Dreaming itself fade out of memory - leaving her even more confused than before. This is a scene that is both morbidly creepy and biblically terrifying.

Once Abby is reunited with her body, there's a dramatic shift in the tone of the Saga of the Swamp Thing as Abby - who I'm still convinced if she's sane or not - begins to explore her own feelings for this Swamp Thing. Not Alec Holland, but this Swamp Thing, and what he risked to find her in the underworld. This is where Stephen Bisette's artwork is incredibly vital in communicating the exploration of love between the two and how Swamp Thing helps Abby understand how he sees the environment around him, what the green means to him and how they could potentially make love and be together. Bisette's artwork exchanges the earlier horror tones in volume 2 for this LSD-laced manifestation of fauna and kaleidoscopic colours which splash into one another. The result being as abstract as it is the absolute incarnation of beauty. Lots of optimism for Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume 3 but I know it won't last because nothing good lasts in DC Comics.

I'm giving this a 10/10.