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Post by zaku on Mar 9, 2019 10:59:13 GMT -5
This issue also demonstrates the added possibilities of the post-Crisis Lex Luthor, a devious business magnate rather than a wanted criminal who must operate underground. He has his own schemes going but is also available for consultation by shady para-governmental agencies, for the right fee. You know, Mike's site says that this is the last appearance of Earth-One Luthor and I tend to agree with him. The immediately-post crisis Luthor wasn't a scientific genius like his pre-crisis counterpart and really, I can't really see the businessman version doing consulting jobs for just a million dollar. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 9, 2019 20:19:29 GMT -5
Swamp Thing #54 “The Flowers of Romance” (November 1986) Creative Team: Writing by Alan Moore. Pencils by Rick Veitch. Ink by Alfredo Alcala. The Story: Since we last saw Liz Tremayne and Dennis Barclay in issue #20, Dennis has gone bonkers with paranoia that Sunderland Corporation hides behind every rock. He has forced Liz to stay indoors and avoid all exposure to even the slightest theoretical danger, and now she’s a basket case too. When TV news features Abby’s trial, Liz realizes that Abby isn’t dead as Dennis claimed. She hops a bus to Houma and finds Abby, who is appalled at how Liz has become a helpless wreck.  Abby is understandably devastated by Swamp Thing’s apparent demise, but Liz’s desperation gives Abby a focus outside of her own grief.  Dennis shows up with an Uzi and an attitude, looking to bring Liz back to “safety.” Abby’s superior knowledge of the Swamp allows her to lead Dennis into a bog populated by hungry alligators.  My Two Cents: This bit of character assassination on the formerly capable Liz Tremayne and Dennis Barclay may seem far-fetched, but it’s not. Up against a deadline and stymied by writer’s block after finishing Watchmen late Moore turned to a true story he had already described in a letter to Bissette in 1983: Moore gives this last psychological horror story all the pathos it deserves. We can hope that with Dennis gone, Liz may eventually gain a semblance of normalcy. And what of Abby? 72 issues after we first meet her, she has finally grown up, with Swamp Thing’s departure. This is the very first story in which Abby plays a meaningful role in the outcome. She is finally the actor, not the acted upon. 
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Post by rberman on Mar 10, 2019 7:02:39 GMT -5
Swamp Thing #55 “Earth to Earth” (December 1986) Creative Team: Writing by Alan Moore. Pencils by Rick Veitch. Ink by Alfredo Alcala and John Totleben. The Story: Gotham’s citizenry were sufficiently enraged by the death of Swamp Thing that the city has erected a statue in his honor. Abby attends the unveiling at which Commissioner Gordon makes an apology speech. Attendees include Chester, Liz, Constantine, Batman, and Phantom Stranger. Deadman shows up too, having possessed a creepy looking guy long enough to say "Hi" and give a kiss to bewildered Abby. Not cool, Boston Brand.  First Abby recalls a time she unknowingly chatted with and then hugged one of Swamp Thing’s abandoned husks.  Then she fantasizes about a world in which she marries Swamp Thing, and all her detractors give her the heartfelt apologies she deserves. Even her husband Matt gives his blessing!  Snapping back to reality, Abby declines the opportunity to speak at the ceremony. Meanwhile, on some distant planet, Swamp Thing begins to sprout from the soil…  My Two Cents: This issue has major Watchmen vibes. It’s framed as flashbacks recalled at a rain-drenched funeral, just as with The Comedian’s funeral.  Abby continues to show welcome character development. But I have to ask: Were Swamp Thing and Abby really headed for “happy ever after” even before societal disapproval intruded upon their relationship? We’ve seen a lot clues that she wasn’t really going to give up suburban living for his primitive existence. Their lives were so different; could they make it work? The answer to that question will have to wait a while, because the hiring of Rick Veitch as artist has caused this series to veer into space opera, removing Swamp Thing from Abby and from Earth before their relationship reached a true steady-state.  Bissette’s then-wife Marlene O’Connor was the model for the cover of this issue.
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Post by rberman on Mar 10, 2019 17:21:05 GMT -5
Swamp Thing #56 “My Blue Heaven” (January 1987) Creative Team: Writing by Alan Moore. Pencils by Rick Veitch. Ink by Alfredo Alcala. The Story: Swamp Thing reconstitutes on a distant planet whose blue hues match his mood. He alleviates his loneliness by creating a simulacrum of himself (their chess games all end in stalemate) and then a whole fake town of Houma, populated by all the people he knows, even Alec and Linda Holland. But it’s ultimately unfulfilling, ending in a combination of decay and violence as he vents his frustration.  My Two Cents: This issue begins Swamp Thing’s version of Homer’s Odyssey, which will see him on a distant journey before he returns home to his Penelope. It recalls two other stories. One is the android issue of Volume 1, in which a tinkerer made a whole fake town populated by simulacra of deceased people. The other is once again Watchmen, with Doctor Manhattan retreating to a blank slate world (in his case, Mars) in which he can make his thoughts reality without interference. Then at the end of Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan declares his interest in making life, somewhere out in the cosmos. Like Swamp Thing, he found solitude ultimately unfulfilling.  So… is creation enough, without an audience beyond the creator? This issue argues no. Swamp thing ultimately becomes disenchanted with the work of his hands; it cannot keep him company, challenge him with thoughts outside himself. Even the Parliament of Trees hang out in a society.  Moore scripted the destruction of “Abby” with “her” reacting to dismemberment as if she were a real person, but that notion was too unsettling for Rick Veitch, so he depicted her as unfeeling, in a rare artistic departure from Alan Moore’s famously meticulous scripting. 
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Post by chaykinstevens on Mar 10, 2019 17:46:04 GMT -5
Swamp Thing #46 “Ghost Dance” (March 1986)
#46 was actually titled "Revelations". |
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Post by rberman on Mar 10, 2019 17:54:43 GMT -5
Swamp Thing #46 “Ghost Dance” (March 1986)
#46 was actually titled "Revelations". Thanks. "Ghost Dance" was the title of #45. |
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Post by chaykinstevens on Mar 10, 2019 18:01:36 GMT -5
Zatanna and Constantine kiss and recall the Tantric Studies group they attended together. Sting was famously into Tantric sex. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 11, 2019 8:13:37 GMT -5
Swamp Thing #57 “Mysteries in Space” (February 1987)
 Creative Team: Writing by Alan Moore. Pencils by Rick Veitch. Ink by Alfredo Alcala. The Story: Swamp Thing somehow intercepts Adam Strange’s Zeta Beam and is carried with him to Rann. Strange is knocked silly by his encounter with Swamp Thing’s memories; Swampy is baffled by the “Northwest Outfitters” backpack he finds in an alien forest. Later, when Swamp Thing gets to the city, Adam Strange is enraged at being pulled away from making love to his wife in order to deal with the apparent threat presented by Swampy. Working quickly, he fires Swamp Thing into the sky using his rocket pack, then detonates the rocket pack with his pistol. Boom! Now back to business. That’s not the end of Swamp Thing of course. He reconstitutes, re-enters town, and is amazed to find a statue commemorating Strange as an Earthling.  A gruff Hawkman and Hawkgirl (not Katar and Shayera) have come from Thanagar to trade science which Rann needs to re-fertilize its barren soil. Strange is worried about why these cold-seeming Thanagarians want Zeta beam tech.   My Two Cents: This issue is a lot of fun; obviously the title comes from Adam Strange’s Silver Age title. Moore provides some long-overdue local color for both Rann and Thanagar. The Rannians all make fun of Strange behind his back. You’d think they’d appreciate him more, as many times as he’s saved them.  The creators have fun with this Hawkgirl costume, giving gender equality for ridiculously skimpy, band-like Thanagarian torso clothing. Grant Morrison wasted no time incorporating this detail, and the surly demeanor of Thanagarians, into Animal Man #6 a year later. Here’s another Hawkgirl talking to one of the many bald Morrison-stand-ins to grace his work:  Moore makes the unusual stylistic choice of untranslated Rannian speech, leaving the readers to guess by context, and occasional repeated words or proper nouns, as to the message. This issue bears the ominous warning that Swamp Thing is “for mature readers.” DC is stumbling toward the Vertigo imprint, years after Marvel has tried Epic and not found it rewarding. I guess it just takes the right talent with the right content at the right time. Moore and Veitch offer some sight gags at the Australian mall including a reference to Adam Strange as a “space cadet,” a travel agency ad offering a “foreign sun,” and a toy “Ray Gun” just panels before a headline about Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” missile defense system. 
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Post by MDG on Mar 11, 2019 9:12:20 GMT -5
^^^^ Wasn't this story also a springboard for the Adam Strange mini the Kuberts did a little later? I remember it incorporated many of the same ideas about Rann, but I haven't read it since the initial release.
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Post by rberman on Mar 11, 2019 9:17:32 GMT -5
^^^^ Wasn't this story also a springboard for the Adam Strange mini the Kuberts did a little later? I remember it incorporated many of the same ideas about Rann, but I haven't read it since the initial release. I have heard that this is the case, but I haven't read that later series. I know there was a Rann/Thanagar war at some point; surely it was building off of Moore's work here. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 11, 2019 10:17:38 GMT -5
^^^^ Wasn't this story also a springboard for the Adam Strange mini the Kuberts did a little later? I remember it incorporated many of the same ideas about Rann, but I haven't read it since the initial release. I'm sure that it was; it sort of brought back Adam Strange to the attention of the public. Unfortunately, the miniseries seemed to have missed the point. In Swamp Thing, Alan Moore humorously suggested that the people of Rann didn't really need a hero to fight monsters (although that was nice too) but required an Earthling to rejuvenate their gene pool. Rannians would make faces behind Adam's back, considering him little more than a caveman, and Strange was treated with benign kindness more than actual respect by his family. It was all in good fun, though, and while it challenged our conception of who the hero actually was, it didn't change much to his original adventure. Plus, it was very funny. The miniseries kept the revisionist view, but played it seriously. Strange was turned into a moping and ineffectual character (very unsympathetic), Rann as we knew it was destroyed and turned into a floating city, and the supporting cast was killed or driven to madness. "Let's smash all the toys we used to play with" can work as a guideline if it's meant to build something new and interesting, but in that regard the series failed completely. The Alan Moore Adam Strange was something unexpected and funny; the miniseries' Adam Strange was something we had seen numerous times and was depressing to boot.  |
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Post by MDG on Mar 11, 2019 10:52:02 GMT -5
^^^^ Wasn't this story also a springboard for the Adam Strange mini the Kuberts did a little later? I remember it incorporated many of the same ideas about Rann, but I haven't read it since the initial release. ...."Let's smash all the toys we used to play with" can work as a guideline if it's meant to build something new and interesting, but in that regard the series failed completely. The Alan Moore Adam Strange was something unexpected and funny; the miniseries' Adam Strange was something we had seen numerous times and was depressing to boot. A quick check to confirm, and yep, 1990, the same year as Twilight. I was definitely backing out of mainstream comics at that time. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 11, 2019 20:11:42 GMT -5
Swamp Thing #58 “Exiles” (March 1987) Creative Team: Writing by Alan Moore. Pencils by Rick Veitch. Ink by Alfredo Alcala. The Story: Alanna Strange shows Adam a video of his sperm on the verge of impregnating her egg, and he’s delighted, taking her on a flight into the sky. He’s less thrilled to find Swamp Thing still alive on his balcony, and then puzzled to be greeted in English. The two-part shot of Adam getting dressed is nicely contrasted with the two-part shot of Alanna attaching the camera gadget to her abdomen to record the Conception. It’s a big deal because Rann’s citizens are apparently mostly clones, infertile like their planet.  The Council of Rann accepts Swamp Thing’s no-strings offer to revitalize the plant life of Rann. This enrages the Thanagarians, who are over-eager to trade such help for Zeta-Beam tech. They attack Swamp Thing that night, immobilizing him with a sci-fi mind drill. Adam Strange rides to the rescue, ultimately killing both Thanagarians. Is this a casus belli?  Adam tells Swamp Thing about a planet of planet-people. Sounds interesting! He teleports off into space, intending that as his destination. Adam also promises to find Abby in Louisiana and tell her about Swamp Thing’s survival. Covers That Lie: Swamp Thing is shown rescuing Adam Strange, but really it was the other way around. My Two Cents: After this two-parter, does anyone not want to read an ongoing Adam Strange series by Alan Moore? Adam says that Rann’s planetwide ecological devastation was wrought centuries ago by “a tiny, limited thermonuclear war.” This was intended as a rebuke to 1980s American hawks who suggested that nuclear weapons could be safe in tactical strikes. Moore was way into parallelism in his captions and page layouts during this Watchmen era. Check out the comparison/contrast between Swamp Thing fertilizing the soil of Rann and Adam’s sperm fertilizing Alanna’s egg:  This Hawkgirl has a low opinion of the one we know on Earth. Note that the liquid animal in the pool responds to its environment, forming a rapacious snake in her presence. As she flies away, it turns into a vulture, symbolizing her intent to pick the bones from Rann. This Hawkman has no wings on his helmet; he’s not as high rank as Katar Hol. 
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Post by rberman on Mar 12, 2019 7:24:35 GMT -5
Swamp Thing #59 “Reunion” (April 1987) Creative Team: Writing by Stephen Bissette “from a plot by Bissette, Tolbeten, Moore, and Veitch.” Pencils by Rick Veitch. Ink by Alfredo Alcala. Frame Story: In Hell, Arcane’s head is the ball in a sporting event between demons. The referee demon watches a scene unfolding on earth involving Arcane’s daughter and brother…  The Story: Abby now works at an old folks’ home, and the addled residents make her think of her own father Grigori Arcane, long presumed dead. But really he was transformed into the Patchwork Man, as seen in Vol 1 #3, and now he’s wandering and decaying in a Texas bayou. Abby hears of this swamp creature and travels there, hoping to find her lover but instead finding her father. There’s time for one last embrace before he goes completely to pieces.  My Two Cents: This issue offers two surprises, one of which is none other than Bill Sienkiewicz inking John Totleben on the cover. Sienkiewicz would have been an amazing artist for this series, so I’m sorry we never got to see it happen. The second surprise is Stephen Bissette’s temporary turn in the writer’s chair. He recalls: It’s the sort of tale that can’t fail to hit home with anyone who has watched a parent fade from vitality into a mere wisp of a person, threatening to blow away in the next breeze.
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Post by rberman on Mar 12, 2019 20:27:14 GMT -5
Swamp Thing #60 “Loving the Alien” (May 1987) The Story: Swamp Thing materializes on a semi-organic female spaceship shaped like a nautilus shell. His presence is interpreted as a long-awaited fertilization attempt by another of this alien’s species. He is entrapped and dissected, his seed forcibly extracted to impregnate the nautilus-ship. Then he is released to flee into space. The ship contemplates its own demise upon the release of its brood, once they are ready to continue the circle of life.  My Two Cents: Between this issue and #58, Alan Moore must have had pregnancy on the brain. But there is no “loving” of any aliens going on in this story. It’s a tale of rape. As with the Rosewood vampire story, extra-chilling effect is had throughout by making the perpetrator the narrator – in this case, a sentient spaceship who thinks of its actions with the cold necessity of a serial killer. Stephen Bissette had a lot to say about the origin of this issue, composed in “Marvel Method” fashion, words matched to pre-existing images: It's an all-splash page issue, long before Superman suffered his Doomsday. Perhaps due to the massive volume of text and the nontraditional layouts, this issue credits Richard Bruning as “typist” rather than letterer, and the captions are rendered in an italic serif font rather than Comic Sans. 
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