swamp thing

So sources tell me (and by “sources” I mean “Google alerts”) that as part of this coming DC Comics relaunch hoohar, we may be getting a new Swamp Thing series. Which I suppose makes sense, since DC just put all that effort into bringing the character back into their superhero-universe fold. I’m writing this on Sunday evening, so I’m about half-sure when I wake up in the morning there’ll be plenty of info on the series then, but as of now all I know about it is this swank Yanick Paquette cover:

…which has been popping up on message boards and sites here and there keeping track of all the announcements of new DC titles.

Speaking of Swamp Thing, as I so rarely do, here is an interview with Jonathan Vankin, who, aside from not being my secret penname, is the writer of the Search for Swamp Thing mini-series. Now, I haven’t been keeping up on every single bit of Swampy news spoken by every DC Comics representative, because I have to get my usual two hours of sleep a day sometime, but there is a clarification or three regarding the exact nature of the relationship between the Vertigo versions of Swamp Thing and John Constantine. Judging by the visual cues, at least with Constantine as I mentioned at the end of this post, it’s no surprise, but it’s nice to see someone confirm it.

In other Swamp Thing news, apparently he’s going to pop up in the DC Universe Online game as part of a special player event, where he is in battle with Batman villain Poison Ivy. I guess players’ hero characters will be fighting alongside Swamp Thing, while villain players will be on Ivy’s side. Or something like that. I don’t get these crazy “video games” all you kids are into.

And before you (yes, you, you know who you are) ask, I still don’t know what the variant covers look like for Search for Swamp Thing #2 and #3. Soon as I know, they’ll be up here, I promise!

Well, Green Arrow #12 is out, and its year-long kinda-sorta ties to the Swamp Thing milieu are at an end, it appears. And thankfully, at least this time the variant cover didn’t also feature Swamp Thing, because good gravy they’ve got me double-dipping on enough books as it is. I’m already buying two copies each of the Search for Swamp Thing mini-series because I’m, you know, stupid. But as I am occasionally reminded by friends and / or coworkers who think they’re helping, at least DC doesn’t do “[Character] Appreciation Months,” where every variant cover for every title features, like, Wolverine or Thor or whoever else has a movie coming out soon, even if that character doesn’t appear in said comic. That’d be fantastic, trying to track down some 1/200 Swamp Thing Appreciation Month Sketch Variant Retailer Incentive Cover for Gotham City Sirens or something.

But perhaps I digress.

Anyway, I was wrong and yet, sorta right, when someone asked if Green Arrow #12 would be Swamp Thing’s third funnybook appearance this year. I said “no,” since it was my thought they didn’t want to mess with the character between the cliffhanger ending of Brightest Day #24 and the resolution of same in the forthcoming Search for Swamp Thing mini. And they way I’m sorta right is that [ahem…SPOILER ALERT, I guess] this isn’t really “the next appearance of Swamp Thing after the events of Brightest Day” as much as “here is what Green Arrow was up to while the events of Brightest Day #24 were goin’ down,” and we get to see that White Lantern Swampy Versus Black Lantern Swampy battle from a different angle. In case you missed any important details the first time around.

By the way, this issue of Green Arrow has already sold a lot better than other recent issues, and in my own entirely unbiased opinion, it’s because they put Swamp Thing on the cover. So, you know, maybe the possibility of a sales-boosting Swamp Thing Just on The Variant Cover And Not Inside The Book Appreciation Month isn’t that farfetched.*
 
 
 
 
 

* Yes, it is that farfetched. I’m not entirely delusional.

So there’s this plot point in Swamp Thing #13 (Nov-Dec 1974), by Len Wein and Nestor Redondo, that I’ve been pondering for years. Briefly: Matt Cable is trying to smuggle Swamp Thing out of Washington D.C., and if you’re wondering why I have this sequence from a funeral for a professional colleague of Cable’s presented below:

…it’s because Cable’s cunning plan is to sneak Swampy out by — well, I’ll let Mr. S. Thing relate the details to you:

And…well, I’ve never been a pallbearer, but I suspect an extra — hold on, lemme check the Swamp Thing entry in my looseleaf Who’s Who in the DC Universe — 350 pounds might have been noticed. I suppose it’s possible that perhaps the pallbearers in question thought it may have been somewhat rude to note how heavy the coffin was, given that the deceased in question, Professor Degrez, was shown to be a bit on the stout side. Or maybe they had a dozen or so pallbearers squeezed around the coffin, dividing up the load and making it a little more manageable. Or maybe they assumed that was some heavy damn wood used to make the coffin. Who knows.

And then there’s the question of Swamp Thing fitting into the “false bottom.” That looks like a relatively normal-sized coffin, maybe just slightly taller than usual. But even so, Swamp Thing is a pretty big dude. Assuming they had an open-coffin funeral (and there’s no reason to suppose not, as Degrez’s death came from being shot in the torso, not in the face), the deceased’s body would probably be, um, riding awfully high inside the box, there, with his nose scraping the inside of the lid once they closed it.

But perhaps there’s an out here, too, giving that Swamp Thing is, after all, a big ol’ mossy plant creature. He’s usually depicted as being pretty solid, but maybe he’s got some measure of give. In other words, maybe Cable an’ pals were able to kinda squish Swampy down a bit to make him a little flatter and take up less room beneath the false bottom.

And then there’s the whole “digging himself out of the grave” business. Swamp Thing could have dug downwards, I suppose, through the bottom of the coffin, then up and around the side to freedom, somehow pushing dirt up behind him to keep Degrez’s body from falling into the hole with him (unless, of course, the false bottom was secure enough to hold the body’s weight without Swamp Thing’s support beneath it).

That seems like a lot of extra work for Swamp Thing, but I’d rather think he did this than simply going straight up, digging past and pushing aside Degrez’s corpse to make his way to the surface. And let’s face it…it’s dark down there, and with dirt and rocks and whatnot falling down into his face, and probably given that Swamp Thing’s body doesn’t seem like it’d be the most tactile-sensitive, and would have difficulty discerning in all the confusion what’s a root, or a slat of wood, or, um, an arm. What I’m saying is that there might not have been much left intact of Degrez if Swamp Thing had opted for the straight-up approach to his escape.

He does say that he dug through “six feet of dirt,” which sort of implies a straight shot from the bottom of the grave to the surface. However, it could simply be a generalization referring to the traditional “six feet under” depth at which people are buried, and not an exact measurement of distance, since the down-and-around escape would add extra footage he’d have to traverse to reach the surface, and oh dear God I’m stopping this post right now.

…but in my discussion about those Search for Swamp Thing preview pages, I somehow overlooked a big alteration to the previously-run cover image for the first issue. Pal Dorian pointed out to me yesterday that where the image had previously shown Zatanna before:

…the image accompanying the preview now shows Hawkman:

In my post about Brightest Day #24, I said I was all for any Hawkman vs. Swamp Thing action, if only to follow up on the mostly unrealized promise of this next issue blurb from Swamp Thing #24 (1976), the last issue of that series:

Actually, I hope they keep changing the ad. Maybe one of the Blackhawks can be in Hawkman’s place next time.

So you had more questions in response to my answers to your previous questions, and I’ll get to that in a moment, but first…

…hey, there are preview pages for the first issue of Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing in the back of this week’s DC Comics! It’s only three pages, and Swamp Thing himself doesn’t appear (or directly appear) in them. Mostly it’s John Constantine, wondering what the deal was with Swamp Thing killing all those industrialists at the end of Brightest Day #24 and clearly something isn’t right with that (you see, I told you). Also, there’s a specific reference to a Vertigo-era storyline, so the DCU Swamp Thing and the Vertigo Swamp Thing seem to be sharing the same continuity, at least to some extent (as opposed to the Marvel Universe and Max Punishers, which are mostly distinct). I was wondering how DC was going to address that.

Anyway, what little I’ve seen of this comic looks okay…though, admittedly, I’m not the most unbiased person when it comes to Swamp Thing comics, since that is my specific fanboy trigger. Tim O’Neil once asked me on the Twitter “which is better – no new Swamp Thing comics or new and mediocre Swamp Thing comics?” and I honestly don’t know the answer. I mean, I’m not a complete chowderhead…I know the difference between a good Swamp Thing comic and a bad Swamp Thing comic, and the difference between a good Swamp Thing movie and a…okay, there’s no such thing as a bad Swamp Thing movie, but you get the idea. But I can apparently wring enjoyment even out of the lesser Swamp Thing comics while still appreciating the heights of the really good Swamp Thing comics, simply because I am such a fan of the character. I endure the lows, enjoy the highs, just to follow the ongoing saga.

Of course, I don’t think I’ve ever read a really, really bad Swamp Thing comic, one where I couldn’t enjoy it in the slightest…even the comic I linked above as a “bad” example was still interesting, if disappointing. Again, however, that’s probably my own bias talking. Even the last two issues of the original series, the generally reviled “superhero” issues, hold a fascination for me, a combination of interest in the publishing decisions made to keep a faltering property going, along with a simple nostalgic pleasure of reading this strange new twist in the Swamp Thing storyline.

That doesn’t really answer O’Neil’s question, aside from demonstrating the pattern that I will happily read any Swamp Thing comic, regardless of quality. On the other hand, I think the brief publishing break for the character was a good idea, as the multiple Vertigo series attempted to out-Vertigo each other and it seemed like that particular “mature audiences” version of Swamp Thing had pretty much played itself out. Bringing Swamp Thing back to the DC Universe may very well result in mediocre stories, but the simple novelty of having the character interacting with superheroes again is enough to keep my attention, even if only to see what publishing decisions are made to keep a faltering property going.

[FANBOY MODE ON] Plus I totally get to see Swamp Thing do stuff and fight guys! [FANBOY MODE OFF]

• • •
At long last…to your questions!

Anonymous asks

“Will next week’s Green Arrow #12 feature Swamp Thing’s third Brightest Day appearance, after B.D. #23-24?”

I haven’t the foggiest. I’m guessing “no,” if only because it looks like there’s a straight line from the storyline hints dropped in Brightest Day #24 to the Search for Swamp Thing #1, and a detour for Swampy into Green Arrow would likely require addressing certain plot points that belong in the Search series. But who knows?

Patrick asks

“And how can you talk about Video Comics and not bring up Space Cabbie, Ultra, Space Ranger and Cryll, and the Three Mouseketeers?”

I almost mentioned the Three Mouseketeers, but couldn’t entirely remember if they had been on there. And now that you mention it, I do remember most of the rest…particular Ultra the Multi-Alien, as that was where I was introduced to that character, too!

~P~ doesn’t have a question so much as some links to his own discussions of entries into various fandoms, so if you liked what I was writing about yesterday, find ~P~’s links right here.

T.F. wonders

“Do you have the awesome 90s cartoon swamp playset? I frequently ‘tubbed’ with it as a lad.”

Sadly, I did not get the ’90s Swamp Thing cartoon playsets, which is totally stupid because I remember seeing them on the shelves at closeout prices and thinking “should I buy those…? Nah, I don’t really have the room, and I’m sure all those blog readers I’ll have twenty years from now will understand.”

I want them now, though. Stupid 20-years-ago me! I hate that guy!

Pal Casie, the swell gal who gifted me with this awesome Swampy ornament, asks

“Do you have a Swamp Thing shrine area, or is it just sprinkled around your whole house? I’d like to imagine both.”

No, not really a shrine as such. We have a toy room, of sorts, which…okay, frankly, we’re still kind of working on it, but the girlfriend has her ten thousand Spider-Man toys to eventually be put on display, and I have some of my Swamp Thing figures up in there too, plus miscellaneous other toys and action figures that will someday be unpacked from the moving boxes shoved into the closet way back when and we never seem to get around to reopening.

And we have a big ol’ wood ‘n’ glass cabinet in the dining room area, which is where my two Swamp Thing statues and my Uncle Scrooge McDuck statue live.

Somewhere, hopefully, either in my parents’ garage, or perhaps in some cranny somewhere in my own home, there is a large cardboard “SWAMP THING TOY HEADQUARTERS” sign given to me by a customer who once worked for a retail toy chain, and was produced by the manufacturer of the ’90s Swamp Thing toy line for display in one of those freestanding metal frame poster-sign thingies. No idea what happened to it, and I’m half-afraid it got lost in a move, but I still hold out hope it’ll turn up someday. Because if it does, it’s totally getting nailed to the front door.