At long last, it’s here. Decades after Rick Veitch’s 1980s run on Swamp Thing was cut short by editorial disagreements, we’ve finally seen the intended ending, completed and in full.
I’m going to try to remain SPOILER free discussing this, though I may dance around specific bits. It may be best if you read your comic first.
…
Finished? Good.
I’ve noted before that, when this whole hoohar came to pass in the late ’80s and Veitch departed the book, he offered up brief synopses of the final four issues that were printed in the Comic Buyer’s Guide trade paper. I had owned a copy of this at one time, but discarded it long ago for reasons I can’t comprehend now (given the piles of ‘zines and mags I still have) but I did read that article at the time. As such, I have vague memories of how things were supposed to have played out, at least in the final issue.
Specifically, that Veitch had a specific name in mind for Swamp Thing and Abby’s child, but did not reveal it in that article. Also, that Swamp Thing’s encounter with Jesus would have given him an advantage in his final conflict with Arcane.
As such, it was…very weird to see things finally play out on a printed page, panel by panel, witnessing for myself what was meant by those brief descriptions I read so long ago. As I’m trying to remain spoiler-free here, I won’t detail specifically what I am possibly misremembering about that conflict with Arcane and how it plays out, which I may be conflating with Arcane’s treatment in the latter part of the Mark Millar run.
Also, as to the child…I’m so used to the character of Tefe being the Official Kid of Swampy and Abby, that it’s strange to get an entirely different character here. And Veitch did not disappoint with the name, giving us the perfect, and perfectly ambiguous, sobriquet.
Given how deep into the DC Universe weeds Veitch got with his stories, especially in this final run of issues, it’s not surprising that it all plays into the resolution of the series. It does leave me with more questions, that I’ll be bringing up in a later post about this mini-series that isn’t coming out the day of the last issue’s release. In particular, if this was the original intended ending of the story back in 1989, how exactly was any new creative team supposed to follow up on that? I mean, yes, on one hand Veitch was a polite host and left the toys intact for the next folks to play with. But on the other hand, the memory (at least for the reader, if not the characters in-universe) would always float over the new works.
But that’s all a moot point, I suppose, since DC Continuity went in one direction, and as a Black Label book, this Swamp Thing 1989 series is essentially one of Marvel’s What If stories, but with 100% less “and the Fantastic Four never came to be” within. To be fair, I’m not completely certain what Swamp Thing’s current backstory is in the DC Universe…revisions in the New 52 relaunch were confusing, to say the least, and I’m not sure if the “Rebirth” initiative forced everything back into place. Look, if we need a Swamp Thing: Year One story to straighten things out, I volunteer. Well, “volunteer” in a way that I get a paycheck.
In an odd way, the Veitch conclusion to the story could, if you squint here and apply some paint there, still allow for how things did play out in the Swamp Thing title after Veitch left. I suppose I coould try to explain how that would work, but I need to save something for my Swamp Thing: Year Eleven series, sure to come after the success of the first ten.
But overall…I’m glad this all saw the light of day, and that I was still around to read it. Veitch is a master Swamper, it goes without saying, and the art from the late Michael Zulli, Vince Locke, and Tom Mandrake was all beautiful and ideal for the project. Todd Klein’s spot-on mimicry of John Constanza’s lettering was vastly appreciated, as was the expert and appropriately-applied coloring of Trish Mulvihill. The backmatter from Veitch, Klein, and that real barnburner from Steve Bissette gave us wonderful insight into what this series was and what went into making it happen (and almost not happen). And of course, I can’t forget close personal friend Rich Handley, and his delightful text pieces inside each front cover, giving us the proper context for what we’re reading.
Seems like only yesterday we were wondering about these weird unknown comics showing up in a listing for an upcoming Swamp Thing trade paperback. Still wondering about New Titans #0‘s inclusion, though. Any answers for me there, Rich?
So this was originally going to be “Vertigo” but ended up being “Black Label”? I find myself mystified as to how DC uses it’s various imprints. (And got rid of Vertigo for a couple of years only to bring it back.)
Vertigo is currently all creator owned “mature reader” comics. Black Label is for DCU characters being featured in non-continuity “mature reader” stories.
Originally, DC’s editor-in-chief decided to merge their mature readers comics into the new “Black Label” imprint, cancelling the failing in sales by that point Vertigo. However, creator owned comics were quickly phased out after “Black Label” launched, so Jim Lee announced DC would bring back Vertigo to start publishing creator owned mature readers comics again.
This Swamp Thing story actually would have originally been under the DC umbrella, although rated for “mature readers”, as the Vertigo imprint did not yet exist when Veitch was writing the title. Swamp Thing did not become published by Vertigo until issue #129 in 1993 when Vertigo was first launched.
I just read the comic, and quite enjoyed it. I’ll wait until the Spoiler-filled post to talk about details, but I will say that seeing what Tom Mandrake drew in the splash-page near the climax made me very happy.
Are these covers by Rick Veitch new? It’s been a while since I’ve seen anything by him, but I don’t remember his work being this well-designed. Each cover for this Black Label mini has been really eye-catching. I’m sure the excellent coloring helps.
As someone who never read the complete Swamp Thing, I am curious as to what opinions are on the post-Veitch issues of Swamp Thing, Volume 2. How are the Doug Wheeler, Andrew Helfer, Nancy A. Collins, Dick Foreman, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar runs compared to the classic Alan Moore and Rick Veitch runs?
The series definitely goes downhill after Veitch leaves.
Some people hate the Doug Wheeler run with a passion. I think it was simply very average. Now, the Nancy A. Collins run was the one I hated. Swamp Thing cheats on Abbie with Miss Swamp Thing. Abbie becomes a lesbian and leaves Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing turns into an early-‘90s character, growing spikes. The worst written version of John Constantine. Just awful.
Andy Helfer and Dick Foreman only wrote one fill-in issue apiece.
The Grant Morrison (co-written with Millar) story-arc is worth reading. It’s only four issues though. It’s the best the book gets post-Veitch.
The Mark Millar run is hit or miss. It’s not as uninspired as Wheeler or terrible as Collins. It has moments when it is quite good, including what I found to be a very strong ending to the series (and what was meant to be a proper ending for the character at that time). There is also some of the usual annoying Millar tendencies sprinkling amongst the wheat though. It wasn’t as bad as Millar would get as his career progressed though.
So, skip to the Morrison issues and keep reading Millar’s run if you want.
I’M CHALK!
and amber?
@Chris V
Thanks for letting me know your take on the other Swamp Thing writers. I wasn’t familiar with Doug Wheeler or Nancy A. Collins, but looked up other things they had written. It looks like Wheeler wrote some Alien Encounters stories for Eclipse Comics, some stuff for Negative Burn, Dark Horse Presents, etc , and then basically returned to his career in computer analysis after his Swamp Thing run. And guess Nancy A. Collins is mostly know for her vampire and horror novels.
All of this makes me curious if there are any interviews out there where Len Wein or Bernie Wrightson ever expressed any opinions on the direction that Swamp Thing eventually went? If I recall correctly, Wein recruited Alan Moore to write Swamp Thing after Martin Pasko left (or was let go?) from writing it. I think Wein was the editor at that time, so I would assume he was on board with where Moore took the comic, and probably where Veitch took it as well. But after that, I wonder what Wein thought? For that matter, I wonder what Wein’s take was on Swamp Thing, Volume 1, nos. 14 -24 with the David Michelinie, Gerry Conway, and David Anthony Kraft scripts. Were they following any plot points he had laid out in advance, or did they just do their own thing? Also, Did Bernie Wrightson ever drawn Swamp Thing again after issue 10? Did he create new cover art for some of those Swamp Thing reprint comics? Also, it would have been interesting if Steve Gerber had been given an opportunity to write a Swamp Thing run.
What is your take on Swamp Thing, Volume 3, by Brian K. Vaughan? It looks like this is basically about Tefe Holland–does the original Swamp Thing appear in it at all? Does Tefe have the ability to transmute into a muck monster, it is she basically an Avatar of the Green who just presents as a normal looking human a la her mother Abby Arcane?
And is Swamp Thing, Volume 4, by Andy Diggle, Will Pfeifer, Joshua Dysart, any good?
I did buy the Scott Snyder–and some of the Charles Soule–issues from the New 52 run, but I wasn’t that impressed. It felt like a lot of rehasing was happening, and, since I hadn’t read a Swamp Thing story since the late ’80s, I was wondering why he was able to sport wings and grow antlers and fly around and do a lot of seemingly goofy stuff? But, my feeling is that the New 52 era of DC was largely goofy and ill-conceived.
Probably, if anything, I should get around to reading the Len Wein Swamp Thing limited series from 2016. I guess that harkens back closer to classic Bronze Age Swamp Thing goodness.
The Brian K. Vaughan Swamp Thing is decent and worth a read, but yeah, it’s the Tefe series. Swamp Thing makes some appearances, as does John Constantine, but Tefe is the star and protagonist of the series. No, Tefe appears as a normal teenage girl with vast Elemental powers. The series is about her coming to terms with her human side and learning to see the value in life other than plant life. She also has a lot of anger issues at her (non-biological) father, Swamp Thing.
I barely remember Swamp Thing vol. 4. I don’t remember is being worth reading. I dropped the book before Joshua Dysart took over. I seem to remember Andy Diggle only writing the first five issues. If I remember correctly, he did sort of take the character back-to-basics, trying to write a story more like the original Len Wein run and sort of ignoring everything that came after Wein. Well, no, looking into it, it seems that Tefe does appear in Diggle’s arc, so yeah, Swamp Thing vol. 4 seems pretty forgettable.
Yeah, my rule for the “New 52” is, unless it is Morrison’s Action Comics or Jeff Lemire’s Animal Man, everything else is best forgotten.