Tag Archives: John Totleben

While I love this issue–the way Moore tells the reader the ending is going to be awful, then still manages to make it even worse (without a drop of blood), is awesome–the cover does imply something else entirely. The cover implies, between the banner and the superheroes, a Crisis tie-in.

And I suppose Moore does deliver to some extent. He does send Constantine and Swamp Thing off into regular DC superhero land where they get a mission for helping save the world. But their mission really has nothing to do with Crisis. It’s too disturbing to be mainstream; Moore thoroughly grounds it in reality.

In many ways, even though the issue shows how Swamp Thing doesn’t fit with superheroes, it shows how Moore can make anything work. He brings horror to comedy and vice versa.

It’s excellent work from Moore, Bissette and Totleben… even if it’s superfluous.

In a strange but significant way, Moore cops outs with this issue. He concludes his possessed slave descendants story without examining any other the racial elements he brought up in the previous issue. Instead, he conveniently brings in some zombies, some hallucinations and Swamp Thing… everything ends very nicely.

Actually, it ends nicely for zombies too. It’s Alan Moore ending on a joke. It’s a creepy one… but still a joke.

What’s so inexplicable is that shift in tone. Moore set this story up to be serious and, instead, it’s a little episode in the life of Swamp Thing and Abby. Nothing to fret over.

But here’s another interesting detail… it’s utterly fantastic. Moore’s mix of horror and action works great, as does the artwork. Bissette and Totleben bring their disquieting but digestible horror art.

It’s a great issue. But it’s not special, which Moore previously implied it would be.

This issue’s kind of a downer-in-one. Bissette and Totleben are back at full strength and do a great job. The story concerns a housewife whose lycanthropy manifests itself (seemingly for the first time) while Swamp Thing’s in town for a visit. Moore juxtaposes the woman’s problems against the history of a local Native American tribe and the sufferings of that tribe’s women.

Bissette and Totleben have the task of mixing both those elements with the visiting Swamp Thing.

Strangely, it’s not exactly a visual feast–the art isn’t exuberant as much as measured. They’re carefully telling this story and they do a great job of it.

But Moore’s also moving his Constantine story along here too, but behind the scenes. There’s only a page of Constantine and he’s only briefly mentioned before. Alec and Abby briefly talk about him.

It’s a great issue. Moore’s flexing his narrative muscles.

Something strange happens with the art this issue. It’s Bissette and Totleben, but one or both of them is darned lazy. While there’s some great Swamp Thing art, all the human characters are hurried. And the amazing Swamp Thing as landscape (first time ever) is far less amazing than I’d expect from the artists.

That unfortunate condition aside, it’s a good issue. Moore toggles between three narrators–victims, vampires and Swampy–and it all works well. Swamp Thing versus underwater vampires, with Swampy learning how to flex the plant elemental muscles.

Moore even makes the vampires sympathetic, though the vampire baby isn’t cute at all.

The comic’s definitely missing something with Abby gone, but it’s also a really short issue. Moore’s plot is a gradual and expansive, but it’s still an all action issue. It’s not rushed though.

It’s just too bad the artists were having their only weak issue.

Not a happy comic, not at all. Moore plays with having multiple points of view, fragmenting the story’s timeline to give everyone a chance at a surprising moment. He opens with Swamp Thing, who doesn’t really have a story this issue. Moore’s showing his mastery; he turns what should be a filler issue into an essential one. He focuses on Abby toward the end, which reveals the most.

It’s clear Moore’s real protagonist is Abby at this point, maybe because she has to be. Moore never gives Swamp Thing as good of moments. For example, there’s a short line here about Abby living in Houma during the week and in the swamp with Alec on weekends. It’s fantastical but wholly domestic.

That one nice moment is amid all the awfulness of the rest. Moore also establishes the series isn’t going to have easy fixes, even with the new, lesser antagonists.

The truly nightmarish quality of Moore’s Swamp Thing shows itself here in his ability to gradually peel back the layers of a small incident.

Moore frames this story around a collection of newspaper headlines (about nuclear power and, more importantly, nuclear waste) and a guy addicted to it. To nuclear waste. It’s really gross, but it takes Moore about half the issue before he lets Bissette and Totleben show the full effect.

The result is an uncomfortable reading experience. It’s not the worst thing Moore could focus on–he’s touched on worse in previous issues–but when the artists take so long to fully reveal… well, imagination gets the better of the reader.

The issue consists of a few contemporaneous conversations; its present action is mostly just Swamp Thing going for a walk.

Moore needs to get the exposition out of the way. Layering is a great device for it.