If you haven’t heard of Swamp Thing, you’re not alone. He is not a character that comes to the mind of many when they are asked their favorite DC character. I’ve always had a soft spot for Swamp Thing because of a collectible minifigure game I used to love called Heroclix. Here is the Swamp Thing minifigure in all his glory!
The premise of the game was simple: both players have a team of DC heroes (they later expanded into Marvel and other IPs) and villains, and they fight one another on the field of battle! It was very successful and ran for quite a few years, and I still have my full box of minifigures in my basement! Swamp Thing was one of my favorites, and for a time, I do believe I claimed he was my favorite superhero, even though I had literally never seen him in any other form of media.
When I heard that Alan Moore (otherwise famous for Watchmen and V for Vendetta) had written one of the greatest comic book runs of all time starring my old pal Swamp Thing, I knew I had to read it. But Alan Moore picks up at issue #20 of this particular Swamp Thing run, meaning that there are 19 issues beforehand not included in his run. So I decided, what the heck? I’ll read the beginning and see where this Swamp Thing series started.
I was not disappointed.
Let me start of right off the bat by saying that Swamp Thing #1-19 by Martin Pasko is not what I would call good. As a matter of fact, it shows its age tremendously. It is… not great. But boy did I get a kick out of the zany nonsense that Pasko had to offer in this series!
Spoilers for Saga of the Swamp Thing #1-19 ahead. No spoilers for Alan Moore’s run, though, as that is what I am reading next!
It was obvious to me almost right away that DC took its gloves off for this series. The first issue introduces us to “the creature that was once Alec Holland”, a line that is used a dizzying amount of times in these 19 issues. Holland, back when he was fully human, created a biochemical formula to rapidly increase plant growth. An evil corporation tries to buy it, he says no, they blow him up, he gets covered with chemicals, jumps into the swamp and becomes a monster. As an aside, the sheer number of characters who get superpowers because they are covered with chemicals and then either electrocuted or lit on fire is astounding. Anyway, now, the creature that was once Alec Holland is a swamp man, and he feels lost in a world that rejects him.
Along his soul searching, he stumbles upon a man who has killed his wife and has a gun trained on his daughter (like I said, gloves off). The creature that was once Alec Holland (okay I’ll stop now but now you have a taste of how quickly that gets exhausting) rescues the girl (who is mute) and kills the father (albeit accidentally). What follows is a series of adventures where Swamp Thing is constantly either trying to get the girl (who he realizes is named Clancy due to a psychic impression – more on that later) to safety or trying to save her when they get separated (which happens more than once).
As things progress, we learn that Clancy has strange psychic powers, including telepathy and telekinesis. For a little while, it seems that the run will be centered around Swamp Thing and Clancy fighting dangers together, following the classic monster-like creature befriending a child.
Boy was I wrong.
As the story continues, we meet the characters who will become Swamp Thing’s companions – Liz Tremayne, a reporter, and Dennis Barclay, a doctor, as well as the main antagonist (at least at the beginning) – Harry Kay, who is trying to capture Swamp Thing and/or Clancy.
Through some strange (and inconsistent) weirdness, we learn that the Sutherland Corporation is trying to find and kill Alec Holland. Why? Good question. We’re never told, at least not throughout this run. Harry Kay is working for this organization, but we soon learn that he has other things in mind when he rescues Barclay and Liz in issue #7, lying to his bosses and telling them that the two associates of Alec Holland are dead.
Issue #9 is when things take a turn for the ludicrous. It turns out that all of the characters that have been saying Clancy is evil (including her own mother, actually) were right. We learn that her actual name is Karen Clancy, and we watch her become an adult (how? psychic powers or some such nonsense). Then, we learn that Harry Kay is actually a German Nazi scientist! In the issues to follow, Karen reveals her plan to redo the Holocaust??? I have no idea who signed off on this nonsense but it was a completely unexpected out-of-left-field twist, so it accomplished that much I guess.
Karen, who seems to be all-powerfulish? flies away to do some other stuff (take over the world I guess?) and we’re left with the group and Harry Kay, who basically says “I told you so”. When the accuse him of being a German Nazi Spy Scientist Monster Guy, he shows them that he actually was a victim of the Holocaust, and that he served as a Capo to try and do some good.
I feel like I’m ragging on this quite a bit, and while I would say that there are plenty of justifiable criticisms, I would like to point out that from here on out Harry Kay is actually a very well-done and interesting character. His mavericking in issue #7 put him on my radar, and his arc through the issues to follow was actually a standout for the series. His story was nuanced and fascinating and I always looked forward to seeing what they were going to do with him.
The insanity that is our main story continues over several issues, causing a frustrating amount of “Previously On…” bloat recapping issues that I had just read. I understand the necessity for this in some way because of the medium the comics were distributed in the 80s, but come ON! There was one issue where I feel like 1/3 of it was just recapping the plot line. The series also has a few standalone issues which always felt shoehorned into the main story – some were actually quite interesting (especially issue #16, which was possibly the best issue in the series, a story where Swamp Thing enters a town where everyone sees him as a normal person, and tease him with the ability to live a normal life).
As the story with Karen Clancy continues, we learn what exactly she is, and, I kid you not, we learn that she is the herald for the antichrist. Who, by the way, we apparently have met already (he’s some random assassin guy). Swamp Thing kills her, but she has become so strong that her essence transfers itself into Liz (oh no! anyway,) and the final battle to stop her stretches on a bit longer than it should. Finally, this plot is resolved, and Alec can move on with his life. Unfortunately, the Sutherland Corporation is still trying to kill the three of them, for some reason, so they are still on the run! (honestly, this feels like it’s just done to keep the band together and to give something for them to do). Harry Kay then says that he’s going to take them to Washington to confront the people trying to kill them, and they spend a couple issues not doing that.
In fact, as they are “headed towards Washington”, there are a few side stories that distract them (including the aforementioned #16 and an interesting story involving The Phantom Stranger that was pretty solid). This series ends with them in the process of “heading towards Washington” when Swamp Thing meets up with his old friends (from the original original Swamp Thing run that ran from 1972-1976) and his old nemesis, a man-creature named Arcane. It is here that he has his final battle under Pasko as the writer (before Moore takes over), and he kills Arcane. BUT not before Arcane kills Harry Kay!! Which was deeply upsetting for me as a reader – it happens in the last issue of this run – the only character truly important was killed off by someone who wasn’t even involved in his story!
Then Arcane dies, and the issue ends, leaving us with an incomplete storyline. #19 wraps up Pasko’s tenure as the writer for Swamp Thing, and leaves a mess for Alan Moore to clean up in Issue #20 – Loose Ends.
Overall, these 19 issues were an kind of a mess, though an entertaining one! The Superfriends-style narration that runs through a particularly dark storyline does not really fit the mood, and the events are often contrived or rely on the reader not asking too many questions (like “If Karen Clancy can randomly light people on fire why didn’t she do that… to everyone?”). The characters are all one-dimensional (except the late Harry Kay), and the plot is too insane to be truly taken seriously. But it was enjoyable to read, and now I am looking forward to Alan Moore’s run on the character, which, if the reviews are to be believed, completely changed and reinvented the character forever.
In my searching for something to link here, I found that this entire run (as well as everything from before this run) was printed in the Bronze Age Swamp Thing Omnibus, so if you’d like to read all of the pre-Moore Swamp Thing content, this is your best bet!
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Before writing this article, I actually started issue #20 (though I have not yet finished it), and it is remarkable how much better Alan Moore’s writing is. He revamps Swamp Thing’s character in 2 pages, making him more interesting by an order of magnitude, and gives every one-dimensional character depth almost immediately. The art also has dramatically improved, with panels overlapping and creative narration being complemented by pictures that tell a story symbolically. I already love Moore’s Swamp Thing, and I am going to go straight from this review to finishing this issue and continuing forward.
I’ve linked Alan Moore’s Saga of the Swamp Thing for kicks – this seems to be the best way to collect the series (there are Absolute editions, but those are insanely expensive, and this set is very reasonable).
I will be returning to review this after I finish the run! I will likely include the link in the “Related Reading” section, so check that out (if it’s there). Let me know if you’ve read any other stories this bizarre that I should read through/review, or if you have a different opinion of these issues that you’d like to share!
Here is once again the links to my DC Reading List if you’re interested in following along with me!
A Thinker in Space 
What do you think?