Graphic Novel Review - Swamp Thing Earth to Earth and Reunion

It might seem a little off to review a series that was already critically acclaimed during its initial run over 20 years ago. Yet, it has only been in recent years that the entire run of Swamp Thing as written by Alan Moore has made its way into the affordable, collected edition. I've read and re-read the first two volumes (Saga of the Swamp Thing and Love and Death respectively) several times, as they have been in print for years. I've always wanted to see if the end of Alan Moore's run was as strong as the beginning, so I've made it a point to get the subsequent volumes and finally finished with vols. 5 and 6, titled Earth to Earth and Reunion, respectively.

Let's face facts. Though many superb writers and hot artists are brought into projects to breathe new life into a title, very rarely can someone maintain a consistently good quality to that work, hence why we see the new popular trend of artistic teams handling only six to twelve issue story arcs. Even then, some of those tend to not be very good! It would have been very easy for Alan Moore to 'phone in' his last issues of Swamp Thing, yet he didn't. He was coming up to around 40 issues, he had already raised the bar in terms of quality storytelling, and his dialogue and prose were second to none. He stuck with those principles. He never lost focus. In fact, these final two volumes surprised me in how much Moore used every aspect of the previous Swamp Thing mythos, as well as what he had established, to tell some intense as well as extremely sentimental, even downright romantic tales. All this, while still pushing his characters to new levels of emotion and maturity. He even manages to toss in some other established DC characters such as Batman and Adam Strange into surreal crossovers that manage to work no matter how hard you may believe they wouldn't!

It helps that Alan Moore surrounded himself on Swamp Thing with some top-notch talent. Steve Bissete, Rick Veitch and John Totleben while all superior artists individually here collectively manage to create a mood and atmosphere that complement one another rather then create competition with each other. There is eeriness to this entire run of Swamp Thing that still gives me the creeps. I'm still amazed at how many of the images these artists created almost 20 years ago disturb me more than 90% of the so-called mature themed horror titles today.

If there is a minor quibble I have with the final two volumes of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, is that in one instance Moore repeats a couple themes, and in another he tries to outdo himself in what he has already done. For instance, the chapter "Loving the Alien" is an excellent way to show how far the comics medium can be pushed in graphics storytelling. At the same time though, it seems to disrupt the overall flow to the rest of the arc in the way it looks and reads. It's has if Moore wanted to push the boundaries. A laudable effort, but perhaps this wasn't the time or place.

Another instance though, we find Alan Moore almost re-doing his conjugal-communion-vegetable sequence from the "Rites of Spring" issue. Granted, Swamp Thing and Abby had been reunited and this is something they as a couple would do, yet for the reader it was visiting territory we had already treaded and seemed unnecessary.

These are minor quibbles though. All things said and done, Alan Moore truly had a groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing, and each of the six volumes comprising it hold fantastic visuals and dialogue, even as the series winded down. It is a lynchpin in the DC/Vertigo line and a founder of the entire mature, sophisticated approach to comics.

It's an amazing piece of storytelling and, with the exception of Watchmen, may be my favorite work of Alan Moore's. Even the so-called 'ground already covered' I hint at are miles above what anybody else had accomplished, and as a body of work as a whole, his run on Swamp Thing should be required reading for comic fans.