This short volume is the first one where I didn't feel like Moore had a good answer to "What kind of story will this be next?", and I suspect that he just had too many irons in the fire between Watchmen and Miracleman. The plot alternates between ridiculous shortcuts (Dennis is an old character we haven't seen in a long time, and Moore feels he's a pointless dick, so let's bring him back as a total maniac and immediately kill him off) and drawn-out obviousness (let's set up a big legal issue that can't possibly make sense in the DC universe, and then after lots of conflict about it, finally Batman will point out that it doesn't make sense). But there are two things here that are undeniably great: 1. Swampy's rampage through Gotham City, creating a giant Godzilla version of himself and turning the city into a jungle, which the residents decide is totally fun and a good excuse to get naked, and 2. the interstellar loneliness story "My Blue Heaven", which, besides having lots of cool Rick Veitch drawings, manages to make Abby and the other human characters feel more important by taking them away.

For more thoughts, here's a blog post (includes part of previous book). ( )

Nothing quite like this strange and imaginative series; unsurpassed writing by Moore, and unsettling art. Give a talented creative team room to explore and experiment in comic form, and this what you get... it begs the question why doesn't DC and Marvel encourage this more? ( )

I'm fully on board with this one. Total social commentary time. Sure, Swamp Thing just saved the freaking universe from the Mother of All Darkness, comes home to find that his honey has been thrown in jail for consorting with him. It's sick and unnatural, folks. She works with autistic kids. What's *wrong* with her??? Outcast, barely on bail, she runs to Gotham under a new name, gets picked up with hookers and thrown in jail and now it's a media sensation.

Now bring in the Greenie.

Greenie: Let her go!

Law: No! It's the law!

Greenie: The law is stupid, I can burst you all apart from the inside out before you can sneeze. I just want my woman.

Abs: Hey, honey, it's okay. We better not kill all of Gotham today. Let's try to work this out peacefully.

Greenie: Screw that. I'm gonna go all nonviolent on their asses and turn Gotham into a perfect Eden until they give in.

Batman: Uh, I kinda agree with Greenie, but he is acting like a terrorist. I better get my defoliant.

Greenie: You're an idiot. (Pounds Batman to shit.)

Lex Luthor: I've got an idea. Napalm.

Law: Wait, wait, I think we'd best just give him his woman. Someone just mentioned that this same law would apply to Superman, wouldn't it?

Other Law: Oh crap. We're so sorry. We didn't mean it. Sorry.

Lex Luthor: Fuck this. (Supersciencey harmonics napalm missile slams into Greenie's head. He's dead. Again.)

Everyone else: Oh, god, what have we done! We didn't mean it! Sorry.

Abs: (Looks at them all.) Gotham's full of morons.



Great story, no? Fantastic story. :) We even get more psychedelic stuff and a shift in the wavelength to Blue. Neat, huh? Oh, and Greenie is kinda a god now. This is the stuff I expected from him from the start, but only now get to see in all his glory. This is the awesome Swamp Thing I've been waiting for. :)

Yay!
( )

Som forfatter må man beundre Moores evne til både at gå nye veje og til at skrotte ideer igen, når de er slidt op. Efter en laaaaang horror-historie der sluttede med et opgør ved helvedes grænser, når han gudskelov frem til, at der er behov for at gøre noget andet. Bindet starter med mere jordnære bekymringer for Abby, og det slutter langt ude i rummet. Samtidig tager Rick Veitch over som fast tegner.

Ved historiens begyndelse er Swamp Thing stadig på vej tilbage fra underverdenen, og mens John Constantine hjælper ham på vej, må Abby indstille sig på en fremtid alene og med store problemer. Hun bliver anklaget for samvær med et ikke-menneskeligt væsen og fyret fra sit arbejde med udsatte børn. Da hun beslutter sig for at stikke af til Gotham, bliver problemerne endnu værre – først for hende og så for byen.

Swamp Thing kræver hende udleveret og nedkalder noget der ligner en bibelsk forbandelse i form af vegetation overalt. Inden længe begynder civilisationens bånd at svækkes, så menneskene, lettere euforiserede, vender tilbage til en paradisisk naturtilstand. Det fører også til en konfrontation med byens beskytter, Batman, og selv han må til sidst bøje sig for overmagten. Alligevel går det hele galt, for med sejren i hænderne bliver Swamp Thing offer for fejt forræderi og må dø endnu en død. Et par numre med fokus på Abby og genfødsel under stjernerne runder opsamlingen af.

Samlet set er bindet lidt op og ned. Konfrontationen mellem Swamp Thing og Batman er interessant nok, men mindenummeret efter hans angivelige død er overdrevent sentimentalt. The Flowers of Romance, hvor den sørgende Abby opsøges af en tidligere bekendt fanget i et undertrykkende parforhold, er blottet for overnaturlige elementer, men det gør kun historien endnu mere skræmmende. Hvor mange kvinder har ikke oplevet tilsvarende net af løgne og frygt?

Den sidste historie foregår som nævnt i rummet – det eneste sted, hvor Swamp Thing i sin kvide kunne overføre sin bevidsthed. Han bruger sine evner til at genskabe den velkendte verden, men det er kun et tomt selvbedrag. En Abby-dukke er ikke det samme som Abby, og i længden er det ikke interessant at dele sin bevidsthed i to og spille skak med sig selv. Kunstnerisk er det et gennemarbejdet nummer med en uhyre interessant billedside. Vegetationen på planeten er blå, og alle billedrammer er farvelagt i udelukkende blå nuancer.

Jeg glæder mig til at læse sidste bind af Moores Swamp Thing. Jeg tror, han har endnu en interessant begyndelse i sig, selvom det er tydeligt, at de bedste og mest originale ideer er brugt. ( )

After volume 4's battle between heaven, hell, and nothingness, where can Swamp Thing go? The answer is, of course, within. Earth to Earth sees Swamp Thing maddened enough by a trivial human matter to mimic Woodrue's nature-force anger and throw the full weight of his newfound self-understanding against Gotham City, of all places. The result is quite epic, with a tender, emotional waltz of an ending. ( )