An interesting look at Swamp Thing as he comes to terms with his life and the people he has left behind in his former life. It also deals with a few other issues and adventures and was quite interesting. In this day and age an ecological hero is an interesting story and it's good to see that they were already dealing with some of the issues (Greenhouse effect does get a lookin).

I really should read more in this series. ( )

Such a great collection! The art is amazing & the story is wonderful! ( )

Oh, [a: Alan Moore|3961|Alan Moore|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1304944713p2/3961.jpg]. You're so ridiculously good, and even this early on in your career your work remains downright exemplary. There's something beautiful about a person taking established characters and casting them in a light both so familiar and yet so different as to alter your entire perspective. Here's Cain and Abel, Deadman, The Stranger, and Spectre; here's everything you know about Swamp Thing changed to the point that he is Earth's Elemental, a Gaurdien in the word's of Pog(o) the (Intergalatic O)possum in a beautiful tribute. It's gorgeous.

Swamp Thing was to Alan Moore what [b: Animal Man|768938|Animal Man, Vol. 1|Grant Morrison|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1308882182s/768938.jpg|1414840] was to [a: Grant Morrison|12732|Grant Morrison|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1311378308p2/12732.jpg]. This was a chance to create something utterly new and yet so familiar to the human experience and worldwide mythos that it rings true even as we read it. He didn't so much create a new story as he did access the cycle that Abel offered up in the House of Secrets. The secret is, as always, that there is nothing new under the sun... but seeing that, and accessing those eternal stories, is never really that easy a thing.

Here we see the plant, our very animus mundi, enter into Hell to rescue a single flower. We learn that Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory are infinite aspects of a God so vast we can barely make sense of... Her? Him? It all gets foggy and we barely remember once we get free. We just know the sacrifice is there and is always what is important. There is always a choice. Knowing how to choose rightly is often the problem.. ( )

Fantastic, like the first volume. Moore never seems to run out of brilliance.

There is one dud of a story here, "Abandoned Houses". But don't blame Moore - this one was written by the original Swamp Thing co-creator
Len Wein. Luckily, the story is bookended with two great ones by Moore. ( )

And this is where a series that started very good turns into a great one. Just like the first volume, it contains 8 issues (7 regular one + the annual). This volume also contains two introductions - one by Jamie Delano (and it is a good one and it is worth reading) and one by Neil Gaiman (which is absolutely mandatory for anyone that is reading the volume - and if you are not very well versed in the DC worlds, better read it before you read the comics. Even if you think you know comics - still read it before you read the last 3 issues in this volume).

The first 5 issues (28-31 and Annual 2) form a continuous story. Issue 28 is almost a standalone but it comes into play in the Annual so I will just attach it to the story. It's a mulch-layered story, deep into the roots of the Swamp thing - with Matt's accident from earlier finally coming to a head, Arcane coming back and Swamp Thing racing against the world and time to try to save what he most cherishes. The story finishes in the Annual and with it being longer than usual and more creative, it ties the story deep into the DC continuity - Deadman, Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, Etrigan - they all make their appearances and fight the same fight that Swamp Thing is. Add to this the glimpse of Monitor (the Crisis is looming at DC at the time), Arhkam and the history of hell (including a chilly explanation about who built it), the return of bad people (very bad people) and the story is tying up. I loved it - it is an example of why monthly comics cannot just write a separate story each month and how good a continuous storytelling can be even in the middle of a monthly title and in a continuity like DC.

But as much as this was a great story, the other 3 issues here, each telling its own story make this volume memorable.

Issue 32 ("Pog") at first does not make much sense and seems a little off - it almost feels as a steep downhill from the previous story. Until you remember (or get reminded or told by Gaiman - I told you to read that introduction) that before the Swamp Thing ever showed in the swamp, we had Pogo Possum. The art here is not from the regular team but by Shawn McManus (thus the difference in style) and the tribute to the great Walt Kelly was born. But Moore did not stop here - the aliens (because this is what Pog is here) speak English but in a way that only someone that had learned words from a dictionary would - inventing words that are understandable but incorrect - using words with a similar meaning in conjunction with word build that contains pieces that cannot go together. Such as "But I am not entire resured I can reconnect how to do it now". A translation is unnecessary. The story itself is a wink to space travel, aliens and Pogo and is funny (and not much is funny in the world of the Swamp Thing.

Issue 33 is another homage - this time staying in DC. The issue that was supposed to be only reprints suddenly got itself some new material - as a framing story to the reprinting story - in the way that early comics were framed - with a host to present and introduce and so on. We even get two hosts - Cain and Abel - from the defunct at that point The House of Mystery and The House of Secrets comics. The names were never tied to the biblical namesakes through the run of the original comics (as long as I know) but that is Moore - of course he will do that as well. And the story they were framing? The first appearance of the Swamp Thing of course - from The House of Secrets in 1971. And as with the previous story, a warning for the looming crisis is uttered... However - the issue's framing story is not just a gimmick to make a homage or to make the reprint more palatable. Moore uses it to tie the Swamp Thing to the elemental magic that he possesses (and that we got to see a few times already) but mainly to make it different from just being Alec Holland's incident and a coincidence - making it a part of a continuity that can be explored later.

And then comes issue 34. The Swamp Thing is nominally a horror story. But even in horror, there is love. And our Swamp Thing is in love (if you did not see that, you were not really paying attention until now). It is spring, the world is love, it is the 80s, everyone is grown up and sex is on the table. Except our guy is a plant and misses some important organs... What follows is a hallucination, allowing the woman of his life to see the world through his eyes. It had been called vegetable sex and that applies I guess. It is a sweet piece, a love story without any elements of evil, horror or anything worse. The art work is from the standard guys (Totleben and Bissette) but it is light and full of optimism (something that they cannot do in the regular series) and that story more than any other shows what comics can do with going away from the panels structure and using the medium to its advantage. Apparently that issue is considered one of the best in the series - Gaiman mentions it and I've read that before) and the art is one of the best and the story is imaginative and different - but I suspect that someone reading it today and expecting the usual darkness of the series may not like it as much. But then - it actually fits. In the darkest moments, there must be a light and these last issue is exactly that (last 3 really - although for different reasons). ( )