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alibi_shopSwamp Thing #160-171 (1995-96)
Written by Mark Millar
Art: Phil Hester/Kim DeMulder, except #165 by Curt Swan/DeMulder
Unlike some of the previous writers, Millar gets to finish off the big story arc that he and Grant Morrison had planned before he leaves. Was it worth it? I'm really not sure.
There's a long plot detour where Swamp Thing has to stop an invasion from another reality, which turns out to be another variation on the well-worn premise of "that fantasy world you used to visit was created from your own imagination" (but with the odd decision to never actually show that world). After a whole lot of people are killed off in horrible ways (though there are also a couple of nicer fantasy vignettes), it's easily resolved and reframed unconvincingly as just another test Swampy had to undergo to get his next set of elemental powers.
We then skip a year and find that Swampy is now basically a god (more than he already was) and he's become unknowable and uncaring* and he wants to destroy the world, because that's what the elements of earth, water, air, and fire (and plants) really want for some reason—sometimes Millar says the idea is just to wipe out the human race for its sins, but other times it's about stripping the planet down to nothing and starting over, so I don't know why the Parliament of Trees would want that, but OK. He's become just another destroy-the-world-to-save-it villain, with barely any connection to the character we knew; we never see him go through this change, it's just how he is now.
While the title character becomes less interesting as he gets more powerful, the rest of the cast gets to shine a little more: Abby, Chester, and Liz show up and are pretty well written*, Jason Woodrue returns and is kind of great (especially compared to the last time we saw him, in the Doug Wheeler days, when he was a babbling fool)—and in the weirdest cameo of all, Arcane returns (AGAIN, BUT:) as a good guy! It seems that the benevolent priest who was randomly shanghaied to hell a while back (the theology of this series has always been weird, but, what?)** was allowed to preach there and so Arcane was converted and now he's nice. This is absurdly thrown in out of nowhere, but I have to say I'm so sick of Arcane's usual shtick that I would enjoy virtually any major change: turn him into an accountant, a pineapple, anything.
There's also a bunch of retconning that I'm less happy about. Constantine and other occult characters turn out to have always been part of an ancient war between two Masonic lodges; I kind of feel like an important part of Constantine's character is that he wasn't ever part of an organized power structure, but apparently Millar was really into Freemasonry, go figure. Tefé's origin turns out to be entirely false, she's just another agent of the powers that be, and then she's destroyed. Lady Jane is killed offscreen. There's really not much left from any previous iteration of the comic.
Swamp Thing ends up not destroying the world, because he suddenly rediscovers human feelings. And instead of Tefé being a messiah who might redeem humanity, now there's... a different magic child who might redeem humanity, if future writers decide to pick up that plot, which I'm guessing they won't. Also the world has been redeemed anyway, potentially, in one of those "everything's better now, but subtly, so we don't have to justify why it looks the same" ways. It's not the worst or most arbitrary end of a world-in-peril story I've ever read, but it's not great. Like Millar's run as a whole, there are some good ideas here and even some good writing, hampered by a lot of empty flourishes and cliché.
And that's the end of Swamp Thing for the next four years. Apparently it wasn't selling well—so if they bring it back, maybe it'll be revamped yet again in the image of whatever the kids are into these days. Or maybe by the futuristic year 2000, swamps will be cool again.
Most creative exclamations: 1. "Sweet Jeez!" 2. "WUHH?"
Next: Vaughan's teen years
Written by Mark Millar
Art: Phil Hester/Kim DeMulder, except #165 by Curt Swan/DeMulder
Unlike some of the previous writers, Millar gets to finish off the big story arc that he and Grant Morrison had planned before he leaves. Was it worth it? I'm really not sure.
There's a long plot detour where Swamp Thing has to stop an invasion from another reality, which turns out to be another variation on the well-worn premise of "that fantasy world you used to visit was created from your own imagination" (but with the odd decision to never actually show that world). After a whole lot of people are killed off in horrible ways (though there are also a couple of nicer fantasy vignettes), it's easily resolved and reframed unconvincingly as just another test Swampy had to undergo to get his next set of elemental powers.
We then skip a year and find that Swampy is now basically a god (more than he already was) and he's become unknowable and uncaring* and he wants to destroy the world, because that's what the elements of earth, water, air, and fire (and plants) really want for some reason—sometimes Millar says the idea is just to wipe out the human race for its sins, but other times it's about stripping the planet down to nothing and starting over, so I don't know why the Parliament of Trees would want that, but OK. He's become just another destroy-the-world-to-save-it villain, with barely any connection to the character we knew; we never see him go through this change, it's just how he is now.
While the title character becomes less interesting as he gets more powerful, the rest of the cast gets to shine a little more: Abby, Chester, and Liz show up and are pretty well written*, Jason Woodrue returns and is kind of great (especially compared to the last time we saw him, in the Doug Wheeler days, when he was a babbling fool)—and in the weirdest cameo of all, Arcane returns (AGAIN, BUT:) as a good guy! It seems that the benevolent priest who was randomly shanghaied to hell a while back (the theology of this series has always been weird, but, what?)** was allowed to preach there and so Arcane was converted and now he's nice. This is absurdly thrown in out of nowhere, but I have to say I'm so sick of Arcane's usual shtick that I would enjoy virtually any major change: turn him into an accountant, a pineapple, anything.
There's also a bunch of retconning that I'm less happy about. Constantine and other occult characters turn out to have always been part of an ancient war between two Masonic lodges; I kind of feel like an important part of Constantine's character is that he wasn't ever part of an organized power structure, but apparently Millar was really into Freemasonry, go figure. Tefé's origin turns out to be entirely false, she's just another agent of the powers that be, and then she's destroyed. Lady Jane is killed offscreen. There's really not much left from any previous iteration of the comic.
Swamp Thing ends up not destroying the world, because he suddenly rediscovers human feelings. And instead of Tefé being a messiah who might redeem humanity, now there's... a different magic child who might redeem humanity, if future writers decide to pick up that plot, which I'm guessing they won't. Also the world has been redeemed anyway, potentially, in one of those "everything's better now, but subtly, so we don't have to justify why it looks the same" ways. It's not the worst or most arbitrary end of a world-in-peril story I've ever read, but it's not great. Like Millar's run as a whole, there are some good ideas here and even some good writing, hampered by a lot of empty flourishes and cliché.
And that's the end of Swamp Thing for the next four years. Apparently it wasn't selling well—so if they bring it back, maybe it'll be revamped yet again in the image of whatever the kids are into these days. Or maybe by the futuristic year 2000, swamps will be cool again.
Most creative exclamations: 1. "Sweet Jeez!" 2. "WUHH?"
Next: Vaughan's teen years
no subject
2019-06-09 02:40 (UTC)I had read very little of Millar before this. I was vaguely familiar with some of his Marvel stuff that pissed people off, with Captain America being an asshole and so on. But mostly what I remember is when I discovered the Warren Ellis comic The Authority. Now, The Authority is a purposely over-the-top hyper-violent, profane, cynical, filthy and often very funny comic. Nothing about it is in good taste, but Ellis keeps it interesting, and I was really getting into it. But then at a certain point I felt like it had abruptly changed into a half-assed adolescent parody of itself, leering and smirking in ways that were just no longer funny except in the sense that "Cards Against Humanity" is funny. I wondered, had Ellis had lost it, or had my tastes changed? No, it's just that the writer was now Mark Millar.
I'm told Red Son is good so I'll probably read that.