Swamp Thing reread, part 17

Swamp 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.
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Swamp Thing reread, part 16

Swamp Thing #151-159 (1995)
Written by Mark Millar
Art: Phil Hester/Kim DeMulder, except #153 by Chris Weston, #156 by Phil Jimenez, #159 by Jill Thompson

This story arc is basically an excuse for Millar to play with a different subgenre premise or theme each issue—a structure Moore used twice and Veitch once. Swamp Thing meets the ghost of Anna, a woman who wrote a book of horror/fantasy stories*, and she needs for him to travel through the stories for some reason. These stories are fairly representative of Millar's work so far, in that they're reasonably well constructed, and can be funny... and very often remind us that Millar doesn't know the meaning of the word "gratuitous" (or knows, but thinks it's a good thing). Like: hey, what if there's a world where Abby is evil and Anton Arcane is a nice guy and she does lots of gross evil things and kills everyone—heh heh, wouldn't that be outrageous? Or what if there's a Nazi planet and Swamp Thing refuses to destroy it because there are still good people on it, but then it gets destroyed anyway just because? Or what if there's a hard-boiled private eye** and he's an asshole like Mike Hammer, but now it's 1995 so he can make jokes about blowjobs and abortion? Or what if Harold of Harold and Maude pressured Maude into a suicide pact? Whatever, Mark. These ideas go nowhere and they're not particularly surprising or scary, they just seem kind of like Millar jerking off.
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