The Swamp Thing can manifest its consciousness into physical form by manipulating the vegetation of an area. In many of the later stories the forms he takes become increasingly abstract and bizarre as he travels to worlds with stranger and more sparse versions of "vegetation." I think this works as a great metaphor for how Alan Moore managed to get these stories told. DC Comics hired Moore to write a reboot of an obscure superhero and he took that opportunity to craft some amazing scifi/fantasy. But the raw material of superheroes remain awkwardly part of its genetic code. For example there are frequent references to Gotham City and Batman, or other superheroes with backstories the comic assumes you know already will make cameo appearances. I'm a big believer in self-continuity so the sprawling soap opera of superhero comics never appealed to me that much. But even here Moore excels. Even without reading the last one hundred runs of a certain character their personalities, arcs, and general backstories are instantly apparent. I knew nothing of Metron (for example) but his pompous monologue, his casual cruelty, his obsession with his "miracle chair," even his general appearance made him an instantly recognizable foil to the zen and gentle Swamp Thing.
Neil Gaiman managed a similar feat with his Sandman, which also told its own great self-contained story while incorporating elements from DC. Also Moore attempted this again with more mainstream characters like Batman but DC objected to radical changes for their more high profile characters. Instead Moore reworked them into his [b:Watchmen|472331|Watchmen|Alan Moore|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442239711s/472331.jpg|4358649], which is his most famous work but I honestly don't feel like it does as good a job as Swamp Thing. ( )

Enfim, acabei toda a fase do Alan Moore no Pantanoso. E cara... que jornada maravilhosa! ( )

As with the last book, I feel like Moore was a bit distracted and losing focus on the series, but this time the results are so wild and inventive that I can't really complain. The "Swamp Thing's spirit is bouncing around space" premise is a way for Moore to play around with different styles of science fiction that he enjoys, so we get some old-school pulp, some cosmic Kirby stuff, a Green Lantern thing crossed with a Clive Barker horror story(!), and a disturbing New Wave SF riff with utterly nuts semi-abstract Totleben art. Then we get back to Earth, and even though it's very obvious that the writer is just putting things in order before leaving, he still re-establishes enough of a connection with the human characters and the Louisiana setting that it feels like we have somewhere to go from here. Really the Moore years of ST were always pretty scattered in terms of story and genre, so it seems appropriate to go out on kind of a random note.

For more thoughts, here's a blog post. ( )

If there is any other creative team in comics, whose quality output matches that of Moore, Totleben, Veitch, Alcala, Wood and Bissette... as demonstrated in these six volumes... I haven't heard of it.

If there is? I'd love to hear it.

There are other story arc's that equal Swamp Thing that last a couple issues, or even a year, but a 5 year run? I don't think so.

( )

Truly, this is saving the very best for last, and I don't even have words to describe it.

Okay, no I lied, there. I do. It was fantastic. So much great SF concepts, traversing the universe, mating with machine gods between the stars, causing truly horrific havoc on veggie-people planets, meeting up with hawk-people and Adam Strange, helping a Celestial break through the core of all existence, and even having a run-in with Darkseid.

Wow, the things this little Greenie can do! The places he's seen! He's a galactic explorer now, and.. just wow. :)

And I loved all the hints and special visual cues and nods to Watchmen and V for Vendetta, right within this volume. Themes do carry. Especially really fundamental ones such as death by flowers. :) Good for Greenie. :) Revenge can be so sweet, but reuniting with his love is so much sweeter.

Truly, this was a TRIP and a HALF, and I take back what I said before about liking the fundamental push of plot in Snyder's run. It's very good, but isn't nearly half as profound as what this one just became.

Hell, it's right up there with Sandman. Eventually. But then again, even Sandman had a slowish start, so what, exactly, am I complaining about? ;)

Fantastic. I'm glad I stuck with this. Very well worth it. ( )