Swamp Thing - Bronze Age Omnibus

The older Swamp Thing comic book series' are near and dear to my heart. Mainly because the Saga first run was the first comic book series I collected month after month, starting with the 1982 Saga of the Swamp Thing #1 and getting them to about issue 100. 

Swamp Thing is about Alec Holland, a scientist, who was developing a bio-restorative formula to feed the world with his wife in the swamps of Louisiana. Men from a criminal organization, the Conclave, wanted the formula and threatened harm to the couple if they did not give it to them. They carried out their threat when they returned and the couple refused the demand to hand the research over and knocked out Alec. When he awoke he saw a bomb under the lab table, which exploded before he could defuse it. Running out of the lab, on fire with some of the bio-restorative formula on him, he jumped into the nearby swamp. Over time, the formula and the plant life formed around him giving him back a human like appearance but made out of plant materiel. He is hindered by the difficulty it is to speak with plant-like lungs and larynx. So starts the journey of the Swamp Thing, regularly feared because of his appearance yet hero to anyone in danger of harm or oppression. Sometimes he joins with others but often walks alone. Often he is an observer, defender, or protector of horrors in the forgotten shadows of the world but he always stands by what is right. Needles to say, this was right up my alley for a shy young teenager to have a hero looking like a monster who does the right thing regardless of how he is treated.

I eyed this collected omnibus in the local Legends comic book store and had some extra funds to stroll down memory lane. It collects the original appearance of Swamp Thing in House of Secrets #92 published July of 1971, Swamp Thing issues 1-24 that started in 1972, and Saga of the Swamp Thing issues 1-19, and Saga of the Swamp Thing annual #1.

Its a HUGE book at 928 pages! It took about two months of reading an issue every day or two.

The Swamp Thing's first appearance in House of Secrets up to issue 10 of the 1972 Swamp Thing was written by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson. I read some of these after I started with the 1982 Swamp Thing, in order to get more of the back story, as it is considered one continuous story ignoring the less than stellar issues after Lein Wein left the series. That point was issue 13, the last one Len Wein wrote. The first 13 issues had the origin story and many engaging tales of the macabre and horror: a body manipulating melomaniac antagonist called Arcane, werewolves, a Frankenstein's monster like being, aliens, mechanical beings, a Chuthulu like entity called M'Nagalah, Batman, another appearance by Arcane, more aliens, and time travel. The art was moody and dark with stories about prejudice, fear of the other, and misuse of power with the Swamp Thing as observer, receiver of harm, or protector. What more would a teenage boy ask for? I liked rereading these first 13 issues but from there it went off the rails without the team of Len and Berni. There were some good stories but also some wacky ones with odd ham-fisted stories. 

Now for the part that I started my comic collecting life with, Saga of the Swamp Thing! Len Wein was editor for the series with Martin Pasko as main writer. Martin was a major TV and comic book writer from the 70's to the 2000s, so he added a steady continuum with these issues that make for a solid arc. Martin continued for a few issues from issue 16-19. This first 13 issue run had the overarching story of a small girl who was going to be killed by her father because of some abilities she had but was saved by the Swamp Thing. Through the arc they encounter vampires and a demon inhabited serial killer only to be separated. That is when it is revealed to the Swamp Thing, after some excellent misdirection with people who seem to be antagonists, the reason why the girls's father wanted to kill her. In the last arc it is a struggle to stop the plan of the girl before it is too late for the world. There are also some really good standalone stories where the overall arc is added to. When I read this I realized that comics could not just be one issue casual entertainment but provide stories worthy to be told. 

This omnibus makes me interested in getting the collections of the Alan Moore written Swamp Thing comics, which started where this collection left off. That run was more darker, mature, and experimental in taking the character of Swamp Thing to new directions.