Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Re-Reads (Now Reading: Swamp Thing: 1971 through 1985)

When I reread the Byrne issues, one of the things I noticed was just how much of an impact Byrne had on the artists that followed him at the very end of the decade and the early 90's. Paramount among them, was Todd McFarlane. One of McFarlane's signature artistic poses, with the hands outstretched as if casting a spell, is taken directly from Byrne, and you can see that several times in his X-Men work. (McFarlane was also highly influenced by another major early 80's artist, Frank Miller).

With that in mind, I found myself looking at the later Paul Smith era and thinking "where have I seen this before?" And I finally made the connection: Rob Liefield, hands-down, stole 70% of his poses and work from Paul Smith. Smith does a fantastic job and is highly underrated IMO; several of his issues have a minimalist effect that was fresh in the mid-80's, yet over-used in the 90's. And that statement reflects what I mean: Smith broke some new ground, highly influenced the pre-teen Rob Liefield, and then Liefield went on to draw directly from Smith (and at times, outright copy him).

This just goes to show how by Byrne's run, X-Men had already become the premiere super hero comic book in the industry.

Another re-read I've considered is the earliest Eastman/Laird Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stories collected in a TPB that my then-girlfriend/now-wife bought for me and sent in a care package while I was away at college. It collects 1-11 and the micro-series spotlighting each character. It's an awesome collection that is still probably the best thing ever done with the characters to date and is highly recommended. It's definitely in the cards at some point in the near-future.

I'd love to give those issues a strait "read". I've never read any TMNT ever.

I'm about to embark on a re-read of Tom Veitch & Cam Kennedy's "Star Wars: Dark Empire" and "Star Wars: Dark Empire II." I haven't read these for years, and all I remember offhand is that there's a really cool scene where Boba Fett (my favorite Star Wars character by far) turns out not to have died in "Return of the Jedi," and that I liked it better than anything else I've read or watched of the Star Wars franchise.

I burned right through the first "Star Wars: Dark Empire" in record time, partly because I'm a fast reader, and partly because of some of the weaker aspects of the comic.

Originally published in the early 90s, it was way ahead of its time in both good and bad ways.

First, the bad: Cam Kennedy's art has too many big panels and splash pages, and it lacks flow and clarity; a major reason for this is the coloring, also by Kennedy, which tries too hard to be moody and atmospheric but ends up just looking murky and washed-out.

Now, the good: Tom Veitch's script is superlative! He has all the characters' voices down pat, he brings back Boba Fett, and introduces some good new characters (old friends of Han's.) And Leia and Luke are both awesome here, as the latter is forced by circumstance to get too close to the dark side, and the former is the one who must ultimately rescue him from it. Veitch really gets the concept of the Force, and explores it in ways that the movies never did. The result is a work that, despite its flaws, is a rich and rewarding experience.

Now I just hope the sequel is even half as good.

If you ever do, THOSE are the issues to read! I've sampled various TMNT that weren't done by both Eastman & Laird and was always unimpressed. But issues 1-11 and the micro-series? Awesome stuff!!!

This is going to be a very short review, because "Star Wars: Dark Empire II" is so dense, so rich, so awe-inspiring, that it defies description.

Still better writing than art, though. But what writing!

And I just found out there's a third installment, "Star Wars: Empire's End," which I hope to read for the first time very soon.

I'm a big fan of the "Dark Empire" stories. I know I've re-read the original once or twice. Not sure if I read the sequels multiple times or not. But it was a really great story, and it (and Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire novel, as well) was largely responsible for bringing Star Wars back after it was all but dead. It was, iirc, the first Star Wars comic book published in America after Marvel's ongoing series was cancelled several years prior.

Dark Empire and Zahn's novel had to, quite simply, be great to revive active interest in the franchise, and they WERE! Suddenly, the Expanded Universe was born and grew red-hot in both comics and book stores. I honestly don't think the re-releases, prequels, the new cartoons and the push to make even more episodes would have happened without the Expanded universe revival. So Star Wars fans owe Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy quite a debt (even if the prequel and re-release debates will probably rage for all time)!

As for my reminiscences of the series themselves, I'd cite 2 criticisms: 1) It seemed a little dry and humorless and a little excessively narrated. 2) Kennedy's art was a little too moody and staid for what is a bombastic, colorful saga at its heart.

But the plot was solid, and the art, while inappropriate in some ways, told the story effectively.

These works are a VERY significant milestone for Star Wars fans and ones I feel even casual fans could appreciate.

Thanks for reminding me of the Zahn prose novel, Lardy. I started it years ago, but couldn't get into it. Now I think I'll give it another chance.

I haven't read anything else by Tom Veitch. According to the biography at the end of the trade, his other works include "The Nazz", "My Name is Chaos", "Clash," "The Light and Darkness War," "Tales of the Jedi," and co-authoring "Dark Lords of the Sith" with Kevin J. Anderson. Anyone here read any of those?

IIRC, Veitch also had a brief run on "Animal Man," which I haven't read either.

In case anyone's wondering, I'm generally not a fan of his younger, more famous brother, Rick. But it does make a good segue for the announcement that my next re-read will be Alan Moore's "Swamp Thing" run.

My re-read of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run has begun. I will be reviewing it in blocks of three, four, or five issues each.

Saga of the Swamp Thing #20-24

Alan Moore's first arc gets the run off to a roaring start, as Swamp Thing gets a new, more believeable origin and an awesome re-design by artists Steve Bissette (pencils) & John Totleben (inks.) While Swamp Thing is waxing existential upon learning the truth about himself -- that he is a plant who believed it was a man -- his best friend Abby Arcane is fretting about him as her marriage to Matt Cable disintegrates. And emerging from the shadows to create chaos is this arc villain, Jason Woodrue aka the Floronic Man, a man who was transformed into a human/plant hybrid and who, through Swamp Thing's unwitting assistance, suffers a psychotic breakdown and infects the Green (the world consciousness of the plants) with all-too-human feelings of bloodlust and revenge. Even the JLA find themselves helpless to prevent the villain's rampage, and it's up to Swamp Thing to save the day.

Moore does an astonishing job of establishing this previously minor villain as a credible threat. Early on in the arc, he arranges for Swamp Thing to find out the truth about himself and for the loathsome General Sunderland to be trapped in a building with an enraged Swamp Thing (I'll come back to this later.) His sneering contempt for his fellow humans gives way to murderous hatred after his breakdown, which Moore & Bissette portray in the most visceral way, Woodrue ripping off his artificial human flesh and his clothes as he starts to go mad. What's even more disturbing than the imagery is the readers' realization that Woodrue could be a stand-in for every misanthropic, anti-social misfit who ever went over the edge, something which the creative team underlines with the story's tragicomic resolution, in which a desperately repentant Woodrue tries unsuccessfully to pass for human again, only to be led away by Superman & Green Lantern to Arkham Asylum. Unlike Swamp Thing, the Floronic Man has no real place in this world.

The scenes with the JLA are worth singling out, especially knowing that Bissette was initially opposed to the super-heroes' appearance. Yes, this is primarily a horror comic, but Moore integrates the JLA so seamlessly into the elaborate framework, that it takes super-heroes to a new level, something which Moore would go on to elaborate on further.

Back to the Swamp Thing/Sunderland confrontation -- nothing is made of the fact that Sunderland dies, and that it's not entirely clear whether or not Swamp Thing is responsible. It looks to me like Swamp Thing picks him up and smothers him against his chest until he dies. True, Swamp Thing is enraged and irrational at that moment, but it's unsettling for the protagonist to kill, even when the victim is someone as hateful as Sunderland.

That aside, this is a great story, and it's only the beginning!

Ahhhhh! Moore's Swamp Thing! That was one of my big re-reads/reads (I'd never read the whole thing before) of the last year or two. I started reviewing them here. I burned through the first four or five volumes and then left the last two to savor at a later date. I finally finished it off this past June during my vacation. What a great, satisfying run!

I'm about ready for the next re-read. Probably holding off on the X-Men project for another month or two, after I get up the nerve to look in the attic for my stash. I might give in and read most of the way thru the Byrne run before then, though. If I buy Masterworks 4 before checking my stash, I'll have immediate access thru the Dark Phoenix saga.

Meanwhile, I'm debating between beginning my re-read of Sandman Mystery Theatre (probably by doing 2-3 four-issue arcs at a time) or beginning a Gotham Central re-read/read. The latter is attractive because I never read the last approximately 8 issues of GC as it concluded during a year I was in comics purgatory after going thru my original CBS closing and then some bad experiences with online subscriptions. I have them all, though. SMT is tempting, so I can use it to harass and taunt Cobie with reviews of the greatest book he's never read!

Hmmm....I think my decision is made!

Oh, goody. Lardy reviews of Swamp Thing. I'll check them out right now!

I take it your next re-read is going to be SMT, then? I hope so, because I've been intrigued by it ever since Greg Burgas reviewed it in his Comics You Should Own feature from Comics Should Be Good.

Fickles, SMT is easily a top-ten all-time series for yours truly! Don't get me wrong--if gritty and noir is an automatic turn-off, it's possible that you won't like it. However, it's not all dark. Watching the awesome relationship between Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmonte from its inception is easily half of the appeal of this great series. It's just so real and absolutely captivating! I'll try to be as descriptive as possible, and if you like what you are hearing, maybe they have it at that great library that you've mentioned in the past!

I don't know if I reviewed past Vol. 2, but browse through the thread (and past those New 52-related comments!) and check 'em out!

Gritty and noir is not a turn off to me as long as it's in the right context, and the context of a series set during the era which originally gave us film noir seems perfect to me.

I appreciate that you're going to make your reviews as descriptive as possible. I'm very much looking forward to them.

I re-read the entire Moore Swamp Thing run a few years back and it was a real delight. It aged extremely well and there's so much to take away from it. His Abby may still be my favourite character in comics.

I was also stunned to realise that one of my favourite issues (#59) was written by Bissette not Moore. Re-reading years later from the perspective of a father it was all the more of a tear-jerker.

If you are doing SMT...let me know and I will grab my wun from the folks and join you. We can do the dual review thing again if you want.

I love that issue, too. It's one of the one's I most look forward to re-reading.

Definitely doing it, Dev--in fact I read the first arc last night! So if you want in, ya better hurry!

Re-read Review Preview: It was AWESOME!!!

Will grab the box tomorrow. God, I love that series.

I read the second arc, "The Face", last night. I might put he brakes on it for the moment to let you catch up. Maybe I'll start some Gotham Central or read a few from the "new" pile in the meantime.

Plus, with the Clemson game on tonight, I'm unlikely to get anything read this evening...

Saga of the Swamp Thing #25-27

Moore's second arc, with heavy co-plotting contributions from Bissette & Totleben, is a horror tale of a more down-to-earth variety than the first arc, as Abby gets a job working with autistic children, including one orphan, Paul, whose parents were killed by a fear-eating, shape-shifting hell-beast, the Monkey King, which they accidentally invoked while fooling with a Ouija Board. Investigating this supernatural disturbance is Jason Blood, a.k.a. Etrigan the Demon, who ends up clashing with Swamp Thing over the best way to deal with the problem. In the end, it's up to Paul to confront the Monkey King.

As I said before, this is a more down-to-earth story than the previous one, grounded in an amazing versimilitude achieved by the creative team. Everything and everyone is convincing, from the small Lousiana town setting, to Abby's charges and co-workers, to the all-too-easy-to-relate-to horrors which the Monkey King awakens in the characters. Abby's personal horror turns out to be her evil uncle Anton Arcane, Swamp Thing's arch-nemesis, which, along with a warning from Etrigan and a dying Matt's mysterious possession, foreshadows the disturbing developments to come in the next arc.

One last thing worth mentioning is the portrayal of Etrigan the Demon. Although not wholly original (the portrayal borrows somewhat from an issue of DC Comics Presents written by Len Wein and drawn by Joe Kubert) it is stunning. Bissette & Totleben's visualization of Etrigan is as definitive as their visualization of Swamp Thing (though the creative team does have the class to dedicate the story to Etrigan's creator, Jack Kirby.) And Moore excels at both the dialogue by Etrigan's supercilious human avatar, Jason Blood, and the rhythmic couplets spoken by Etrigan himself; Moore even gives us a glimpse at Blood/Etrigan's tortured dual existence.

Another triumphant arc, then, and the creative team (now joined by new Swamp Thing editor Karen Berger, who replaced Len Wein, who put the creative team together and edited the first arc) is just getting warmed up.

Some of my favourite issues. Steve Bissette keeps teasing that he'll release his "behind the scenes" notes on this arc and the one following, as I guess a lot of the plot was a work of collaboration (though he's quick to say he takes nothing from Moore's scripting, just that a lot of the ideas were equally attributable to Totleben and himself).

I loved the Demon and Kamara in this, but in many ways it was also the beginning of the end for the character as no one after was able to follow Moore's lead on the Blood/Etrigan character. The Wagner mini-series was just OK, and Grant after that took it in a different direction entirely, but man I'd have loved to see a continuation of what the ST team started.

Thanks for chiming in again, Dave, and I hope you'll continue to do so throughout my ST re-read.

Yeah, Bissette's blog is great, one of the best on the whole web.

Going to the parents today. going to grab them and start reading tonight.