Swamp Thing 1989 #4 – Rick Veitch, Writer; Tom Mandrake, Artist; Trish Mulvihill, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: For a story nearly forty years in the making, this arc by Rick Veitch is coming to an end all too soon. I haven’t read the full run by Veitch, and I suspect the same will go for many of the current readers, but despite that, it’s very readable as a newcomer – if you’re willing to just vibe with the wonderfully insane vibe that was 1980s and 1990s early Vertigo. When we last left off, Abigail Holland was about to give birth to her and Alec’s first child, Swamp Thing was being catapulted through time and space, and Anton Arcane had returned from the depths of Hell to claim his grandchild. Now, an interesting thing here is that the child born here, JC, is not the one born in the original DC canon. After Veitch was kicked off the book several issues early due to the Jesus issue, the next writer introduced a daughter, Tefe, who wound up becoming the heir to Swamp Thing and getting her own series a decade later.
That divergence helps to make this one of the most fascinating books to come out of DC in a long time, as the entire DC cosmic and magic universes converge on Louisiana to fend off Arcane in a final showdown. I really like that the hell-powered villain not only uses physical menace, but psychological influence as well – and fans of the 80s cartoon might even notice a few familiar features. But then, after the fight concludes, the story shifts to a melancholy epilogue that closes out the story of this version of Swamp Thing and Abby in a way that’s far more concrete than you usually see for comic books. This comic is a time capsule, complete with the facsimile ads and previews, and Veitch has a very emotional coda where he writes about the strange journey this took to get to the comic stands. A totally unique project that should be read by anyone with an interest in vintage DC lore.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
