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markarubin's review against another edition
4.0
This series continues to deliver, issue after issue, TPB after TPB. Creepy, and fascinating, and relevant even 30+ years later.
6pminhell's review against another edition
5.0
Hands down the best volume of Swamp Thing so far. It embraces these campy, pulpy old-school horror concepts like werewolves, vampires, and zombies but they're all pulled off in such a mature and politically charged way that they feel fresh and original. Nukeface, the radioactive wino is one of my new favorite comic book villains too. He's too drunk to ever realize he's causing chaos and destruction all around him which I find amazing.
cesspool_princess's review against another edition
5.0
Now this right here is PEAK! Swamp Thing. This is it. There is only one other volume in this run that I think can match this one (which I'll get into later). Anyway, here every single arc is an absolute BANGER. This is also the volume that is most definitively like HORROR.
Starting off with the Nuke Face Papers: I just loved nuke face as a not quite villain, its like he isnt even the villain here and yet he arguably puts ST in the most dangerous situation we've seen him in yet. I also love how the style of the panels adopts that newspaper aesthetic. Ofc also this tackles how corporations dump waste into the environment.
Ok then we have the MER VAMPIRES???? first of all PUNK ROCK MER VAMPIRES???? It was the sort of thing that once it was explained, it makes soooo much sense that vampires (dont need oxygen, weak to sunlight) would live deep underwater??? Like why has this not been done before??? Also Moore uses these vampires to talk about exclusion and insular communities and how we treat those who are different than us. There were parts of this that were genuinely unsettling and I love how it gets almost lovecraftian at the end with the birth of ... the baby...
Alright next arc is the werewolf one. This is Moore's Feminism story and I honestly think he did a great job. He ofc uses the werewolf figure here to talk about feminine rage (classic) and the cultural trap women are put in wrt the expression of righteous outrage at our status, roles, expectations as gentle servile caretakers OR sexual objects. This is paired v effectively with a native American folklore motif. One of my favorite depictions of the werewolf figure in media tbh. It is v short and sweet though, I almost wanted it to go on longer. It was very cathartic but also sad, the woman doesn't get a dub in the end bc she is so confined by the expectations placed on her :////
Finally we have the zombie slavery movie set arc which just floored me. Like honestly from p early on I knew how this arc was going to end and yet it is still executed with such care and skill that it took my breath away. The way that the actors literally become possessed by the real life versions of the characters they are portraying. Yeah this one was literally haunting. And the ending pay off was soooo well done.
So not only do we get beautifully written and illustrated horror but it is also weaving together these stories into a larger narrative about the creeping, seeping hatred and alienation cursing the United States. These stories are very effectively connected together, allowing the parallels between them to shine through brightly and clearly. But then the whole time there is this feeling of suspense, that all of this is not only connected but that it is also growing towards something, toward some horrific, unspeakable, inevitable end ( which John Constantine vaguely alludes to and points ST toward). Yeah I just love this volume so much.
Starting off with the Nuke Face Papers: I just loved nuke face as a not quite villain, its like he isnt even the villain here and yet he arguably puts ST in the most dangerous situation we've seen him in yet. I also love how the style of the panels adopts that newspaper aesthetic. Ofc also this tackles how corporations dump waste into the environment.
Ok then we have the MER VAMPIRES???? first of all PUNK ROCK MER VAMPIRES???? It was the sort of thing that once it was explained, it makes soooo much sense that vampires (dont need oxygen, weak to sunlight) would live deep underwater??? Like why has this not been done before??? Also Moore uses these vampires to talk about exclusion and insular communities and how we treat those who are different than us. There were parts of this that were genuinely unsettling and I love how it gets almost lovecraftian at the end with the birth of ... the baby...
Alright next arc is the werewolf one. This is Moore's Feminism story and I honestly think he did a great job. He ofc uses the werewolf figure here to talk about feminine rage (classic) and the cultural trap women are put in wrt the expression of righteous outrage at our status, roles, expectations as gentle servile caretakers OR sexual objects. This is paired v effectively with a native American folklore motif. One of my favorite depictions of the werewolf figure in media tbh. It is v short and sweet though, I almost wanted it to go on longer. It was very cathartic but also sad, the woman doesn't get a dub in the end bc she is so confined by the expectations placed on her :////
Finally we have the zombie slavery movie set arc which just floored me. Like honestly from p early on I knew how this arc was going to end and yet it is still executed with such care and skill that it took my breath away. The way that the actors literally become possessed by the real life versions of the characters they are portraying. Yeah this one was literally haunting. And the ending pay off was soooo well done.
So not only do we get beautifully written and illustrated horror but it is also weaving together these stories into a larger narrative about the creeping, seeping hatred and alienation cursing the United States. These stories are very effectively connected together, allowing the parallels between them to shine through brightly and clearly. But then the whole time there is this feeling of suspense, that all of this is not only connected but that it is also growing towards something, toward some horrific, unspeakable, inevitable end ( which John Constantine vaguely alludes to and points ST toward). Yeah I just love this volume so much.
jammasterjamie's review against another edition
5.0
Moore's story arc just grows better and deeper with each volume - This series is up there with The Sandman in regard to ongoing episodic story-telling and I'm so glad that I decided to take this journey through the swamp.
ostrava's review against another edition
5.0
Ah, Swamp Thing!
Alan Moore at his calmest and most carefree! That's the impression I've always gotten anyway, it's the closest thing to a "conversation" with Moore most of us will ever have (Moore the artist, not Moore as an individual). No distractions on big themes and big stories about power and the occult. In the Swamp Thing Moore wrote whatever he wanted to write at the moment, and it's beautiful. Like superhero comics turned into acid jazz.
Sophisticated suspense indeed...
Alan Moore at his calmest and most carefree! That's the impression I've always gotten anyway, it's the closest thing to a "conversation" with Moore most of us will ever have (Moore the artist, not Moore as an individual). No distractions on big themes and big stories about power and the occult. In the Swamp Thing Moore wrote whatever he wanted to write at the moment, and it's beautiful. Like superhero comics turned into acid jazz.
Sophisticated suspense indeed...
some_okie_dude27's review against another edition
5.0
Moore once joked that it was here where he accidentally created the Vertigo universe and imprint, and in many ways it's true. If it wasn't for Moore's contributions to Swamp Thing and bucking the Comics Code for good, then we probably wouldn't have gotten Vertigo and the revival of American comics as we know it. Moore also introduced Vertigo's flagship character John Constantine, who would go on to become Vertigo's major title alongside Gaiman's The Sandman, making the careers of other maverick creators like Jaime Delano, Garth Ennis, Andy Diggle, and Brian Azzerello, among others. It is him who ties all of the stories in this trade together, and in the trades to come as well. As much as he's a reluctant ally, he is the sly trickster that we'd come to know in Hellblazer, often pointing Swamp Thing to where he needs to go, and then allows Swamp Thing to do the work for him.
I often like to joke with friends that this trade is like if Alan Moore decided to take on writing The X-Files, though written about a muck and crusted monstrosity and not two scrappy FBI agents who are thrown into the world of the supernatural. Moore's versatility and variety of theme, character, and tone continues to shine throughout this trade, and is even more apparent in this trade. The stories vary in tone and atmosphere, but are linked together to create a whole. We begin with the American Gothic story arc, exploring the issues and wounds that continue to haunt America centuries after they occurred, using monsters and ghouls to explore the horrors that live deep inside of America, the ones that we choose to try and avoid, but often rear their ugly heads at the most inopportune time.
Moore once said that Americans prefer to forget about the past, and in many ways he's right. It's why such issues as the recent Black Lives Matter and tensions over race continue to boil over, decades after the fact. Our tendency to try and forget and ignore unpleasantries is what often bites us in the ass in the end, and Moore had a keen understanding of this before we came to this realization...though I suppose it makes sense, us Yankees have always seemed to be late to the party.
Yet Moore, as usual, never seeks to talk down to or insult his audience's intelligence, his focus is on telling a good story, with the political commentary and satire being subtext to keep things spicy for the people who want to look deeper. Some other great stories appear in this trade, such as The Nukeface Papers arc, The Curse, and Southern Change arc. With these stories, Moore uses classic monsters like vampires, ghosts, and my personal favorite werewolves to explore the tensions and issues surrounding America such as racism, sexism, nuclear waste, and so on. As much as Moore wants to entertain his audience, he never allows for them to escape the world, but to experience and confront it.
Bissette and Totleben's art continues to impress, but the real winner of this volume is Rick Veitch, who took on their style, morphed it into his own, and managed to create a similar style to Bissette and Totleben's. It is the sign of a true draughtsman, though Stan Woch, Ron Randell, and Alfredo Alcala aren't slouches either, and also manage to replicate Bissette and Totleben's style as well as they can in their ability, though Bissette and Totleben reign over all of them, with their scratchy, unpleasant style continuing to add to the horror and suspense of the series that made it as unique as it was.
Reading this makes me wish that more mainstream runs in comics were like it, as while many have taken inspiration from Moore and his approach to superhero comics, I've found that they've taken the wrong clues and hints from Moore's lessons. There's a few, like Claremont's X-Men or Ewing's recent take on the Immortal Hulk that dares come close to what Moore achieved, but no one has managed to surpass, and as thus the wait continues.
I often like to joke with friends that this trade is like if Alan Moore decided to take on writing The X-Files, though written about a muck and crusted monstrosity and not two scrappy FBI agents who are thrown into the world of the supernatural. Moore's versatility and variety of theme, character, and tone continues to shine throughout this trade, and is even more apparent in this trade. The stories vary in tone and atmosphere, but are linked together to create a whole. We begin with the American Gothic story arc, exploring the issues and wounds that continue to haunt America centuries after they occurred, using monsters and ghouls to explore the horrors that live deep inside of America, the ones that we choose to try and avoid, but often rear their ugly heads at the most inopportune time.
Moore once said that Americans prefer to forget about the past, and in many ways he's right. It's why such issues as the recent Black Lives Matter and tensions over race continue to boil over, decades after the fact. Our tendency to try and forget and ignore unpleasantries is what often bites us in the ass in the end, and Moore had a keen understanding of this before we came to this realization...though I suppose it makes sense, us Yankees have always seemed to be late to the party.
Yet Moore, as usual, never seeks to talk down to or insult his audience's intelligence, his focus is on telling a good story, with the political commentary and satire being subtext to keep things spicy for the people who want to look deeper. Some other great stories appear in this trade, such as The Nukeface Papers arc, The Curse, and Southern Change arc. With these stories, Moore uses classic monsters like vampires, ghosts, and my personal favorite werewolves to explore the tensions and issues surrounding America such as racism, sexism, nuclear waste, and so on. As much as Moore wants to entertain his audience, he never allows for them to escape the world, but to experience and confront it.
Bissette and Totleben's art continues to impress, but the real winner of this volume is Rick Veitch, who took on their style, morphed it into his own, and managed to create a similar style to Bissette and Totleben's. It is the sign of a true draughtsman, though Stan Woch, Ron Randell, and Alfredo Alcala aren't slouches either, and also manage to replicate Bissette and Totleben's style as well as they can in their ability, though Bissette and Totleben reign over all of them, with their scratchy, unpleasant style continuing to add to the horror and suspense of the series that made it as unique as it was.
Reading this makes me wish that more mainstream runs in comics were like it, as while many have taken inspiration from Moore and his approach to superhero comics, I've found that they've taken the wrong clues and hints from Moore's lessons. There's a few, like Claremont's X-Men or Ewing's recent take on the Immortal Hulk that dares come close to what Moore achieved, but no one has managed to surpass, and as thus the wait continues.
jayspa65's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This volume broke out of a set path and reminds me of X-Files season one. Nuke Face was a surprisingly likable character. Alan Moore's Swamp Thing Run is the stuff of legend and these deliciously well constructed philosophical musings on humanity and horror are a must read for fans of thoughtful comics.