Reviews

Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Five by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, John Totleben

sonofatreus's review against another edition

4.0

Look, it’s Swamp Thing. If you’ve gotten to volume 5, you know what you’re getting, but this one ends really, really strange.

The bulk of it is great. Swampy goes to Gotham and Batman is a prominent player. I didn’t think it’d work but it really does.

A few of the issues aren’t great and there are some standard comic tropes that even Moore doesn’t subvert but on the whole I dig it.

6pminhell's review against another edition

3.0

Pretty underwhelming volume. It's kind of apparent that Alan Moore was juggling several projects at the time this came out as the storylines in this volume seem uncharacteristically messy and lacked the political edge that made earlier volumes so refreshing to read.

cesspool_princess's review against another edition

4.0

Let me ask u this girlies: is a woman dating a sentient plant god a queer relationship??? According to Louisiana who tried charging our girl Abby with "crimes against nature" it sure is ! Anyway this was a rly rly fun one for a few reasons: we get to see ST put new powers to use, we see just how insanely powerful he is and ALSO we see him totally take over and rewild gotham, we see the social and cultural consequences of this as well whew. I feel here we get some interesting commentary on how the hippy generation ended up, on intolerance (could be read through queer or interracial lens) but most of all this shit was just so satisfying and cathartic. First of all Swamp Thing fucking MOPS batman, like beats the breaks off him, beats him so bad he literally goes and cries about it. That shit was so satisfying. Also just seeing the gritty urbanism of Gotham be transformed into pure jungle with fruits and berries growing everywhere was so cool, seeing how Gotham's citizenry reacted to this change was also sick. This is also one of the most visually stunning volumes with some of the most iconic panels of swamp thing period. Finally we get the most scary swamp thing "death" to date with him getting completely ejected from the Green. The final chapter where he tries to reconstruct his life out of the blue on that random moon was very well done, underrated in my opinion. Overall just a very satisfying and fun volume. Not like the best of the best but just below that.

bigoldan's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

jayspa65's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

 Moore continues breaking new ground in this fifth book. This is another spectacular volume, this time focusing on the fallout of the romance between Swamp Thing and Abby Holland, which results in a war between our hero and the captors of his lover. Like previous volumes, things get pretty epic, although I felt the pacing was on the slow side. I’m looking forward to the next volume, since overall, this saga has been a masterpiece! 

rltinha's review against another edition

5.0

From the Gotham sequence to the blue madness, everything in this trade lives up to the standards one expects from such a writer/artist team. But as soon as one takes a moment to put aside the assumption of high quality for granted, it truly is a great deed, to get to the fifth trade with a sense of enchantment, novelty, and the ability to surprise the reader without - ever - «jumping the shark».

jammasterjamie's review against another edition

5.0

Completely redundant observation, but you can really tell from this volume how Alan Moore got the reputation for being one of the best story-tellers of all time.

ostrava's review against another edition

5.0

Oh, Abby...

What a lovely volume. Some of the best Batman I've enjoyed to date. The whole thing in space at the end was a little weird, but good stuff could come out of it.

And it seems like an "ending" is drawing near. Let's see...

some_okie_dude27's review against another edition

5.0

If there's one thing that I've always admired about Alan Moore is his ability to take these silly, childish ideas that we grew up loving and making them into something that feels real and plausible, and it's no different with his run on Swamp Thing. What if we took this muck and crusted monstrosity and took its story completely seriously?

In that way, Moore reveals to us the insights that we never knew were possible, such as with the story of this volume. The idea of Abby and Swampy getting caught in their love affair is almost silly, and you would expect that Moore would at least show some cheekiness in terms of its subject matter, yet Moore again uses his signature magic and makes it into a tender, heart wrenching journey.

Swampy and Abby's relationship has been explored throughout the series, but it hasn't been as emotionally testing and profound as it is in this volume. We really get a look into their strange, unique blend of love that they have for each other, and Alan's writing gives their relationship a sense of poignance, and is often moving in its exploration. The depths that Swamp Thing will go in order to save Abby from her situation is one that I think anyone can get behind, and I couldn't help but root for Swampy as he went through the journey. Also one of Moore's big focuses in this volume is the smaller human moments, those quiet moments that define the characters in the series, and those small moments often tend to be touching, and occasionally profound as well.

I suppose what makes Moore's Swamp Thing so unique is that there's no big message that Alan has to get across in it, unlike Watchmen, Miracleman, or V for Vendetta. Alan could allow his imagination to go wild on the page and to see where it gets him while he's on the journey. Like any great artist, he is on the journey with us, wandering through the swamps of Louisiana and seeing where it would take him. Sadly, this was not as much of the case in this volume as there is a much more singular story and focus in this volume, though we begin to see the many-faceted style of Moore's Swamp Thing come back as the volume comes to a close, such as a particularly poignant story that touches on domestic abuse and how it can destroy someone's life, particularly with the abuse victim, and it even veers into science fiction where we see Swamp Thing continue to exist on another planet, far from Earth, yet I won't say too much because of spoilers.

Moore continues to play with the DC universe and the mythology that has been gleamed from its long history, though instead of reinventing old forgotten characters, he pulls out one of the big guns and introduces Batman into the fold, and Batman fits right at home with the strange world that Swamp Thing inhibits. I've made the argument before that Batman has lasted for so long because of the versatility of his character over the years, you could make him as serious or as silly as you wanted to and yet somehow, Batman still works as a character. While I was disappointed to see Bats get smacked about for a while, I still liked that Alan kept true to the character and that he was still driven to do what was right, no matter how strange or unusual as it might seem to others who are around him.

Another thing that impressed me was the artwork. Sadly, Bissette and Totleben were falling further and further behind schedule and another artist had to come in to help do fill in issues, and luck had it that Rick Veitch would take over. Veitch somehow took the Bissette and Totleben's style, morphed his own style to theirs, and made it his own in the way of a true draughtsman. His art is skilled, filled with personality, yet still with the creeping suspense that made Bissette and Totleben's artwork so unique. Though Totleben also comes back for art duties in several issues, and he still shows himself to be a skilled draughtsman, bringing a disturbing and beautiful look to the world of Swamp Thing that is wholly its own.

Moore once said that entertainment can be just as profound and beautiful as any other piece of art, and I can't say that he's wrong, and it's stuff like Saga of the Swamp Thing that continues to prove this to me. Seyton! I am sick at heart! For the journey is soon to end, and I am not sure if I want it to.

rocketwave's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

5.0