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trilbynorton's review against another edition
3.0
This is where Moore's "American Gothic" storyline gets crushed under its own weight. While the previous volume was made up of standalone horror tales loosely linked by John Constantine's involvement and the promise of answers to come, this volume sees events come to an apocalyptic head. One issue is a direct tie-in with the then ongoing Crisis on Infinite Earths, and it's as of the bloated and unnecessarily convoluted plotting of the standard comics crossover event infects Moore's usually economically evocative writing.
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Four collects Saga of the Swamp Thing #43-50.
In this volume, we finally find out what Constantine was grooming Swamp Thing for and it's a big hairy deal. A secret society is bent on summoning an ancient force to destroy heaven. There's also a junkie that finds one of Swamp Thing's tubers, a serial killer, the sprawling mansion of a firearms heiress, and Swamp Thing learns more of his heritage.
Alan Moore gets some serious mileage out of the Swamp Thing in every outing and this volume is no different. The Parliament of Trees is introduced, Crisis is touched upon, and even Mento gets his time in the sun as all of DC's occult characters unite to fight a menace older than time.
I'm impressed that with all the shifting artists in Moore's run that the series manages to maintain a unified feel. In this volume, art is handled by Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, Stan Woch, Rick Veitch, Alfredo Alcala, Ron Randall, and Tom Mandrake.
Alan Moore delivers the goods as far as big confrontations go. At times, the final battle reminded me of one of the Doctor Who specials where multiple Doctors team up to face some universe-threatening villain.
I'm running out of ways to praise Alan Moore's run. Aside from Abbie Cable not doing much, the only thing I can gripe about is how out of place Batman was in the Bogey Man issue, although Batman not remembering being at Elasti-Girl and Mento's wedding was kind of funny.
I'm both excited to read the next volume and sad that I only have two volumes left. Alan Moore created a generational work with Swamp Thing. I can't recommend it enough.
In this volume, we finally find out what Constantine was grooming Swamp Thing for and it's a big hairy deal. A secret society is bent on summoning an ancient force to destroy heaven. There's also a junkie that finds one of Swamp Thing's tubers, a serial killer, the sprawling mansion of a firearms heiress, and Swamp Thing learns more of his heritage.
Alan Moore gets some serious mileage out of the Swamp Thing in every outing and this volume is no different. The Parliament of Trees is introduced, Crisis is touched upon, and even Mento gets his time in the sun as all of DC's occult characters unite to fight a menace older than time.
I'm impressed that with all the shifting artists in Moore's run that the series manages to maintain a unified feel. In this volume, art is handled by Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, Stan Woch, Rick Veitch, Alfredo Alcala, Ron Randall, and Tom Mandrake.
Alan Moore delivers the goods as far as big confrontations go. At times, the final battle reminded me of one of the Doctor Who specials where multiple Doctors team up to face some universe-threatening villain.
I'm running out of ways to praise Alan Moore's run. Aside from Abbie Cable not doing much, the only thing I can gripe about is how out of place Batman was in the Bogey Man issue, although Batman not remembering being at Elasti-Girl and Mento's wedding was kind of funny.
I'm both excited to read the next volume and sad that I only have two volumes left. Alan Moore created a generational work with Swamp Thing. I can't recommend it enough.
reickel's review against another edition
4.0
The first half is a slog, 3 stars, and the latter half is pretty exciting, 4.5 stars. Put em all together and you get a deserved 4. This volume definitely has a different feel, with Constantine connecting Swamp Thing to plenty of other magical DC characters as a matter of course, not in one-off exceptions.
thefool0's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
robbiesbookshelf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
cryo_guy's review against another edition
4.0
I was honestly expecting a little bit more buttttt it was good. Good ol' Swampy is good. And there's a real arc that builds up. It has all the stuff you want in Swamp Thing and adds some nice depth to characters/elements already introduced. Excited to finish the Moore run.
Constantine is a jerk. Don't get shirty with me about it!
Constantine is a jerk. Don't get shirty with me about it!
groblinthegoblin624's review against another edition
3.75
Very interested in the first half, but by the time the overarching apocalypse plot started to get going I gradually checked out of the story. Good writing, but not my favorite volume
cesspool_princess's review against another edition
4.0
In the context of Moore's run, this is like dead middle of the road. There were some very epic and satisfying moments but also there were some things I had serious problems with.
Lets start with the gun violence arc. This was good but after the whole last volume felt a little tacked on / like a rehash on the themes Moore already covered. So I felt this was just a little less effective than the other ones in this vein. Like it was still good I just think it is outshined. Esp coming right after the plantation one (similar narrative of like horrors of the past literally coming back to haunt the present except there it was zombies and here it is ghosts).
Ok now we get into my rly big problem w this volume. The Brujeria being the shadowy group behind all of this felt sooo fucking dumb to me, like it was such a let down. Here we are bringing together this story about hatred, violence, alienation etc in the U.S and the ppl behind it are a group of Indigenous South Americans living deep in the Amazon rainforest???? bro......
I'm going to quote another review here bc they said it rly well: "I'm not sure how conscious Alan Moore was at the time of the ironies of his writing this plot, in which galactic doom is to be brought about by a black-magic cult in South America (and what's more indigenous South America), during a decade when US interference in Latin America was particularly visible. It does, at this distance, seem odd for an anti-establishment rebel like Moore to have been its writer (albeit at a stage when he was still trying to make a career in big brand comics, which he would soon abandon) and using a wily former punk, lefty anti-hero - a character quite capable of spotting insidious political symbolism in-universe - to resolve it."
Yeah this shit took me out.
Anyway this is followed by the big cross over event, the crisis of a million earths or whatever. This is Swamp Thing at its most superhero comic book and ofc I was annoyed with that but then there ended up being some v epic moments here. All the mystics and psychics joining together and then some of them just bursting into flames from the psychic pressure was fascinating. The factionalization of hell was also fascinating to see. But the big moment was the ending, the big darkness easily destroying some of the most powerful beings in universe because they have faulty ideologies, only for Swamp Thing to bring his wisdom and solve the problem. The joining of the dark and light and the sheer physical scale of it was stunning.
Ultimately for me, this had some of the lowest lows in the run but also some of the most epic / most satisfying moments to balance it out.
Lets start with the gun violence arc. This was good but after the whole last volume felt a little tacked on / like a rehash on the themes Moore already covered. So I felt this was just a little less effective than the other ones in this vein. Like it was still good I just think it is outshined. Esp coming right after the plantation one (similar narrative of like horrors of the past literally coming back to haunt the present except there it was zombies and here it is ghosts).
Ok now we get into my rly big problem w this volume. The Brujeria being the shadowy group behind all of this felt sooo fucking dumb to me, like it was such a let down. Here we are bringing together this story about hatred, violence, alienation etc in the U.S and the ppl behind it are a group of Indigenous South Americans living deep in the Amazon rainforest???? bro......
I'm going to quote another review here bc they said it rly well: "I'm not sure how conscious Alan Moore was at the time of the ironies of his writing this plot, in which galactic doom is to be brought about by a black-magic cult in South America (and what's more indigenous South America), during a decade when US interference in Latin America was particularly visible. It does, at this distance, seem odd for an anti-establishment rebel like Moore to have been its writer (albeit at a stage when he was still trying to make a career in big brand comics, which he would soon abandon) and using a wily former punk, lefty anti-hero - a character quite capable of spotting insidious political symbolism in-universe - to resolve it."
Yeah this shit took me out.
Anyway this is followed by the big cross over event, the crisis of a million earths or whatever. This is Swamp Thing at its most superhero comic book and ofc I was annoyed with that but then there ended up being some v epic moments here. All the mystics and psychics joining together and then some of them just bursting into flames from the psychic pressure was fascinating. The factionalization of hell was also fascinating to see. But the big moment was the ending, the big darkness easily destroying some of the most powerful beings in universe because they have faulty ideologies, only for Swamp Thing to bring his wisdom and solve the problem. The joining of the dark and light and the sheer physical scale of it was stunning.
Ultimately for me, this had some of the lowest lows in the run but also some of the most epic / most satisfying moments to balance it out.
lcush98's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
4.25
bigoldan's review against another edition
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.75