Dark Denouement

I spent a LOT of time at my grandparents' house when I was a kid. During the school year I was there about every other weekend. They had me for most of winter break, and roughly two weeks out of every month during the summer. I was there so often one of their spare bedrooms became my bedroom away from home, and in that room, in a nightstand next to the bed, was a stack of about twenty five comics.

At the risk of sounding repetitive of things mentioned previously, I got the majority of my comics in my very early days of collecting from my grandpa, from him taking me to the nearby convenience store and letting me raid the magazine rack. Not only did I get my first issue of Saga of the Swamp Thing via those convenience store trips, but I also got my only two consecutive issues among the five total issues of that series that I owned as a kid.

As I sat down to reread those two consecutive issues, numbers 12 and 13, the subject of this installment of Avatar of the Green, my nostalgia took on an almost sensory quality. Even though I was reading a digital copy of them, I could almost smell the old newspaper and ink scent that comics had at the time. As you might imagine, these two issues of Saga of the Swamp Thing have a great deal of emotional value to me, so I'm very excited to discuss them here.

Issue 12 picks up from the literal cliffhanger of the previous issue, with Swamp Thing and the mindless golem, created by his occultist allies to destroy the demonic entity that goes by the name of Karen Clancy, falling down the side of a mountain, locked in battle. The golem is focused on Karen's locket, which bears a remnant of her supernatural power. The locket, however, worn around Swamp Thing's neck, has become entangled in the roots that grow from his chest, trapping it to his body. Holland is in serious peril of either dying from the fall or being ripped to pieces by the golem, who's strength seems to out class his own (this was, of course, before Swamp Thing learned of his true nature and potential). Eventually coming to a crashing halt on a rocky outcropping, Holland swipes away one of the letters of the Hebrew word carved into the golem's otherwise blank face, changing it's meaning from "life" to "death", rendering the clay monstrosity inert.

As Swamp Thing staggers back to where his ally Helmut Kripptmann and his psionic's/occultist compatriots wait, Karen psychically transmits her location, a nearby synagogue, and taunts them to come confront her. Kripptmann's team reanimates the golem again and, the locket now around it's neck, send it once more after Karen.

Meanwhile, Swamp Thing's friends Dennis Barclay and Liz Tremayne are accosted in their hotel room by the Sunderland Corporation agent and hitman known as Grasp. Liz and Dennis, however, manage to get the drop on Grasp and flee the hotel to rendevous with their allies.

Swamp Thing, Kripptmann, and the others soon arrive at the synagogue. Though not as psionically powerful as Karen individually, Kripptmann's associates are able to work in concept to restrain her long enough for the golem, and later Swamp Thing himself, to attack her and deliver a death blow.

As the group departs, though, the reason for their seemingly anticlimactic and relatively easy victory over a previously unbeatable foe becomes clear. From the mouth of Karen's dead body we see her true form emerge, a smoke-like wraith with a horned head reminiscent of a dragon. 

Now freed from it's physical form, the Herald is able to take over the bodies mortal beings, and quickly possesses Liz Tremayne.  After causing their vehicle to crash, Karen/Liz grapples with Swamp Thing, her supernatural strength a match for Holland's own. Karen abruptly transfers her essence into Swamp Thing's body and tries to force him to kill Liz. It is only through extreme force of will that he is able to cast her out.

The ephemeral form of the Herald takes Liz's unconscious form, then teleports Holland, Kripptmann, Barclay, the golem, and the nearby Grasp to her fortress. She tells them telepathically that they will meet her master, the Antichrist, soon, and that they will know him by his number, 666.

As the issue ends we cut to a scene of General Sunderland reviewing Grasp's personnel file. On the screen we see Grasp's real name, Walter Ellenbeck, as well as his file number, 666.

As the finale issue of the arc opens, Grasp immediately attempts to carry out his assignment to kill Swamp Thing and his allies. Karen appears, again wearing Liz's body, and teleports Grasp somewhere unknown, before disappearing as well. Holland, Barlcay, and Kripptmann split up to try to find and help Liz.

Each of them encounters illusions that place them in their most horrific and traumatic memories, with those illusions hiding some sort of death trap. Holland relives the lab disaster that transformed him (in this point in the character's history) into the Swamp Thing, only to fall into a spike lined pit. Barclay relives the moment of his father's death, stumbling into a sand trap that drops him hourglass-like over a seemingly bottomless pit. Kripptmann relives his time as a trustee at a Nazi concentration camp, being forced to perform an autopsy on a loved one, in the process falling off of the roof of the fortress.

Swamp Thing frees himself from one trap and rescues Barclay from another, the two then setting off together to find both Liz and Kripptmann. They find themselves in a large cavern where Karen's essence manifests and shows them visions of Grasp as a Hitler-like figure, using mankind's innate hatred to bring about a nuclear apocalypse

 She then reveals the true form of the Beast, a giant seven headed dragon.

As the illusion fades, Swamp Thing finds Liz, bound and unconscious, Karen's locket around her neck, the golem lumbering toward her with ominous, mindless intent. Holland rushes forward and snatches the locket from her neck, and, much to his own surprise, a blast of psychokinetic energy bursts forth from his eyes, destroying the golem. Alec realizes that he must be channelling the excess psychokinetic energy stored in the locket, and that he is able to access it due to his extended psychic link with Karen.

Grasp teleports to the roof of the fortress, seemingly now under his own power, where Kripptmann is hanging onto the ledge for his life. He begins taunting Kripptmann and and attempting to kick him from his perch.

Using the energy of the locket, Holland levitates himself to the roof of the fortress (meaning Scott Snyder wasn't the first writer to make Swamp Thing fly). He begins blasting Karen's manifested essence with the remnants of her own power. As he does, her form begins to devolve, her head becoming that of first an insect, then a goat. Eventually she is blasted to dust, which vanishes through a portal from our reality.

As Grasp continues to assault Kripptmann he begins to change as well, his head becoming one of those of the dragon from the earlier vision. Willing to sacrifice himself, Kripptmann grabs the Antichrist by the foot and hurls them both from the ledge. The Swamp Thing catches Kripptmann, while Grasp falls to his death, thus ending the apocalypse before it could begin.

In the aftermath, Holland and his allies return to the Louisiana Swamp where he was first transformed, to allow the bio-restorative still in the waters to heal him and cure him of his degenerative disease. They are left wondering what to do next, knowing that Sunderland is still after them and not knowing why.

I have to say, I love the art in these two issues. Tom Yeates did the art in all but one issue of this mega arc, and he did each of the illustrated covers. Each of the covers is incredibly detailed, and almost always shows the Swamp Thing in some dramatic and dynamic action, like crashing through the wall of a train car while being attacked by vampires, grappling with a host of alien tentacle worms, or squaring off against the full dragon form of the Antichrist. Yeates' interior art, however, doesn't always capture this same spirit. A lot of the problem is there are so many panels per page that his artwork gets cramped and doesn't show a lot of detail. In issues 12 and 13, though, the panels are larger per page and Yeates really shines. Even relatively static panels, like Swamp Thing resting on the mountain ledge after defeating the golem, look powerful and dramatic. He also adds a lot of life to characters facial features, especially Liz Tremayne's. You can tell how he draws her face that Liz is an intelligent and and resourceful character.

Speaking of Liz, when I was little I had three comic book crushes: Wonder Woman, Medusa of the Inhumans, and Liz Tremayne. The "harem girl" masquerade costume aside (this is about a year before Return of the Jedi, by the way), Yeates makes Liz look strong and sexy just crossing a road in a simple blouse and a pair of slacks.

There's one last thing I want to touch on before we bring this installment, as well as the entire Karen Clancy epic, to a close. When Karen shows Alec the vision of Grasp's rise to power as the Antichrist, she speaks of "a host of followers who will serve the Beast", accompanied by images of hooded, cross burning Klansmen, goose stepping Nazis, and a fire and brimstone minister. Though I doubt that Pasko was implying that a preacher would willingly follow the Antichrist, I think it was a powerful statement on how rhetoric, in the wrong hands, can drive whole groups of people toward a path of hatred and intolerance. It's especially poignant that this message was delivered in the early 80s, when the Comics Code strongly discouraged displaying figures of authority in a negative light.

That's it then for this installment of Avatar of the Green. I want to thank everyone who's been following along, and of course to find me on Twitter @AotG_blog for any questions, comments, or concerns.

Next week we'll be continuing our coverage of Saga of the Swamp Thing with issues 14 and 15, by guest writer Dan Mishkin and guest artists Bo and Scott Hampton. AotG will also trying out a new format starting next week. In addition to at least one issue of a Swamp Thing series, I'll also be covering an issue of another series that showcases the darker corners of the DC universe. While I am eager to start covering books like Hellblazer, the Sandman, and Black Orchid, I want to wait for those until I get to the issues of Swamp Thing that were published with them concurrently, and that will likely be several weeks way (Hellblazer #1 was published the same month as Swamp Thing #68, so...). In the meantime, though, I have several dark corners books ready to go. For the "back up issue" in our next installment we'll be talking about a different Sandman, the gas gun wielding Wesley Dodds, in Sandman Mystery Theater #1.

Until then, as always, think Green and be epic!