The Stop Button

Ushering in its new format status (better paper), Moore and Totleben do something quite different for Swamp Thing. Forget the comic deviating away from Swampy’s perspective… Moore’s now just using it to experiment with the (comics, not new) format.

It is a prose issue, the story boxes against Totleben’s mixed media prints. DC really should have printed the issue twice, once with story, once without.

Moore’s not taking any shortcuts by going full prose. It’s a mother telling her babies a bedtime story. Only here, the mother is a living electronic planetoid who Swamp Thing happens across. It turns out the mechanical ecosystem works with his plant consciousness. She, the planetoid, then forces herself on him and gets pregnant… before he escapes.

Moore’s prose is stronger than expected. It’s a classic, high concept sci-fi story, relatively concisely told.

It’s a special issue; Moore and Totleben succeed in their attempts.