I love this issue. I only sort of remembered it, but I love what Wein and Wrightson do with it. Wrightson gets a story credit so maybe he’s the one who came up with the concept. Swamp Thing’s back in his swamp, basically just hanging around, when he comes across an old black woman. A very old black woman; she used to be a slave on a plantation nearby. She tells him a story about how the swamp is protected by the ghosts of slaves.

Then Arcane and his Un-Men show up and attack Swampy. You get a few pages of beautiful Wrightson fight art, then the slaves’ ghosts show up to save Swamp Thing. He sleeps through the fight; it happens unseen.

The issue has a dreamlike quality to it. It’s this haunting little story where Swamp Thing isn’t even the lead when fighting his nemesis.

Just wonderful.

Wein and Wrightson (he has some amazing panels this issue, whether Matt and Abby at the beach or a captured alien) are back on task this issue.

While Wein still overwrites, the plotting is so good it doesn’t matter again. This issue brings Swamp Thinig back to the swamp where he was created and Wein nicely contrives to get Matt back there too. Swamp Thing’s back to work in his lab—it only occurred to me this issue all his adventures previous were out of his control; the delay is because Arcane grabbed him second issue—and he runs into an alien.

The alien’s using the lab to repair his spacecraft, which leads to some misunderstanding between him and Swamp Thing. The alien design from Wrightson is singular; it’s utterly brilliant.

Cable shows up with the rest of the government agents to contain the situation.

Compications ensue.

A great issue.

While the cover—Swamp Thing versus green tentacles—might be memorable, this issue is the first where Wein doesn’t come up with something distinctive as far as narrative. It’s Swamp Thing not versus green tentacles but versus a Lovecraftian god. A really, really weak one who lives in a mine and eats people to get stronger. Swampy takes him out with a cave-in.

Wrightson’s panels, on the monster section, are very strong. He draws a hideous creature and does the summary of its history well too. But the rest of the issue feels dispassionate. Swamp Thing shows up in town after fighting a bear. It’s not a very interesting fight scene, against the bear, in a cave. And then there’s a bunch of talking heads pages, only since Swamp Thing doesn’t talk, it’s rather boring.

It’s decent enough, but something’s definitely missing.

I mean, where are Matt and Abby?

Swamp Thing arrives in Gotham to save Matt and Abby from the Conclave and runs into Batman. Wrightson doing Batman is something, especially seventies Batman. I love Bruce’s hair, but how does he fit it into the cowl?

Wein finds a great way to integrate Swamp Thing into the DC Universe proper; for a while, as he’s roughing up thugs for information, it’s clear he’d make an interesting pulp hero (which later writers came back to, I think). Wein even avoids most of his regular missteps, maybe because Batman takes up so much of the issue, not Matt. There is one regular Wein moment when Matt’s proud he’s not answering questions under torture (even though he doesn’t know anything).

The issue resolves some of the questions so far—but not why the Conclave’s leader has a pet monkey.

The only serious drawback is Batman gets the conclusion, not Swamp Thing.

It’s sort of amusing how Wein can construct these fantastic, devastatingly emotional moments for Swamp Thing… but still have inane plotting. This issue, Swamp Thing finds a little Swiss town in Vermont. He also discovers himself (as a human) and his dead wife living happily there. Wein soon reveals a Swiss clockmaker spent the thirty years putting together a town of androids, their identities from the obits. It’s purely coincidental he picked Alec and Linda Holland. Swamp Thing has some beautiful, depressing scenes with his wife’s android stand-in.

Now, Matt Cable and Abby show up—because no one in town has been filing their taxes. Matt’s gone from CIA agent to Interpol agent to IRS agent in six issues. Wein doesn’t acknowledge no one in town would file their taxes because they don’t have any income. They’re aware they’re robots.

Still, great art, memorable issue; albeit contrived Wein plotting.

Wein’s writing is back on track—except one page with incredibly awkward second person narration where he addresses the reader. Swamp Thing ends up in Maine, teaming up with a young woman accused of witchcraft and her little brother. Wein and Wrightson have a good time with the setting—even coming up with a conclusion I’m surprised the Comics Code let pass.

The issue opens with Swampy having to jump overboard on a freighter (there’s a brief explanation of how he got on the boat between last issue and this one) and it features some wonderful Wrightson art. Most of Swamp Thing, after the first issue, has been more traditional, British horror setting (even this issue) but the beginning is thoroughly modern. It’s interesting to see Wrightson do action, especially when it’s not monster-oriented.

The last page has a stunning soft cliffhanger.

Like every previous issue, this one’s indelible.

Okay, so this issue confirms Arcane (and Abby) were in the Balkans… so the English-speaking thing is problematic. This issue drops them (Abby, Matt and Swamp Thing) in Scotland on the moors for a bit of an “old dark house” and werewolf story.

Again, the draw is Bernie Wrightson doing a werewolf on the moors comic book. It looks fantastic. For the first time, I’m seeing a little of the Eisner eyes in Wrightson’s work. At times, his faces almost look like Ploog faces out of Werewolf by Night.

And Wrightson never worked with Eisner….

Anyway, the art’s the draw. As a horror comic, Wein’s script is all right. As a chapter in the Swamp Thing story, it’s problematic. Matt’s obsession with Swamp Thing is a little unbelievable and Abby’s barely a character. She doesn’t make a good damsel in distress.

Wein even stumbles on Swampy’s thought balloons here.

This issue introduces Abby (still Abigail and oddly a great English speaker for Eastern Europe) and the Patchwork Man. The issue’s incredibly awkward, because most of it is Wrightson doing this lovely homage to old Universal monster movies. The Patchwork Man looks just like the Boris Karloff Frankenstein Monster (down to having his outfit, albeit fluffier, from Son of Frankenstein) and the setting is very Universal, vague Eastern European. They spoke English in the movies too.

Wait, maybe it’s supposed to be Switzerland. I guess I can buy it if it’s supposed to be Switzerland….

So Swamp Thing takes a supporting role, with most of the narration in the second person, from the Patchwork Man’s point of view. Wein is ambitious, but falters. Plus, he’s got Matt Cable inciting the villagers to take up pitchforks and torches.

Still, the art and general tone make it a more than worthwhile read.