Swamp Thing is a legendary character. He started out as a man who became a monster, but Alan Moore came onto his book with an amazing idea: what if he was a plant monster who thought it was a man? This changed the book – and the comic industry – forever. Moore’s run on Swamp Thing was brilliant, and it opened the doors for the modern comic industry. After he left, writer Rick Veitch took over the character, eventually taking him on a trip through time, where he met major historical figures. It was planned that one issue would have him meet Jesus, but DC got cold feet because of the Time/Warner Brothers merger. Swamp Thing #88 was shelved until the modern day, when the company finally gave readers the issue from Veitch and artist Michael Zulli.
Swamp Thing 1989 #1 is the resulting comic and it was more than worth the wait. Fans have clamored for this issue for decades, since its shelving started a minor uproar, and now that we got it, it’s everything we’ve wanted. This is a flawless comic, and that’s all there is to it.
Rating: 5 out of 5
So, obviously, the issue was shelved because of fears that it would be looked at as sacrilegious – this is after all what amounts to a team-up between Swamp Thing and Jesus to fight a demon – but reading it shows that Veitch wasn’t trying to make some grand statement on Christianity or anything like that. This is a classic team-up comic, in a lot of ways, except this time it’s a team up between the Bible and DC’s deepest characters. ’80s DC was experimenting with the comic in numerous ways, and this issue is basically a flawless example of that.
If you’ve ever read an ’80s Swamp Thing comic, this book has everything you love. Veitch is easily one of the best writers of the character (he’s top three, with Moore at number one and Len Wein as either second or third, depending on your preferred version of the character), and it shows on every page. The way he builds the plot – the demon Belial is summoned to kill Christ, using DC’s Golden Gladiator – is amazing and there’s an awesome shock moment in the issue that any fan of horror DC will love. This is a comic from a time when the craft was different, and it’s a joy to read.
Michael Zulli is one of the greatest artists in the history of the comic medium. His work on books like The Puma Blues and The Sandman is some of the most gorgeous you’ll ever see (his work on “The Wake” is exceptional; he penciled the book and sent it to the colorist like that, without inks, giving the lines an ethereal quality that fit the story), and that’s on display here. His work in this issue is gorgeous, with inker Vince Locke stepping in to give it all the right sheen and shadow.
I think what makes the art work for well for me is that this was an old book that was finished with modern techniques. A lot of the times, when DC tries to “fix” old art, it loses something, but this is classic art with the benefit of the last four decades of print evolution. This is like reading a hi-def comic in a lot of ways, and it makes everything hit so much harder. This book’s art is amazing in every way, and that’s all there is to it.
Swamp Thing 1989 #1 is a comic that fans have waited decades for and it was well worth the wait. The fact that this issue was always just a team-up comic between Swamp Thing and Jesus makes shelving it such a strange outcome. There’s nothing blasphemous about the book; it’s just an awesome little story that gives respect to the ideas at the center of the religion. They don’t make comics like this anymore.
Swamp Thing 1989 #1 is on sale now.
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