The Saga of the Swamp Thing #1

There was a short period in the early 1980s, prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths, when DC Comics went through something of a mini renaissance. Inspired by the success of the New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, DC began releasing a number of interesting new comics, and revitalising some of their existing properties. One such was Swamp Thing by Martin Pasko and Tom Yeates.

I wasn’t really around for Swamp Thing’s initial series by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, and I recall only a few of the later issues with Nestor Redondo on art. My real introduction to DC’s muck monster was in the short-lived Challengers of the Unknown revival of ‘76/’77.

This first issue of Saga of the Swamp Thing does a fine job of recapping Swamp Thing’s origin, showing us what Swampy is capable of, and setting up plot lines for future issues. Martin Pasko is always a dependable writer, but I remember being most impressed by the layouts and woodcut-like artwork of Tom Yeates. That remains true today.

Less than two years later, Alan Moore would revolutionise Swamp Thing, and Pasko’s run tends to get overlooked. That’s unfortunate, because there were a lot of good stories during this run; some of which Moore expanded upon later.

I’d forgotten that there is a second story in this issue, Phantom Stranger by Bruce Jones and Dan Spiegle. Bruce Jones was something of a favourite writer at the time, for his work on Ka-Zar the Savage at Marvel, and I always enjoyed Dan Spiegle’s art when I came across it (he would have a fantastic run on a revival of Blackhawk not that long after this issue came out). Sorry to say, though, that this was a very slight tale. No wonder I forgot it.

Bee-Boy awarded this comic 3 stings