Swamp Thing Vol. 2: Love and Death
Vertigo - Vertigo
Release date: 1995-04-01
Paperback
Author: Alan Moore
Graphic Novels, Horror comic books, strips, etc, Fiction, Science Fiction, Comics & Graphic Novels / General, Comics & Graphic Novels / Horror, Comics & Graphic Novels / Superheroes, Graphic Novels - Horror, Graphic Novels - Superheroes, Horror, Superheroes, Science Fiction - General
average reviews
0 vote
0 vote
React and review
Swamp Thing Vol. 2: Love and Death
Date undefinedThe second volume of Swamp Thing explores the relationship between the former man, and the human woman.
Holland has come to realise that he is no longer human at all, but rather vegetable, and an earth elemental. Why, then does he have an interest in a human woman at all, or go out of his way to care for her?
Swamp Thing Vol. 2: Love and Death
Date undefinedThis is a magnificent collection of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing stories, featuring the incomparable art of John Totleben, Steve Bissette, and Shawn McManus. Picking up where the previous volume left off, we find Swamp Thing facing one of his greatest foes with his friends Abby and Matt Cable in mortal peril throughout the entire book. Moore's writing is brilliant as usual, and Swamp Thing starts evolving as a character in these stories into the powerful plant elemental that he is today. Featured in Love and Death are the following tales:
"The Burial" where an all-too familiar spirit of the restless dead plagues our favorite muck monster.
"Love and Death", the titular story, where we see horrific things stirring in the house of the Cables as Abby deals with what she knows her husband Matt has become.
"A Halo of Flies" where an unwanted family member returns, while Swamp Thing and Abby are haunted by premonitions of a terrible apocalypse.
"The Brimstone Ballet", featuring the climactic battle between Swamp Thing and his long-time foe Arcane, as only Alan Moore can tell it.
""Down among the Dead Men" where Swamp Thing goes on an odyssey to reclaim the soul of someone he loves, and encounters a host of DC's supernatural characters on his way to purgatory. Starring Deadman, The Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, and everyone's favorite demon Etrigan!
"Pog", one of the most heartfelt stories I have ever read featuring wonderful dialogue created by Moore where familiar words and expressions are combined to create an alien language unlike any other.
"Abandoned Houses", where Abby encounters Cain from the House of Mystery and Abel from the House of Secrets, and learns a shocking truth.
And lastly, "Rite of Spring", the famous plant-sex issue, a beautiful love story that stabs at the heart.
For any comic fan, the name Alan Moore is enough reason to buy this trade, but for those of you out there who have never read any Moore, pick up volume 1 entitled Saga of the Swamp Thing first, and then start with Love and Death and the subsequent books, collecting some of the most amazing comics you'll ever read.
Swamp Thing Vol. 2: Love and Death
Date undefinedI was turned on to The Swamp Thing after reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. Gaiman credits Moore for breaking new ground and showing him what was possible in comics, and when you look at Love and Death, you see what Gaiman meant. The macabre tone, the unusual use of panels (or lack of them), the unexpected bleeds across the gutter, all appear later on in Gaiman's work--but by reading this collection of The Swamp Thing, you can go back in time a bit and "see it for the first time." It's still fresh, it's still top notch writing after twenty years or so, and it will continue to hold up against the vast reams of mediocrity published monthly by Marvel and DC for the next twenty. Alan Moore didn't write this series for little kiddies: you can consider it the forerunner of DC's Vertigo line of comics, of which Sandman was the most famous.
This collection details the burgeoning (dare I say flowering?) relationship betwixt the Swamp Thing and Abby. The splash pages are incredibly well done, especially at the end of the story arc. Moore is practically silent on those pages, because he's smart enough to know when to shut up and let the artists tell the story. Highly recommended, both for its writing and its illustration!
