Saga of the Swamp Thing # 155 - The Secret of Slaughter Swamp: Chapter Four of River Run

Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson were geniuses. Not that they aren't still geniuses, mind you, but Swamp Thing was one of the few original characters of the post-Silver Age. Charcters like Swamp Thing are very few and far between anymore.

I think I got interested in Swamp Thing sometime after The Incredible Hulk TV show was cancelled. Swamp Thing was made into a pretty decent movie, and the comic was revived. I think I stayed for the first few half-dozen or so issues. I found a pocket paperback of Wein and Wrightson's stuff. A buddy of mine in high school had read the orignal stuff, along with House of Secrets and House of Mystery and Jonah Hex. 

I started reading Starman when the first issue, #0, came out. Right around the time that Starman #10 hit the stands, with Solomon Grundy on the cover, I saw another Vertigo title - I mean, the Vertigo version of Swamp Thing with Solomon Grundy on the cover there as well. I had read that Swamp Thing had changed over the years, and that there had been a great deal of controversy surrounding the title. Unfortunately, my interest in the charatcer had waned. I guess I was a band-wagon jumper. It was a fad. The Swamp Thing sequel had left a bad taste in my mouth; and since I didn't have cable, there was no access to the USA network's Swamp Thing series. I was able to find and be repelled by The Adventures of Superboy on a local channel. Even though I collected all twenty or so issues of the comic. 

I wondered what business Swamp Thing and Solomon Grundy would get into. The last I had seen of this Golden Age Hulk wanabe was as the more Appalachian, inbred, back woods member of the Challenge of the Superfriends.
 
As I started to read the issue, I thought, now why hasn't somebody thought to use Grundy in Swamp Thing before now? This is almost as genius as Swamp Thing himself.

Swamp Thing #155, The Secret of Slaughter Swamp (Chapter Four of River Run), really is a mixed bag. Written by the very talented Mark Millar, it's the story of Slaughter Swamp near Moline, Illinois; and the dreadful things done there. One thing in particular. About a handicapped boy named Michael.

I read this issue, and re-read it again from time to time, as a prologue to Starman #10. It sets the stage, in my mind, for his appearance there.

Here, Swamp Thing is a supporting character, pretty much like Batman was in some episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. Swamp Thing makes his appearance as Solomon Grundy, and faces off against a Golden Age hero with a power staff. Pretty much like Ted Knight, the Golden Age Starman and his cosmic power rod. This hero, who must go by the codename Black Box, because of the source of his power, unlocks they mystery of Slaughter Swamp, a mystery that is pretty much hinted at from the beginning of the story. It is an interestingly tragic story, filled with guilt and self-recrimination. The choices trhat we make most times come right back arund to bite us in the @$$.

It's a shame that we-written and drawn stories like this - where the hero appears near the edges, almost as a framing device or as a bookend - don't happen more often in books like Batman or Superman. It happens most here - I guess - and, in books like Astro City.