2 out of 5

A snooze of undeveloped plot-threads and typically anti-climactic Millar writing.  (Spoiler: I don’t like Millar’s writing much.)

Sometimes, when something hasn’t been collected, you’ll hear about it as a lost treasure, something that you should track down via back-issues.  Sometimes this is accompanied by some backstory as to why it hasn’t been collected – Miracleman, Flex Mentallo (both collected now, of course) – and it makes the treasure hunt that much more exciting, and the goal more elusive.  Or at least expensive.  And then, sometimes, the lack of any mention of a particular set of issues is a good sign that maybe there’s another reason it was never collected.  Even when I was at the height of my Morrison fanboyism (Seven Soldiers era), I was disinterested enough in the Swamp Thing issue of his I had – #140, the first in his short four-issue contribution, co-written with Millar before Millar went solo for a bit – that I gave it away.  That… should be a good indication of things, considering I have an obsessive collector’s mentality and, for whatever reason, I was content letting that book go.  But I sort of had it mentally marked as something to maybe pick up again one day to read in full, and give it an actual chance.  With the release of this collection, it seemed like a good opportunity.

Now, full disclosure: I’ve never been able to get into Swamp Thing.  So that might be part of it.  Don’t know why.  I also owned a Saga collection from Alan Moore that I just couldn’t get into, and gave that away… though I’ve since re-bought it and the entire set because I feel like I have more experience with Moore’s writing style now to appreciate it, so when I finally get to digging in, perhaps I can put to rest whether it’s the character or the writers writing the character that’s not worked for me.  Morrison’s contribution here has some inklings of interest, but it serves primarily as a revamp and kick-off for Millar’s storyline, which I found way too wandering to build up any plotting tension.  But, very maybe if you’re a Swamp Thing fan, the references to other characters and past events make all the difference.  For me, it just felt sloppy, that I couldn’t glean who was who through context.  (Second full disclosure: it’s always possible I’m also an idiot with poor reading comprehension skills.)

So we start off with an early example of Morrison’s revamp skills.  Swamp Thing is – so it seems – split into two unique identities of human Alec Holland and now a monstrous and destructive and mindless plant elemental.  But this is explained through a dreams-within-dreams structure, Alec waking up from a drug-fueled coma in the middle of a quest of psychotropic researchings, giving Grant some room to talk about his interests at the time.  Phil Hester’s jangly art is a good fit for the herky-jerky tone of these issues, although the art – thanks to the washed out colors (Tatjana Wood) and somewhat forced experimentation with the style – looks like the early 90s Vertigo book it is.  And it pretty much turns out that the feeling like the story is never starting is because Grant is only there to set the stage for Millar, who then pursues a vague storyline wherein Swampy must face certain trials set up the Parliament of Trees.  A final exposition dump explains the reason for this; however, there’s rarely any sense of danger or threat – or anything that really resembles a “trial” – to these trials, so the explanation is almost excessive in that sense: explaining something about nothing.  My main problem with Millar, evident here, is that he’s an idea man, and his words only barely service the idea, bouncing between senseless one-liners and unnecessarily flourished language.  Not the Grant’s writing is great here either, refusing to actually establish any characters in favor of drug and dream patter, but since he’s only there to rev the engine in this collection, it’s easier to judge Mark.

In case it isn’t obvious, then, my opinion on Swampy hasn’t changed.  And I don’t think this is a lost gem, even if you are a Grant or Mark fan.  It’s nowhere near a full Grant story, just shades of him, and this is early Millar, so much more restrained and not the polished popcorn work he’s been successful with nowadays.  Sweet covers by John Mueller, though.