While a ways off from the level of Alan Moore, Vertigo’s new SWAMP THING series is a nevertheless a great reminder of why the title has long been my favorite comic book of all time. It’s a horror comic, and that may never have been more clear than in the case of SWAMP THING: LOVE IN VAIN.
The second collection of the new series, LOVE IN VAIN collects issues 9-14, comprising a four-issue and two-issue story arc which are closely related. In the first, the titular “Love in Vain,” a lonely Cajun girl who once communicated with Swamp Thing as a child fashions her own man out of dirt and wills it to life, unknowingly creating a tear in the boundary between Hell and this world, allowing Swampy’s arch-enemy Arcane to wreak more havoc, including mass hallucinations of tragedies past among the Louisiana bayou residents.
In the less-effective “A Measure of Faith,” the town is still dealing with the aftermath of that event when a facially disfigured traveling preacher arrives, to dispense gospel and steal their souls. Swamp Thing, of course, is on hand to retrieve them.
If the previous BAD SEED collection wasn’t supernatural enough for you, LOVE IN VAIN is your ticket. The monsters are positively Lovecraftian, and writer Joshua Dysart and artist Enrique Breccia make their horror horrific, with gruesome images unseen since the early days of Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN. We’re talking spike impalings, dismembered dogs and one poor guy who walks around with his head hanging off his neck. More blood is spilled on these pages than perhaps any other comic I’ve ever read. That would be senseless if there wasn’t a solid story in place, centered around an unusual hero to “root” for.
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I can’t get behind this series. As far as I’m concerned, SWAMP THING was dead to me as soon as Bernie Wrightson was off the book. The last thing I need from a horror comic book is some kind of Flannery O’Connor inspired cajun hoodoo-voodoo morality tale. I’ve heard the Alan Moore issues are good, but he is just way too wordy for me.