Off The Shelf -- Future State Swamp Thing #1-2

If you are a reader of regular DC titles, you will know already that you haven’t seen your books since last year. DC paused all of its titles for January and February so it could bring us the Future State event. Future State comes at the end, and as the aftermath, of Death Metal. The multiverse explodes with possibility and DC is showing us a vast realm of potential stories.

As someone who adores the old Elseworlds titles, there is a resonance with some of those. Not in the Batman as a vampire sense, but in the let’s ponder some other possible stories. We see a new Batman in Luke Fox, even while Batman continues to battle the Magistrate. And new Wonder Woman characters in Yara Flor and Nubia that coexist alongside Diana Troy. A whole new multiverse appears to be upon us for the intertestamental period after Death Metal and before Infinite Frontier.

A few complaints have of course arisen that it just seems like a testing ground for new characters. Others have mentioned that there is no real reason to get connected to these characters because they will mostly be gone after February. To be fair however, many of these stories are interesting ideas and one of the reasons that I enjoyed picking them up is precisely because I needed very little background. There was no continuity to deal with. No stack of back issues to plow through to understand how the families of stories fit together. Nope. None of that. Just some cool (mostly) stories that I can pick up, enjoy and not worry about larger ramifications. 

One of the Future State titles that I picked up was precisely because I thought I needed very little knowledge of. While I have had volumes one and two of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing on my shelf for a while now, I have not read it. So I picked up the Future State Swamp Thing, with the creative team Ram V writing, Mike Perkins drawing and June Chung with the colors. I had only the slimmest passing knowledge of the character, knowing that Swamp Thing showed up in various Justice League endeavors, like the recent Endless Winter event, or Justice League Dark. 

This independence gave me the freedom to pick it up. And for the most part I am glad I did. The first thing to notice is that the style of this book is different. The other titles I read have an art style indicative of most comics currently. Distinct colors with a limited pallet and what I can only describe as well-behaved shadow. Shadows cast neat lines. THey do not bleed into everything, creating murkiness and chaotic shapes that obscure faces and structures. Much of the art reminds me of the horror comics my great-grandmother used to unknowingly buy me. (Or if she knew, she never let on… ) And it plays well in this tale. 

The story takes place long in the future when humanity has been destroyed by the world; nature itself responded to the violence that humanity foisted upon the earth and was ultimately wiped out. In the aftermath, Swamp Thing is left as ruler over all the earth, at least ruler wherever the Green, the planet’s life force, has a foothold. Swamp Thing is recounting this history to his daughter Calla. Humans, he tells her, were flawed creatures; so capable of amazing change, but preoccupied with violence. 

 Since the end of humanity, Swamp Thing has been engaged in the creation of his own family. Throughout the two volumes there are asides where Swamp Thing details the steps he took in creating his own family, harnessing the power of the Green, manipulating the plant growth to produce offspring, earning the title Green Father. We see a large band of this family, but become acquainted with only a few. The child Calla, the favored Heather, the cynic Indigo, the older Vruk. The family exists to aid their father in searching for any remaining human beings. A great mystery to the family since Swamp Thing never tells them why they are engaged in the search. 

But by the end of the first issue, humanity has been discovered, far away in the North where the Green has no power for lack of plants. And at least part of humanity seeks aid from the legendary thing from the swamp because there is still some element of humanity that seeks to ensure that the Green is wiped out since nature was the downfall of humanity. 

Leading that endeavor is Jason Woodrue, the former worshipper of the Green. Woodrue, who went so far as to attempt to transform his body into a walking facsimile of Swamp Thing in hopes that he would be accepted and welcomed into the Green itself. Their spurning of his effort, along with their destruction of humanity, turns Woodrue into a spurned zealot who now with the help of the corpse of Obisidian and his power of shadow, will blot the sun out completely. This action will guarantee that the Green and all of its power will be destroyed. Humanity will ultimately win the contest. 

Frankly, this rationale is the weakest part of the otherwise tight story. The darkened earth will be a hellscape for the remnant of humanity. How they plan to survive is unknown, although it does appear that the humanity engaged in this Obsidian Sun project has control over a former Star Labs facility and were growing plants for food without the Green knowing about it. It is entirely possible that they had some plan, but they never even mentioned it. 

 In the end, it matters little whether Woodrue is successful or not. It matters only that Swamp Thing’s tale about humans and their pre-occupation for violence is still very much alive, nurtured carefully through those cold dark years in the North.. Swamp Thing, his family and the rebel humans respond to the violence Woodrue and his minions are about to inflict on the earth with their own. The battle scene is only a few pages, but is left within my memory as a major part of the book. Swamp Thing’s power made manifest as he and his band plow through the facility with ease. 

But in the end, Swamp Thing is forced to do two things. First, he must finish the story he would always start with Calla, but never conclude. He must be honest that it was he who the Green used to overcome humanity. His violence as the ruler of the earth punishing the wayward humans. Second, Swamp Thing had to make a terrible choice and undergo a great sacrifice. Was his effort in pursuing any remnant of humanity about wiping them out? In the end, no. He refused the calls of his family, his own creation, a people over whom he labored long, for their violence against them. At their anger Swamp Thing chooses an unbearable sacrifice, one which he is incredibly familiar given the unfinished part of his tale. Ultimately though, Swamp Thing refuses to end humanity because they are capable of being more than their flaws, tha they can transcend their bounds. Goodness is at the heart of humanity, and Swamp Thing refuses to ignore that. 

 I am reminded of the words of God in the first creation story. God looks out over all that has been created and claims that it is “very good.” And it cannot be ignored that being created in the image of God, grants what some call the Original Blessing that Original Sin cannot nullify. Swamp Thing knows this at the moment of his sacrifice because he too had a human existence, a human soul at his core. Following the Green, he wiped out humanity, a family out of which he came. Now he repays the survivors for his terrible wrath with mercy, even at a great cost. 

There is a great deal to reflect upon in this story. But despite the wildly chaotic, shadowy ink, there is ultimately hope and goodness to be found. We are not flawed beyond redemption. God has created us with a capacity to do good, even if we have a tendency to forget about it from time to time.