SWAMP THING versus SCARECROW
Urban Jungle (DC)
Where: Swamp Thing #19 When: June 2013
Why: Charles Soule How: Kano
The Story So Far...
A mysterious figure known as The Seeder has been leading Swamp Thing on a grim quest across the globe. As champion of The Green, it has been Swamp Thing's solemn duty to restore balance by destroying the lush crops created in unnatural environments.
Weary of his mission after destroying a war torn tropical rainforest in the Sahara; Swamp Thing seeks the solace of the man-made cities he left behind in his former life. Thus, he travels the network of The Green to arrive in Metropolis, where night has fallen, and the Botanical Garden sits quietly nestled within the concrete jungle.
The solitary, after hours walk reconnects him with fond memories of past visits when Alec Holland was a mere grad student. He hears rustling excitement shimmering through the trees as their defender walks near, but the rats gnawing at banyan roots aren't the only threat. An interloper has broken in to prune samples of a rare poisonous flower -- The Scarecrow!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Swamp Thing 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Draw 5 (Professor)
Speed: Draw 2 (Average)
Stamina: Swamp Thing 6 (Generator)
Agility: Swamp Thing 7 (Unlimited)
Fighting: Swamp Thing 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Swamp Thing 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Swamp Thing 33 (Super)
Scientist Alec Holland was working on a bio-restorative formula when a bomb planted in his Louisiana laboratory set off an unforeseen chain reaction! Aflame, and doused in his own experimental formula -- Holland ran burning to the swampland outside, infusing the marsh with his consciousness as his body was returned to the earth and replaced by the form of Swamp Thing!
As an avatar for the collective will of all natural life and vegetation, Swamp Thing has access to a broad range of abilities associated with "The Green".
Along with the super-human strength his humanoid plant-form possesses, Swamp Thing is also intrinsically linked to flora, able to conjure and manipulate a mighty forest from a simple sapling. He can also benefit from the properties of plants, allowing him to regenerate, grow an entire new body, and travel along root systems. He commands these skills with the intelligence of Alec Holland.
Scarecrow is a learned man himself, but his interest lies in the nature of the mind. A former psychologist: Jonathan Crane's focus on the field of fears and phobia became a sadistic obsession he inflicted on the citizens of Gotham City.
Crane specializes in turning plant toxin and chemicals into potent hallucinogens capable of inducing intense terror in unwilling subjects. We saw an example of these results when Batman attacked his protégé Robin in Batman #629.
The Batman remains Scarecrow's most persisting arch-nemesis. He was there to thwart an attempt to poison children through manufactured dolls in Batman: Dark Victory #3, and provided dread when Crane's experiments robbed him of the sensation of fear in Batman: Gotham Knights #49!
For the most part, Scarecrow poses very little physical threat. He briefly gained the ability to transform into a towering Scarebeast, as in Batman #628, but this Jekyll & Hyde ailment was ultimately short-lived.
Scarecrow's dominion remains that of the mind. His devious ability to refine & reinvent his fear-inducing formulas -- and their method of delivery -- makes him a constant danger to even those who've been inoculated. Which leaves only one question for today's featured battle: Does a plant know what it is to be afraid?..
The Tape: Swamp Thing Ranking: Scarecrow (#382)
What Went Down...
The seclusion of Metropolis Botanic Gardens after dark is interrupted when a wiry figure breaches the outer gate and prowls towards a small bed of blue flowers. Ignoring the warning signs, he squats to begin pruning the bulbs.
Knowing these buds as the potentially deadly digitalis terrorem -- Swamp Thing intervenes with a long, green tendril extending from the shadows of surrounding trees. The vine snags Scarecrow by the wrist and pulls his clippers skyward.
Swamp Thing's disembodied voice booms through the night, explaining the peril of the fear-inducing plant, which causes terrifying hallucinations and can kill if ingested. Properties he knows no doubt attracted the sack-masked villain.
Scarecrow explains his interest in the plant while hurriedly clipping away at the vine ensnaring his arm. The plant recoils back to its source in the dark, allowing the Scarecrow to finish stuffing his bag and smell the flower.
At last Swamp Thing emerges from the dark to loom suddenly in the moonlight. Even the fear-mongering villain finds himself startled by the monstrous figure!
The avatar of The Green orders Scarecrow to stop what he's doing, but he refuses, throwing a cloud of fear gas at the towering figure!
The Swamp Thing disappears within a pinkish-red cloud of gas, but his plant body is unfazed by its typical terror-inducing properties.
The powers of The Green prove far more effective against Scarecrow. With but a thought, Swamp Thing stirs the straw in Scarecrow's costume to grow anew, stretching into strands of ensnaring grass that wraps around his head!
In an act of desperation Scarecrow throws his hand out and sprays more jets of fear-toxin. While his right hand frantically grapples with the choking strands of grass, the other blasts a rainbow of gas in yellow, blue, green, and orange!
Swamp Thing is once again dismissive of the attack -- until the orange haze begins to take effect! His words fade to a long groan and his body goes limp.
The grass around his face and throat goes dead and Scarecrow is free to analyze his success. His fear formula comes in many varieties, prepared for any number of threats that might come his way. In the orange concoction - a brew of sixty-percent carbon dioxide perfectly absorbed by a plant body!
Scarecrow's gloating over the motionless body of his victim is cut short as a great rumble rolls in from the direction of the city.
As he turns, Jonathan Crane finds a most unexpected consequence of Swamp Thing's fearful rest: Metropolis is being overrun with gigantic vines!
The Hammer...
A simple choice of chemical ingenuity gives Scarecrow an unlikely victory, but you can bet its a temporary one! Not only is there out of control greenery to contend with, but also the hovering presence of Metropolis' favourite son, who has a sneaking suspicion he should be looking for Swamp Thing, at issue's end.
I've been looking for an opportunity to do much the same for quite some time now. This weird and wonderful combat combination is another installment in our October of Halloween horrors, but regular readers will also know it marks the long overdue arrival of Swamp Thing on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths!
Swamp Thing was one of the great creations of the Bronze Age, and an icon of the loosening standards of the Comics Code Authority in the early 1970s. He was the retro-tinged brainchild of Len Wein, whose work with artist Bernie Wrightson was beaten to the muck monster publishing trend by Marvel's Man-Thing just a few months earlier.
Both creations owed a tremendous debt to the 1940s comic book swamp monster, The Heap, as well as the convergent inspirations of movies like The Creature From the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, and horror's general resurgence within the censored comic book medium.
The original Swamp Thing first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (July 1971), before the character and concept was refined for the introduction of Alec Holland in the pages of Swamp Thing #1 (November 1972).
The Holland incarnation was the one that would become a pop cultural icon, surpassing Swamp Thing's contemporaries and forebears with a particular boost in the eighties through Alan Moore's revered run writing the series, and the two theatrical releases it helped to spawn.
Swamp Thing's influence at that time could also be felt in unrelated creations, like The Toxic Avenger, which participated in some indirect way with my fandom for the character's iconography.
Moore's work also facilitated the formulation of DC's Vertigo imprint. Swamp Thing was effectively tied up by Vertigo for the better part of three decades, allowing for the character's adult and conceptual potential to be fully explored.
You could never ask for that to be undone, but when Swamp Thing made his return to the DC Universe proper in 2010's Brightest Day, it was exciting. The line-wide reboot of The New 52 was very much not exciting, but in spite of its core foundational issues, it continued the further re-integration of Swamp Thing into the modern DCU, and the push for varied publishing was generally positive.
As a young reader, one of the few Swamp Thing comics I actually owned was a black & white oversized reprint that featured a story with Batman. Sadly, I don't remember what the story was, but if memory serves, it wasn't the type of action-packed crossover we would necessarily be talking about here.
Swamp Thing #19 in some small way echoes that childhood reading with the unusual challenge of Scarecrow against Swamp Thing. An irregular match-up that might be a little bit more interesting on paper than in execution.
At only twenty pages, the issue is generally a fairly light read split into two parts. The first half strolls casually through an episode of The Seeder plot, with a broad recap of Swamp Thing's musings and abilities transitioning to the second-half guest villain battle. It's good, but offers little in the way of nuance.
I don't want to dwell on the negatives too much. I'm quite simply not a fan of the New 52 and all it wrought. Some of that appears to inform things I didn't love about this issue, such as its relative simplicity. These read like introductory models of the characters, possibly informed by lesser multimedia incarnations.
That the crux of Scarecrow's appearance hinges on collecting blue flowers reads like a very weak reference to the derivative media of Batman Begins. It's not the worst thing in the world, but pretty on-the-nose for a medium that should offer so much more. Before the reboot, DC were fantastic at rooting character's appearances in deeper exploration and refinement of character's core concepts.
Artist Kano renders the type of iconic Swamp Thing you would expect to see in this kind of comic and that's a positive. Some of his layouts, particularly in the Scarcrow fight, leave some dead space with their large slanted panels, but the storytelling is clear, and tremendously supported by colorist Matthew Wilson.
For the most part I enjoyed this issue and that's the note we'll end on. If you'd like to get a taste for it yourself, you can pick this issue up collected in Swamp Thing Vol.4: Seeder.
Use the Amazon link provided when you shop and you'll not only get a pretty darn good deal, but also ensure Amazon wields The Green to support Secret Wars on Infinite Earths at no extra charge to you!
Hopefully we'll be seeing more Swamp Thing on the site in the future. You can find and discover more by following links in this post, or by diving into the Secret Archive for a complete index of featured fights in order of publisher, series, and issue.
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Winner: Scarecrow
#125 (+257) Scarecrow
#891 (new) Swamp Thing (Alec Holland)
Strength: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Strength: Solomon Grundy 6 (Invincible)
Strength: Demogoblin 4 (Enhanced)
