this swamp monster was, and still is, one of the strangest characters in the DC Universe, going on some of the weirdest adventures imaginable while fighting the scariest villains DC has to offer. However, when screenwriter Alan Moore began his legendary take on the character in the ’80s, things got really weird – the strangest thing happening when he was unwillingly forced to impregnate a sentient space station.
Created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson in the mid-1970s, Swamp Thing debuted as a man named Alec Holland. Holland was forced to run into a nearby swamp after the explosion caught him on fire and covered him in chemicals, turning him into a vegetative swamp monster.However, during the writing process in the 1980s, writer Alan Moore revisited Swamp Thing’s origins as a man with copy Alec Holland’s memories and character after his death in the swamp. This means that Swamp Thing is, in fact, a sentient organism made entirely of plants and connected to an elemental force called the Green. Through the green, Swamp Thing has the unique ability to control any form of plant life on any planet and create new bodies.
After a frequency scrambler created by Lex Luthor (more than just a Superman villain) banishes his consciousness from Earth, Swamp Thing accidentally comes into contact with a sentient space station composed of cybernetic plant life , named Technis. After creating a body from the station’s vegetation, Swamp Thing is surprised to find that his new body is made mostly of machinery – something that immediately catches the attention of Tecnis’ consciousness. After realizing Swamp Thing is made of the same materials as the space station, Tynis jumps at the chance to use Swamp Thing’s new body. Tynis ripped and clawed his cyborg body apart, extracted the genetic material and copied Swamp Thing’s memories to impregnate himself. After such a horrific experience, Swamp Thing left his mechanical body and allowed his simplicity to float in the universe.
What is particularly horrifying and offensive about this story? Swamp Thing Legend #60 The story is told from the perspective of Teknis, who acts as if there is something romantic about the situation. What’s even scarier is that Swamp Thing doesn’t agree with any of it. If anything, he had no idea what was going on and just saw it as torture. Although Swamp Thing is in pain throughout the story, Tynis claims it was motivated by love. With all this in mind, one must wonder what exactly Moore was trying to say. Perhaps this is a comment on the relationship between technology and nature.
Regardless of Alan Moore’s intentions, it remains one of the strangest stories DC Comics has ever published. Body horror was a prominent theme during Moore’s campaign. However, the story takes it to such a horrific sexual level that it’s almost difficult to read today. While the moral nature of Swamp Thing #60 is certainly controversial, it’s also incredibly strange and nearly impossible to forget after reading it.
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