History Recap / SwampThingVolume2Issue37GrowthPatterns

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

--> "I'm a nasty piece of work, chief. Ask anybody."\\
'''-- John Constantine'''

* VaguenessIsComing: What or who is it? No one agrees. What will it do when it returns? (More specifically, that is, than presumably [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt end the world]]?) No one knows. When's it coming? In a year or less.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: When John declines Emma's offer to spend more time in bed with her, she asks whether she's ever told him what her father says about Englishmen. "Yes, you did," he responds, "no, we're not, and if I ever meet your dad I'm going to chin him." The implied word after "not" is, of course, "gay." In 1985, Comics Code Seal or no Comics Code Seal, open acknowledgement of homosexuality was still pretty much unheard of in mainstream American comics.

* {{Hikikomori}}: Benjamin Cox, perhaps because he's ashamed of his [[SpeechImpediment stutter]] and ConvulsiveSeizures, or perhaps because (as John puts it) he's "crackers," lives with his elderly mother and apparently doesn't get out at all.

On the thirteenth day, Abby leaves the swamp for her job as usual, only to find Constantine suddenly appear in her car en route. Blackmailing her with a threat to tell her employer about her relationship, he has her take him to meet the Swamp Thing. Disregarding the creature's anger, as he's still rooted, John introduces himself and suggests they can help each other. After all, he tells the Swamp Thing, "I know what you are, mate...and you don't." By way of example, Constantine notes that he's only just now discovered he can regenerate, and still doesn't realize that he can exploit that ability for transport, by regrowing himself anywhere on Earth. He also refers to the Swamp Thing as the "last plant elemental" in the world, then walks away, claiming to have wasted his time.

* SelfConstructedBeing: When the Swamp Thing came into existence, he formed his body from vegetation semi-consciously. Now, for the first time, he regenerates consciously.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: When John declines Emma's offer to spend more time in bed with her, she asks him whether she's ever told him what her father says about Englishmen. "Yes, you did," he responds, "no, we're not, and if I ever meet your dad I'm going to chin him." The implied word after "not" is, of course, "gay." In 1985, Comics Code Seal or no Comics Code Seal, open acknowledgement of homosexuality was still pretty much unheard of in mainstream American comics.

Meanwhile, John Constantine, a London-based occult detective, makes the rounds of his English and American contacts, all of whom inform him that something, or someone, of immense destructive power is returning to the world within a year or less. However, they differ on what that is. In London, the drugged-out clubber Judith says it's a giant cosmic energy field. In Wisconsin, the nerdy shut-in Benjamin Cox says it's Cthulhu, even though everyone else considers Cthulhu fictional. In Washington, the nun Sister Anne-Marie claims it's Satan.

Meanwhile, John Constantine, a London-based occult detective, makes the rounds of his English and American contacts, all of whom inform him that something, or someone, of immense destructive power is returning to the world within a year or less. However, they differ on what that is. In London, the drugged-out clubber Judith says it's a giant cosmic energy field. In Wisconsin, the nerdy shut-in Benjamin Cox says it's Cthulhu, even though everyone else considers the entity fictional. In Washington, the nun Sister Anne-Marie claims it's Satan.

Meanwhile, John Constantine, a London-based occult detective, makes the rounds of his English and American contacts, all of whom inform him that something, or someone, of immense destructive power is returning to the world within a year or less. However, they differ on what that is. In London, the drugged-out clubber Judith says it's a giant cosmic energy field. In Wisconsin, the nerdy shut-in Benjamin Cox says it's [[CthulhuMythos Cthulhu]], even though everyone else considers the entity fictional. In Washington, the nun Sister Anne-Marie claims it's Satan.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: When John declines Emma's offer to put off going to Louisiana and spend more time in bed with her, she asks him whether she's ever told him what her father says about Englishmen. "Yes, you did," he responds, "No, we're not, and if I ever meet your dad I'm going to chin him." The implied word after "not" is, of course, "gay." In 1985, Comics Code Seal or no Comics Code Seal, open acknowledgement of homosexuality was still pretty much unheard of in mainstream American comics.

* TheInsomniac: Judith claims not to have slept in weeks.

* SelfConstructedBeing: When the Swamp Thing came into existence, he formed his body from vegetation semi-consciously. Now, for the first time, he regenerates consciously.

Meanwhile, in New York, the nightmarish sketch comes to life, leaves the canvas and corners Emma. As Constantine's other contacts remotely see what she sees and cry out in terror, Emma flings herself out the window, to her death. The being then returns to the canvas as a lifeless drawing.