History Recap / SwampThingVolume2Issue22Swamped

%% * 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.

* SmallAnnoyingCreature: The Swamp Thing's humanity, in the form of a skull, nags him to keep running in the "[[{{Pun}} human race]]." Before long, the swamp creature tires of this and, seizing upon the skull's claim that "without me, there'd be no point in running," lies down and lets his body smother it.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: [[http://www.angelfire.com/pop/bay55/SwampThing/SwampBook022.html According to inker John Totleben]], Woodrue's dilated pupils, in the close-up panel after he tastes the Swamp Thing's tuber, are a deliberate if covert indication of [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs drug use]], still forbidden under the then-current version of the UsefulNotes/ComicsCode unless depicted as a "[[DrugsAreBad vicious habit]]." (Totleben states further that Woodrue's subsequent use of an [=EEG=] device was a smokescreen for the ''real'' method by which he tapped into the Green.) When DC began releasing the title without the Code's seal of approval, it freed the creative team to make the tubers' psychedelic properties more explicit and give them a recurring role in the series.

!!Tropes

--> '''Worm:''' Oh...by the way, you're not Jewish?\\
'''Swamp Thing:''' Uh...no...I come... from Holland.\\

* SmallAnnoyingCreature: The Swamp Thing's humanity, in the form of a skull, nags him to keep running in the "[[{{Pun}} human race]]." Before long, the swamp creature tires of this and, seizing upon the skull's claim that "without me, there'd be no point in running," lies down and lets his body smother it.

--> "If there's one thing that I despise, it's the sound of steak sobbing."\\
'''--Jason Woodrue'''

** Swamp Thing's slippage that began with the previous issue - finding out he's just [[TomatoInTheMirror a ghost in weeds]] - completes its arc here when he stops running in his nightmare and lets his "humanity" - Alec's annoying skull - get swamped by the enveloping Green...

* LightmareFuel: The dream sequences are a balance of horror (losing Linda and his own humanity, fighting monsters he's faced in previous issues) and comedy (the HurricaneOfPuns throughout, and the scene in which his humanity, in the form of a wisecracking skull, badgers him to keep running).

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: [[http://www.angelfire.com/pop/bay55/SwampThing/SwampBook022.html According to inker John Totleben]], Woodrue's dilated pupils, in the close-up panel after he tastes the Swamp Thing's tuber, are a deliberate if covert indication of [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs drug use]], still forbidden under the then-current version of the UsefulNotes/ComicsCode unless depicted as a "[[DrugsAreBad vicious habit]]." (Totleben states further that Woodrue's subsequent use of an [=EEG=] device was a smokescreen for the ''real'' method by which he tapped into the Green.) When DC, from Issues 29 and 31 onwards, began releasing the title without the Code's seal of approval, it freed the creative team to make the tubers' psychedelic properties more explicit and give them a recurring role in the series.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: [[http://www.angelfire.com/pop/bay55/SwampThing/SwampBook022.html According to inker John Totleben]], Woodrue's dilated pupils, in the close-up panel after he tastes the Swamp Thing's tuber, are a deliberate if covert indication of [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs drug use]], still forbidden under the then-current version of the UsefulNotes/ComicsCode unless depicted as a "[[DrugsAreBad vicious habit]]." (Totleben states further that Woodrue's subsequent use of an [=EEG=] device was a smokescreen for the ''real'' method by which he tapped into the Green and went mad.) When DC, from Issues 29 and 31 onwards, began releasing the title without the Code's seal of approval, it freed the creative team to make the tubers' psychedelic properties more explicit and give them a recurring role in the series.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: [[http://www.angelfire.com/pop/bay55/SwampThing/SwampBook022.html According to inker John Totleben]], Woodrue's dilated pupils, in the close-up panel after he tastes the Swamp Thing's tuber, are a deliberate if covert indication of [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs drug use]], still forbidden under the then-current version of the UsefulNotes/ComicsCode unless depicted as a "[[DrugsAreBad vicious habit]]." (Totleben states further that Woodrue's subsequent use of an [=EEG=] device was a smokescreen for the ''real'' method by which he tapped into the Green and went mad.) When DC, from Issues 29 and 31 onwards, began releasing the title without the Code's seal of approval, it freed the creative team to make the tubers' psychedelic properties more explicit and have them play a recurring role in the story.

There follows, interspersed with the main narrative, a series of comedy-horror scenes depicting the Swamp Thing's confused thoughts, or perhaps dreams, as the realization that he's not human after all sinks in. He lets go of his attachment to Linda, as he finds holding on to both her memory and his human identity too much to bear. Then he lets go of the latter as well.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the opening segment within Swamp Thing's mind, Abby says, "I see my [[EvilUncle uncle]] over there, talking to my husband. They're inseparable insects, you know." This foreshadows the events of Issues 27 through 31, in which [[spoiler:Anton Arcane, whose presence attracts flies, possesses Matt and exploits his reality-warping power]].

* HurricaneOfPuns: The sequences within the Swamp Thing's mind feature this throughout. For example, he comes across some human-sized planarian worms who invite him to join their feasting on Alec Holland's body (served with Hollandaise sauce).

* LightmareFuel: The segments taking place within the Swamp Thing's mind are a balance of horror (losing Linda and his own humanity, fighting monsters he's faced in previous issues) and comedy (the HurricaneOfPuns throughout, and the scene in which his humanity, in the form of a wisecracking skull, badgers him to keep running).

* SmallAnnoyingCreature: The Swamp Thing's humanity, in the form of a skull, nags him to keep running in the "[[{{Pun}} human race]]." Swampy tires of this and, seizing upon the skull's claim that "without me, there'd be no point in running," lies down and lets his body smother it.

* HiveMind: The Green, which is the collective consciousness of Earth's plant life, receives its first mention here. Moore, and subsequent writers for ''Swamp Thing'' and other titles, would subsequently expand on the Green's nature and role, turning the realm into a major part of the mythos in various DC continuities, alongside such corresponding realms as the Red (the collective animal kingdom mind/force), the Grey (fungus) and the Rot, [=AKA] the Black (decay and death).

* HiveMind: The Green, which is the collective consciousness of Earth's plant life, receives its first mention here.

* Foreshadowing: In the opening segment within Swamp Thing's mind, Abby says, "I see my [[EvilUncle uncle]] over there, talking to my husband. They're inseparable insects, you know." This foreshadows the events of Issues 27 through 31, in which [[spoiler:Anton Arcane, whose presence attracts flies, possesses Matt and exploits his reality-warping power]].

'''Worm:''' Good. That's good. We're all just [[ThoseWackyNazis plain Aryan worms]] here, you understand.