History Recap / SwampThingVolume2Issue43Windfall

* {{Jerkass}}

--> "I guess in the end, you're as good a person as you think you are..."\\
'''-- Chester Williams'''

* CallBack

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Chester sings a number of classic sixties songs on the way home from the swamp. More accurately, he only ''sings'' the occasional line from each one, and hums or uses filler words for the rest ("And something something--la la la... / [[Music/TheBeatles Strawberry fields forever]]." You'd think a hippie would know the entire chorus of ''that''). Presumably this was so DC could avoid having to request permission from the copyright holders.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Chester sings a number of classic sixties songs on the way home from the swamp. In fact, he only ''sings'' the occasional line from each one, and hums or uses filler words for the rest ("And something something--la la la... / [[Music/TheBeatles Strawberry fields forever]]." You'd think a hippie would know the entire chorus of ''that''). Presumably this was so DC could avoid having to request permission from the copyright holders.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Chester sings a number of classic sixties songs on the way home from the swamp. In fact, he only ''sings'' the occasional line from each one, and hums or uses filler words for the rest ("And something something--la la la... / [[Music/TheBeatles Strawberry fields forever]]"). (You'd think a hippie would know the entire chorus of ''that.'') Presumably this was so DC could avoid having to request permission from the copyright holders.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Chester sings a number of classic sixties songs on the way home from the swamp. In fact, he only ''sings'' the occasional line from each one, and hums the rest. (You'd think a hippie would know the entire chorus of "[[Music/TheBeatles Strawberry Fields Forever]]".) Presumably this was so DC could avoid having to request permission from the copyright holders.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Chester sings a number of classic [[TheSixties sixties]] songs on the way home from the swamp. In fact, he only ''sings'' the occasional line from each one, and hums the rest. (You'd think a hippie would know the entire chorus of "[[Music/TheBeatles Strawberry Fields Forever]]".) Presumably this was so DC could avoid having to request permission from the copyright holders.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Chester sings a number of classic [[TheSixties sixties]] songs on the way home from the swamp. In fact, he only ''sings'' the occasional line from each one, and hums the rest. (You'd think a hippie would know the entire chorus of "[[Music/TheBeatles Strawberry Fields Forever]].) Presumably this was so DC could avoid having to request permission from the copyright holders.

* RefugeInAudacity: Milo's friend, after lambasting Chester for messing up Milo's head with the "stuff," suddenly grins enthusiastically and asks whether he has any more.

** The {{Call Back}}s within Milo's bad trip are more specific, referencing the Swamp Thing's origin story (Volume 1 Issue 1 and elsewhere), the Patchwork Man (Vol. 1 #3), the Conclave robots (Vol 1. # 6), General Sunderland, the [[{{Recap/SwampThingVolume2Issue38StillWaters}} Rosewood "Mother" vampire]], the Monkey King, a werewolf (Vol. 1 #4), the Un-Man Cranius (Vol. 1 #10), an alien (Vol. 1 #9), and finally, as the driver who accidentally kills Milo: [[BigBad Arcane]].

* OutOfFocus: Neither the Swamp Thing nor Abby appear in this issue to a significant degree (Abby not at all, Swamp Thing only in the first four panels, walking through the swamp as the tuber falls off him).

* OutOfFocus: Neither the Swamp Thing nor Abby appear in this issue to a significant degree (Abby not at all, Swamp Thing only in the first four panels, walking through the swamp as the tuber falls off him.)

* FantasticDrug: The Swamp Thing's tubers, which structurally resemble datura root.[[note: A RealLife psychoactive plant which even pro-hallucinogen experts consider [[DontTryThisAtHome extremely dangerous]].]]

* DrugsAreGood / DrugsAreBad: The issue is a rare example of a story which plays both tropes straight and with equal weight given to the good and bad trips. Compare ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', which portrays a [[GangBangers gang member's]] bad trip on [[FantasticDrug KT-28s]] as well as the young Ozymandias's good trip on a massive hashish dose. Contrast ''Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen: Century'', in which Mina Murray's [[FantasticDrug tadukic acid]] trip triggers a psychotic episode, and the (far more common in Moore's work) portrayal of drugs as uniformly [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs enlightening]] in ''Comicbook/VForVendetta'' and ''Comicbook/{{Promethea}}''.

In the Houma swamp, hippie dealer Chester Williams finds one of the Swamp Thing's wind-loosened tubers (without yet knowing its origin) and takes it home to analyze and identify as a possible psychoactive drug. After divinding it in thirds, examining it under a microscope and consulting field guides, he receives a visit from his friend Dave, whose wife Sandy is dying of cancer. In tears, he asks Chester whether he has anything that can ease her pain in her final days. Chester, however, is going clean at the moment and is all out of drugs, but out of concern he gives Dave a third of the tuber for free, on the hunch that its structure is similar to datura root and therefore may be a psychedelic.

This contrasting feedback prompts Chester to wonder whether the tuber is a "cosmic litmus test" that tells people whether they're good or bad. After tossing out Milo's friend for asking if he has any more, Chester mulls over what he feels are his own moral strengths and weaknesses. He comes close to eating the remaining piece, but decides not to.

* DrugsAreGood / DrugsAreBad: The issue is a rare example of a story which plays both tropes straight and with equal weight given to the good and bad trips.

In the Houma swamp, hippie dealer Chester Williams finds one of the Swamp Thing's wind-loosened tubers and takes it home to analyze and identify as a possible psychoactive drug. After divinding it in thirds, examining it under a microscope and consulting field guides, he receives a visit from his friend Dave, whose wife Sandy is dying of cancer. In tears, he asks Chester whether he has anything that can ease her pain in her final days. Chester, however, is going clean at the moment and is all out of drugs, but out of concern he gives Dave a third of the tuber for free, on the hunch that its structure is similar to datura root and therefore may be a psychedelic.

** The {{Call Back}}s within Milo's bad trip are more specific, referencing the Swamp Thing's origin story (Volume 1 Issue 1 and elsewhere), the Patchwork Man (Vol. 1 #3), the Conclave robots (Vol 1. # 6), General Sunderland, the [[{{Recap/SwampThingVolume2Issue38StillWaters}} Rosewood "Mother" vampire]], the Monkey King, a werewolf (Vol. 1 #4), the Un-Man Cranius (Vol. 1 #10), an alien (Vol. 1 #9), and finally, as the driver who accidentally kills Milo: [[BigBad Arcane]].

Moments after Dave has left, Chester receives an unwanted visit from Milo, a nasty acquaintance who just wants to get high. Refusing to believe that Chester's out of product, he spots the tuber and demands a piece. With great reluctance, Chester finally offers it to him for fifteen dollars, but Milo simply takes it and leaves, claiming he'll pay later.

* NewAgeRetroHippie: Chester, though too young to have been part of the original hippie subculture, dresses and talks the part, in addition to preferring sixties music and being a psychoactive drug enthusiast and dealer. Nevertheless, in this and all subsequent appearances he's a well-rounded, sympathetic character, not a "point and laugh" ThemeParkVersion of a hippie.