The Swamp Thing was and remains one of the weirdest characters in the DC Universe, having gone on some of the most bizarre adventures imaginable while fighting the scariest villains DC has to offer. However, things got really outlandish when writer Alan Moore began his legendary run on the character in the '80s -- the strangest of all taking place when he was unwillingly forced to impregnate a sentient space station.
Created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson during the mid-1970s, Swamp Thing debuted as a man named Alec Holland. After being set on fire an explosion and covered in chemicals, Holland was forced to run into a nearby swamp, transforming him into the vegetative creature Swamp Thing. However, during his run the '80s, writer Alan Moore retconned Swamp Thing’s origin so that he was a creature who had copied both memories and personality of Alec Holland after dying in the swamp. This meant that in reality, Swamp Thing was a sentient organism made completely of plants and was connected to an elemental force called the Green. Through the Green, Swamp Thing has the unique ability to control and create new bodies out of any form of plant life on any planet.
After having his consciousness expelled from the Earth by a frequency scrambler created by Lex Luthor (a villain to more than just Superman), Swamp Thing accidentally makes contact with a sentient space station made of cybernetic plant life, named Technis. After creating a body out of the station's vegetation, Swamp Thing was horrified to find his new body was mostly made of machinery -- which instantly gained the attention of Technis’ consciousness. After realizing Swamp Thing was made out of the same material as the station, Technis jumped at the opportunity to use Swamp Thing’s new body. Ripping and clawing apart his half-mechanical body, Technis extracted genetic material and copied Swamp Thing's memories to impregnate itself. After going through such a horrific experience, Swamp Thing left his mechanical body to let his conciseness drift among the cosmos.
What is specifically terrifying and off-putting about this story from Saga of the Swamp Thing #60 story is that it’s told from Technis’s point of view, who acts as if this situation is somewhat romantic. This is made even more horrible by the fact that Swamp Thing doesn’t consent to any of it; if anything, he’s completely unaware of what’s happening and sees it simply as a form of torture. Though Swamp Thing is in pain throughout the whole story, Technis claims to be doing it from a place of love. With all this in mind, one must wonder what Moore was intending to say. Perhaps this was a form of commentary on the relationship between technology and nature.
Regardless of Alan Moore’s intent, it remains one of the strangest stories ever published by DC Comics. Body horror was a huge theme during Moore’s run; however, this story brings it to such a terrifyingly sexual level that it’s almost hard to read today. Though the ethical nature of Swamp Thing #60 is certainly divisive, it is also so bizarre that it’s practically impossible to forget after reading.
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