The Complete Aztec Ace!

It was a great pleasure to at long last read the full run of Doug Moench's Aztec Ace from Eclipse. I was an Indy fan when this book debuted from Eclipse but soon had to draw back in because of family responsibilities and financial obligations. One cannot justify getting expensive (at the time) comic when the wife and child need to taken care of. I could've filled in the collection at anytime, but never did. But when I saw that Dark Horse had reprinted the complete run with a few extras I was intrigued. That is until I saw the asking price of $79.99 -- too much for idle curiosity I thought. Then I found the book for half that and jumped. I'm very happy I did for this is a very intriguing read. I won't suggest it's a complete epic, because the reader is left with a number of questions after all is read and done. But that's to be expected of a series this densely packed with details and motivations which doesn't reach its natural ending. 

Aztec Ace is a time traveler from the 23rd century who operates out of a base hidden in the world of the Aztecs in the 14th century. The funniest detail is that he uses the accumulated slime from slugs to power his time travel devices. He hooks up with a woman named Bridget Kronopoulous from 1940 and they fall in love. But first she has to die. Later they take a swing at a bogus Ben Franklin and a fake Cleopatra among others. There are appearances by the real Amelia Earhart, Glenn Miller and Ambrose Bierce. They have an ally hidden in a head shop in 1969 and another who is a detached head who sounds like Sigmund Freud. They make sure that Galileo's work survives. They battle strange creatures called "Gaunts" which serve the whims of a man behind a gas mask named Nine-Crocodiles who rules a land isolated from time itself. The latter has a wife named Shakreen who gives birth to a baby, but the baby might the child of Aztec Ace himself. Aztec (or Caza as he's called) pretends to be a number of things including a Mummy and a bonafide Golden Age superhero. There is no way to fully explain all that goes on in this series without creating a vast network of cross-referenced entries with deep annotations. The series rewards dealing with the complexity by treating the reader as an adult. 

Doug Moench's scripts are dense and require a reader's full attention, but that's worth the effort. The artwork is by a number of talented chaps including Mike Hernandez who does the first two issues another later on, and Ron Harris who lays out several issues late in the run. Tom Yeates sneaks in toward the end of the series and I assume we'd have seen more from him if it had continued. (His cover rendition of Cleopatra in the penultimate issue is a stunner.) But the core of the art is done by Dan Day who offers up sterling and ornate artwork ideally suited to the tone of the book. Nestor Redondo is on hand to give the series a solid look with is masterful inks. Mike Gustovich steps in to ink later issues with great results. 

Below are the covers for the full run. Also included in the collection is a single story from Total Eclipse. 

It's a lot of money for a collection. But if you can find it for less like I did, I highly recommend it. It was nice to time travel back to the 80's again, if even for a little while. 

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Swamp Classics - The Leviathan Conspiracy!

The original run of Swamp Thing rumbles along for several more issues, but in many ways the thirteenth issue of the classic comic can be seen as the last of the original concept because it marks the final one done by one of the original creators. Len Wein steps away from his Swamp Thing after writing an issue which appears to want to tidy things up, a bit anyway.

The story begins as Matt Cable, Bolt and other men glide in a power boat through the swamps looking for Swamp Thing who is at the same time battling against mutant creatures which seem to increasingly populate his native swamp. He is reflecting on these weird beasties when Cable and his crew find and subdue Swamp Thing whisking him off to Washington D.C. where Swamp Thing is imprisoned in a laboratory habitat under the scrutiny of one Professor Coolidge Degrez despite Cable's objections. Swamp Thing escapes and Degrez is killed by guards trying to stop Swamp Thing. He is recaptured under the orders of Commander John Zero who eventually gives Cable permission to try and communicate (at long last) with Swamp Thing. Cable does and eventually and painfully Swamp Thing reveals finally that he is Alec Holland and describes how he came to be the Swamp Thing. Cable and Abigail Arcane decide they will work to free the Swamp Thing but are almost stopped by Bolt, still seething with rage. Cable talks  him down and convinces ultimately to help them get the Swamp Thing out of the lab. The scene then cuts to the funeral of Professor Degrez and as the mourners leave the grave begins to rumble as Swamp Thing climbs up out of the earth. Cable had hidden him inside the coffin underneath Degrez and elude detection. Now that he is alone Swamp Thing finds his grave alongside that of his wife Linda and realizes painfully that the life he had hoped to return to is lost forever. He turns his back on Cable and Abigail and chooses instead to shamble into the swamps where he feels more at home.

You do get the sense that Len Wein wanted to tie up some threads in this story and to some extent he does by finally having Cable learn the secret he's chased for nearly two years. The fact that Alec Holland is Swamp Thing is a secret only the reader had known, but which going forward would be an aspect of the story open to others. It does somewhat shift the tone of the story from tragedy to one of mere sympathy, though it does open plot possibilities. For one, I'm glad it happened as Cable's ongoing quest was one of the few things which fueled the preceding issues. Also the fact that for now Swamp Thing has relented and no longer seeks to return to his former life as Alec Holland likewise winds up the saga, at least in  this early stage.

This issue was a hodge-podge of details, again more of a sci-fi outing than having much to do with horror. I find the naming of the characters fun in this one with "Coolidge Degrez" and "John Zero" both suggestive, particularly since they use extreme cold to trap and control the Swamp Thing. I guess this has thematic implications, counterpointed with the vital boggy nature of Swamp Thing himself, but it feels undeveloped here at best.

I did love that the totally awesome Nestor Redondo cover image of Swamp Thing erupting from a grave was not merely symbolic, though the idea he was squished into a coffin alongside a full-grown man seems speculative at best. Some plot devices work and some fall short. This one seemed  a bit half-baked despite its decidedly horrific power.

I appreciate the final sequence with Swamp Thing shambling off into the wilderness of his swamp, the one place he spent most of the early issues returning to and which has become a haven of sorts now. It brings a reasonable closure to the saga in this first stage.

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Swamp Classics - The Eternity Man!

Often Swamp Thing can seem like a bystander in his own comic. That's certainly not the case with the twelfth issue of the character's original run by Len Wein and Nestor Redondo.

The story begins where the last issue left off, with a time lost Swamp Thing face to face with a prehistoric Tyrannosaurus Rex-like dinosaur.  He fends it off but is helped by an anachronistic caveman who attacks the beast and between the two of them the brute is killed. But the caveman too is killed and expires as two purple lights gleam in his eyes, purple lights similar to a great jewel which might responsible for transporting the Swamp Thing through time. Swamp Thing beings to fade as the caveman recovers and grabs the large jewel. A series of interludes finds Matt Cable trying to recruit Bolt to work with him to find the Swamp Thing; Bolt finally agrees despite his inexplicable anger towards Swamp Thing over Ruth's death. Swamp Thing finds himself transported to ancient Rome and ends up in the arena battling gladiators and lions. One gladiator who fights with him seems blind until he is killed and reveals the same odd purple gleam as the caveman. After Swamp Thing disappears this time the warrior rises and wanders off. Swamp Thing ends up in the Middle Ages in Europe during the Black Plague years and finds a man named Milo and a witch. Swamp Thing learns that Milo has stolen a great purple gem from her which gives him eternal life but she places a curse on him that he will become trapped in a never ending cycle of death and rebirth through time. Soon enough Swamp Thing is transported to American swamps he came from but during the Civil War where he encounters the man with the purple eyes who dies yet again. Then we at last return to the present where the man who was Milo confronts Swamp Thing to kill him since being killed by a friend is the only release from the curse, but Swamp Thing refuses. The man is killed when he falls into quicksand, doomed to begin his journey through time again and again. But Swamp Thing merely wanders off.

This is a densely plotted story and the connection between Milo and Swamp Thing isn't really explained all that well, but it does serve to put the Swamp Thing in some really intriguing scenarios. Seeing him battle a dinosaur was really fun. Despite that, the story does shamble a bit before it stumbles to a conclusion. Maybe this was intentional given the theme an endless time loop, but the story seems merely to stop and not end.

It's refreshing to see Cable at long last give up his hatred of Swamp Thing if not his search. The replacement of Cable with Bolt who hates our hero is odd, almost as if the fundamental scenario of the series requires someone to hate Swamp Thing irrationally.

The sci-fi elements of the character are again fully explored but once again at the cost of the classic horror touches which informed the Wrightson era. I respect and admire the work of Redondo in this issue, but his Swamp Thing while nicely rendered lacks the weird punch of Wrightson's rendition.

One more issue for Wein and one more for me as "Mucking About" heads to a conclusion.

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Swamp Classics - The Conqueror Worms!

With its eleventh issue Swamp Thing trudges into new territory, at least in terms of creative input. This issue features the debut of Nestor Redondo as the artist and sports a very atmospheric cover by Luis Dominguez. The cover is a dandy if the Swamp Thing himself were a bit more on model. He seems too like Marvel's Man-Thing here and not the somewhat more heroic figure that Swampy traditionally cuts.

The story begins in the swamp where Swamp Thing muses about his lost opportunity to save himself now that his lab is utterly destroyed by the spaceship which launched from within it a few issues previously. Just then Matt Cable and Abigail Arcane arrive with the new mission to find the Swamp Thing and uncover his mysterious connection to the death of the Hollands. Cable has finally shaken off his hatred of Swamp Thing. Soon though the pair are attacked by a mutant alligator which Swamp Thing shows up in time to battle. Meanwhile two giant hideous worm creatures capture Cable and Arcane and drag them back to a mysterious sealed laboratory beneath the swamps. They meet four other captives -- an old man named Luke, a mute sheriff named Kain, and a young black couple called Bolt and Ruth. All it seems are being held by a madman named Zachary Nail who built his lab as a defense against a polluted world. Nail battled Dr.Thirteen previously in the pages of The Phantom Stranger and was defeated. He was found and nursed back to relative health by the giant worms who he imagines want to accomplish the same things he does. Swamp Thing meanwhile finds the lab and enters to find and save Cable and Arcane yet again. It's then revealed that the worms don't want to save the world or mankind save to keep them as livestock to be consumed. This revelation drives Nail over the edge and in his maniacal frustration he shoots and kills Ruth before activating the lab's self-destruct sequence. Swamp Thing arrives to help the people escape and stops Bolt from killing Nail. All the survivors leave the exploding lab, but Swamp Thing disappears having found a mysterious purple jewel which transports him back into time to face a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Redondo's lush artwork is a good replacement for Wrightson's moody work. That said, there is a loss of the classic horror feel the comic had developed and a turn toward a more straight-forward science fiction adventure. The characters are more traditionally handsome than before in the hands of Berni who is magnificent at creating slightly odd human beings.

Neal Adams

The story too, despite being written by Wein has a more pure sci-fi feel to it. The appearance of a character from another yarn he'd created and written for the fourteenth Phantom Stranger draws Swamp Thing more tightly into DC's continuity which in a way is good I guess in the long run, but does somewhat undermine again the isolated horror vibe the book had generated to this point. Despite the appearance of Batman earlier, the series seemed to take place in a whole other world, a world more akin to that of the Universal monster flicks than the universe of Superman.

There also seem to be too many characters in this one. Luke and Kain add almost nothing to the story but are there right along. The death of Ruth is shocking and does set up a future storyline with Bolt, but seemed in the final analysis a bit gratuitous. Wein clearly wants to pivot the series at this juncture, but it's not at all clear to me what he is aiming to do with that change of direction.

Maybe next issue will say more.

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Swamp Thing - The Bronze Age Volume Two!

The second volume of Swamp Thing - The Bronze Age offers up the remaining issues of the original run of the 70's series and in addition treats the reader to some of the Swamp Thing's guest-starring roles in the years between this cancelation of the first series and the beginning of Saga of the Swamp Thing. The first volume neatly showcased the astounding first ten issues of the run by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson. Then also goes onto to showcase the three additional issues written by Wein but drawn with good effect by Nestor Redondo. 

The main problem with the Swamp Thing as a continuing series was constant change of scene in the book which saw the Swamp Thing in Europe and all across the United States. With Wein's departure, Redondo is joined by writer David Michelinie. Redondo's rendition of the Swamp Thing is quite good and in some ways more effective than Wrightson's at communicating the plant nature of the creature. But Wrightson was virtually incapable of drawing anything that didn't feel gothic, and Redondo's work does not have that immediate horror feel to it. In their first story together the team has Swamp Thing run across some mutant kids who are persecuted by the local town folk. He intervenes but it is the extreme bravery of one of the kids which marks this issue. There are also giant ants, so that's another boost. 

In the next installment Swampy runs up against a strangely intense preacher and discovers that demons can hide where you least expect them. Matt Cable and Abigail Arcane are joined by Bolt and another man in their pursuit of Swamp Thing. It's a dangerous thing to join up with Cable though and many a minor character has paid that price. 

In the third installment Swamp Thing finds himself on an island and discovers a strange woman who is the last of her tribe and her companion, a Vietnam vet who has become a mercenary because he has found living in peace in the United States a supreme challenge. These two are waging a war of liberty for natives of the island and oddly Swamp Thing ends up not being very helpful at all. 

Cable, Arcane and Bolt are back along with an old foe who seeks revenge on Swamp Thing and uses his vast array of robots to try and get that revenge. The gang escape by helicopter but wreck it yet again. 

The gang stumble across a bizarre village in the swamps filled with old folks who seem to behave more like children than anything else. Turns out there's an occult scheme afoot to steal the lifeforce of unwary folks and give longer life to some of those inside the village. 

Bob Haney and Jim Aparo step in to give Swampy a The Brave and the Bold adventure alongside Batman. Bats knows Swampy from the latter's own series when Batman was the first mainstream DC hero to guest-star in the comic. This time it's Swamp Thing's turn when he's captured by a big game hunter and put on display in Gotham . He's just in time to help Batman battle a monstrous plant outbreak in the streets of the big city. 

We get the first true two-part tale in the run when Swamp Thing must battle a version of himself. One of his weird properties is that he can regrow any body part which might be cut off. Once he lost an arm and while he regrew it the original arm also continued to grow and eventually became another Swamp Thing, albeit minus Alec Holland's intellect. In a story dealing with the ecology and Native American myth the two Swamp Thing battle it out. As usual Cable, Arcane and Bolt are along for the ride. 

In one of the most bizarre Swamp Thing tales, he is whisked away to a to a distant outer space habitat which is at once the domain and prison of Solus, a criminal put way for his planet's safety. But he passes his time by kidnapping folks from various worlds and using them for sport. Swamp Thing arrives just in time to assist with an uprising among the assembled aliens. 

Back on Earth Swamp Thing is still in deep trouble when he's captured and taken into an underworld community which is populated by mutated humans and the soldiers who guard them. The mutation was the result of a botched scheme to test yet another weapon underground in the deserts of the Western United States. Swamy is lucky to escape and he ends up in Oregon where he'd grown up. There he seeks his brother. This is Michelilnie's last issue as scripter. 

 

The pentultimate issue marks the debut of Gerry Conway for one issue as there is a seeming attempt to redirect the Swamp Thing comic and move it away from its mystery and science fiction roots and more into a superhero mode. To that end Swampy is given a villain dubbed "Sabre" in a full-blown super-villain outfit and the Swamp Thing himself finds he's been transformed back into Alec Holland. The new logo highlights an attempt to give Swamp Thing a new image and move the character away somewhat from its classic horror roots. 

More superhero action in the final issue as Swamp Thing is really only seen either as a statue or a memory. Alec Holland a new love interest are up against Thrudvang, a new baddie and it takes some old fashioned ingenuity to survive. The next issue is scheduled to guest-star Hawkman, but it never came out. This final issue was written by David Anthony Kraft from a Conway plot and the art was supplied by Ernie Chan and Fred Carrillo. 

But if you get this volume you get what's left of the next issue. It was not completed because of the abrupt axe dropping on the series, but it was scripted by Kraft and fully penciled Chan and partially inked by Carrillo. All of that is included and it's possible see what was on tap for Swamp Thing. For one thing, Swampy was now able to transition between his Swamp Thing and Alec Holland forms, making more akin to the Hulk. Hawkman is tricked into fighting the Swamp Thing and actually loses. Sabre is back but we'll never see what happens. 

We are treated now to four issues of Challengers of the Unknown in which the Challs cross into Swamp Thing territory, specifically the Pennsylvania town in which the alien threat of M'Nagala is alive and threatening the whole world. M'Nagala had first shown up in Swamp Thing #8 and while the threat was stalled it was clear that it was not stopped. Now we see the results of that when Prof is infected by the alien fungus. Weirdly both Swamp Thing and Deadman are drawn into the adventure which eventually finds an ending if not a particularly happy one. The end result is that Swamp Thing is invited to hang with the Challengers and Deadman chooses to do so even though they are not aware of his existence. 

Next is a Challengers trilogy that sees the death-defying team trek to the far future when ferocious monsters start to pop up all over the world, sent from the future for a reason no one knows. Swamp Thing goes with the team along with Deadman to find and rescue Rip Hunter the Time Master who himself has fallen under the sway of the cruel leaders of the future Earth. There is an uprising and the Challs along with Swampy do their best to help it out before returning to the present day and unfortunately cancellation. Swamp Thing is again homeless. These Challenger stories were written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Michael Nasser and later by an up and coming Keith Giffen. 

Old pro Murphy Anderson is on hand to do the art chores on DC Presents #8 which has Superman confront the menace of Solomon Grundy who appears to have come up with a way to make endless duplicates of himself. Swamp Thing runs afoul of the Man of Steel when he seeks Grundy out for his own purposes given that they both are products of the swamp. This story was written by Steve Englehart. 

Marty Pasko is the scribe for the final entry in this collection, a The Brave and the Bold tale drawn by Jim Aparo. Batman chases down a woman who has escaped from prison before she can be killed by her old mates who pulled off a robbery with her. Swamp Thing gets involved, but it 's a close thing and tragedy is spread all around. And tragedy will be the order of the day when Pasko joins artist Tom Yeates on a revival of the Swamp Thing's own comic, but that's for next week when the Dojo features volume three of Swamp Thing - The Bronze Age. Tomorrow kicks off a detailed look a volume one. 

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