Over three decades since the controversy and cancellation, Rick Veitch's legendary lost issues are completed. After a renowned two year run on the series, Veitch's grand finale to Swamp Thing was cut short, and never to see print. Whispers and leaks hinted at the epic untold saga for years. Now, for the first time, that final story is told. As Swamp Thing is cast back through time, he will come to meet a carpenter who will change the trajectory of his life, and the DC Universe forever. The origin of Etrigan, and Swamp Thing's journey to the beginning of time starts here.
It was at this point I had planned to post a link to "In Magician's Mysterious Sleeves - Rick Veitch and the Censoring of Swamp Thing" by Cole Hornaday, but the link no longer works (which must be a fairly recent development, because it did still work when Swamp Thing 1989 was first solicited). If you're reading this, you are probably aware of the controversy surrounding what would have been the conclusion of Veitch's run, but the article was the best treatment of the situation I have ever read. Here is what Veitch himself said in an open letter published in CBG #803: "Veitch stated, 'I certainly do not believe anything I wrote in the script for Swamp Thing #88 to be worthy of [censoring] of any kind.' He further notes he did not deviate from the New Testament in any way and was only taking cues from culturally embedded storytelling tropes that have been SF staples for decades. 'If anything, I believe my story to be an affirmation of the rather elegant symbolism of Christ’s personal sacrifice and crucifixion. It was written not as a challenge to those who possess deep faith in Christian doctrine, but as an exercise in possibilities, aimed at those who do not.'"
I understand why DC refused to publish Swamp Thing #88 as scripted in 1989; I do. To tell you the truth, all throughout the second half of the '90s I was convinced Preacher was going to lead to the next comic book witch hunt. By that time, Vertigo existed as a haven for such storytelling, but I could easily envision a right wing evangelical Christian getting ahold of a copy and raising a stink. Luckily, that didn't happen. Like I said, I understand why DC didn't publish the story in 1989; what I don't understand is why they haven't published it since. According to Veitch in a 2020 interview: "There had probably been at least 5-6 serious attempts to get Swamp Thing #88 done.”
The most recent attempt was tanked by the pre-publication controversy surrounding Mark Russell and Richard Pace’s series Second Coming, originally considered by DC, eventually published by AHOY!: "Veitch claimed the latest attempt to publish the story was as recent as 2019. '(DC) were going to do a Rick Veitch Omnibus, like the new Swamp Thing Omnibus with Alan’s stuff,' he recalled, 'And part of that would include Swamp Thing #88 in order to finish the time travel story. I actually wrote a plot and discussed it all. Then they got into trouble with a comic book they were putting out where this superhero meets Jesus. It ended up at [AHOY! Comics], but DC was going to publish it, or Vertigo was going to publish it and this Christian organization got 400,000 signatures against it. So, that killed any possibility of having Jesus in a comic book at DC, I think. So, pretty much a dead issue now. But, part of me is still there, guys. I’ve got that story in my head. I want to finish that one.'"
Upon reviewing Swamp Thing #88’s story and rough art, CBG's Don Thompson had this to say: “I think this is a magnificent and entirely Christian story. It is no more blasphemous than Ben Hur or The Robe or Barabbas…It is appalling that, more than a century after Ben Hur was written, a work of fiction done with comparable reverence was to be suppressed out of fear of reprisal by zealots. This is not progress. It’s too bad you’ll never get to read this comic book. It’s an excellent story – and might well have succeeded in getting across to some horror-fixated youths that there is a deeper meaning to blood than seeing it splattered across a page or movie screen.”
After the 2019 effort failed, I gave up hope of ever seeing the conclusion of Veitch's Swamp Thing. I don't usually start a discussion of a particular comic until it's in my hot little hands, but in this case I need some lead time to re-read Swamp Thing #80-87. If you'd like to review the story leading up to Swamp Thing 1989 as well but your issues aren't handy, they are covered on pp.35-36 of the Swamp Thing discussion.
Swamp Thing 1989 #1 will be on sale at comic shops everywhere April 29.
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I see the tpb has already been solicited:
SWAMP THING BY RICK VEITCH BOOK THREE: TIME UPON A ONCE
Written by RICK VEITCH and others
Art by RICK VEITCH, TOM MANDRAKE, THOMAS YEATES, MICHAEL ZULLI, and others
Cover by MICHAEL ZULLI
Thrust backwards in time, Swamp Thing must make sense of a universe drawing him towards its very inception. With the birth of the Sprout approaching, Abby desperately searches for answers and her missing husband while a monstrous entity from the past watches and waits. John Constantine will do whatever it takes to bring the Swamp Thing home before Hell, the Green, or worse comes to get them! The final chapter to one of Swamp Thing’s most legendary saga collects Swamp Thing #80-87, Swamp Thing Annual #5, and Swamp Thing 1989 #1-4 (the lost Swamp Thing #88-91 issues).
$39.99 US | 424 pages | 6 5/8" x 10 3/16" | Softcover | ISBN: 978-1-79950-692-8
ON SALE 10/20/26
I'm not tradewaiting, though.
I have just finished re-reading Swamp Thing ##80-87, timed to coincide with the release of Swamp Thing 1989 #1 tomorrow. One of these days I really must re-read these stories in the order in which they happened, not in the order Swamp Thing experienced them.
Great idea for a reread. I should refresh myself on these issues before I get to my shop next week.
ISSUE #1:
That was exactly what I was expecting.
It's been nearly 40 years since DC $#!t-canned this story, but I myself haven't been waiting nearly that long. I didn't even read the stories leading up to it until 2022, but after a failed attempt by DC to bring the conclusion of this storyline into print in 2019, I didn't expect to ever see it published. The comic itself is mocked up to look like a 1989 DC comic book, complete with a "with Johnny DC" hype-page on the inside front cover. All of the ads are from 1989 as well, but they're in the back of the book so as not to interrupt the flow of the story. The "Swamp Things" LOC page is given over to a three-page editorial written by Steve Bissette (who promises a longer, more detailed essay in the forthcoming collected edition). The essay delves into the factors which led to the storyline's truncation in 1989, some I hadn't considered. Michael Zulli's proposed cover originally intended for Swamp Thing #89, based on Gustave Doré's classic depiction of Calvary with Swamp Thing as the cross, is also reproduced.
Is anyone else out there reading this series?
I'll be picking it up when I get to my shop next week.
By the way, in promotion of this series, DC Infinite has made all the Veitch-written issues of Swamp Thing free. (That's including issue 62, the fill-in he did a few issues before the conclusion of the Moore run.) I'm an Ultra member, but I think that means you don't even need a subscription to read them.
I'm not sure how long that'll last, but it's definitely worth taking advantage of!
Thanks for the tip. My DC Infinite membership has reverted to free, and I can confirm that the Veitch issues are free (in single issue form). This new series is fascinating, but I am going to tradewait.