#because the really wrecked dayton with the mento helmet in this.

[nikrei]

Just finished with Saga of the Swamp Thing #50 (which goes a little bit past crisis on infinite earths to finish up the storyline it starts in and around it) and oh man do I have some thoughts about the whole set up and how it reflects the changing meta of DC at the time.

Basically the whole storyline is that a great evil is coming to the world, the darkest source of all evil, and it is being led to the gates of heaven to destroy it and god (and its 1985-86 so this is a v v bad thing) and John Constantine (for whom this is the conclusion of his inaugural arc) is gathering a team of all the magic folk (and Steve Dayton) in the world to prevent it, and when that doesn't work, to stop it.

So we have this newly born great evil, as innocent as that sort of thing can be, and it first squares up with Etrigan (I say squares up but Etrigan is a gnat to this thing) and we get this interaction:

(Get wrecked Etrigan)

Then its Dr Fate's turn!

Then it's the fuckin Spectre's turn, everyone's last hope against this guy (as the floating lightball angels are just throw themselves against it to die)

And while every being there is freaking the fuck out we've got Swamp Thing, wandering on in to have a chitchat (love this for him)

And then the great evil clasps hands with god and a sort of morality ecosystem is developed, ending with this page:

And really its this ending page that's so so interesting to me, this idea that the rigid dichotomy of morality of the pre-crisis comics is going to change going forward- the heroes of that simplified past were the ones that were curbstomped while more complicated thinking is what carries the day!

And the fact that they wrote it so clearly into the universe, like there had to be a watsonian reason that the comics are getting darker and grittier not just the doylist "this is the direction that editorial is taking us" is v fun to me.