The Sage of Swamp Thing

The Falling Leaves

Issue 7 by RoninReviews


Today, as I rode by,

I saw the brown leaves dropping from their tree

In a still afternoon,

When no wind whirled them whistling to the sky,

But thickly, silently,

They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon;

And wandered slowly thence

For thinking of a gallant multitude

Which now all withering lay,

Slain by no wind of age or pestilence,

But in their beauty strewed

Like snowflakes falling on the Flemish clay.

Falling Leaves by Margaret Postgate Cole


1893- 1980

The Green

Alec's stick touches upon the crisp dead grass every now and again splitting upon a pile of dismembered Avatar remains.

After Lerion and Alfet created the first forms of plant life on Earth, as a science experiment, they allowed the small planet to join a vast and impressive system known as The Green. It possesses many different names, but it all does the same thing; create and protect plant life. In a coalition agreement with The force known as The Red- another elemental force derived from The Green- The Green will decide upon an avatar of Red origin to use to powers of The Green and do the Green's bidding. In return The Green allows The Red's subjects to graze and feed upon the Green's produce; both are in unity against their common foe Rot, the force of death and decay that eventually will destroy both Green and Red, but for the time being there is a balance in these 3 forces.

That was until Lerion and Alfet returned taking Avatars from both The Green and Rot the two forces they had the best control over and used them to destroy the anchoring elemental force of Earth, the Green, in order to kill off the Human parasites polluting their world in an attempt to start a new.

By having their Avatar's use vast amounts of their Green controlling powers they had them tear and pick at the Green till it fell apart, only for the presumed dead Swamp Thing to return to kill both Lerion and Alfet. Swamp Thing took Alec's dying mind and projected it into the Green allowing him a place to survive rather than dying.

Alec has grasps a small staff that he took from a dead tree, which he was pretty sure used to be an avatar, and uses it to help him walk. Alec stops to take in his surroundings. The sun has returned to the Green but the damage is still done. The grass is crisp and thin, crackling like Rice Crispies in milk as Alec marches with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Fix the Green; that was the only instructions given to him. Fix it? How? How do you control the Green? How do I learn? Where do I fix? A fusillade of question marks blurs his mind.

Alec slumps against a tree trying to get as much shade as possible. Taking in his surroundings he suddenly notices a small Sun Flower growing nearby him, facing away from him towards the sun. Curious, he reaches forward to touch it when he hears a small voice shout,

"Hey! Hands off, buster!"

Alec retracts his hand and swipes his head around trying to find the source of the voice.

"Wh- who was that?"

The sun flower slowly turns around from the sun to face Alec. The sun flower's face has a date like texture with the regular Swamp Thing face appearance.

"I'm tryin to get some beauty sleep if ya don't mind, buddy. Gotta keep this pretty boy complexion growin, y'know what I'm sayin?"

"Oh sorry for bothering you. Um, could you, uh..."

"What? What'd ya want?"

"I was just wondering, are you an Avatar of the Green?"

"I used to be, like you. That's how the Green works. You an avatar, you get either sacked from the job or kick the bucket an ye end up here for eternity my friend."

"Ok, uh... sure. Uh, is there anything I can do to help you?"

"Help me? Phew, well that's a relief. I was worried the fate of the Green was in trouble for a second there. Oh wait, sorry fella missed yer chance."

"Where are the Parliament?"

"Everyone in the gawd damn Green's been asking that every since those two god complexes decided to shake things up a bit and by a bit I mean a lot. Nudge nudge."

"Wait. I'm remembering something. The water! There used to be a stream running through here right? Where do I go to get that started again?"

The Sun Flower studies Alec's face for a couple of seconds.

"Hmm. You've got a 'can do' attitude, kiddo. Alright, let's take a crack at it, pal."

With that the Sun Flower grew two hands from the soil beside him and pulled his tiny body out of the ground. He hops up and dusts the dry dirt from himself and plucks the loose roots off of him. His body is tiny, about 2" 4 and made up mainly of leaf like materials. He plucks off a petal from his face and begins to nibble on it.

"Alright, let's get movin."

"Where are we going?"

"To the dried up lake, dumbass."

"Ok, just, it's my first day."

"Oh, cos I didn't realise that the second you decided to have a pick at me."

"Sorry about that. I'm Alec by the way." Alec reaches down with his hand out stretched. The Sun Flower looks at his pale skinny hand and eventually reaches out to reach out for it.

"I, uh, I can't really remember my real human name, but all my friends call me Sunny. Let's get going."


Louisiana, Swamps

Abbie Arcane leans against a tree pouring over the latest Stephen King novel, her right foot dipping slowly into the cool swamp pool. Her jeans are rolled up at the feet, her hair tied back and her breasts free as the cool summer wind.

The swamp's peaceful sounds calm Abbie to the point where she's completely in a state of engrossing bliss. The slow swaying of the moss ridden trees, the ribbit of far away frogs, the occasional fly buzzing through the air, all calm, all relaxed. That was until Reggie pulled out his iPod and speakers.

Mumford and Sons blares out of the speakers, disrupting everything. Abbie tries to hold her focus until she can't take it anymore. She puts her top back on and leaves her book by the side of the pool and marches off in a strop.

She comes to Reggie, Andrea, Michael and Jenny, botany students at Louisiana University being paid a little more than minimum wage by Abbie to guard the Swamp throughout the day. All of them are relaxing in some way, lying, and sitting or leaning in a circle listening to the burning fast Banjo playing, all are getting increasingly higher by the second, fumes all around them.

Abbie marches through the group of hippies, swamp water slopping across her feet and trousers now. She grabs the iPod and yanks it out of the speaker system. Reggie suddenly snaps out of his haze and looks up.

"Reggie! I'm paying you to keep watch over him, not sit here playing music as loud as possible and getting high!"

"I wh- Miss. Arcane. Hi. What's going on?"

"You're going to attract attention with this music playing, now get up! C'mon, get to your feet."

"We thought you'd gone out for a bit or whatever so we just decided to chill o-."

*Cough cough* "Would someone please put that joint out?! How is there so much smoke?"

"It's, uh... it's not us."

Reggie points upwards to a large cocoon like sack inside a massive flower just beside them. The sack is giving off mass amounts of green gasses from its pours. Abbie grabs her towel and wraps it around her mouth and nose to keep the smell out.

"Great, he's doing this again." Abbie storms.

"Yeah, so it wasn't our fault, see?"

"Urgh... so much for keeping this a secret."

Abbie looks up as the gasses are flowing out of the tree tops and out into the sky catching on the breeze and floating towards the nearby town. In the town people are beginning to see the green clouds drifting in.


Undisclosed Location, Government Facility

Amanda Waller pauses the video of the Louisiana swamps producing the gas and turns to a small board of directors sitting across the table from her. She stands stiff as a post, her hands behind her back.

"The gas was found to be almost completely made up of Carbon, Xylem, Phloem and water in large quantities that cannot be produced by regular photosynthetic plant cycles, especially at this time of year. Even if the swamp was able to produce this amount of gas, it still doesn't explain why it all seems to come from one source.

Thus, I give you the home of our man; the so called Swamp Thing a.k.a Alec Holland. This... thing was responsible for the recent world wide plant fiasco. We have learnt that the Swamp Thing was seen with various accomplices all of which have not been seen since the event."

The board of directors look at each other in a silent communication; a tall elderly man leans forwards and asks, "What do you suppose we do about this, Ms. Waller?"

"I suppose, General that we hunt them down and bring them in for crimes against humanity. Then we go for the Thing and let him feel the full force of The United States."

Louisiana, Cemetery

The Pastor reads out the sermon amongst the tombstones as the wind bristles through the air like a mangy dog. Watching as the casket slowly lowering into the coffin is Dr. Leo Quintum, brilliant scientist of Cadmus Labs, Pamela Isley, Super-criminal and Anton Arcane, Aristocratic murderer. Each aren't particularly interested in the ceremony but try to look upset enough. Anton sucks at a cigarette.

"-and that concludes the sermon. I would like to thank his family and loved ones-"

Anton Arcane quietly sniggers, to himself and the Pastor continues after the short interruption.

"-for being with us on this day. I know you said Mr. Wood-Rue wasn't a Christian man but I would wish him good tidings in his passing to the other land. Would anyone like to say any words to commemorate this day?"

"Uh, yes... I would," Leo Quintum steps forwards.

"My uh, Brother, Jason was a good man with a good heart. I uh, loved him... dearly? And uh yeah, it's a real shame he's been taken from us by, uh cancer, so yeah. I'm done."

"Thank you Mr. Wood-Rue." The Pastor concludes.

Louisiana, Cafe

The three of them crowd around a small table in the cafe trying to look inconspicuous.

"And Holland couldn't even be arsed to come. Typical." Anton quips.

"Don't be stupid Arcane, of course he couldn't come." Leo says.

"So what now? Are we fugitives? Have we lost our gifts?" Pamela asks.

"Until I get your new ID's sorted out you're both fugitives. I've managed to get a place for you to stay in Louisiana for the time being, but try and keep a low profile and don't do anything stupid."

"I don't care about being arrested, Quintum. I want to be able to talk to my babies again. This silence is driving me crazy." Pamela steams.

Anton explains, "You're gonna have to earn your way back into the Green's favour, Isley. That's how the Green works, but something tells me the Green's in a bit of a free for all at the moment. I'd say strike while the iron is hot and you should be able to return to your former glory. Me? I'm gonna have fun getting my comfy little seat in the Rot back."

"Why? What do you do to appease the Rot, Arcane?" Pamela asks.

"Murder and a lot of it." Anton smirks.

"No no no! You can't." Leo shouts.

"And why ever not, Quintum?"

"Because you'll be arrested, and I'll be found as an accomplice. I just want to go back to my job. I'm sick of all this crazy plant stuff."

"I'm not sticking around. I'm getting the first bus back to Gotham; I'm getting my powers back and me and Harley are going to tear it up."

[Continued in Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy- Deadpoolzilla!]

Pamela then gets up and marches out of the Cafe. Dr. Leo Quintum and Anton watch as she goes. Anton finishes the last of his coffee and quickly sifts his hands through his vibrant blonde hair. He sits back and looks at Dr. Leo Quintum with a mischievous smile on his face. He then reaches into his pocket and takes out a small switchblade. He taps the button and blade springs out of it.

"Don't follow me." He says slyly before getting up and leaving the cafe.

Leo Quintum sighs to himself as a group of SWAT jumps through the door and windows and arrests him for being an accomplice in murder, mass property damage and attempted genocide.

The Moon

Superman and Green Lantern, both fully recovered from the Watchtower battle, (Issue 2) float above the white rock and watch as vast amounts of plant life grow and live and then suddenly die on the harsh rocky surface of the Moon creating a fluxing forest of bizarre alien plant life.

"OK. This is really, really weird though." Green Lantern mutters.

"This is beautiful and majestic and also really weird yes." Superman replies.

"So Swamp Thing, fake name, killed the two people that did all the weird plant stuff and then just took their home and like absorbed it? And then he vanished and those other dudes like crapped off?"

"That's what Jon's report said."

"Is anyone investigating this?"

"I believe Captain Atom has been put on the case and apparently Waller has launched an investigation into it."

"Ok. So what're we doing here then?"

"Jon wanted me to take a look at this weird moon forest thing. I'm gonna head down there."

"And what am I doing here?"

"Shhh," Superman says.

He signals for Green Lantern to be quiet and listens closely. He seems to hear a very faint voice calling out in some weird other worldly language. It seems to be coming from the moon forest. Superman is suddenly interrupted when he hears a loud buzzing noise coming from his belt.

"Uh Supes, Justice League priority call. We'd better bounce."

Superman turns to leave with Green Lantern but turns and looks back at the moon forest suspiciously.


Next Issue: Battle Field Louisiana begins as Amanda Waller wants Swamp Thing's head for the world wide plant apocalypse he almost caused. Captain Atom wasn't particularly happy about that either. What is the Green Team and what do they mean for the fate of the Green? Alec continues to explore the Green. Explosions!