Monster Comics, Wetlands, and the Weird: Steve Gerber's Man-Thing and Alan Moore's Swamp Thing

This paper examines how comic books set in
wetlands have used weird tropes to explore
environmental ideas. The essential wetness of
landscapes made these places hostile to
humans. Hence, these ecosystems were often
seen in a negative light or as places that were
supernatural and alien. Swamp monsters, like
Marvel’s Man-Thing and DC’s Swamp Thing
were used by comic creators to promote
ecological themes. These characters were
steeped in weird tropes as well. Just as these
wetlands were both water and land, these
monsters were both human and inhuman.
Marvel’s Man-Thing came to embody the
divide between both water and land and this
world and other strange dimensions. DC’s
Swamp-Thing was used by Alan Moore to show
how the weird is connected to the humannature divide.