Swamp Thing #67 (1987)

Somewhere, John Constantine attempts to sell off a surveillance tape he pilfered from Arkham Asylum at a video store specializing in horror films. The tape shows The Floronic Man being assaulted by Arkham guards, and the store clerk assumes that it is a sequel to the cult film Swamp Thing. In Slaughter Swamp, Solomon Grundy wanders, his skin a strange shade of green. He is tormented by a voice which is pushing him to remember his past. Eventually, he discovers the source of the voice, and before he realizes it, he is possessed by the sprout. In the Louisiana swamp, Abby Holland and Swamp Thing play hide and seek while swimming underwater until they tire of it. Abby wonders what ever happened to the sprout after they let it go. Swamp Thing isn't sure, and he has considered visiting the Parliament of Trees to find out, but he hesitates. At Abby's urging, he decides to go to the Parliament. Abby decides that in the meantime, she will visit her friends in Houma, and take a real shower. After heeding Swamp Thing's warning about many dangerous things lurking beneath the surface of the swamp, Abby dives back into the water and swims. Swamp Thing enters The Green, sinking down and down until he reaches the Parliament. The old trees sense his presence, knowing that they have erred in creating the sprout, and that in order to right the problem, one of the two must die. Likewise, they understand that their knowledge is incomplete without the knowledge that the Swamp Thing knows. Swamp Thing tries to explain that he will guide the sprout until it can take over for him, and he will thereby avoid any catastrophe caused by their coexistence. The Parliament allows a thought of Slaughter Swamp to slip through, and Swamp Thing knows where he must go. Elsewhere on the bayou, TV sensationalist Roy Raymond tries to convince Cajun Gene LaBostrie to give up information on the Swamp Thing for $1,000 and a Mercedes. Naturally, Gene feigns an inability to comprehend English. After Raymond leaves in frustration, Abby surfaces in the water beside Gene's boat following her underwater swim, and begs for a ride to Houma. In perfect English, he politely agrees, and begins paddling her through the swamp. Near to Slaughter Swamp, Swamp Thing encounters a lumberman cutting down trees, and gives him a scare. Afterwards, he surveys the land, and is disgusted to see how the area has been taken over and polluted by the Slaughter Swamp Pulp and Paper Company, which has cut down all the trees and filled the air with chemicals. Nearby, lies the old cabin of Cyrus Gold. Swamp Thing is startled by the voice of Solomon Grundy calling out to him by the name 'Alec.' Swamp Thing greets him in surprise, having thought the man dead. It doesn't take long for Swamp Thing to realize that the man he is talking to is no longer the same Solomon Grundy. Suddenly, Grundy's real personality comes to the fore, and begins pounding the Swamp Thing with his fists. He tries to leave his body, but familiarly, he finds that he cannot shift his frequency appropriately, and he is trapped within a dying body. The more pleasant version of Grundy returns, and reveals that it is the sprout in possession of Grundy's body. It thanks him for choosing not to kill it back in The Green. However, Grundy gains control again, and begins crushing the Swamp Thing into a pulp. When finished, he wanders toward his old home. The sprout attempts to trick him into giving up control again, but Grundy resists. He decides to get rid of his possessor by climbing into one of the vats of toxic chemicals at the paper plant. In self-preservation, the sprout leaves, and Grundy easily survives the toxic bath. With both Grundy and the Sprout gone, John Constantine appears, picking up the remains of the Swamp Thing, and wrapping them around one of the tubers he stole at their last encounter. Soon afterwards, the Swamp Thing revives, surprised to find Constantine there. Swamp thing realizes that it was not Constantine's actions that brought him back, but rather, whatever had caused his frequency shift had suddenly stopped. Constantine heavily suggests that it was the Parliament of Trees' doing. Having realized that they need his power and that they need him dead, the Parliament has begun trying to kill the Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing realizes that he can't defeat all of them by himself. Mysteriously, Constantine reminds him that there is a place where he can face each member of the Parliament one-on-one.