[net.comics] John Constantine, Swamp Thing, and CRISIS

boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (09/03/85)

> From:	Pucc-H:pur-phy!dub	(Dwight Bartholomew)

> 	In one the earliest Crisis of Infinite Earths issues (I believe
> it was no. 2) there is a scene where the we have two men lounging
> in a study (they reminded me of Holmes and Watson at first) when
> one of them senses/reads about the oncoming crisis and asks 
> "I wonder what holds in store for the Swamp Thing?".
>	Could someone explain this reference to me.  To me it
> inplied that this person's alter identity was the Swamp Thing, but
> having read several issues of SwTh I notice that SwTh is just the SwTh.

> p.s. Wow, Constantine is a really intriguing character!  But just how
>      does he know so much about what's going on?  How did he know about
>      SwTh and Abby?  How does he know so much about this South American
>      tribe that is trying to bring him/it/satan into the world?  If he
>      knows so much about where this tribe will strike next why wasn't
>      he able to help his lover when she was attacked?

Heh heh heh...

Your memory isn't what it could be. The scene in question takes place in
CRISIS #4, pages 3-4, and the two men are Steve Dayton (Changeling's foster
father) and John Constantine! And what Constantine says is: "I can sense
what's happening here and there. Indeed friend--I know what's happening to
one and all-- <--and especially to the Swamp Thing. Yes, especially to him.>"
[The angle brackets indicate a thought balloon.]

Constantine first showed up in the SWAMP THING issue that came out two weeks
before this issue of CRISIS. When I read CRISIS and got to the end of page 3,
I thought I was so clever that I realized where Constantine came from, only
to have the comment about the Swamp Thing appear at the top of the next page.

As to who Constantine is, and why he knows so much, I haven't the foggiest.
Alan Moore's no slouch, though, so I'm sure he's got something mind-blowing
up his sleeve. I've suspected that the big event that Constantine kept
talking about in ST was the Crisis, but I'm not sure these days.

--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA)

UUCP:	{decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA:	boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA