The Saga of the Swamp Thing 6 (1982)
Sins of the Water

One of my favorite Swamp Thing covers. Eyeball tipped tentacles would be terrifying but Swampy handles it with grace.

Dr. Barclay, Liz Tremayne and Swampy drive back to North Carolina to find out where Casey (the telepathic child) has disappeared to. We quickly find out that Casey’s name is Karen and Dr. Barclay finds Karen’s mother still recuperating after being shot by her husband (SOTST #1)

Karen’s mother gives Dr. Barclay a medallion to help find her daughter…

… to have her killed.

Swamp Thing has some wonderful facial expressions in this issue. Above is his, I’m checking my watch face.

The timeline and distances traveled in the beginning of series two has always been a little confusing to me. There is a whole lot of traveling in, what feels like, very little time. Their road trip from South Dakota to North Carolina in 3 days feels the most realistic, unlike the drive from Arkansas to South Dakota by way of ambulance (SOTST #4). Yes it can be done but I’d imagine, to help move the story along, events were sped up a bit.

After the quick hospital visit, Swampy, Liz and Barclay are back on the run while Kay still hovers above.

C’mon Dennis…

Swampy, giving the ol’ stink eye. Below, he strikes his contemplative/flashback/inner-monologue stink eye expression.

Barclay finally gives Swamp Thing the medallion and Casey’s real name.

US 264 runs through North Carolina. This little road marker will help me plot their course on the Swamp Route.
The cow in the foreground looks as if it has a wooden leg. We may never know for sure.

of course Kay and his thugs swoop in to apprehend the three heroes on the run. Kay has a lasso sent down to capture Tremayne.

His aim is pretty darn good. He can wrangle a Tremayne from a hundred feet up.

Below, General Sunderland finally makes his series two appearance.

Swamp Thing and Barclay quickly flee the scene after Liz is captured. This panel shows Swampy worried about Casey/Karen while Dr. Barclay is preoccupied with lunch but I’m sure, deep down, they are focused on Liz Tremayne.

Len breaks it down for us. “Psychometry: The ability to mentally pinpoint a person’s location from handling an object once owned by that person”

Psychometry in action. Kay has his telepath (Milton) connect with Swamp Thing to get to Karen first.

Swamp Thing’s fist in action. Barclay and Swamp Thing make their way onto the USS Haven, where Sunderland and his goons have Tremayne.

In a word Dennis… BRAKASH!

Swampy cuts himself and finds out that the strange tentacled beast can be hurt by the sap that he bleeds. Swamp Thing also finds out that he looks pretty great in gold jewelry.

I believe this is the only instance where Swamp Thing is referred to as “Swamp Fellow”. I would very much like to see a spin off series titled, “Swamp Fellow”. It could possibly feature Swampy in a three piece suit or perhaps a smoking jacket, as seen on the Justice League Dark #29 variant cover.

Meanwhile, in the ship’s ballroom, Sunderland hosts a masquerade ball. As you can imagine, it is filled with creeps and people being held against their will. Sunderland is appropriately dressed as the devil while Barclay is dressed like an ass.

When the clock strikes midnight…

Ads:

so many prizes, so many rules.

Letters Page:
This letters page is fantastic. Len Wein fields harsh criticism and quite a bit of praise but most of all, he puts the last few books of series one into perspective.

“As far as we’re concerned, the stories published after #21 never happened; that is, Alec never became predominantly human, he never had a brother, there was never any Colossus, etc.” “…our readers may consign those stories to “Another Earth” or to the trash heap”

I would love to have been a fly on the wall of William Bitterman’s house when he got to the letters page of this issue.