Multiversity: River Run Part 1

Back in the day when Mark Millar was just starting his career Morrison provided some ideas and help in general. Sometimes they shared writing credit, often they didn't, but we can notice in early Millar's work some ideas that Morrison would return to at later date. One such collaboration was Swamp Thing. On first four issues they shared credit and later only Millar is credited. But towards the end of his run there is a big story arc called River Run and it has some familiar ideas.

It starts in Swamp Thing #171 where Swamp Thing encounter woman that seamed to die and return to life. As it turns out she is a writer and wants his help with a collection of short stories. #172-176 are one and done issues where Swamp Thing visits one of her stories that resemble pre-Crisis multiverse. Then last two issues (#177-178) explain what was this all about and wraps things up. You probably noticed that structure looks familiar? Kinda like Morrison's The Multiversity?

One of the strengths of The Multiversity was that despite all being written by one writer, each one-shot had its own distinct style. You could see that Thunderworld and Pax Americana or Just are happening on different universes. River Run unfortunately is uniform. But thats not the worst part, worst part was that Millar was always an edgy writer and 90s comics were into such things as well. And well, Swamp Thing was "horror" comic. So we get rape, abortions, child murdering and the like in all issues. Often it is treated as a joke. I'm not against such things in comics, but when it happens in every story, especially ones that are supposed to show different universes? It detracts.

Visually it is also not very distinct. Most of the issues are drawn by Hester and we get two fill-ins by Weston and Jimenez. I'm not really a fan of Hester's work and prefer other two, unfortunately issues that I like are drawn by Hester. Bummer. 

Then there is main story of the River Run. Basic idea is that this writer is supposed to be the next avatar of the Waves, but she doesn't want the job and all this was a test of sorts so that Swamp Thing could replace her. Wait, isn't Swamp Thing avatar of the Green already? Well yeah, but at the time DC tried to expand on what Moore built years ago by exploring classic earth (split into stone and green), water, fire and air elements. And well Swamp Thing eventually became avatar of them all. In other comics DC tried to connect other established characters like Firestorm and Red Tornado to these elemental forces as well. Parliament of Waves (or Clear) sometimes also appears in Aquaman's stories.

But if you are not a hardcore DC fan then very likely you never heard about it. Why? I think that 4 elemental forces are classic premise that is hard to make interesting or stand out. So these ideas didn't really last. On another side DC tried to replicate Moore's success in post-Morrison Animal Man with mixed results. Eventually they kinda merged two IPs in New 52 with Rotworld crossover. Execution was mixed, but it feels like Green, Red, Rot, Metal, Grey had a bit more staying power than classic elemental forces.

Why I'm telling you all this? I'm not sure, I guess I just want to underline that River Run is not a good or important story arc. On the other hand there are couple of issues that are interesting and worth tracking down. But I'll talk about those the next time since this blog post is getting long already. Meanwhile go read Veitch's Swamp Thing 1989 #1-4, it is actually good, important and even has bits of multiverse in it. Or just get all 3 Swamp Thing by Rick Veitch books. It is very good Swamp Thing run that sits nicely next to Moore's.