Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in ...

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Bingham 124 Swamp Thing, whose frozen body is centered between a mass of tubes. Agape with bullet wounds his body looks, as Woodrue remarks, “...Gray, brittle, tattooed by frost, quite dead” (Saga 15). Although the other characters believe Swamp Thing was once human, they deny him the right of burial and treat him as an object to be manipulated for their own desires. This exploitation is justifiable because it is seen as a means for both Woodrue and Sunderland to accomplish their own goals; and also because the body of Swamp Thing which is being used as a mechanism to achieve these ends theoretically has no recourse. Personally, I believe that this clear expression of separation between species is necessary in order for the work to be able to begin to approach the necessity of posing questions regarding what truly defines communities and the values of its members. Throughout the course of this issue, the three social functions McCloud identifies as specifically performed by art seem to appear as thematic motivations (Understanding 167). First, the notion of a game or intellectual exercise undertaken for the purpose of defeating challenge seems to manifest in Woodrue's desire to outsmart his employer. Not only does he refer to Sunderland's facility patronizingly as a “dollhouse”, even Sunderland's own descriptions of the site are completed using metaphors contrasting the complex security systems with simple game equipment: “And I control everything from a console no bigger than a checkerboard” (Saga 14 panel 5). Reducing the complex activities and systems considered by these characters to the terminology of simple games gives readers a greater access to understanding the themes introduced. At stake is an argument for naturalism and environmental preservation which includes an immediate need to reconsider how human identity is wrapped up with the natural environment which supports and sustains life. By deconstructing these ideas and relaying them through the
Bingham 125 acts of fictional characters, readers are better able to absorb, reflect on, and comment upon their significance. This tool enabling the development of opinion falls in line with McCloud's second purpose of art as a heroic act of self-assertion. Within the story, this purpose is wrapped up with the third function of pursing discovery or truth and manifests jointly through Woodrue's perception of his research and application of its findings. On the fifth page of the issue Woodrue reveals that in this possible world, transformations which alter the basic genetic make-up of the body, like the one which Sunderland believes Alec has undergone, are indeed possible. The drawings which have represented him up to this point have been unable to convey a full sense of his true being; by this I mean that Woodrue is not simply a doctor or criminal, but also a body who has been transformed by scientific experimentation as well. Yet this has been hinted by the switch between his portrayal as a blue creature while speaking directly to the audience and portrayal as a regular person while speaking to Sunderland. Unlike the explosion which created Swamp Thing, Woodrue's transfiguration is a result of his own action. Implicating the character as an agent of bodily change, he is depicted spraying a red aerosol can which dissolves his artificial skin in the fifth page's fourth and fifth panels (Saga 17). Woodrue's hand transforms into a dripping mess of yellow lines. By this time the reader has seen the character appear in three very different forms; this tactic illustrates that identity and physical appearance are not singular states but rather are features which can be concealed as well as changed. Considering that this story is based upon revealing misconceptions surrounding the relationships between physicality, identity, and individuality within communities, seeing confusion manifest in numerous ways is valuable to the project of prompting skepticism about accepted norms. In this moment,
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Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants:
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Bingham 3 I owe an extreme debt of
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Bingham 5 Introduction My project e
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Bingham 7 personal growth through t
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Bingham 9 beliefs. Seeing a possibl
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Bingham 11 zombie exceeds death as
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Bingham 13 the validity of singular
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Bingham 15 Chapter I: The History o
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Bingham 17 Swamp Thing. According t
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Bingham 19 instructional profession
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Bingham 21 Another artist who worke
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Bingham 23 action into panels (Cohn
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Bingham 25 sponsorship. He designed
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Bingham 27 Charles Moulton. Marston
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Bingham 29 Frederick Wertham prompt
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Bingham 31 “graphic novel” was
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Bingham 33 what is or isn't a graph
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Bingham 35 Works Cited Benton, Mike
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Bingham 37 Chapter II: Transfusion
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Bingham 39 conflict or war. This ex
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Bingham 41 and dismember other bodi
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Bingham 43 bodies to pieces. (Cavar
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Bingham 61 order” (200). The prem
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