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

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experience. The creators go to great lengths to illustrate clash between forces which,
despite having the appearance of being unrelated, are actually deeply connected. For
example the severe attitude of shrewd businessman, General Sunderland, seems to war
with the impassioned intellectualism of the scientist he's hired to unravel the mystery
behind Swamp Thing's creation. Each is an equal partner in progressing the narrative
regardless of their possessing different goals. Despite the significance of his findings,
Sunderland dismisses Woodrue, who has performed the task demanded of him and is now
obsolete if not a liability. In this light, Sunderland can be read as a means for Moore to
critique corporate capitalist greed because he fully intends to use Woodrue's discoveries
to advance his own career and profits. Sunderland's greed is a tragic flaw which prevents
him from realizing the gravity of the findings; in his shortsighted dismissal of Woodrue,
he's missed the most important conclusion of the research—the creature he assumes is
dead is actually living. Sunderland's possession of vast wealth and power has blinded
him from seeing the agency others possess.
This illusory power is not left unchecked by Moore, Bissette, and Totleben.
Embittered by being fired and unwilling to accept the insult, Woodrue reprograms the
systems his former employer had bragged so frequently about. He sets a plan of revenge
in motion by setting the cryochest, or frozen chamber, where Swamp Thing is being
contained to thaw and adjusting the security settings to prevent his previous employer's
escape after the creature's awakening. Banking on the assumption that his research is
correct and that, “It was a plant that thought it was Alec Holland! A plant that was trying
its level vest to be Alec Holland” (Saga 24, panel 1), Woodrue sets in motion the means
necessary for another who has been wronged by Sunderland to retaliate.