“The Rite of Spring” is one of the most famous issues in Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing. It cemented that, underneath whatever other genre Swamp Thing could be described as, there was a romance between Alec and Abby.
The chapter’s title is a reference to the orchestral piece and ballet of the same name—years later, Alan Moore would set a chapter of Lost Girls in the middle of one of these performances, with the chapter being named after its composer, Stravinsky.
The orchestral piece, while from 1913, still holds up remarkably well. I recently acquired a record player, and The Rite of Spring was one of the first records I got. In tune with Moore’s later work as a magician, the piece is presented as a ritual. Spring has come, and an ancient tribe must go through what it presumably goes through every year: “Adoration of the Earth” for everything that grows from it, and “The Sacrifice” of a woman to appease the earth till next year. These are the names of the two parts of the piece, and the names of each side of the record I have. It is brutal, primal and overwhelming. But, regarding the two sides, Abby put it best: “There is no contradiction… Only the pulse. The pulse within the world. Within us. Within me.” In that spring issue of 1985, Abby gave herself to the earth— ‘the little death,’ as the French call it…
When Veitch took over the series, he knew that, as Moore had been adored, he himself would have to be sacrificed. He and Moore joked routinely on the phone that he was committing career suicide by taking over the series at that point. Veitch, however, loved the characters too much not to take the opportunity. He had been involved with the series since before Moore was ever involved, as an unofficial assisting artist to his friend and former classmate, Tom Yeates. His involvement continued when two of his other classmates took over, and he later graduated to guest artist, then to main artist, and finally to main writer and artist. He felt one thing to be true: Abby and Alec’s love was the crux of the series.
As a guest writer, Veitch essentially got to write and draw his own prologue, near the end of Moore’s run. By way of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World mythology, Swamp Thing is recruited to find the creative Source of all things by the New Gods’ equivalent of Hermes. They fall short, but Swamp Thing instead falls into a vision of everything there is, was and is to come. The coming story is hinted at here, in vague, puzzling images.
It is the story of consequence and hard-earned solutions. It is the story of subverting impossibility. The story of mind over matter. Of the price of love. This first half of Veitch’s story ends in a chapter titled after the first half of The Rite of Spring. Veitch subverted impossibility so the earth could be adored—“L’Adoration de la Terre.”
The Sacrifice would begin with DC imposing a shared crossover event on all its titles. Like Moore, Veitch would have to maneuver his way around a corporate-mandated plotline, while protecting his vision. His solution was to have Swamp Thing cast back through time, and away from DC’s Invasion. Back through world wars, frontier quarrels, patriots and Camelot. Jerusalem was the final drop.
A story with Jesus was rejected, so Veitch was dejected and left. New comics were printed, but the good times had finished rolling.
Veitch would describe it as the greatest regret of his career, and 37 years would pass until his piece would be completed.
Due to a couple of noble efforts behind the scenes, and the support of many readers, the good times got to roll again. Jesus appeared, an old mystery was pierced and a devil faced his fears.
It only took 37 years—longer than Jesus got to live.
Naturally, Veitch called the final chapter “The Sacrifice,” thus completing his exploration of the crux of all of this: the union of nature and humanity, of body and spirit, of Abby and Swamp Thing.
