From this a psychological struggle emerges with

composed of a form of vegetation, imbued with the consciousness of Alec Holland. From this,
a psychological struggle emerges, with realization that the Swamp Thing’s search to reclaim
his humanity has been futile. He is not human and never was. Moore consequently refocuses
the premise of the narrative; The Saga of the Swamp Thing now explores the relationship
between the forces of Earth/nature and the forces of humanity. With the motivations for the
character broadened, Moore extends its “shelf life.”
It becomes necessary here to note the importance of continuity in comics. Some
stories, like Superman , have persisted for nearly 70 years and have necessarily had many
authors in charge at various points. However, readers demand that these stories always
connect with the previous history. No narrative can contradict the past. There are a few
exceptions to this rule; new narratives are usually given some leeway in order to figure out the
character’s back-story and motivations. Superman, for example, did not originally have the
ability to fly nor was he raised by the Kents. These significant elements only appeared later.
Another exception is the notion of aging. A 28-year-old Batman remains 28, whether he lives
in 1939 or 2009. Readers do not desire a continuity regarding age: although he’s been a

33
superhero for decades, Superman does not age.
4
Otherwise, character narratives must agree
with what has already occurred. This can become difficult, especially when a new writer
wants to revise the narrative to a new direction. In regards to his desire to redefine Swamp
Thing , Moore explains:
I began to sort of think of ways in which I could alter the character completely
without doing anything which would contradict previously established
continuity, because I tend to think of that as cheating. If you contradict
previously established continuity to some degree you’re destroying the reader’s
accumulated trust in the narrative… And it struck me that what I was looking
for was a kind of re-definition, rather than a re-vamping. (Khoury 86)
By revising the past notions of his readers without contradicting them, Moore is able to invent
new meanings for a character that had a firmly established but limited motivation.
Moore used the Swamp Thing to experiment with ways of representing comics
characters and stories. He wrote two issues in a completely invented alien language that
readers had to translate from contextual clues. He created one character whose dialogue, when
combined through an entire issue, formed Shakespearean sonnets. “Pogo,” the comic strip
4
An exception to this exception is the one-off story that exists outside of the current storyline but remains part of
overall continuity. Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” tells the tale of a retired Superman.