Swamp Thing (Volume 2) #107 is an issue of the series Swamp Thing (Volume 2) with a cover date of May, 1991.
Synopsis for "The Quest for the Elementals - Part IV: Stabs of a Life Echoing in a Void"
Captured by Matango's thralls, Ohtehrah and Swamp Thing are dragged down into The Grey.
In Brazil, Abby Holland and her daughter Tefé have wandered the Parliament of Trees' forests for five days, and found no one left who will respond to her. Many of the elementals who were once able to speak to her have withdrawn or disappeared into the Garden of Bereavement. She makes her way to the Inner Parliament's grove, where she remembers that she had last been able to hear the trees by eating of the fruit from the branches of Tuuru, the tree of knowledge.
Biting into one of the fruits, she and Tefé are immediately within what a mysterious voice calls Tefé's Nest of Visions. The voice states that it is that of Yggdrasil, the tree of life. Abby asks where her husband is, and the voice responds that it cannot sense him within The Green, and suggests that he must have been taken by Matango, along with many of the other elementals that the Parliament sent in search of those trapped during the Great Migration. Abby pleads with the voice to rescue Swamp Thing, but they are too weak.
Swamp Thing wakes deep in the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by many other elementals, imprisoned there by Matango near the fissure created by The Grey planet's meteor. They are all trapped, limited to a thinly distributed type of sea kelp, which the fishes above them would eat if they tried to escape. If any elemental's will was compromised, he would fall instantly to The Grey, likewise if any elemental were eaten by a fish.
Meanwhile, Matango forces Ohtehrah to watch as one of his companion elementals is taken by The Grey, and recruited into an army which will soon lay waste to the Parliament of Trees.
Having pleaded her case, Abby demands to know how to get back to reality, but the voice is evasive. In her vision, she sees The Grey coming towards them, and demands to be let free. The voice responds that it is safer there, and that she and Tefé must give up their physical bodies in order to be safe.
In the Inner Parliament's grove, Yggdrasil realizes that The Grey are using the empty trees' receptacles to manifest themselves in the groves, destroying the Garden of Bereavement. Eyam asks Misk -an elemental based on pond scum, which surrounds Abby and Tefé's physical bodies - where the humans are. The two of them realize that the fruit from which Abby ate was infected already by Matango's fungus. She is being seduced to The Grey by Matango, and not Yggdrasil. In Matango's vision, Abby begins to realize that something is not right.
Down in the ocean fissure, the elementals become excited as a piece of red kelp begins drifting down toward them. The red kelp is poisonous to the fish, and so if any elemental can get close to it, it would prove their salvation. Determined, Swamp Thing decides to swim for the kelp, risking death by the fish. As he approaches, the fish swarm him, and begin eating away at his body.
Appearing in "The Quest for the Elementals - Part IV: Stabs of a Life Echoing in a Void"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Ohtehrah
- Abby Holland
- Tefé Holland
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Parliament of Trees
- Yggdrasil
- Alex Olsen
- Eyam
- Biffa
- Tuuru
- Hart-in-the-Trees
- Fields-That-Stalk
- Misk
Locations:
Concepts:
Items:
Vehicles:
See Also
Links and References