This Is the Greatest Love Story in Comics and You Can’t Change My Mind

Superhero love stories have been part of comics since the beginning, with DC Comics introducing readers to Superman and Lois Lane, the couple that would become the basis for every superhero relationship that came after right at the beginning. For many, they are comics’ greatest love story, their decades of will-they, won’t-they building them into the perfect couples. There are other fans out there who would say that Reed and Sue Richards are the best. Others would vote for Scott and Jean, and some very angry ones would yell about Peter Parker and Mary Jane. There are numerous couples out there who could be considered the greatest love story in comics, but there is one couple that truly changed the way readers look at superhero relationships.

Swamp Thing and Abby Arcane was the classic monster story couple. He was the monster, she was the beauty, and her evil uncle Anton did his best to torment the couple, lovers kept apart by the realities of their lives. The two of them would eventually make a life for themselves in Huma, Louisiana, courtesy of Alan Moore. Moore is the comic industry’s greatest writer, and his work on Swamp Thing (Vol. 2) changed comics forever in numerous ways. It also did something that it doesn’t get nearly as much praise for – creating the best love story in comics. Swamp Thing and Abbie Arcane’s relationship is the love story pinnacle, a relationship that made a monster who thought he was a man into an actual human.

Swamp Thing and Abby Arcane’s Love Was Unlike Any We Had Seen Before

Love interests play an important role in the superhero comic. These are larger than life characters doing impossible things. Having love interests humanizes even the most powerful heroes and the best of them bring something to the story that wouldn’t be there without them. Swamp Thing is one of DC’s most powerful elementals, a plant monster trying to prove that there is still something human inside of him, so a love interest was crucial for him. Abby was always his link to the human world that Alec Holland had once been a part of.

However, Moore was about to completely change the way Swampie work and that would change Abby’s role in the story. It was revealed that he was never Alec Holland, instead he was a sentient plant that Holland’s remains had imprinted on and believed it was was once him. Swampie lost the humanity that he had clung to since transforming, but he didn’t lose Abby. She was still his link to humanity and she became even more important to him than ever. Before their relationship had been one of longing, but Moore pulled the trigger on bringing them together and it was exactly what the book needed. The writer was redefining the character and Abby was one of the most important parts of the journey.

The second major story arc of Moore’s run built up their love for each other beautifully as Anton Arcane made his hellish return and the moment they finally realized their love for each other is one of the most beautiful in the medium. The issue when Swamp Thing figures out how to create a hallucinogen that lets them share physical intimacy is one of the greatest things you’ll ever read, their love and adoration of each other brought to perfect life by Moore and artists Stephen Bissette and Jon Totleben. Moore knew he was writing for an audience of young people who wanted monster thrills, so he used those thrills to sneak readers an iconic love story.

Very few creators can capture the interplay of a couple as well as Moore did. Some of my favorite moments of his run are the panels where it’s just the two of them sharing a cute little moment in the swamp. There were the quiet moments, the little disagreements, the crippling loneliness when they were apart, and the rapturous moments of reunion. Swamp Thing’s “death” in Swamp Thing (Vol. 2) #52-54 is heartbreaking and Moore is able to capture Abbie’s despair in such a way that it makes you ache. Swampie wasn’t dead, just sent into space, and his trip back to Earth is driven completely by his love of Abby. By the time we get them back in Swamp Thing (Vol. 2) #64, it’s a moment that has been built up beautifully that completely nails it.

It wouldn’t work as well if it wasn’t for Moore’s adroit building of the Swamp Thing and Abby relationship. I don’t think it’s a surprise to day that Moore’s realistic writing made their relationship better, but there it is. Moore was able to take an affair that was anything but normal – an all-powerful plant monster and a beautiful woman – and injected some rather pedestrian humanity into the whole thing. You could feel the love they had each other, their anxiety over their burgeoning feelings coloring their conversations, and the happiness of their love. Moore was able to use their love to take readers on an emotional journey, one that vaulted over every other superhero relationship out there.

Swampie and Abby Should Be the Modern Comic Relationship Template

Moore’s Swamp Thing has become legendary, acting as the seed of the modern comic industry, one that was more serious and sophisticated. Moore was able to find a way to bring realism to a swamp monster story and he did that through the relationship between Abby and Swampie. He was able to take a relationship that was of the most unreal you could imagine and make it feel normal, birthing one of the most compelling relationships in comic history. It draws you in and makes you part of it, allowing you to feel the love they have for each other.

There are lots of amazing relationships in comics, but so few of them actually feel right. This is partly, of course, because these are stories starring superhumans but also because love is usually just the sideshow. Moore wanted to show that you could make a superhero comic that was basically about the love between two different people and he succeeded wildly. There may be relationships that you like more, but none of them can match the sheer beauty of Swampie and Abby.

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