Warning: Spoilers for Swamp Thing: Green Hell #1
The Swamp Thing: Green Hell takes a perfect page from the RPG video game series, Final Fantasy. Swamp Thing: Green Hell is written by Jeff Lemire and illustrated by Doug Mahnke. Issue #1 of this 3-part mini-series was released on December 28th of last year.
Green Hell is an out-of-continuity story that takes place in a post-apocalyptic future. Climate change caused society to crumble as sea levels rise, giving way to a food shortage. Recognizing that this disaster was caused by humanity, Earth’s various parliaments representing different aspects of life discuss options. The Red, Grey, and Rot, representing animals, mold, and decomposition respectfully, realize the Green, representing plant life, is their best chance to rid the planet of what’s causing the problem in the first place: humans. The Green uses the body of a dying man to recreate its avatar known as the Swamp Thing. This new monstrous Swamp Thing then goes on a killing spree, massacring any humans he comes across.
A very similar storyline unfolds in the 1997 Playstation game, Final Fantasy VII. During the game, a large meteor is summoned that threatens to end the planet. To protect itself, the planet, named Gaia, awakens several large monsters called WEAPONs. These WEAPONs act as the planet's defense mechanism, and are activated in times of crisis. Crucial, though, is the fact that the WEAPONs do not differentiate between the main threat and all threats. Although the meteor was what triggered their awakening, the WEAPONs also view humanity as a threat to the planet, and attack people as well.
At both of their cores, Final Fantasy VII and Green Hell are cautionary tales about pollution and abusing the planet’s resources. Green Hell takes place in a future on Earth, so it’s reasonable to assume the climate change in the story is the same man-made climate change Earth is experiencing now because of humanity. Final Fantasy VII’s Gaia is facing a similar problem. A corporation called Shinra is abusing the planet by extracting an energy source called Mako from it, which is also the world’s vital lifestream.
Although they are similar, the two stories don’t offer the same solutions. In Final Fantasy VII, humans are powerful and have their own weapons to fight back against Gaia’s WEAPONs. In Green Hell, humans are weak and barely able to survive. They are powerless against the Green’s monstrous Swamp Thing. Issue #1’s final pages reveal their only hope, however, with the return of the heroic original Swamp Thing, Alec Holland.
