Graphic Novel Environmentalism

This was an area I had neglected to think about but although my knowledge of this format is limited and esoteric, I am a big fan of comic books and think they are ideally placed for tackling big issues. Why? You might ask. 
As the western graphic novel tradition is based in Sci-fi Fantasy, pretty much anything can happen. This means that nature isn't restricted to abstract personification, it can actually become incarnate as a... swamp... thing.  The examples that stuck out in my mind immediately were Swamp Thing (Alan Moore's version) and the Silver Surfer.  

Silver Surfer

The Silver Surfer might not appear to be an obvious comic within which to discuss environmentalism, for people unfamiliar with his character, here is a quick synopsis:

Norrid Radd is from a utopian planet where everything and everyone has a stupid name. Although very nice, life on this planet is without prospect of exploration or adventure, so Radd is frustrated. A massive space entitiy called Galactus turns up one day threatening to eat Radd's home world, as Galactus needs to consume planets to survive. In order to save his world Radd flies up to him in a little space ship and bargains with Galactus, offering himself as a servant.   
Galactus imbues Radd with a little bit of his 'Power Cosmic' transforming him into the Silver Surfer. He then acts as Galactus's herald, finding planets for Galactus to eat. 


To me the Silver Surfer is the environmental consultant, and Galactus is the personified demand for resources. Galactus isn't inherently evil, he just needs to eat. The moral ambiguity comes with the Silver Surfer. In exchange for his services the Surfer gets a cool space surfboard (nice car), can make little worm holes (1st class plane tickets) and is much stronger than average organisms with the power to change things (money). Initially the Surfer endeavors to find uninhabited planets for Galactus to eat, but Galactus corrupts his soul basically because planets with lots of life are more nutritious. 
This is the descent of the ecological consultant, the quandary between the environmentalists desire to protect and the demand for resources represented by the client. 
I hope this doesn't come off bitter, idealistic or sanctimonious because it's hypocrisy on my part; even if instead of a flying surfboard I just had steel toe-capped wellies.  

Swamp Thing

Swamp Thing in it's initial version was a story of a mutated scientist (Alex Olsen) seeking vengeance for the loss of his former life. Having not read these books I can't pass judgement, so I will concentrate on the 'saga of the Swamp Thing' written by Alan Moore.

Moore picks up where the last book finished, with Swamp Thing (formally scientist Dr. Alec Holland) apparently dead after being shot in the head in a hail of gunfire. He is held in a freezer by those who shot him, the Sunderland Corporation (SC), for them to experiment on. For the first chapter a sinister employee (Jason Woodrue) of the SC tries to understand the Swamp Thing by literally taking him apart, not for the companies aims but his own. 

The interesting shift in pardigm here from the original series, is that the Swamp Thing isn't a cursed shambling man covered in swamp gunk, but the spirit of the swamp made flesh. Following a lab explosion the body of Alec Holland was consumed by the swamp, and with the help of chemicals from his lab the swamp formed an avatar around the memories of Alec Holland. In other words the Swamp Thing was never human at all, he is just vegatable that thought it was human. That's pretty cool right?

This saga is still partially about Swamp Thing's relationship with his humanity, but it's also about discovering the greatness of nature and his intimate link with it. This is manifested in a very physical way by the 'Parliament of Trees', a group of plant elementals that essentially act as Swamp Thing's supervisors. In a more abstract way there is a beautifully drawn page in the first volume where Swamp Thing is swimming in the swamp, completely at peace until he feels an imbalance in the use of the natural force of the world. The one causing the unbalance is the creepy scientist Jason Woodrue, revealed to be the Floronic Man. This villain eats some of Swamp Thing to gain commune with 'the Green' (a sort of collective consciousness of all plant life on earth) and subsequently goes mental, gaining control of plant life and on a crusade to kill all non-plant life on the planet.

Woodrue (the Floronic Man) tries to do this by manipulating plants to produce a pure oxygen atmosphere. Swamp Thing turns up and reminds him that without animal life the carbon cycle would not work and plants would die too (don't scrutinize the science too closely). At this point 'the Green' leaves Woodrue and he is left mumbling and powerless. 

The charisma of this character for me is his contentment in the wild away from people. The rest of the world wants him for one reason of another: The girl wants him because she has some weird ent fetish, Sunderland Corp want him to find out his scientific secrets; but his desire is to live apart from the human world. I suppose this is one of the only occasions where you can still have a humanoid character without the ideal status-quo being anthropocentric. 

He differs from Woodrue (the hardcore environmentalist) because he doesn't hate humanity he's just a live and let live kind of guy, like Buddha or the Dude.