Essential Vertigo: Swamp Thing Issue 17

## "The Nukeface Papers, Part 2"

"*If... it* works*... I'll see you... suh...*soon*... If... it* doesn't*... I love you, Abby.*"
―Swamp Thing
## Synopsis

### "The Nukeface Papers, Part 2"

Affected by Nukeface's radioactive waste, Swamp Thing is forced to watch as his body is slowly eaten away.

Meanwhile, Wallace Monroe and his pregnant wife Treasure have come to Louisiana from Pennsylvania after an incident involving a stripmine full of nuclear waste was associated with the disappearances of several homeless people. This directly involved Nukeface who may have been the "patient zero" of the nuclear waste dumping in Pennsylvania. Wallace overhears a woman talking to the police about a drunken tenant of hers who had gone missing. Later, he catches some children playing at a game where the villain is called Nukeface. He's confused and angered by this, not knowing how they knew of the term Nukeface. He is compelled to shout at them and they run off. Rapidly, he grows more suspicious that Nukeface has followed them from Pennsylvania. The truth be told though, that Nukeface arrived in Louisiana much earlier.

Later that night Treasure and Wallace "play tag" each going out and searching for the other...He takes a walk that night, and wanders the swamps, but when he returns home, Treasure has gone out looking for him. He goes to the police, and they search all night for her. Also the landlady that Wallace heard earlier, ID's the rotting, decaying corpse that was her tenant. This is the homeless bum that Nukeface was talking to and eventually killed in the previous issue.

Treasure has gone out looking for Wallance that night and runs into Nukeface, he's passed out just after his encounter with Swamp Thing. She finds him on the ground and gives her sweater to him and (for whatever moronic reason...) believing that he was sick, asking herself what Jesus would do, and curled up beside him, to keep him warm. She spent the whole night beside him. When she tells Wallace what happened in the morning, he realizes that she spent the night with Nukeface. This causes him to panic and run from her as well as the police and medical doctor, abandoning her.

Meanwhile, Swamp Thing tries to reach out to his girlfriend Abby telepathically, and manages to draw her to the spot where he lays helpless. With his time running out, he tells her that he plans to try to expel his consciousness from his body and build another one. He says that if it works, he will see her soon, and if not, he loves her. Before he can say anything else, his body disintegrates before Abby's eyes.

Later, Nukeface recalls Treasure taking care of him, and thinks that must have been a dream. Without more toxic waste to consume, he experiences severe and worsening pain. He therefore becomes determined to find more of it, no matter how long it takes or how far he must go.

## Appearances

### "The Nukeface Papers, Part 2"

#### Individuals

* Swamp Thing
* Abby Holland
* Nukeface
* Diagonal Bob ***(Dies in flashback)***
* Wallace Monroe
* Treasure Monroe
* Officer Mike Bernhardt
* Joey Bernhardt
* Mrs. Morel
* Billy Hatcher

#### Locations

* Louisiana
	+ Houma

## Notes

* This issue reprints *Swamp Thing* Vol. 2, #36 in black and white.
* At the time of its original printing, *Swamp Thing* Vol. 2, #36 was not part of DC's Vertigo line of comics.

## External links

* *Essential Vertigo: Swamp Thing* Issue 17 on DC Wiki
* *Essential Vertigo: Swamp Thing* Issue 17 on Comic Vine