Swamp Thing (Volume 2) Issue 20

## "Loose Ends"

"*Maybe the world has run out of room... for monsters... Or maybe they're just getting harder to* recognize*.*"
―Swamp Thing
## Synopsis

### "Loose Ends"

Swamp Thing visits the site of the crashed ship where Anton Arcane is supposed to have died. Despite knowing that Arcane couldn't have survived the crash, he needs to see the corpse before he can truly be satisfied that his nemesis is finally and truly dead.

Elsewhere, the Sunderland Corporation and the DDI have discovered where Swamp Thing and his friends are, and plan to kill them all because of what they know. General Sunderland is pleased with the idea that they won't know what's coming, as his men will catch them with their guard down.

Liz Tremayne and Dennis Barclay wake up in their broken down van. As they begin walking home, it becomes all too clear that Dennis thinks there is something more between the two of them than Elizabeth feels. She stops him and explains that all they have in common is the horror in their lives, and that if they ever really got together, they'd hate each other. Unfortunately, Dennis is hurt, and storms off ahead of her. Behind them, several helicopters drone overhead.

Swamp Thing returns to the motel to meet Liz and Dennis, but they have not arrived yet. He wonders if perhaps he and Arcane were meant to live in another time, when monsters like them would be more at home. Perhaps, he thinks, the world has run out of room for monsters.

Elsewhere, Abby returns home to meet Matt Cable. She explains how Swamp Thing went to look at the wreckage of Arcane's ship, and how he had worried that Matt was the one who caused the monsters and horrors that they saw recently. Matt admits that, while he didn't know it, he was the cause - but that he's beaten it. He claims that the horrors were caused by an attack he had, but that while she was out, he had fought it, and overcome it. He tries to instigate some love-making, but Abby is too shaken by events to go through with it. He relents, and she goes for a walk without him. With Abby gone, Matt returns to drinking. He had lied to her about managing to overcome the visions. Instead of destroying them, he had simply learned to control them.

Back at the hotel, Liz has a difficult time convincing the proprietress to give her the key to her room so she can get the medical bag from inside it. Finally, a man named Hec "Dallas" Brandon takes the key himself and offers to retrieve the bag. Meanwhile, the clerk struggles to recall a name that was mentioned by people who had recently entered the hotel room. Despite her confusion, the name is obviously Sunderland, and moments later, the room explodes as Hec Brandon opens the door.

Meanwhile, Sunderland's men start burning down the forest that Swamp Thing is hiding in. At the same time, a helicopter destroys the Cables' home, but fortunately, neither of them are inside it. Angrily, Swamp Thing begins attacking the soldiers, but he is outnumbered. He tries to run away, but his body is riddled with bullets, and he falls to the ground, presumably dead.

## Appearances

### "Loose Ends"

#### Individuals

* Swamp Thing
* Elizabeth Tremayne
* Dennis Barclay
* Matthew Cable
* Abby Cable
* Anton Arcane ***(Appears only as a corpse)***
* Defense Department Intelligence
	+ Dwight Wicker
* Sunderland Corporation
	+ General Sunderland
* Hec "Dallas" Brandon ***(Dies)***

#### Locations

* Virginia
* Louisiana
	+ Houma

## Trivia

* Dwight Wicker, discussing Sunderland's planned cover story, references to the film *Close Encounters of the Third Kind*. The irony is that whereas in the film the government tries to discourage belief in the existence of extraterrestrials, Sunderland intends to encourage such belief, so as to hide the DDI's real motive behind its swamp hunt.
* The Donald Sutherland film that the hotel clerk mentions is *Don't Look Now*. The clerk also recount the film's horrific climax — thus adding to the suspense of the in-comic scene — just before the bomb goes off.
* This was the first issue that Alan Moore wrote.

## External links

* *Swamp Thing (Volume 2)* Issue 20 on DC Wiki
* *Swamp Thing (Volume 2)* Issue 20 on Comic Vine