After the exhausting affair of Crisis on Infinite Earths and the subsequent battle between Light and Dark the Swamp Thing returns home to Louisiana only to find out that his wife has been publicly shamed and humiliated for her relationship with him, and that after breaking her parole while she awaited her decency trail she has been jailed in nearby Gotham city.
In an awesome fury Swamp Thing tears across the nearby Green in search of his lover, rampant bloom spreading in his wake, the echoes of his rage spreading throughout the psychic stratosphere.
And we, the readers share that rage, as Moore does manage to lay it on quite thick. Poor Abigail's the subject of such disdain, disgust and ridicule that when finally the Swamp Thing bursts into the courtroom, one might be forgiven for punching the sky in glee.
But Gotham's justice system is unwilling to hand over Abigail without a fight, and so on her urging the Swamp Thing leaves, although he does deliver to the city an Ultimatum.
If they do not give him back his friend, then Gotham will be overrun by the Green completely, and as he takes his leave he gives the city a taste of what is to come if they don't comply to his demand.
Surprisingly, many of the city's inhabitants, their jobs and the busy schedules of day to day life paralyzed by the jungle quickly sprouting up outside, are seduced by the joys of nature and abandon their homes and offices to revel in the healthy throb of nature. And there are many who revere the Swamp God who turned crime-ridden Gotham into a kind of paradise Eden.
But, Gotham has its own response to those who upset the established order.
Yes, indeed, Batman is pretty prominent, and rather crucial, in this story arc.
Batman, and his many ingenious gadgets, easily wipes the floor with the Swamp Thing, but the Swamp God has learned that he does not a need a body to survive as long as he has the Green. And his mastery over his powers has grown exponentially.
Batman is defeated and though he urges Gotham's leaders to release Abigail the city refuses and so continues to be plagued by uproarious nature and various displays of the breadth of Swamp Thing's powers. It is honestly pretty neat.
As events threaten to come to a head Gotham's defender ends the stalemate by arguing with the city's mayor by stating that there is a precedent for the strange relationship between Abby and the Swamp Thing, and that if they designate the odd couple's relationship as against the law, then they probably would have to arrest various other superheroes, who would also be breaking the law by being alien life forms in relations with humans. And really, would anyone truly want to even try and arrest Lois Lane?
So the city backs down and releases Abigail after Swamp Thing restores Gotham to normal. The lovers rush into each other's arms, but before they can savour the moment, the trap is sprung, and Swamp Thing is assassinated.
Unbeknownst to Batman, Lex Luthor had been hired to annihilate the Swamp Thing, and the criminal mastermind had devised a way to cut off the Swamp Thing from the earth's Green, trapping his consciousness inside of his body, and then he unleashed hell upon the unsuspecting Swamp God.
And in the blazing inferno, within the cage of his body, the Swamp Thing dies, much in the same way as he was born the guardian elemental of the Green.
Time passes and Abigail, Batman and the entirety of Gotham mourn his passing. They erect a statue in his honour, to apologize for the betrayal; and then... people go on with their lives, as best as they can.
And that's it.
Life moves on and people try to forget and come to terms with the death and loss.
But of course, the Swamp God did not die. Though the fire took him and death came close, the Swamp Thing's consciousness didn't die. Cut off as he was from the Green of earth, he made a desperate leap into the great dark of the universe in search of another planet, another Green that would house him.
And he found it. Or at least something like it.
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