Division Within The Company of Wolves…

“As you're pretty, so be wise / Wolves may lurk in every guise / Now as then, 'tis simple truth / Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth.”

• The Company of Wolves (1984).

Sorry for the lengthy one: Over the weekend I read the Crisis Crossover from Swamp Thing #46 and was simply floored not by the comic but by the Letters to the Editor. It has been a long time where an issue of anything has been on my mind for a whole weekend.

So I decided for those interested to post BOTH issues of #45-46’s Letters section because I had zero idea #40 had caused such polar opposites of reactions that warranted two issues of letters both for and against.

Issue #46 has a fascinating letter from the amazing writer Mindy Newell and a wonderful response from Alan Moore.

Personally: Issue #40 to me is a homage to the Irish writer Angela Carter and her retelling of Folk Tales. Having read the Bloody Chamber (1978) when I was 19 in the early 2000s one cannot unsee parallels between the two. Being part of Moores “American Gothic” storyline (a phrase that doesn’t appear in the comics themselves) where John Constantine takes Alec on a trip across America and re-envisions classic monsters that, as all horror should, cast a mirror upon us all and society as a whole.

I don’t want to type out the synopsis of the whole issue as there are actual academic papers online about it. However I will leave this with another quote from Angela Carter:

“I have sharp teeth inside my mouth, Inside my dark red lips, And lacquer slickly hides the claws In my red fingertips.

So I conceal my armoury. Yours is all on view. You think you are possessing me- But I've got my teeth in you.”