#source wall

SWAMP THING #62 JULY 1987 BY RICK VEITCH, ALFREDO ALCALA AND TATJANA WOOD

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

Near the Source Wall, Metron examines the plight of two giants who hoped to gain access to the Source by enlarging themselves. Suddenly, he hears a signal and follows it into the sleeve of one of the giants' spacesuits. Inside, he finds some interesting flora growing, but beyond that, he discovers a giant Mother Box. After shrinking it down to a manageable size, he sets a course for Highfather's staff.

Unfortunately, he finds himself immobile. His Mobius Chair's energy source was depleted by the shrinking process. Angrily, Metron kicks the Mother Box, which rendered his chair useless, away. However, he is surprised when that same Mother Box transmits the consciousness of the Swamp Thing there, and into the plant life which Metron had collected earlier.

Swamp Thing discovers the Mother Box, and believes that it has told him that he was brought there because Metron wishes to enter the Source. Metron responds that he merely wants to go to Apokolips. Swamp Thing states that no, Metron's destiny lies with the Source, and so does his own. With the help of the Motherbox he can transport Metron into the Source and back out again.

Swamp Thing alters his appearance into that of a chair, and uses the Mother Box to lift off, and fly toward the Source. He explains that having learned how to control his electromagnetic field, he can transcend the barrier by altering his vibrations.

After an uncomfortable transition through the barrier, they burst into the domain of the Transmuters – beings posted along the fringes of reality, working the compost of creation into higher matter. One of them notices them, and they are forced to escape before they are transmuted. Swamp Thing alters his vibrational pattern at the last second, bringing them past the final barrier. What the two of them see in the Source is too much for Swamp Thing to handle. Metron manages to focus on certain elements, seeing all of creation's marvels and follies.

Metron recounts the tale to Darkseid, who laughs, revealing that what they had seen was not the Source, but an Aleph – a point from which one can view all other points in time and space. This information depresses Metron, as he'd hoped to barter the information gleaned from the source in exchange for X-Element, the fuel for his Mobius chair. Even so, Darkseid wonders if information about the Swamp Thing's nature could help him solve the Anti-Life Equation. Metron explains the Swamp Thing's nature, and notes that he has already left for earth.

Metron reveals that the Mother Box had to remove most of Swamp Thing's memories of the Aleph. Darkseid asks to view the record of those memories. The record shows that Swamp Thing thought only of his wife, Abby. The moments he observed spread from past to future, but all ending in fire and death. The images drove Swamp Thing mad.

In exchange for the information, Darkseid offers Metron the X-Element, then, crushing the Mother Box in his fist, he curses that he had forgotten to add the element of love to his equation.

ALEPHS (FROM WIKIPEDIA)

Aleph or Alef (א), is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the number 1 in Hebrew. Its esoteric meaning in Judaic Kabbalah, as denoted in the ancient theological treatise Bahir, relates to the origin of the universe, the "primordial one that contains all numbers." The aleph (ﺍ, or ʼalif) is also the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, as well as the Phoenician, Aramaic, and Syriac alphabets. Aleph is also the first letter of the Urdu and Persian alphabet, which are both written using Arabic script.

THE ALEPH, BY JORGE LUIS BORGES (ALSO WIKIPEDIA)

"The Aleph" is a short story by the Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. First published in September 1945, it was reprinted in the short story collection, The Aleph and Other Stories, in 1949, and revised by the author in 1974.

In Borges' story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping, or confusion. The story traces the theme of infinity found in several of Borges' other works, such as "The Book of Sand".

As in many of Borges' short stories, the protagonist is a fictionalized version of the author. At the beginning of the story, he is mourning the recent death of a woman whom he loved, named Beatriz Viterbo, and resolves to stop by the house of her family to pay his respects. Over time, he comes to know her first cousin, Carlos Argentino Daneri, a mediocre poet with a vastly exaggerated view of his own talent who has made it his lifelong quest to write an epic poem that describes every single location on the planet in excruciatingly fine detail.

Later in the story, a business on the same street attempts to tear down Daneri's house in the course of its expansion. Daneri becomes enraged, explaining to the narrator that he must keep the house in order to finish his poem, because the cellar contains an Aleph which he is using to write the poem. Though by now he believes Daneri to be quite insane, the narrator proposes without waiting for an answer to come to the house and see the Aleph for himself.

Left alone in the darkness of the cellar, the narrator begins to fear that Daneri is conspiring to kill him, and then he sees the Aleph for himself:

On the back part of the step, toward the right, I saw a small iridescent sphere of almost unbearable brilliance. At first I thought it was revolving; then I realised that this movement was an illusion created by the dizzying world it bounded. The Aleph's diameter was probably little more than an inch, but all space was there, actual and undiminished. Each thing (a mirror's face, let us say) was infinite things, since I distinctly saw it from every angle of the universe. I saw the teeming sea; I saw daybreak and nightfall; I saw the multitudes of America; I saw a silvery cobweb in the center of a black pyramid; I saw a splintered labyrinth (it was London); I saw, close up, unending eyes watching themselves in me as in a mirror; I saw all the mirrors on earth and none of them reflected me; I saw in a backyard of Soler Street the same tiles that thirty years before I'd seen in the entrance of a house in Fray Bentos; I saw bunches of grapes, snow, tobacco, lodes of metal, steam; I saw convex equatorial deserts and each one of their grains of sand...

Though staggered by the experience of seeing the Aleph, the narrator pretends to have seen nothing in order to get revenge on Daneri, whom he dislikes, by giving Daneri a reason to doubt his own sanity. The narrator tells Daneri that he has lived too long amongst the noise and bustle of the city and spent too much time in the dark and enclosed space of his cellar, and assures him that what he truly needs are the wide open spaces and fresh air of the countryside, and these will provide him the true peace of mind that he needs to complete his poem. He then takes his leave of Daneri and exits the house.

In a postscript to the story, Borges explains that Daneri's house was ultimately demolished, but that Daneri himself won second place for the Argentine National Prize for Literature. He also states his belief that the Aleph in Daneri's house was not the only one that exists, based on a report he has discovered, written by "Captain Burton" (Richard Francis Burton) when he was British consul in Brazil, describing the Mosque of Amr in Cairo, within which there is said to be a stone pillar that contains the entire universe; although this Aleph cannot be seen, it is said that those who put their ear to the pillar can hear a continuous hum that symbolises all the concurrent noises of the universe heard at any given time.

You can read it online.

REVIEW

So how did I know this was a reference to that short story? Well, Borges appears in this comic-book (I just updated the DC Database with this little fact). He is the blind writer in Buenos Aires.

The Alpeh allows us to take a look at recent events in the DCU and the Saga of the Swamp Thing as well, so it also works as a “greatest hits” issue. It also brings Darkseid closer to learning the anti-life equation. But in the end, if you skip this issue... well... you wouldn’t really miss much for the ongoing arc. It is a nice story though, and it is a good thing they didn’t reveal what’s behind the wall.

This is also Rick Veitch’s first solo issue of Swamp Thing.

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