I remember the first time I was reading that issue, and found myself knotted up in tension and fear. Alan Moore had structured this year-long journey of Swamp Thing, right up to the Great Evil Beast, to parallel exactly what was going on in Crisis On Infinite Earths - happening at the same time. Instead of Monitor & Anti-Monitor, it was the Presence & the GEB. And Swampie gives it the insight it needed. Good job.
Lucifer pays verbal respect to the GEB:
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s132/Erik_Magnus_Lensherr/Lucifer18.jpg
Scan thanks to Erik-Lensherr
Here is more info about The Beast and it not merging with God The Presence. This is in DC The Demon 51 1994. That is Merlin running around in Hell talking to Jason Blood about his visit to the underworld.
That .. certainly doesn't make any sense in relationship to how Alan Moore presented the story, how the conflict was resolved and what the aftermath was.
Unless, it is also a metaphor, seeing as how hell is was mentioned as 'heaven's shadow reflection' or something of that sort, and since the 'Light' is located in heaven, the 'Dark', the 'Shadow' must also be presented in hell, though they aren't strictly bonded to a location, since they are everywhere.
Originally posted by kevdude
How doesn't it fit in? It is resolved for the time being the Phantom Stranger said as they both gave a small piece of each other to the other. I'm beginning to wonder if there is another war in the spiritual realm on the way and if anything could, Final Crisis could trigger it, time will tell.
Because in Alan Moore's story, they actually did merge and change everything.
"They're .. they're clasping! [i]Flowing .. running together .. Everything swirling .. Everyone falling .."
"Swamp Thing: They are both gone.
Phantom Stranger: No. Not gone. The light and shade are still everywhere about us..
..
Phantom Stranger: Happened ? Nothing has happened. Everything has happened. Can't you feel it ? Everywhere things look the same, but the feeling .. the feeling is different."
When the Great Evil Beast merged with the Light, he essentially merged with Creation aswell, thus the statements above, with everything being different. The metaphor he used afterwards is a symbol of their coexisting, not literally each of them throwing a piece of eachother at the other one 🙂
Thus why it's impossible for the Great Evil Beast to be only in hell, because he was actually cast across creation along with the Ultimate Light, thus my point of view about that being a metaphor, or possibly just the 'rumours' those from hell heard, or just flat-out the writer being wrong.
That is not them merging into a new being if that's what your meaning, they are embracing each other and giving a piece to the other for a stalemate for the time being. In another Swamp Thing 2 years after the war shows the Phantom Stranger visiting Heaven and see The Light and The Darkness still embrace, in 94 the scans the Darkness eventually left Heaven. You can see a piece of the Yin and Yang in the other. 🙂
They never merged and shaped into a new being. Everything was different because they gave a piece to each other to understand each other better and a new way of looking at things, it was either that or fight. I was wrong about it being 2 years lol it was the next comic ST 51, I'm planning on buying it soon. Here is a timeline of ST and Hellblazer history and shows what I'm saying.
I have the comic, and nothing of that sort is mentioned or shown. What Phantom Stranger does in the issue is point out what I already mentioned: "The spheres about us have subtley changed since the cataclysmic meeting of dark and light".
Edit: I think I know what the issue is. I'll get back on this after I get it. 🙂
