Swamp Thing stopped going to rave parties after that night.
Sludge #1
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (October, 1993)
“You Can Take The Cop Out Of The Sewer…”
WRITER: Steve Gerber
PENCILER: Aaron Lopesti
INKER: Gary Martin
COLORIST: Paul Mounts & Violent Hues (interior)
LETTERER: Patrick Owsley
EDITOR: Chris Ulm
Detective Paul Hoag was willing to do minor roles for the mob, but when he decided killing a fellow officer was one step too far, other dirty cops tried to kill him. However, he fell into a barrel of some strange substance that turned him into a blue sludge monster whose brain keeps getting words wrong. This backstory is intermingled with a bad Rush Limbaugh parody adding exposition while Sludge kills a bunch of robbers who also decide to shoot bystanders for fun.
So what the hell is this comic?
They try to make Limbaugh and other right wing talk show hosts look like racists but otherwise this would be a story up their alley given how brutally Sludge murders the dudes, or at least how the parody versions Gerber gives us would think. Not sure about Rush himself since he was open about not being into comics even as a kid and I think this might be a stretch too far because he wasn’t a fan of this kind of violence, even if it is against really horrible people who themselves are too violent. Instead they have to drop in racist comments out of nowhere that the real Limbaugh wouldn’t have made but still have his parody supporting the cops, then Gerber makes the only cops in this story dirty. The methods Sludge uses to dispatch the punks are rather horrific as he melts one dude’s hands to his rifle, another he melts the face and the dude suffocates. I’m not sure whose side this comic is on, but it seems to be following a revenge story formula that would cater more to the right than the left, but then has elements that the left would enjoy seeing more than the right. It’s like South Park done wrong because it lacks focus.
The art’s nice and the graphic detail comes through well enough. I guess that’s a compliment. I’ve seen worse art easily out of a 90s comic.
I will not be continuing this series. It’s a story that seems to be trying to make both extremes happy by creating something the other extreme would hate, is violent just to be violent, and it’s just unpleasant to read overall. I really don’t care what happens next.
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