Synopsis
Swamp Thing's mind is completely fractured by the physics of time travel. After flashing through a hallucination montage of his historical encounters (including Enemy Ace, Tomahawk, and the Shining Knight), he materializes in first-century Judea. There, he interacts with characters in the Garden of Gethsemane and bears witness to the crucifixion, coming to understand a cosmic truth about the universe's timeline. Enemy Ace appeared on Page 4 of the original Rick Veitch version. He is rendered as a spectral silhouette in a sweeping two-page spread collage representing the centuries of war and trauma Swamp Thing has witnessed.
Collector Notes
There are actually two versions of this issue. Rick Veitch's original 1989 script (featuring Enemy Ace in a mental collage) was famously banned and unpublished by DC executives due to its controversial depiction of Jesus Christ, which led to Veitch's departure from the title. Instead, a replacement issue by Doug Wheeler was rushed to print in 1989 under a different title. However, the original lost version was officially unvaulted and published under DC's Black Label imprint as Swamp Thing 1989 #1. This makes Enemy Ace's appearance here one of the most historically significant cameos in the archive: it existed in a suppressed manuscript for over three decades before finally seeing print.
