The Return of Swamp Thing Is Better Than the Original?! Johnny Spoiler Revisits the Bayou
There are movies you remember being great, movies you remember being terrible, and then there are movies you revisit decades later and realize your brain may have been doing some unauthorized remastering.
Welcome back to the swamp.
This week on Binge-Watchers Podcast, Johnny Spoiler revisits the wonderfully weird world of Swamp Thing, from the original 1982 movie through The Return of Swamp Thing, the cult live-action television series, and the almost-forgotten Saturday morning cartoon.
And after going back through all of it, I've reached a conclusion I wasn't expecting:
The Return of Swamp Thing might actually be better than the original.
Yeah. I said it.
The Return of Swamp Thing Understands the Assignment
Released in 1989, The Return of Swamp Thing brings Dick Durock back under several pounds of vegetation as our favorite walking houseplant, while Heather Locklear joins the franchise as Abby Arcane.
Louis Jourdan also returns as Dr. Anton Arcane, who apparently looked at everything that happened in the first movie and decided his biggest mistake was simply not conducting enough insane genetic experiments.
That's commitment.
But what immediately separates Return from the first movie is its attitude.
The sequel knows exactly what kind of movie it is.
It's colorful. It's ridiculous. It's campy. It's filled with mutants, monsters and comic-book insanity.
And most importantly?
Swamp Thing actually looks good.
That's a pretty important detail when your movie is called Swamp Thing.
The sequel also feels more like somebody grabbed an actual comic book and tried putting it on screen. My biggest takeaway revisiting these movies was that Return has the better tone and incorporates more recognizable elements from the comics.
The Weirdest Swamp Thing Romance Ever
Then there's the infamous Swamp Thing and Abby romance.
If you've seen it, you know.
If you haven't, I'm not sure any explanation can adequately prepare you.
The hallucinogenic love sequence was inspired by Alan Moore's famous "Rite of Spring" Swamp Thing story. In the movie, Abby and Swamp Thing share a bizarre psychedelic experience after consuming a tuber.
So yes, somebody actually looked at Alan Moore's surreal botanical romance and said:
We need this in the Heather Locklear Swamp Thing movie.
Respect.
The behind-the-scenes story gets even stranger. According to the production trivia in my episode notes, Dick Durock wasn't used as Swamp Thing's human counterpart during the love scene. An unnamed male model was brought in for the sequence instead.
That's exactly the kind of completely unnecessary movie trivia we live for around here.
Swamp Thing Took Over the '90s
Here's something else I had almost forgotten:
Swamp Thing was everywhere for a minute.
The live-action Swamp Thing TV series arrived in 1990 and ran until 1993, producing an impressive 72 episodes across three seasons. Dick Durock once again played Swamp Thing, with Mark Lindsay Chapman taking over as Dr. Anton Arcane.
And here's where my nostalgia really starts fighting back.
I kind of want to keep the TV show.
The series had more room to explore the strange science-fiction, monster and bayou-mystery side of the character. Instead of squeezing everything into one movie, Swamp Thing could simply exist in his weird little corner of the universe every week.
But DC wasn't finished.
Yes, There Was a Swamp Thing Cartoon
Because it was the early 1990s, somebody inevitably asked the most important question in entertainment:
Enter the Swamp Thing animated series.
The Fox Kids cartoon only lasted five episodes, but it transformed Swamp Thing into a kid-friendly environmental superhero battling Arcane and his ridiculous mutant henchmen, the Un-Men.
And naturally there were toys.
Kenner produced Swamp Thing figures with wonderfully '90s gimmicks, including glow-in-the-dark and camouflage versions.
For a character rooted in gothic horror and existential comic-book storytelling, Swamp Thing somehow became part of the same eco-conscious pop-culture era that gave kids Captain Planet.
The '90s were incredible.
Nobody knew what genre anything was supposed to be.
So Which Swamp Thing Should You Actually Watch?
After revisiting the franchise, my memories of these movies were definitely better than the reality.
I still love Swamp Thing as a character.
I'm glad these movies exist.
I'm glad somebody made the television show.
I'm even glad somebody decided children desperately needed Swamp Thing action figures.
But if you're asking me what survives the Johnny Spoiler rewatch?
Keep The Return of Swamp Thing.
The sequel understands the comic-book insanity better, Swamp Thing looks better, and the whole thing has a tone that fits the material.
As for bingeing the entire franchise?
I'm landing dangerously close to BINGE NEVER territory.
Sometimes nostalgia belongs in the swamp.
More on This Week's Binge-Watchers Podcast
Swamp Thing isn't the only madness this week.
Johnny Spoiler also digs into the new RoboCop casting news, the bizarre Jason Voorhees and PBR Halloween collaboration, and the eternal question of whether Johnny Depp will ultimately be remembered more for 21 Jump Street or Captain Jack Sparrow.
Spoiler:
And for Staff Picks, we're talking Idiots (2026), starring Dave Franco, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Mason Thames, Kiernan Shipka, Peter Dinklage and Nicholas Braun—a movie that turns out to be much darker, stranger and more disturbing than its comedy setup suggests.
So grab your rubber monster suit, head down to the bayou, and join Johnny Spoiler for another round of movies we probably remember completely differently than they actually happened.
