Did Alan Moore reuse a plot line from Swamp Thing for Watchmen?

Alan Moore is considered to be one of the best comic writers of all time, with most of his work being among some of the greatest comics to have ever been written. His most acclaimed work is easily the 12-issue series Watchmen, with artist Dave Gibbons, which has been adapted numerous times on film and television and is considered one of the greatest pieces of literature, not just comics.

That's all well and good, but what if I were to tell you that there's a portion of Watchmen that bears striking similarities to one of his earlier works in regard to his character of Doctor Manhattan? Buckle in folks, as we explore the story that could've inspired Dr. Manhattan's solo origin issue from the original Watchmen run.

Swamp Thing's My Blue Heaven explained

The story of "My Blue Heaven" takes place near the end of Alan Moore's seminal run on Saga of the Swamp Thing in issue No. 56, but I'll give some context as to what happens in the story before this issue takes place. Swamp Thing held Gotham City hostage in order to get his girlfriend, Abby Arcane, free from the custody of the Gotham P.D.

Batman didn't take too kindly to Swamp Thing's actions, and the two duked it out, with Swamp Thing overpowering Batman fairly quickly and defeating him. However, during Swamp Thing's takeover of Gotham, shadowy forces with an axe to grind against him hire Lex Luthor to figure out a way to take down the creature, but their efforts fail and Luthor manages to discover Swamp Thing's connection to all plant life on Earth, and that if one were to remove his consciousness from the planet, then he wouldn't be able to connect to any plant life on Earth; he'd be a strand of mind matter without the ability to form a body of his own. After Swamp Thing's demands are met and Abby is freed, Luthor enacts his plan, which works, with Abby horrified to see her lover seemingly die before her. But Swamp Thing's story doesn't end there, as his adventures across the cosmos begin with issue 56.

The story has Swamp Thing materialize on another planet countless light years away from Earth, with his form taking after the blue terrain of the planet. After wandering the planet for who knows how long, Swamp Thing becomes bored and decides to create a mirror image of himself in order to keep him company. The two Swamp Things become close, but after a while the original grew bored with his mirror image and decided to create himself a companion of a different sort from the vegetation around him. He creates a copy of his lover Abby, and after a while he decides to grow a replica of his hometown of Houma, Louisiana to lose himself further in his illusions. Sadly, Swamp Thing became aware that everything and everyone he created to fulfill his desire for home were nothing but pale imitations of the real thing. He destroys every replica version of his home and the people in it, including Abby, and sends his consciousness toward the heavens to try and find his way back home.

Issue Four of Watchmen Explained

Over in the world of Watchmen, however, there were similarities in Doctor Manhattan's story. The character lives in a world where superheroes exist and have become outlawed unless they're registered with the U.S. government, which he is one of the few who was. Plus, he's the only hero with superpowers of any kind, making his abilities of use for the U.S. on countless missions.

During an interview with a late-night talk show host about the probability of Russia starting a nuclear war with the U.S. and his potential plans to stop it, he's ambushed by reporters accusing him of inadvertently giving anyone who came into close contact with him cancer, including his former lover. After being bombarded and overwhelmed by the accusations, he teleports the audience away from him. Afterward, he goes to the military base where he got his powers, and after retrieving a photograph of him before the transformation with his now cancer-ridden lover, he teleports himself to Mars.

Issue number 4 of Watchmen explores Dr. Manhattan's origins as he contemplates his life while on Mars. Dr. Manhattan is essentially a godlike being within this comic, and one of the myriad of powers he possesses is the ability to see the past, present, and future at the same time, all the time, which he does in this issue. After much contemplation, he decides to abandon humanity to its own devices and sets out to create a world of his own free of their influence.

How similar are Swamp Thing and Doctor Manhattan's stories?

I believe that if one were to look at the surface of both these stories, there are some similarities, such as having blue beings with godlike powers unsure of what to do next with their lives, but to me, the similarities end there.

How Swamp Thing and Dr. Manhattan got to the point in their respective stories is different, with Swamp Thing being forced into exile from Earth by his enemies, while Dr. Manhattan exiled himself to Mars to get away from humanity. And the self-reflective journeys these two take and the conclusions they reach are different as well. Swamp Thing saw no hope of getting home and decided to be lost in his illusions, until ultimately becoming unsatisfied with them and finding the strength to find his way home to Earth.

Dr. Manhattan, on the other hand, reflected back on his life and the possible future there for him and decided that he needed to be as far from Earth and humanity as possible in order to grow and become more understanding of the universe. Swamp Thing didn't let his humanity become lost, while Dr. Manhattan found that he needed to move away from humanity and his own humanity to reach enlightenment.

So, at the end of the day, while both stories share similar visuals and premises, if one were to look deeper, the differences more than outweigh the marginal similarities, and both stories remain their own unique interpretations of life and human mentality.