American Perspectives on Romania: 'The Man Who Wanted Forever'
Specs:
Title: The Man Who Wanted Forever
Genre: Comic Book, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Series: Swamp Thing
Issue: no. 2
Artist: Berni Wrightson
Writer: Len Wein
Publication date: January 1973
Publisher: DC Comics
Country: USA
Characters: Arcane, the Patchwork Man (cameo), the “un-men”
Setting: USA/Bayou Country; Eastern Europe; an icy Balkan Lake; Transylvania.
Outline/synopsis:
The Swamp Thing is kidnapped and taken to Eastern Europe, where he is introduced to Arcane, a scientist obsessed with immortality and revenge.
Tropes:
Frankenstein’s monster = the Patchwork Man + the un-men;
The alchemist/the mad scientist/the sorcerer/Frankenstein = Anton Arcane;
The gothic castle = Arcane’s castle (it looks similar to the Bran Castle);
The Balkans as barbaric lands/people = the Transylvanian Castle/the un-men;
The mythic/medieval land, frozen in time = the Transylvanian village;
The isolated Balkan lands.
Personal view:
In the second issue of The Swamp Thing, the hero is kidnapped and taken to Eastern Europe by the un-men, horrid creatures conceived by a Transylvanian mad scientist. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the Iberian Peninsula, and the “gleaming Mediterranean,” the plane by which the team of un-men flew lands “softly upon an icy Balkan lake” at the base of a mountain on top of which a “castle reaching grimly for the sky, lofty spires clawing at the clouds like talons tearing gossamer, dim-lit windows peering down like rheumy yellow eyes,” raises majestically. So far, the image of the castle seems to fall perfectly in sync with what D. J. Hall described in his Rumanian Furrow as the place “where the centuries fell away and clocks did not govern,” an image of a mythical land, frozen in time, idea also suggested by the icy Balkan lake and the snowy surroundings of the castle.
Later on, after reaching the tower, the Swamp Thing awakens and tries to escape. However, as he fights the gruesome creatures which are determined to keep him captive until their master appears, “a voice like fractured crystal rings through the cool, crisp air,” and thus, Anton Arcane introduces himself. The man, old in his age, talks sweetly to the hero and tries to convince him to join him inside the castle, after which he kindly offers his hand in order to help him. The hand gesture that Arcane performs could also be interpreted as some sort of contract that the hero tacitly accepts, as it is shown when he takes the man's hand. And yet, this bit of kindness that the scientist displays greatly contrasts with a remark one of the un-men made while trying to subdue the hero, at the beginning of the story: “The master will not tolerate your failure.”
Furthermore, corroborated with what is later revealed in this issue, a possible description of Arcane would read as follows: a very manipulative and vengeful man, whose only interest is to gain power by becoming immortal. What this shows, if generalizations are made, is that Romanians, too, are driven by their own interests and that they are ready to use whatever means necessary in order to fulfill their goals. Moreover, since the un-men are under Arcane’s command, this seems to indicate that lower class Romanians are loyal and dutiful subjects to their ruler, and thus, they are themselves subjects of the same corruption and degeneracy advertised by their ruler.
As a conclusion, as Vesna Goldsworthy indicated in her Inventing Ruritania, Romania and its inhabitants become a symbol of danger and hatred, a mythical and undeveloped land characterized by a certain stillness and degeneracy.
