Abby moves into a new apartment, and learns that Matt is in a coma from which he isn't expected to recover. Her well-meaning boss Deanna says she'd like to help her with what she senses are problems in her personal life, but that Abby insists on keeping everything "secrets and mysteries."
These events weigh on Abby's mind as she falls asleep and has a lucid dream in which she finds herself in a graveyard with two pointy-eared brothers: the aggressive, rude Cain and the meek, gentle Abel. Abel tells Abby that her subconscious has brought her there to learn something. Cain demands that she choose between his House of Mystery, which contains matters she can share with others, and Abel's House of Secrets, which contains matters she must keep to herself. Abby, put off by Cain's personality, chooses to go with Abel, who takes her to his home and shows her the secret: a story that's in the form of a bracelet, because it's cyclical in nature.
Abel tells her the story of Alex Olsen, an early twentieth-century chemist whose partner, Damian Ridge, secretly coveted his wife Linda. Ridge sabotaged Alex's experiment, causing an explosion which, he told Linda, obliterated any trace of her husband. In reality, the explosion had merely knocked Alex out, whereupon Damian buried him in the nearby swamp and pretended to mourn him while consoling Linda. The two of them soon married.
Six months later, however, Damian found that Linda was politely distancing herself from him, and realized it was because she was still attached to Alex. Ridge figured it would only be a matter of time before she realized he had murdered Olsen, and so he resolved to kill Linda in turn. What neither of them knew was that Alex was still alive, but transformed into a humanoid plant monster. He had slowly dug himself out and made his way back home, reaching it just in time to see Damien sneaking up on Linda with a hypodermic needle. Alex barged in and strangled Damian to death, then turned to face and reassure his terrified wife. He discovered, however, that he was now completely mute. There was nothing for him to do but return, in sadness, to the swamp.
Abby is perplexed that the tale is so similar to "Alec's" story yet happened to a different person in a different era. Abel says that's the secret: Alec isn't the first Swamp Thing, and his creation wasn't an accident. Throughout history, the Earth has created elementals to protect itself during "sour times," and he's the current one. Abel warns that the Earth will soon be facing troubled times again, and thus it's vital that Abby share this information with her friend so he can better understand his role. For that to happen, however, Abel must elude Cain by sneaking her out the back, so that she'll remember the story upon awakening.
Unfortunately, Cain is on to Abel, and meets them out back, saying that if Abby had wanted something to share with others, she should've chosen a mystery. As it is, he must now ensure the secret stays buried deep within her mind. Abel attempts to restrain his brother and they grapple until Cain gains the upper hand and kills him. The horrified Abby asks how he can murder his own brother. "I invented murder!" Cain responds, adding that Abel will be up and about soon enough, as the two of them, archetypal characters from "the first story," are condemned to reenact that story forever. Cain sends Abby back to waking consciousness with her secret.
Immediately upon awakening, Abby starts to transcribe Alex Olsen's story, only for a phone call from Deanna to interrupt her six words in, causing her to forget she'd even had that dream.
Tropes:
- And I Must Scream: Alex Olsen, post-transformation, can no longer speak, and thus he can't convince Linda that he's her lost love and not a mindless, randomly homicidal monster. He can't even weep over his tragic fate: "If tears could come—they would!"
- Arc Welding: The frame story brings the original 1971 "Swamp Thing" tale into series canon.
- Cain and Abel: The two keepers of stories are the original Cain and Abel. As "a projection of the human unconscious" originating in "the brain's right hemisphere," they're implied to be even older than their biblical counterparts.
- Canon Immigrant:
- Alex Olsen, Damian Ridge and Linda Olsen Ridge weren't originally part of Swamp Thing continuity. Their tale, titled simply "Swamp Thing" (and reprinted here in its entirety), originally appeared in House of Secrets #92 as a one-shot story and was the inspiration for the ongoing Swamp Thing title, by the same Lein Wein/Bernie Wrightson creative team, but with a reworked protagonist and origin story set in the present day. Apart from a single out of context quotation at the end of Swamp Thing Vol. 1 Issue 13, that story was never referenced in the ongoing continuity until Moore made it part of his ongoing Retcon of the series.
- Cain and Abel, with the likenesses and rough personalities seen here, first appeared as the respective hosts of the DC horror anthologies House of Mystery and House of Secrets in the late 1960s, in addition to cohosting with Eve in the 1970s horror-humour title PLOP! It was Moore who, in this issue, first associated them with their biblical archetypes, paving the way for their reappearance in Issues 49 and 50 and inspiring their expanded, recurring role in The Sandman and its Spin-Off The Dreaming.
- Characterization Marches On: Granted, this is the first DC story to give Cain and Abel a deeper characterization than "goofy narrators of horror stories," (including, but not limited to, having Cain kill Abel in addition to the verbal abuse familiar from their previous appearances together). Nevertheless, there are small but significant differences between their portrayal here (and in Issue 50), and their later, more familiar portrayal in The Sandman. Here, Cain doesn't show even a hint of affection for his brother behind the abuse. Abel doesn't stutter, and is rather less cowered by Cain, actually trying to restrain him physically.
- Doing in the Scientist: In The Anatomy Lesson, Jason Woodrue devised a scientific explanation for the Swamp Thing's origin: swamp vegetation, its growth accelerated in a chance accident by Alec Holland's bio-restorative formula, ingested his mind along with his flesh. Abel's secret reveals it wasn't an isolated, scientifically-explicable accident after all. Rather, "Alec" is the latest in a long line of plant elementals the Earth has created, on purpose, to protect itself.
- Fanservice: Fill-in artist Ron Randall draws Abby in a clingy, low-cut nightgown, often with hip-thrusting or leaning-forward poses.
- Filler: Subverted. True, the original impetus for "Abandoned Houses" was that Bissette needed more time to complete his pencils for Issue 34, and the present issue does contain previously-published content. However, Moore's framing story not only coherently brings that content into canon but significantly advances the ongoing plot, serving as the most explicit Foreshadowing yet of the major "American Gothic" arc in which the Swamp Thing discovers his elemental powers and eventually learns of his elemental heritage.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Damian is homicidally jealous of Alex, and Cain of his brother (according to Abel, and at any rate with less permanent results).
- History Repeats: The golden bracelet, in the original "Swamp Thing" story, is Linda's anniversary gift to Alex and, in its lampshaded absence at the end, a symbol of his lost love. In its new context here, with the story itself in bracelet form, it symbolizes the ongoing, cyclical history of Earth elemental formation.
- Homage: The issue cover is an homage to that of House of Secrets #92, with Abby in the place of Linda Olsen. Compare them here
◊. - It Kind of Looks Like a Face: In the final panel, the crumpled-up sheet of paper, which Abby discards, resembles the Swamp Thing's head.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Both brothers note that hardly anyone comes by to hear stories anymore, Abel by way of explaining all the dust and Cain in lamenting that they have nothing else to do with their time but reenact their own story. This references the fact that both of their titles had been long since cancelled at the time of this issue's publication.
- Love Makes You Evil: Damian's love for Linda, combined with his resentment of Alex for marrying her, drives him to attempted murder.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Ridge sabotages Alex's experiment by substituting explosive chemicals, then blocks Linda from entering the lab after the explosion on the pretext that there's nothing left of Alex to see. Finally, he hides the evidence by burying the unconscious Alex in the swamp.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Damian acts to eliminate his competition for Linda's hand by burying Alex alive. He fails in the end, gaining Linda's hand but not her heart. And then his rival turns out to be Not Quite Dead after all.
- Museum of the Strange and Unusual: Abel's House of Secrets and, by implication, Cain's House of Mystery. Abel's house (which Abby describes as "strange and cluttered") contains stories in the form of artifacts, such as Alex Olsen's story in bracelet form. Abel mentions in passing a couple of other stories in his collection: one about "an old woman who kept the ocean in a bottle" and one about "an orchard that bore skulls instead of fruit."
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Abel's reaction when Cain overpowers him and picks up a rock to murder him with. One can imagine Abel having this reaction every time since the first.
- Save the Day, Turn Away: Alex saves Linda's life but, seeing that he can't tell her who he is and why he killed Damian, he heads back to the swamp.
- Shout-Out:
- When Abel timidly asks Cain whether he minds Abby choosing a secret instead of a mystery, Cain grins wickedly and says, "Mind? Why should I mind? Am I your keeper?" This is an allusion to Genesis 4:9: "And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?" (King James Version)
- Moments later, there's another, more indirect allusion to the biblical story. Abel says that Cain's "not so bad. He just gets jealous when people like me better than him." This alludes to the reason, in Genesis, that Cain murders Abel: both brothers bring God an offering; God accepts Abel's offering but rejects Cain's, without explaining why. (Genesis 4:3-5)
- Theory of Narrative Causality: Discussed. When Abel tells Abby that "some strange stories" have entered her life, she takes offence, saying that everything that's happened to her has been real. He explains that he meant no offence, because "in a way, everything is made of stories."
- They Killed Kenny Again: This story introduces the recurring motif in Swamp Thing, The Sandman and The Dreaming—sometimes Played for Laughs, sometimes not—in which Abel repeatedly suffers a painful, but always temporary, death at Cain's hands, because the two of them are destined to reenact the first murder forever, within the collective unconscious of humanity.
