Abby attends a memorial service for the Swamp Thing in Gotham. As Commissioner Gordon and Batman address the crowd, she finds herself lost in her thoughts and memories and accepts that, much as she may wish his murder were a cosmic oversight subject to correction, he's really dead. Similarly, John Constantine and the Phantom Stranger, paying their respects quietly at the rear, inform each other that they've found no trace of the creature on Earth. Deadman, temporarily possessing a hapless older man, attempts to console Abby with the assurance that he's failed to locate "Alec" anywhere in the afterlife. However, she takes him for a delusional alcoholic. Finally, Batman invites Abby to say a few unscheduled words, even if it's just to castigate Gotham for opposing her lover, but she simply lays a rose at the feet of the commemorative Swamp Thing statue the city has erected. As the service ends and people file past with their attempts at comfort, Abby silently hopes that "Alec" is at rest in some sort of heaven and bids him good-bye.
Meanwhile, on a distant planet outside the solar system, blue vegetation shoots up from the ground, forming a body for the very-much alive Swamp Thing.
Tropes
- Antagonist in Mourning: Discussed. Gordon, Batman and the Gotham establishment are this, in Abby's eyes. When Gordon, in his speech, says the city is sorry for its adversarial relationship with the Swamp Thing, Abby thinks:You're sorry. Is it safe to feel sorry, then, now that he's dead? Safe to lavish tears on his memory now that you needn't cope with his reality? Safe to lavish understanding on our love, now that it's gone?
- Minutes later, Gordon himself acknowledges that the Gotham authorities' commemoration of an entity they'd recently fought may come across as "hypocritical," but says that's not their intent.
- Arc Words: "Time's a great healer." "At least it was quick." "The world keeps on turning." These sentences, conventional attempts at consoling mourners, recur throughout Abby's inner monologue.
- Art Shift: John Totleben pencilled and inked Abby's flashback sequence.
- Book Ends: The issue begins with a gradual zoom-in from the Earth in space to the Gotham ceremony and Abby. It ends with an incremental zoom-out back to the planet, then out of the solar system and galaxy. Finally there's a cut to a distant planet on which the Swamp Thing materializes.
- Breather Episode: After months of back-to-back intense conflict and suspense, starting with the "Save the World" Climax to "American Gothic," continuing with the Gotham arc which ended in the Swamp Thing's apparent death, after which there immediately followed a standalone Domestic Abuse drama/thriller..."Earth to Earth" is a relatively quiet issue. No villains, no battles, just a poignantly realistic look at one woman's grief and acceptance of her loss. There's even a bit of Plucky Comic Relief via Deadman and his unwitting, unlucky temporary host Delamare.
- Cliché Storm: Lampshaded in-universe. Funeral attendees offer Abby standard platitudes meant to console her (see under Arc Words), but the outworn and meaningless gestures just make her feel numb inside.
- Flashback: Abby recalls a swamp visit in which she thought she'd killed her lover with a hug. "Alec" comes up moments later, assuring her that she'd merely crushed a body he'd abandoned. Still shaken, she makes him promise never to die.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Abby recalls bitterly that when the Swamp Thing saved humanity from Woodrue, the Justice League got the credit. She also remembers her lover having told her he'd once come to Superman's rescue. This is a reference to Moore's DC Comics Presents story, "The Jungle Line," in which the Swamp Thing heals Superman from a potentially fatal Kryptonian viral infection.
- Imagine Spot: Abby has a Wish-Fulfillment daydream in which "Alec" is still alive, the Houma Daily Courier apologizes for its nasty reportage, Deanna rehires her with a raise, Matt comes out of his coma and files for an amicable divorce so that Abby and "Alec" can get married officially at the courthouse. The sequence lampshades the unreality of all this by portraying the streets of Houma as mere plywood stage facades, having the Monkey King perch on Deanna's shoulder, and showing Matt surrounded by flies. A Mood Whiplash ensues as the couple reach the courthouse and the Swamp Thing succumbs to the napalm attack all over again.
- Innocently Insensitive: Deadman means well when he borrows Delamare's body to tell Abby that he hasn't found the Swamp Thing anywhere in the afterlife, and that therefore she shouldn't lose hope. However, not only does she lack context for understanding what he's trying to tell her (as she's neither met nor heard of Deadman/Boston Brand), he also gives her a friendly, but unsolicited and unwelcome, parting kiss on the cheek. Poor Delamare regains consciousness to find himself the befuddled recipient of a slap which relieves him of his glasses and dentures. To top it off, Bullock arrests him for "public disorder" and "molestation."
- Missing Time: As Bullock takes him away, the confused, panicked Delamare can only suppose he must've blacked out as a side effect of his allergy medication.
- Not Quite Dead: The end of the issue reveals that although the communications scrambler had indeed severed the Swamp Thing's connection with Earth, it didn't trap him within his body after all, as he was able to send his consciousness into space.
