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In a fascinating thread on Twitter, superstar comic book writer Kurt Busiek revealed that editor Len Wein had actually offered Alan Moore two options for his big break writing for American comic books back in 1983 - the job writing for Justice League of America or the job writing Saga of the Swamp Thing. Moore decided to choose Swamp Thing and the rest is comic book history.
Busiek revealed the information in a thread where he pointed out how so many major events in comic book history came about because of happy accidents, like, going back to Alan Moore again for a second, he only used original characters for Watchmen because DC's head editor, Dick Giordano, wouldn't allow him to use DC's newly-acquired Charlton characters for the project (Blue Beetle, Question, Captain Atom, etc.). And even there, Moore had originally conceived the story that became Watchmen with Archie's defunct superhero line in mind before he learned that DC had purchased the Charlton characters.
In the past, Alan Moore talked about Wein giving him his first American comic book writing assignment as a case where he was given the chance on a relatively minor character like Swamp Thing specifically because the stakes were so low. As Moore once noted, "[W]hen I entered the comics industry, I was given characters that the company owned, which were on their last legs--ones which were so lame that they were practically on the verge of cancellation."
However, according to Busiek, that decision was Moore's own choice, which does make sense, as he obviously had a lot more creative freedom on Swamp Thing than he would have had on Justice League of America, working with multiple characters who had their own solo titles. In addition, he would be working with Swamp Thing's actual creator, Len Wein, on the book, which was likely a plus.
Busiek explained how he learned this fascinating piece of history, "I was pitching fill-in stories to Len at the time, and he told me he’d offered both books to Alan, but Alan was only going to take one, and whichever book he didn’t take Len would need fill-ins for. So I came up with both JLA and SWAMP THING pitches, and when Alan decided on SWAMP THING, I got to write JLA 224."
Gerry Conway had been the regular writer on Justice League of America since #151, but he had taken a break at the time. Amusingly, though, Conway would then return to the title just four months later to do a revamp of the series with artist Chuck Patton, introducing a new take on the Justice League of America based more on the X-Men and New Teen Titans (now typically referred to as "Justice League Detroit" because that's where their new headquarters was located).
Therefore, had Moore chosen to take Justice League of America over Swamp Thing, not only would Swamp Thing's history be dramatically different, so, too, would the Justice League of America's history. It really was a decision with many dramatic ripples in comic book history.
One of those minor ripples was also noted by Busiek, who pointed out, "My SWAMP THING fill-n pitch eventually became the origin of an Astro City character, too, but in a very different way."
Source: Kurt Busiek on Twitter