Swamp Thing is a fictional character American comic books published by DC Comics. While several incarnations of the character have since debuted, the original was created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson and first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (July 1971). The character found perhaps its greatest popularity during the original 1970s Wein/Wrightson run and in the mid-late 1980s during a highly acclaimed run under Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, and John Totleben.
In each incarnation of the character, the Swamp Thing is often depicted as a swamp monster that resembles an anthropomorphic mound of vegetable matter seeking to protect nature. Known as the Avatar of the Green, Swamp Thing is an the embodiment of the cosmic energies that gives life to all plant life in the known universe (dubbed "The Green") and is considered the champion of the Parliament of Trees, the collective guiding and collective consciousness of all plant life. The most well-regarded incarnation is the second version, Alec Holland. Once a chemist working on a compound to enable plant growth in hostile environments, Holland is seemingly transformed by his own creation after his death at the hands of criminal elements. Stories vary in his being, sometimes a plant creature believing himself to be Alec possessing his memories while later stories make him the genuine Alec who transforms into the Swamp Thing. Allec's version is also a reluctant ally of John Constantine and a later member of the Justice League Dark, considered a powerhouse among their ranks.
Other versions include Alexander Olsen, the predecessor of Alec and original Swamp Thing who was simiarly scientist who was killed by his assistant vying for the affections of his wife. Returning as a swamp creature after his body is dumped, he takes revenge on his killer, but his wife runs off, unable to recognize him. He later becomes a local legend in Louisiana. In 2021, a new incarnation is created as Levi Kamei, a young Indian scientist descended from from a tribunal connected to the Kaziranga wetlands whoe power awakens following a tragedy. This version exists concurrently within the mainstream DC Universe alongside Alec and is more promeniently a roster member of the Titans.
The character has been adapted from the comics into several forms of media, including feature films, television series, and video games. The character made his live-action debut in the film Swamp Thing (1982), with Dick Durock playing the Swamp Thing, while Ray Wise played Alec Holland. Durock played both Swamp Thing and Holland in the sequel film The Return of Swamp Thing (1989). Durock reprised the role again in the television series Swamp Thing (1990). The Swamp Thing was played by Derek Mears with Andy Bean playing Alec Holland in the television series Swamp Thing (2019). Another live-action film adaptation, titled Swamp Thing, is in development as an installment of the DC Universe (DCU) media franchise. IGN ranked him 28th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes list.
Concept and creation
In 1971, DC Comics editor Joe Orlando contacted writer Len Wein for a last-minute eight-page backup story for House of Mystery. Wein came up with the idea for the character while riding a subway in Queens. He later recalled: "I didn't have a title for it, so I kept referring to it as 'that swamp thing I'm working on'. And that's how it got its name!" According to publisher Jenette Kahn, Orlando added the story's twist ending. Bernie Wrightson designed the character's visual image, using a rough sketch by Wein as a guideline. Wrightson completed the eight-page story in one weekend with the assistance of Michael Kaluta (who also modeled for the story's villain) and Jeff Jones, who inked two of the pages.
Wein and Wrightson developed a specific visual style for the stories, including yellow thought balloons and orange speech balloons, since "it was such an extraordinary effort for him to speak...whenever a caption referred to him, it was drippy like a swamp."
Publication history
Volume 1
Len Wein was the writer for the first 13 issues, before David Michelinie and Gerry Conway finished up the series. Burgeoning horror artist Bernie Wrightson drew the first 10 issues of the series, while Nestor Redondo drew a further 13 issues, the last issue being drawn by Fred Carrillo. The original creative team worked closely together; Wrightson recalled that during story conferences, Wein would walk around the office acting out all of the parts. The Swamp Thing fought against evil as he sought the men who murdered his wife and caused his monstrous transformation, as well as searching for a means to transform back into his human form.
The Swamp Thing has since fought many villains. Though they only met twice during the first series, the mad scientist Anton Arcane (with his obsession with gaining immortality) became the Swamp Thing's nemesis, even as the Swamp Thing developed a close bond with Arcane's niece Abigail Arcane. Arcane was aided by his nightmarish army of Un-Men and the Patchwork Man, alias Arcane's brother Gregori Arcane who, after a land mine explosion, was rebuilt as a Frankenstein Monster-type creature by his brother. Also involved in the conflict was the Swamp Thing's close friend-turned-enemy Lt. Matthew Joseph Cable, a federal agent who
originally mistakenly believed the Swamp Thing to be responsible for the deaths of Alec and Linda Holland.
As sales figures plummeted towards the end of the series, the writers attempted to revive interest by introducing fantastical creatures, aliens, and even Alec Holland's brother, Edward (a character that was never referred to again by later writers) into the picture.
The last two issues saw the Swamp Thing transformed back into Alec Holland and having to fight one last menace as an ordinary human. The series was cancelled with issue #24 and a blurb for a 25th issue containing an upcoming encounter with Hawkman led nowhere. Alec Holland's transformation back into the Swamp Thing was covered in Challengers of the Unknown #81-87, within which the Swamp Thing is enlisted by the titular team to fight the Lovecraftian cosmic threat M'nagalah, whom the Swamp Thing had encountered during Wein's run.
The Saga of the Swamp Thing and Volume 2
In 1982, DC Comics revived the Swamp Thing series, attempting to capitalize on the summer 1982 release of the Wes Craven film of the same name. A revival had been planned for 1978, but was a victim of the DC Implosion. The new series, called The Saga of the Swamp Thing, featured an adaptation of the Craven film in its first annual. Now written by Martin Pasko, the book loosely picked up after the Swamp Thing's guest appearances in Challengers of the Unknown #81-87, DC Comics Presents #8, and The Brave and the Bold #172, with the character wandering around the swamps of Louisiana seen as an urban legend and feared by locals. Pasko's main arc depicted the Swamp Thing roaming the globe, trying to stop a young girl (and the possible Anti-Christ) named Karen Clancy from destroying the world.
When Pasko had to give up work on the title due to increasing television commitments, editor Len Wein assigned the title to British writer Alan Moore. When Karen Berger took over as editor, she gave Moore free rein to revamp the title and the character as he saw fit. Moore reconfigured the Swamp Thing's origin to make him a true monster, as opposed to a human transformed into a monster. In his first issue, he swept aside most of the supporting cast that Pasko had introduced in his year-and-a-half run as writer and brought the Sunderland Corporation to the forefront, as they hunted the Swamp Thing down and "killed" him in a hail of bullets. The subsequent investigation revealed that the Swamp Thing was not Alec Holland transformed into a plant, but actually a wholly plant-based entity created upon the death of Alec Holland, having somehow absorbed duplicates of Holland's consciousness and memories into himself. He is described as "a plant that thought it was Alec Holland, a plant that was trying its level best to be Alec Holland". This is explained as a result of the plant matter of the swamp absorbing Holland's bio-restorative formula, with the Swamp Thing's appearance being the plants' attempt to duplicate Holland's human form. This revelation resulted in the Swamp Thing suffering a temporary mental breakdown and identity crisis, but he re-asserted himself in time to stop the latest scheme of Floronic Man.
Issue #32 was a strange twist of comedy and tragedy, as the Swamp Thing encounters an alien version of Pogo, Walt Kelly's character.
Moore would later reveal, in an attempt to connect the original one-off Swamp Thing story from House of Secrets #92 to the main Swamp Thing canon, that there had been dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Swamp Things since the dawn of humanity, and that all versions of the creature were designated defenders of the Parliament of Trees, an elemental community which rules a dimension known as "the Green" that connects all plant life on Earth. Moore's Swamp Thing broadened the scope of the series to include ecological and spiritual concerns while retaining its horror-fantasy roots. In issue #37, Moore formally introduced the character of John Constantine the Hellblazer as a magician/con artist who would lead the Swamp Thing on the "American Gothic" storyline. Alan Moore also introduced the concept of the DC characters Cain and Abel being the mystical reincarnations of the Biblical Cain and Abel caught in an endless cycle of murder and resurrection.
The Saga of the Swamp Thing was the first mainstream comic book series to completely abandon the Comics Code Authority's approval.
With issue #65, regular penciler Rick Veitch took over from Moore and began scripting the series, continuing the story in a roughly similar vein for 24 more issues. Veitch's term ended in 1989 due to a widely publicized creative dispute, when DC refused to publish issue #88 because of the use of Jesus Christ as a character, despite having previously approved the script in which the Swamp Thing is a cupbearer who offers Jesus water when he calls for it from the cross. The series was handed to Doug Wheeler, who made the cup that the Shining Knight believed to be the Holy Grail to be a cup used in a religious ceremony by a Neanderthal tribe that was about to be wiped out by Cro-Magnons, in the published version of issue #88. In issue #90, Wheeler not only reintroduced Matango, a character that Stephen Bissette had introduced in Swamp Thing Annual #4, but he also completed Veitch's story arc that intended to have Abby Holland give birth to the human-plant hybrid elemental Tefe Holland .
After a period of high creative turnover, in 1991 DC sought to revive interest in Swamp Thing by bringing horror writer Nancy A. Collins on board to write the series. Starting with Swamp Thing Annual #6, Collins moved on to write Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #110–138, dramatically overhauling the series by restoring the pre-Alan Moore tone and incorporating a new set of supporting cast members into the book. Collins resurrected Anton Arcane, along with the Sunderland Corporation, as foils for the Swamp Thing. Her stories tended to be ecologically based and at one point featured giant killer flowers.
With issue #140 (March 1994), the title was handed over to Grant Morrison for a four-issue story arc, co-written by the then-unknown Mark Millar. As Collins had destroyed the status quo of the series, Morrison sought to shake the book up with a four-part storyline which had the Swamp Thing plunged into a nightmarish dreamworld scenario where he was split into two separate beings: Alec Holland and the Swamp Thing, which was now a mindless being of pure destruction. Millar then took over from Morrison with issue #144, and launched what was initially conceived as an ambitious 25-part storyline where the Swamp Thing would be forced to go upon a series of trials against rival elemental forces. Millar brought the series to a close with issue #171 in a finale where the Swamp Thing becomes the master of all elemental forces, including the planet.
Volume 3
Written by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Roger Petersen and Giuseppe Camuncoli in 2001, the third Swamp Thing series focused on the daughter of the Swamp Thing, Tefé Holland. Even though she was chronologically 11–12, the series had Tefé aged into the body of an 18-year-old with a mindwipe orchestrated by the Swamp Thing. Constantine and Abby try to control her darker impulses, brought about by her exposure to the Parliament of Trees. Due to the circumstances under which she was conceived, the Swamp Thing, possessing John Constantine, was not aware that he was given a blood transfusion by a demon. She held power over both plants and flesh.
Believing herself to be a normal human girl named Mary who had miraculously recovered from cancer three years prior, she rediscovers her powers and identity when she finds her boyfriend and best friend betraying her on prom night. In a moment of anger, her powers manifest and she kills them both. Tefé then fakes her own death and embarks on a series of misadventures that take her across the country, and ultimately to Africa, in search of a mythical "Tree of Knowledge".
During this series, it seems that the Swamp Thing and Abigail have reunited as lovers and are living in their old home in the Louisiana swamps outside Houma. The home in which they live more closely resembles the one that the Swamp Thing constructs for Abigail during the Moore run than the home in which they dwell during the Collins run. In a confrontation with Tefé, the Swamp Thing explains that he has cut himself off from the Green and there seems to be no trace of the god-like powers he acquired from the Parliaments of Air, Waves, Stone or Flames during the Millar run. Also, Vaughan's Swamp Thing does not seem to have been divorced from the humanity of his Alec Holland self. The disconnection between these two entities becomes a plot point in Volume 4.
Volume 4
A fourth series began in 2004, with writers Andy Diggle (#1–6), Will Pfeifer (#7–8) and Joshua Dysart (#9–29). In this latest series, the Swamp Thing is reverted to his plant-based Earth elemental status after the first story line, and he attempts to live an "eventless" life in the Louisiana swamps. Tefé, likewise, is rendered powerless and mortal. Issue #29 was intended to be the final issue of the fourth volume, which was cancelled due to low sales numbers.
Return to the DC Universe
Brightest Day
The conclusion of the crossover event Brightest Day revealed that the Swamp Thing had become corrupted by the personality of the villain Nekron in the wake of the Blackest Night crossover event. The Swamp Thing now believed himself to be Nekron, similar to how he had once believed himself to be Alec Holland. The Swamp Thing went on a rampage in Star City, seeking to destroy all life on Earth. The Life Entity uses several heroes, including Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman and Deadman, to slow the rampage while a new Swamp Thing was formed around the human remains of Alec Holland. Instead of merely thinking that it was Holland, this version of the Swamp Thing would actually be him. The new Swamp Thing defeated and killed the corrupted and original Swamp Thing. Restoring life to natural environments across the Earth, he declared that those who hurt the Green would face his wrath. He also restored Aquaman, Firestorm, Hawkman, and Martian Manhunter to normal. The book ended with the Swamp Thing resuming his original mission by killing several businessmen who engaged in deliberate, illegal polluting activities.
Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for the Swamp Thing
This three–issue miniseries follows immediately after the events of Brightest Day, and follows the actions of John Constantine as he tries to work out what has changed with the Swamp Thing and track him down, with the assistance of Zatanna, Batman, and Superman.
Volume 5
DC Comics relaunched Swamp Thing with issue #1 in September 2011 as part of The New 52, with writer Scott Snyder (#1-18 and Annual). Snyder's run concluded with "Rotworld", a crossover event between Swamp Thing, Animal Man and Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. Charles Soule wrote issues #19-40.
Volume 6
A six–issue miniseries written by Len Wein, co-creator of the Swamp Thing, with art by Kelley Jones was released between March and August 2016. It follows Swamp Thing giving up his powers to Anton Arcane, who is disguised as Matt Cable.
This was followed by a Tom King winter special in 2018, also featuring Len Wein's last Swamp Thing issue.
The Swamp Thing
A 16-issue miniseries retitled with "The" written by Ram V with art by Mike Perkins began publication in March 2021. The book focuses on a new character named Levi Kami taking up the Swamp Thing mantle while Alec Holland is off-world. Originally planned as a 10-issue miniseries, The Swamp Thing has been extended to 16 issues, with The Swamp Thing #10 followed by a short hiatus before returning in March 2022.
Fictional character biography
In a secret facility located in the Louisiana bayous, scientist Alec Holland and his wife Linda invent a bio-restorative formula that can solve any nations' food shortage problems. Two thugs working for Nathan Ellery, head of the criminal organization the Conclave, barge into Holland's lab, knock him out, and plant a bomb in the facility. Holland wakes up as the bomb explodes. In flames, he runs into the swamp. His body is drenched in the bio-restorative formula, and this affects the plant life of the swamp, imbuing it with Holland's consciousness and memories. The newly conscious plant life forms a humanoid body and rises up from the bog as Swamp Thing, the latest in a long line of Earth elementals created when the Green is in need of protection.
Swamp Thing originally believes himself to be Alec Holland transformed into a monster. He seeks to regain his human body, but often meets opposition in the form of Anton Arcane and his Un-Men. After finally defeating Arcane, Swamp Thing is set upon by General Sunderland's men in a covert military operation. The resulting attacks blast a hole in Swamp Thing's head and destroys the lives of many of his friends. Sunderland brings Swamp Thing's body back to Sunderland Corp to study and unlock the secret of the bio-restorative formula.
Sunderland hires Floronic Man to study Swamp Thing's body, which he stores in a cryochest. Over the course of his research, Floronic Man deduces that Swamp Thing is a plant that thinks it is Alec Holland; the real Holland died in the explosion. Sunderland and Floronic Man part on bad terms, so the scientist uses Sunderland's automated computer systems to raise the thermostat in Swamp Thing's cryochest. This allows Swamp Thing's body to regenerate, and in his search for Sunderland, he stumbles across Floronic Man's report, which sends him into a mindless rage. He kills Sunderland and sets off for the swamps.
Swamp Thing goes into shock from learning his true origins. He roots himself into the swamp and spends three weeks dreaming; his mind eventually travels into the Green. Floronic Man returns to the swamp and discovers Swamp Thing's connection to the Green, but the experience drives him mad. Consuming parts of Swamp Thing's body, Floronic Man is able to influence plant growth worldwide. Swamp Thing catches up with Floronic Man and convinces the villain that his war against animal life is pointless, reminding him that plant life and animal life need each other to survive.
A budding friendship grows between Swamp Thing and Abby Cable, the niece of Anton Arcane. Her husband Matthew grows resentful of her disinterest in sex and turns to alcohol, further pushing her toward Swamp Thing. She asks for his help when her autistic students at Elysium Lawns are tormented by Kamara the Monkey King. Swamp Thing destroys the demon with the help of Etrigan the Demon. On the same night that the demon attacks, Matthew leaves to help Abby. His alcoholism causes him to crash his car, mortally wounding him. To stay alive, he makes a pact with the spirit of Anton Arcane, who possesses his body.
The Sprout
After reuniting with Abby, Swamp Thing travels to the Parliament of Trees, but is greeted with surprised horror. The Parliament had assumed Swamp Thing dead after he was attacked by Dwight Wicker and the Defense Department Intelligence, and had therefore begun to grow a sprout which would grow into a new elemental once bound with a human spirit. Swamp Thing's return triggers a crisis, as having two elementals active at one time would set the balance of nature awry and cause calamity. The Parliament gave him the choice to either take root in the Parliament, and leave Abby forever, or to kill the Sprout. Swamp Thing refused to do either, whatever the consequences. Swamp Thing takes control of John Constantine's body, displacing Constantine into the astral plane. In Constantine's body, Swamp Thing conceives a child with Abby who will act as the Sprout's host. After being sent back in time by the Claw, Swamp Thing returns to the present day in time to witness the birth of his daughter, Tefé Holland.
Brightest Day
Alec Holland returns to life via the Life Entity, while Swamp Thing has become a being of mindless destruction. Holland's last conscious memory was of hurling himself into the swamp to extinguish the flames engulfing him, having no memory of ever being Swamp Thing previously.
The Entity reveals Alec Holland as its champion and a missing, vital component of Swamp Thing itself. Unlike the previous incarnation, a mass of humanoid plant life with all of Holland's absorbed memories, this new, renewed Swamp Thing is generated directly from the body of Holland. The Entity gives Holland all of the powers of the Green that the former had wielded, including the additional elemental governance over fire. Holland defeats the corrupted Swamp Thing and restores the Green to its natural order.
The New 52
In DC Comics's company-wide reboot The New 52, Alec Holland is brought back to life, but is haunted by the memories of Swamp Thing. Holland tries to put those memories behind him and live life as a carpenter in Louisiana, yet the Green continues to reach out for him. He is visited at work by Superman, who informs him of strange animal deaths across the world. Holland declines further investigating the matter as he explains to Superman his search for a normal life. He tells Superman how he tried returning to his botany work and successfully created a bio-restorative formula, destroyed it after experiencing a vision of the Green overrunning Earth. Later that night, Holland has nightmares of Swamp Thing and awakes to find his room covered in plants. He runs outside, this time to truly destroy the formula which he kept, only to be stopped by Swamp Thing.
Swamp Thing reveals himself to be Calbraith A. H. Rodgers, a World War II pilot who was shot down but transformed by the Green into Swamp Thing. Holland is reluctant to hear his message but allows him to speak. Rodgers tells Holland of the rise of Sethe and the Rot and Holland's importance as the next protector of the Green. Rodgers also confirms that Swamp Thing of Holland's memories was not him and that Holland is destined to be the greatest protector of the Green, a warrior king.
Holland is attacked and impaled by a member of the Rot, a force representing death and decay. As Holland is dying, he asks that the Parliament of Trees use their last bit of power to get the bio-restorative formula from his bag and turn him into Swamp Thing. The Parliament agrees to his plan, and breaks open the bio-restorative formula. Holland's human body is destroyed and replaced with plant matter, as he emerges from the pod as Swamp Thing.
During the run, Swamp Thing teams up with Animal Man to defeat the Rot and Anton Arcane, while making peace that Abigail and him can not be together. He is forced to destroy the Parliament when they attempt to betray him and deals with mechanical robots who plan to destroy and take over The Green. He fights a new enemy called the Gray, while meeting Cappucine who closely resembles Abigail Arcane.
Infinite Frontier
Alec Holland helps mentor Levi Kamei when he becomes the new Swamp Thing and plays a minor role in Dark Crisis when explaining to the heroes about Pariah and his connection to the Great Darkness.
Powers and abilities
An Avatar of the Green, Alec as Swamp Thing possess the power to control the aforementioned "Green", cosmic energies which animate all plant life in the known universe and is often the living embodiment of it, possesses various powers: being capable of inhabiting and animating vegetable matter at will, including those with alien origin, and move towards places wherever there's life. Swamp Thing also possesses various esoteric abilities, including the ability to change its size and shape with control over the vegetable matter within their given body and can even travel through time, superhuman strength, and other attributes capable of contending with powerful adversaries of great strength and also possesses regenerative powers.