Swamp Thing!
He is amazing!
And since his debut in 1974, he's been one of the most fascinating characters in the
entire DC Comics lineup.
From his origins as a straightforward man-turned-monster, to his strange luck on the screen, here’s
what you might not know about DC's resident muck monster.
Convergent evolution
While he would definitely go on to become the most famous, Swamp Thing is by no means
the first swamp monster in comics.
In fact, he's not even the first one created in the early '70s at one of the major superhero
publishers.
That honor in particular goes to Marvel's Man-Thing, created by Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway,
and Gray Morrow in the pages of Savage Tales #1.
In that story, Dr. Ted Sallis is working in the swamp on a formula meant to give people
super-powers when he's attacked by criminals and gets exposed to it himself, plunging into
the swamp and emerging as...
Man-Thing!
It was only months later that Len Wein and Berni Wrightson introduced their new swamp
monster in the pages of House of Secrets #92.
In that story, Dr. Alex Olsen, later changed to Alec Holland, is working in the swamp on
a formula meant to give people super-powers when he's attacked by criminals and gets exposed
to it himself, plunging into the swamp and emerging as ... Swamp Thing!
did I just get deja vu...
Needless to say, Conway noticed the similarities between Man Thing and Swamp Thing, which were
especially apparent since he and Wein actually roommates in New York at the time.
The Green
In 1986, Swamp Thing became something more than just a monster.
Instead, he was the latest in a long line of plant elementals who were connected to
what was called the Green a mystical field encompassing all of Earth's plant life.
From there, Swamp Thing was connected to other plant monsters: DC characters like the Floronic
Man, Black Orchid, Solomon Grundy, and even Poison Ivy were added to that connection,
but it went beyond just their pages.
Another elemental that we get an explicit backstory for shares a suspiciously similar
origin with a golden age swamp monster called the Heap, and a reference to the repeated
pattern of origin stories is pretty easy to read as an acknowledgement of Man-Thing, too.
The Red, the Clear, and the Rot
Connecting Swamp Thing to the Green gave DC an idea that’s been extended to a whole
lot of other characters, complete with their own rainbow of colors.
Animal Man had a head start.
The idea behind this forgotten hero had always been that he could access the abilities of
animals by tapping into a "morphogenetic field,” which later became known as The Red.
It didn't stop there, either.
Aquaman's ability to talk to fish was explained as the ability to tap into the watery force
called the Clear, and the same story that tied Animal Man to the Red also introduced
the death force, known as the Rot, which was pretty much bad news for everyone.
Love in the time of dendrophilia
In the beginning, "Alec Holland" was mourning both his own status as an undead muck monster
and the death of his wife, Linda, who perished during his fiery origin.
Meanwhile, the human perspective on his adventures fell to Abigail Arcane niece of the depraved
supervillain Anton Arcane and her boyfriend Matt Cable.
Unfortunately for her, Matt was killed, and in one of the most horrifying moments of the
series, it was revealed that Anton had been possessing Matt's body without Abby knowing.
Once that was taken care of and Anton was sent straight to hell, the way was clear for
Swamp Thing and Abby to fall in love with each other.
This sparked one of DC's most enduring romances which is kind of surprising considering that
one of the lovers in question was a shambling monster made of trees.
He beat Batman
You might find this hard to believe, but it turns out that in some states, it's actually
illegal to… um… how should we say this… wait.
I got this - "bump uglies" with a swamp monster... get it?
Ugly.
Monster.
Anyway…
When the locals discovered that Abby Arcane was engaging in dendrophilia, she was arrested,
and Swamp Thing wasn't happy.
He launched an all out attack on the city that was holding her… a little place called
Gotham.
Needless to say, Batman didn't appreciate having his hometown turned into a jungle.
While he did his level best to fight the Swamp Thing off, he found out that an Avatar of
the Green isn't as easy to take down as, say, the Riddler.
Instead, Swampy just kept coming back bigger and tougher, until Batman finally saw his
point.
The Dark Knight figured that if you're going to arrest non-human heroes for having romantic
relationships with human women, you're eventually going to have to try slapping handcuffs on
Lois Lane and Superman.
Reefer madness
Sometimes, it can pay to have a friend with absolute mastery over plants.
In Hellblazer #63, he got an invite to John Constantine's 40th birthday party, which came
as a surprise since the characters had never exactly been pals.
Even so, Swamp Thing gave Constantine a birthday present by rapidly growing a single marijuana
leaf into enough for everyone.
"Communing with the Green" indeed.
Swamp to the Future
When Rick Veitch took over Swamp Thing in 1987, he launched one of the most memorable
stories on the book ever: a time-travel epic that saw Swamp Thing hurled back through the
ages, encountering heroes and villains from throughout DC Comics history.
And then he abruptly left the book in mid-story.
The reason for was no secret, and was even the topic of discussion in the book's letters
pages for several months: DC asked Veitch at the last minute to change the end of his storyline,
and he refused.
The reason?
Rick Veitch's original plan had been for Swamp Thing’s next stop to land him in the Roman
Empire circa 33 AD, where he'd meet an obscure character called Golden Gladiator.
Oh, and he was also going to team up with Jesus.
Only a few years later, it's unlikely that this story would've been a problem.
By 1995, DC's Vertigo imprint was publishing Preacher, a book that made "Swamp Thing meets
Jesus" look like a Sunday School lesson.
At the time, though, Swamp Thing was still firmly set in the DC Universe.
To this day, his version of Swamp Thing #88 remains unpublished.
Swamp Thing conquers the screen... sort of
With critically acclaimed stories and a dedicated fan base, it makes sense that Warner Bros.
would bring Swamp Thing to the big screen.
The first attempt came in 1982 from Wes Craven, the legendary horror director who went on
to direct A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.
It stuck to Wein and Wrightson's origin story, pitting Alec Holland against Anton Arcane,
with Adrienne Barbeau as a love interest.
It wasn't exactly a success, but it garnered generally positive reviews.
1988’s Return of Swamp Thing wasn't so lucky.
With a low budget and a bad script, it flopped hard at the box office.
It did, however, pave the way for not one, but two television shows.
In 1990, Dick Durock returned as Swamp Thing for a series that ran for three seasons on
USA.
In 1991, things got even weirder when Fox Kids got in on the action and launched a Swamp
Thing animated series.
That one only lasted five episodes before it got axed, but it did give the world the
gift of an incredibly weird theme song.
“Swamp Thing, you are amazing.”
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