LoC Rest of the Best - Day 17 – Monsters
Swamp Thing
The Swamp Thing character first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (June–July 1971), with the name Alex Olsen. The comic is set in the early 20th century, when scientist Alex Olsen is caught in a lab explosion caused by his co-worker, Damian Ridge, who intended to kill him to gain the hand of Olsen's wife Linda. Olsen is physically altered by chemicals and the forces within the swamp. He changes into a monstrous creature who kills Ridge before the latter can murder Linda, who has started to suspect Damian. Unable to make Linda realize his true identity, the Swamp Thing sadly ambles to his boggy home.
After the success of the short story in the House of Secrets comic, the original creators were asked to write an ongoing series, depicting a more heroic, more contemporary creature. In Swamp Thing #1 (October–November 1972) Wein and Wrightson updated the time frame to the 1970s and featured a new version character: Alec Holland, a scientist working in the Louisiana swamps on a secret bio-restorative formula "that can make forests out of deserts". Holland is killed by a bomb planted by agents of the mysterious Mr. E (Nathan Ellery), who wants the formula. Splashed with burning chemicals in the massive fire, Holland runs from the lab and falls into the muck-filled swamp, after which a creature resembling a humanoid plant appears some time later. Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, who co-created Man-Thing for Marvel Comics a year and a half earlier, thought that this origin was too similar to that of their character, and Wein himself had written a Man-Thing story (in fact, the second) that was published with a June 1972 cover date, but he refused to change the origin in spite of some cajoling by Conway, who was his roommate at the time. Marvel, however, never took the issue to court, realizing the similarity of both characters to The Heap.
The creature, called Swamp Thing, was originally conceived as Alec Holland mutating into a vegetable-like creature, a "muck-encrusted mockery of a man". However, under writer Alan Moore, Swamp Thing was reinvented as an elemental entity created upon the death of Alec Holland, having somehow absorbed Holland's memory and personality into itself. He is described as "a plant that thought it was Alec Holland, a plant that was trying its level best to be Alec Holland."
The major difference between the first and second Swamp Thing is that the latter appears more muscular than shambling, and possesses the power of speech. Being able to speak only with great difficulty, Alex Olsen's speech impediment is a major reason why his wife could not recognize him. In Swamp Thing #33, Alan Moore attempted to reconcile the two versions of Swamp Thing with the revelation that there have been many previous incarnations of Swamp Thing prior to the death and "rebirth" of the Alec Holland incarnation. All Swamp Things eventually the Parliament of Trees, a forest of plant elementals whose origins are strangely similar to the current Swamp Thing’s, despite being created in different cultures and eras.
Swamp Thing is a plant elemental. After "the Anatomy Lesson", it is revealed he is in fact a disembodied intelligence without any specific "body" as such, as he can inhabit and animate vegetable matter anywhere (including alien plants, even sentient ones) and construct it into a body for himself. As a result, bodily attacks mean little to him. He can easily regrow damaged or severed body parts, and can even transport himself across the globe by leaving his current form, transferring his consciousness to a new form grown from whatever vegetable matter is present in the location he wishes to reach (he even grew himself a form out of John Constantine's meager tobacco supply on one occasion).
Swamp Thing possesses superhuman strength of undefined limits. While Swamp Thing's strength has never been portrayed as prominently as many of his other abilities, he demonstrated sufficient strength to rip large trees out of the ground with ease and trade blows with the likes of Etrigan.
Swamp Thing can control any form of plant life. He can make it move to his will or accelerate its growth. This control even extends to alien life, as he once cured Superman of an infection caused by exposure to a Kryptonian plant that was driving Superman mad and causing his body to burn out its own power
Personal thoughts: Ah, the protector of the green. So many good monsters, but here is a fairly unique heroic one. Swamp Thing was an OK character to begin with, but when Alan Moore took over the book, it went to another level. Great new kinds of horror stories, then later sci-fi stories (though they were not as consistently good). And ST’s journey of self-discovery (with the help of that right bastard John Constantine) is also really clever, as well as setting stuff up for DC for years to come. Without this series, I can guarantee there wouldn’t have been a Sandman. I also think Rick Veitch’s run following Moore’s was pretty good. It wasn’t as good as the best Alan stories and the first arc went on a little too long for me, but I always found that Rick Veitch was also good at creating the kind of monsters that capture my attention: scary and threatening, yet strangely and intentionally ridiculous. I hope they end up printing the then controversial story where Swamp Thing meets Christ. I also hope the new Swamp Thing series will be good. Nice to have him in the DCU proper again, even if there’s debate over whether the DCU itself will be proper.
Topic: The Rest of the Best (Read 52382 times)
