Martin Pasko/Dan Mishkin In an issue dated May 1982, DC Comics revived the
Swamp Thing series to try to capitalize on the summer
1982 release of the
Wes Craven film of the same name. The title, called
The Saga of the Swamp Thing, featured in its first
Annual the comic book adaptation of the Craven movie. Now written by Martin Pasko, the book loosely picked up after the Swamp Thing's appearances in
Challengers of the Unknown #81-87,
DC Comics Presents #8, and
The Brave and the Bold #176, with the character wandering around the swamps of Louisiana as something of an urban legend that was feared by locals.
Martin Pasko's main arc depicted the Swamp Thing roaming the globe, trying to stop a young girl (and possible
Nazi-affiliated Anti-Christ) named Karen Clancy from destroying the world. The series also featured back-up stories involving the
Phantom Stranger by
Mike W. Barr, which led to a collaboration between the Swamp Thing and the Stranger in a guest run by
Dan Mishkin that featured a scientist who transformed himself into a
silicon creature. The primary artist for the bulk of Pasko's run was
Tom Yeates; towards the end of the run he was replaced with
Stephen R. Bissette and
John Totleben (who began by inking Yeates' pencils). Bissette and Totleben, who had known Yeates at
The Kubert School, had been ghosting various pages for Yeates, and were given the assignment on Pasko's recommendation. In issue #6, editor Len Wein declared, in response to a published letter, that Alec never had a brother and that every Swamp Thing series story after issue #21 of the original series never happened. The letter, however, questioned why the Swamp Thing had reverted, which had already been explained in the
Challengers of the Unknown run. A later column pointed this out, so they said they would not deliberately contradict it, even though they would still go from the assumption that it never happened. The arrival of Bissette and Totleben came as Pasko, who wrote the second
Brave and the Bold team-up shortly before he began the series, resurrected plotlines from the original series. Abigail Arcane and Matt Cable were brought back and shown to be married, though this development had a darker side: Cable had been tortured via repeated electroshock treatments by his black-ops superiors over his decision to stop working for the government in order to marry Abigail. The electroshock treatments caused permanent brain damage for Matt, resulting in him being unable to work and, ironically, granting him psychic ability in the form of being able to create lifelike mental illusions. Pasko also resurrected Anton Arcane, now a grotesque half-human/half-insect cyborg with an army of insectoid Un-Men who ultimately cannibalized their creator after the Swamp Thing was forced to kill Arcane. Pasko left the book with issue #19, which featured the (third) death of Arcane, the second of which, from
Swamp Thing #10, was reprinted in
The Saga of the Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #18. He would be replaced by British writer
Alan Moore.
Alan Moore 's work on Swamp Thing. Cover art by
Thomas Yeates. As
Swamp Thing was heading for cancellation due to low sales, DC editorial agreed to give
Alan Moore (at the time a relatively unknown writer in America whose previous work included several stories for
2000 AD,
Warrior and
Marvel UK) 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 the supporting cast Pasko had introduced in his year-and-a-half run as writer, and brought the Sunderland Corporation (a villainous group out to gain the secrets of Alec Holland's research) to the forefront, as they hunted down the Swamp Thing and "killed" him in a hail of bullets.
The Saga of the Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #21 (Feb. 1984), "The Anatomy Lesson", signaled a change in the character's mythos by having an obscure supervillain, the
Floronic Man (Jason Woodrue), perform an
autopsy on the Swamp Thing's body and discover it was only superficially human, its organs little more than crude, nonfunctional, vegetable-based imitations of their human counterparts, indicating that the Swamp Thing could never have been human. The Swamp Thing was not Alec Holland, but only believed it to be so: Holland had indeed died in the fire, and the swamp vegetation had absorbed his consciousness and memories and created a new sentient being that believed itself to be Alec Holland. The Swamp Thing would never be human again because he never
was human to start with. Woodrue also concluded that, despite the autopsy, the Swamp Thing was still alive and in a deep coma due to the bullet wounds and imprisonment in cold-storage. Moore would later reveal, in an attempt to connect the original one-off Swamp Thing story from
House of Secrets 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 also known as "the Green" that connects all plant life on Earth. The Swamp Thing went catatonic due to the shock of discovering what he really was, after having killed Sunderland in a fit of rage and escaped deep into the Green. Woodrue went insane after attempting to connect to the Green through the Swamp Thing, and Abby had to revive the Swamp Thing in order to stop Woodrue after Woodrue killed an entire
Louisiana town. Swamp Thing returned to the swamps of Louisiana, and encountered
Etrigan the Demon, then gave a final burial for Holland's bones. Matthew Cable, gravely hurt in the previous storyline, was revealed to have been possessed by Anton Arcane, and Abby unwittingly had an incestuous relationship with him. After a fight, Cable was thrown into a coma, and Abby's soul was sent to
Hell. In
Swamp Thing Annual #2, modeled on
Dante's
Inferno, the Swamp Thing followed Abigail, encountering classic DC characters such as
Deadman, the
Phantom Stranger, the
Spectre, and Etrigan en route, and eventually rescued her. The relationship between the Swamp Thing and Abby deepened, and in
Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #34 ("Rites of Spring") the two confessed that they loved each other since they met, and "made love" through a
hallucinogenic experience brought on when Abby ate a
tuber produced by the Swamp Thing's body (this served as a segment in the film
The Return of Swamp Thing, where the Swamp Thing produces a fruit and the ingestion of the fruit makes Abby to see the Swamp Thing as a handsome man, and then they make love). The controversial relationship between a plant and a human would culminate in Abby being arrested later for breaking the laws of nature and conducting a sexual relationship with a nonhuman. Abby ultimately fled to Gotham City, leading to a story arc featuring the fourth encounter between the Swamp Thing and
Batman. Before that, the "American Gothic" storyline introduced the character
John Constantine (later to star in his own comic
John Constantine, Hellblazer) in issues #37–50, where the Swamp Thing had to travel to several parts of America, encountering several archetypal horror monsters, including
vampires (the same clan he fought in
The Saga of the Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #3), a
werewolf, and
zombies, but modernized with relevance to current issues. Around this time, Moore had the Swamp Thing encounter Superman a second time, in
DC Comics Presents #85. The storyline began with the Swamp Thing's old body being completely destroyed, and growing a new one. Constantine encourages the Swamp Thing to use the power for transportation, and the Swamp Thing learns to do so with increasing speed. The "American Gothic" storyline ended with a crossover with
Crisis on Infinite Earths, where the Swamp Thing had to solve the battle between Good (Light) and Evil (Darkness). He also met the
Parliament of Trees in issue #47, which was where Earth elementals like him lay to rest after they have walked the Earth, and it was here Moore solved the continuity problem of the first and second Swamp Thing: the first Swamp Thing, Alex Olsen, was now a part of the Parliament. Although Abby was eventually released, Swamp Thing was ambushed by soldiers using a weapon designed by
Lex Luthor. Luthor's weapon destroyed the Swamp Thing's connection with the Earth, whilst the Swamp Thing's body was destroyed by napalm. Unable to regrow a new Earthly body, the Swamp Thing was presumed dead. However, the Swamp Thing's consciousness had instead fled to outer space, in search of a planet that was amenable to his new psychic wavelength. In the first tale of the Swamp Thing's extraterrestrial activities ("My Blue Heaven", #56), the Swamp Thing came upon a planet colored entirely in shades of blue, and on which there was no intelligent life. In this particularly popular issue, the Swamp Thing populated this lonely blue planet with mindless plant replicas of Abby and other reminders of his lost Earth. In issue #60, entitled "Loving the Alien", the Swamp Thing actually becomes the father of the numerous offspring of an alien cosmic entity after she "mates" with him against his will. Moore's run included several references to obscure or forgotten comic characters (the Phantom Stranger, Cain and Abel, the Floronic Man), but none so prominent as in issue #32, when he broke with the serious and moody storyline for a single issue. In the story "Pog",
Walt Kelly's funny animal comic character
Pogo (created in 1943) and all of his woodland friends show up as costumed visitors from another planet, looking for an unspoiled world after their own utopia was overrun and destroyed by brutal monkeys. Moore began a trend (continued by
Neil Gaiman, among others) of mining the
DC Universe's vast collection of minor supernatural characters to create a mythic atmosphere. Characters
spun off from Moore's series gave rise to DC's
Vertigo comic book line, notably
The Sandman,
John Constantine, Hellblazer, and
The Books of Magic; Vertigo titles were written with adults in mind and often contained material unsuitable for children.
The Saga of the Swamp Thing was the first mainstream comic book series to completely abandon the
Comics Code Authority (CCA); after the CCA denied issue #29 the seal of approval, DC created an imprint to publish the series under and no longer submitted issues of
The Saga of the Swamp Thing to the CCA for approval.
Rick Veitch Moore's final issue, #64, was dated September 1987. At that point, regular penciller
Rick Veitch began scripting the series, continuing the story in a roughly similar vein for 24 more issues. Shortly after issue #65,
Swamp Thing Annual #3 was produced, this time focusing on DC's primate characters, such as
Congorilla,
Sam Simeon, and
Gorilla Grodd. The Batman guest-starred in issue #66.
Hellblazer also began soon after
Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #67, and the two series had storylines which crossover to each other during
Hellblazer's first year under writer Jamie Delano. In Veitch's
Swamp Thing stories, the Parliament of Trees, having believed the Swamp Thing dead, grew a Sprout to replace him. Unwilling to sacrifice an innocent life, he convinced them that he would take the Sprout as his own child, and eventually impregnated Abby (now his wife) with it by possessing
John Constantine. After the completion of this storyline, the Swamp Thing sought to resolve his need for vengeance against those who had "killed" him during his showdown in Gotham City, culminating in a showdown with Lex Luthor (and Superman) in
Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #79 and a confrontation with the Batman in
Swamp Thing Annual #4. It was during this time that the Swamp Thing first encountered
Black Orchid in
Neil Gaiman and
Dave McKean's three-part graphic novel. Later, during the
Invasion! crossover event, the Swamp Thing was thrown into the past, and traveled through time trying to return to the present. The story was published in
Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #80–87. One issue of this storyline [#84] focused upon the Swamp Thing's regular supporting cast. In this issue, Matthew Cable died during his coma and arrived in the land of the Dreaming, where he encountered Morpheus and Eve. Cable would later be written into
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman as Matthew the Raven. Veitch's term ended in a widely publicized creative dispute, when DC refused to publish issue #88 because of the use of
Jesus as a character despite having previously approved the script, in which the Swamp Thing is revealed to be the cupbearer who offers Jesus water when he calls for it from the cross. The move was said to be made due to controversies then arising from the
Martin Scorsese film
The Last Temptation of Christ. Artist
Michael Zulli had already partially completed the art. The move disgusted Veitch and he immediately resigned from writing. Neil Gaiman and
Jamie Delano, who were originally slated to be the next writers, sympathetically declined to take up the helm. Gaiman, however, was cooperative enough with the editorial staff to write
Swamp Thing Annual #5, featuring
Brother Power the Geek, to fill the series hiatus, which led into the run of the new Swamp Thing writer, Doug Wheeler. The
Annual was reprinted in ''
Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days''. In 2025, during
New York Comic Con, it was announced that Veitch's final four issues of Swamp Thing would be published in 2026 under DC's
Black Label imprint. The mini-series will be titled
Swamp Thing 1989 and run as #1-4, but the cover images will continue the numbering of where Veitch left off, #88-91.
Doug Wheeler From September 1989 to July 1991,
Doug Wheeler wrote issues #88–109. Wheeler quickly wrapped up Veitch's time travel arc and oversaw the birth of Abby and the Swamp Thing's daughter
Tefé Holland. The remaining tenure of Wheeler's run focused upon a longstanding war between the
Parliament of Trees and the Gray, a fungus-themed elemental realm in opposition to the Parliament of Trees. Wheeler's run was drawn by
Pat Broderick and Mike Hoffman. Broderick's work had a more traditional, adventure-comics look than previous artists on the series. John Totleben continued to contribute painted covers up to issue #100. After issue #101,
Alfredo Alcala departed his role as longtime inker as he transitioned from comics to animation. The art of Mike Hoffman lacked the atmospheric detail that had characterized the first 100 issues. Due to the backlash among creators including planned Swamp Thing writers Jamie Delano and Neil Gaiman, DC relied upon newcomer artists and writers whose careers in comics never took off. This poorly received run eventually caused DC to replace Hoffman and Wheeler. Swamp Thing received a large multimedia push during the transition from Wheeler to Collins, receiving an
animated series from Dic and a
live action series on
USA Network.
Bill Jaaska was used on a few issues including Annual #6 during the transition.
Nancy A. Collins Seeking to revive interest in the series, DC brought horror writer
Nancy A. Collins on board to write the series, first with
Swamp Thing Annual #6 before moving on to write
Swamp Thing #110–138. Collins dramatically overhauled the series, restoring the pre-Alan Moore tone of the series as well as 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. Collins also moved the series, which had focused on the Swamp Thing's time travel adventures and explorations into other-dimensional realms, back to normal society by having the Swamp Thing and Abby set up shop in southern Louisiana and attempt to live a normal life with friends and family, culminating in the introduction of the elemental babysitter Lady Jane into the supporting cast. It was during her run that DC officially launched the Vertigo imprint and
Swamp Thing #129 was the first issue to carry the Vertigo logo on the cover. Collins wrapped up her run by having the Swamp Thing promise Abby that he will never leave her side. He then breaks his promise and creates a secret double to stay and protect Abby as he goes into the Green during an environmental crisis. Abby feels betrayed and leaves a despondent Swamp Thing behind. He retreats into the Green, and when Lady Jane reaches out to him, it sparks into a love affair. Arcane returns and arranges an abduction of Abby to force Tefe to use her powers to grow him a healthy body. The ongoing stress from constant attacks and dealing with Tefe's powers leads to Abby rejecting Tefe and eventually leaving town with her new boyfriend. Fearing for Tefe's safety, Lady Jane betrays the Swamp Thing and kidnaps Tefe into the Green, so that she can be trained by the Parliament of Trees.
Swamp Thing Annual #7, published around this time, was the final annual issue as part of the Vertigo crossover event "
The Children's Crusade". Collins also wrote a Swamp Thing story for the anthology one-shot
Vertigo Jam. Shortly after Collins' departure,
Black Orchid series writer Dick Foreman wrote a two-part crossover between the two titles,
Black Orchid #5 and
Swamp Thing #139.
Grant Morrison With issue #140 (March 1994), the title was handed over to
Grant Morrison for a four-issue arc, co-written by
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 dream world scenario, where he was split into two separate beings: Alec Holland and the Swamp Thing, which was now a mindless being of pure destruction.
Mark Millar 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. This led to a series of lengthy storylines by Millar as the Swamp Thing fought rival elemental beings and in the process, became champions of the five main Elemental Parliaments: Trees, Stone, Waves, Vapor and Flames. It was during this time that the Swamp Thing also encountered the Batman's enemy
Killer Croc, in a failed attempt to resolve the character's ongoing storyline in 1995's
Batman #521–522,
Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #159-160, and
The Batman Chronicles #3. The series was later cancelled. Explanations for the cancellation vary, from low sales to Millar himself having become bored with the series. Despite this, Millar decided to leave the title which, in turn, caused DC to cancel the series. Millar was given the job to wrap up the series, which would end with
Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #171. John Totleben would return to illustrate the covers for issues #160–171. Millar's final arc for the series had the Swamp Thing, due to his success in beating the other Elemental Parliament Champions, become godlike and unapproachable by mortals, even as his estranged wife Abby returned to try to reconcile with him. With help from John Constantine, Abby sought to keep the Swamp Thing from destroying humanity so that the Parliament Elementals could claim control over Earth. In the end, the Swamp Thing unites all of the Elemental Parliaments into one collective hive mind with him in control of it. Achieving a global sense of consciousness, the Swamp Thing sees through the worldview of every living thing upon the planet and find the good and the potential in even his worst enemy. This is shown most notably with the final resurrection of Anton Arcane who, during his most recent stay in Hell, befriended a priest that was unfairly condemned to Hell and in the process renounced evil and became a born-again Christian. The Swamp Thing thus spares humanity and becomes a Planetary Elemental, representing Earth itself, and joins the Parliament of Worlds, which is made up of all the other "enlightened worlds" (the only others actually named were
Mars, who greeted the Swamp Thing into their number, and Oa; due to its destruction some time before [in
Green Lantern #0], Mars lamented Oa could not witness Earth's induction). This was the most significant change made to the character since Moore's reinterpretation, though in the Michael Zulli story "Look Away" (found within the 2000 special issue
Swamp Thing Vertigo Secret Files and Origins #1) the Swamp Thing ultimately returns to normal and renounces his status as a Planetary Elemental, due to his belief that he was more effective a figure as a normal elemental being living in the swamp. After being overlooked for inclusion in countless
DC Universe crossovers since
Invasion!, the Swamp Thing reappeared in the coda for the DC Universe crossover event
The Final Night, appearing at Hal Jordan's funeral alongside John Constantine. In 1997, the Swamp Thing was written into
Aquaman (vol. 5) #32–33 by
Peter David and attended the funeral for the ghost of Jim Corrigan in
The Spectre (vol. 3) #62 by
John Ostrander, which was the final issue of that series. Early 1998 saw the production of
Jon J. Muth's Vertigo graphic novel
Swamp Thing: Roots. The
Sandman spin-off The Dreaming #22–24 written by
Caitlín R. Kiernan saw Matthew Cable's return to human form, his uneasy reunion and final departure from his ex-wife Abby (now married to the Swamp Thing) and Cable's restoration to his dream raven form. Matthew the Raven died in
The Dreaming story "Foxes and Hounds" in issues #42–43, a fact that was later touched upon by the 2000 special issue
Swamp Thing Vertigo Secret Files and Origins #1. The final week of 1999 saw the Swamp Thing teaming up with other Vertigo heroes from the DC Universe in the one-shot special
Totems. ==Third series==