Roots Of The Swamp Thing: Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, The Un-Men And More

Roots of the Swamp Thing: Your Portal to the Universe of Swamp Thing, The Un-Men and John Constantine: Hellblazer

• Part 1: Before Year 1
• Part 2: Year 1 to 1899
• Part 3: 1900 to 1969
• Part 4: 1970 to 1979
• Part 5: 1980 to 1984
• Part 6: 1985 to 1988
• Part 7: 1989 to 1991
• Part 8: 1992 to 1994
• Part 9: 1995 to 1999
• Part 10: 2000 to Present

Born on the Bayou
A history and introduction

Creature Features
Articles and feature stories

Cover Gallery
Judge the books by the covers

In the Swamplight
Issue-by-issue breakdowns

Elemental Lineage
Past lives and other entities

Upcoming Releases
Coming to a bog near you

What's New Bayou?
Archived news updates

About Me
Portrait of a swamp-nerd

Homepage
Go back to the roots

Contact Me
Comments, corrections & tubers

Thanks to Joe Bongiorno, who first dragged me kicking and screaming into the mucky mythos of Swamp Thing, and to Paul Giachetti, who created the amazing header banner.

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And thanks to Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson, Alan Moore, John Totelben, Stephen Bissette, Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis and all the other creators whose work inspired this site.

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In the Swamplight
Swamp Thing Series 1 #9

Story Title	Pub. Date
"The Stalker from Beyond"	Mar.-Apr. 1974

Writer	Artist
Len Wein	Bernie Wrightson

Cover	Editor
Bernie Wrightson	Joe Orlando


Chronological Breakdown
• Early 1974: Matt Cable relaxes on a secluded Florida beach with Abby Arcane until Agent Smithers interrupts their vacation to recall Matt to D.C. Matt visits the Agency of Interstellar Discovery (A.I.D.), where he meets Marine Captain Brad Samson. The A.I.D. has located a downed U.F.O. in Louisiana, and Matt is assigned to investigate. The next day, as Swamp Thing stows aboard a freight train for Baton Rouge, two drifters named Rufe and Elmo mug him. He tosses them from the train, slipping off the train himself. Walking for miles, he returns to Cypress Swamp and enters the old barn to find his equipment bastardized by a huge alien repairing its ship. Furious at losing his last chance to regain his humanity, he attacks the alien but is quickly defeated. The alien regrets hurting him and returns him to the swamp. Matt, Samson and four Marines (Optik, O'Reilly, Twitchett and Trumbo) enter and subdue the alien, who does not fight back. The Marines distrust the alien, and some of them want to kill it. The next morning, Samson tries to do just that, and a brawl ensues among the six men. In the chaos, Swamp Thing frees the alien. In gratitude, the alien teleports him to safety as the Marines arrive at the barn. The alien, having learned English by observing the men, eschews their violence and says it would have given them much had they treated it differently. The ship blasts off, but loses altitude and crashes. Simon is glad to see the alien die, reminding Matt how ignorant it is to hate something because it's different.

Trivia
• Abby comments that the water is so cold someone must have told the ocean it's a few weeks before Christmas, seemingly placing the issue in December 1973. However, since the previous issue takes place in January 1974 (as specifically stated in Challengers of the Unknown issue #83), that's impossible. Therefore, I am chalking the discrepency up to Abby not being a native speaker of English, as this issue clearly must occur in the early months of 1974, after issue #8.


Reprints and Collections

DC Special Series #20— The Original Swamp Thing Saga	Roots of the Swamp Thing #5


Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis	Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis	The Secret the Swamp Thing

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