Roots Of The Swamp Thing: Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, The Un-Men And More—In the Swamplight: Swamp Thing Vol. 1 #11

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

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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 #11

Story Title	Pub. Date
"The Conqueror Worms"	July-Aug. 1974

Writer	Artist
Len Wein	Nestor Redondo

Cover	Editor
Luis Dominguez	Joe Orlando


Chronological Breakdown
• 200,000,000 B.C.: A race of giant mutated worms dies out before the advent of mankind. A few survivors make their way to Earth and hibernate for millennia.

• 1971: Left for dead by Dr. Terrence Thirteen [in The Phantom Stranger #14] Zachary Nail lies unconscious in his buried city of New Eden until the giant mutated worms find him, awakened from their 200,000,000-year slumber by the sinking of Nail's domed city. The worms nurse him back to health, making him their leader, and for the next three years act as his servants as he gathers subjects to keep humanity alive for such a time that pollution eventually destroys the outside world.

• Early 1974: Swamp Thing returns to the ruins of Alec Holland's barn to ruminate. Losing track of time, he starts to take root and is horrified at the reminder of his plant-like existence. Nearby, Matt Cable and Abby Arcane search for clues to his whereabouts and are attacked by a mutated alligator. Swamp Thing saves their lives but refuses to stay and talk. Mutated worms abduct them and take them to New Eden, placing them in a cell with four others who arrived days earlier: an angry Black man named Jefferson Bolt, his girlfriend Ruth, an old man named Luke and Sheriff Kain. The worms bring Matt and Abby to meet Zachary Nail, then return them to their cell. There, the humans spend the night making weapons to stage a fight and escape. Meanwhile, Swamp Thing follows their tracks to New Eden. Matt leads the others in revolt, holding a knife to Nail's throat. Nail orders the worms to surrender, but when they reveal their true intentions—to harvest humans for food—Swamp Thing helps the humans slay the creatures. Nail tries to escape, killing Ruth in the process and firing Bolt's need for vengeance. Swamp Thing stops him from killing Nail, so Bolt transfers that hatred to him instead. As Nail self-destructs New Eden, Swamp Thing leads the group to safety, then heads off on his own. In the bushes, he finds a shiny jewel which, on contact, sends him back in time to the era of the dinosaurs.

Trivia
• To date, no issues of Swamp Thing Series 1 after #10 have been reprinted or collected.

• Nestor Redondo steps in, as of this issue, to become Swamp Thing's second artist. This issue also welcomes a new recurring character to the fold: Jefferson Bolt.


Cover Variations
None

Other Collections
None

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