Roots Of The Swamp Thing: Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, The Un-Men And More—In the Swamplight: Swamp Thing Vol. 1 #15

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.

Thanks also to reader 'Alec Holland,' whose support has been invaluable; Mike Sterling, for promoting Swamp Thing and this site; and Kevin Church, for his excellent optimization advice.

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.

Subscribe to my RSS feed

In the Swamplight
Swamp Thing Series 1 #15

Story Title	Pub. Date
"The Soul-Spell of Father Bliss"	Mar.-Apr. 1975

Writer	Artist
David Michelinie	Nestor Redondo

Cover	Editor
Nestor Redondo	Joe Orlando


Chronological Breakdown
• 1975: With help from a guide named Luke, Matt Cable, Abby Arcane and Jefferson Bolt search the bayou for Swamp Thing. Impatient, Bolt heads out alone and is snagged by a grapple. Evading them, Swamp Thing unwisely climbs a hill in a storm and is struck by lightning. Father Jonathon Bliss brings him to a decrepid church, treating his burns and begging him to stay and fend off vandal attacks from his congregation. Claiming they turned on him when he tried to force Faith upon them, he manipulates Swamp Thing into his workroom, where he dons magic-user garb and summons the demon Nebiros to possess him. Cable's team later finds him at the church, but he attacks them and takes them to the workroom. There, Alec Holland's soul rests within the transcendental globe that allows Nebiros passage to this world. Bliss believes that only through Armageddon can mankind be redeemed for its sins, and Nebiros can bring about that end. However, as Nebiros kills Luke for sport and begins toying with the others, Matt convinces Bliss he's put himself above God in deciding man's fate, and Bliss speaks a spell to exorcise the demon. When Nebiros attacks Bliss, Abby urges Matt to smash the globe, cutting the creature's link with Swamp Thing's body. Dissipating, Nebiros frantically possesses Bliss, but the aging body can't survive the strain and burns to a crisp. Matt wonders how Abby knew how to destroy the demon, and as the church crumples to the ground behind them, they spot Bolt's body being flown out of the swamp on a helicopter tether.

Trivia
• Nebiros later returns in several other DC Comics titles, including Blue Devil #1, The Books of Magic #42 and Day of Judgment #1-5.


Cover Variations
None

Other Collections
None

View another issue

This website is for entertainment purposes only.
Swamp Thing, Hellblazer and The Un-Men are
the properties of DC/Vertigo Comics. No
copyright infringement is intended.