Roots Of The Swamp Thing: Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, The Un-Men And More—In the Swamplight: Swamp Thing Vol. 1 #16

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

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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 #16

Story Title	Pub. Date
"Night of the Warring Dead"	May 1975

Writer	Artist
David Michelinie	Nestor Redondo

Cover	Editor
Nestor Redondo	Joe Orlando


Chronological Breakdown
• Late 1973: After joining the Marines, Adam Rock is sent to fight in Viet Nam and learns that real war is not quite like the John Wayne movies he once idolized. Returning home to Minnesota at the end of war, scorned by many and unable to find a job, he serves in the Merchant Marine for a while and learns of a revolution in Kala Pago. Rejected by the revolutionaries, he instead joins forces with High Priestess Laganna of the Sepp, leading her army of undead in a holy cause to overthrow the corrupt government.

• 1975: Matt Cable and Abby Arcane board a 747 with Swamp Thing hidden in the cargo hold. When a gunman hijacks the plane and tries to kill a stewardess, Swamp Thing comes out of hiding to save her life. As they grapple, their combined weight breaks the cargo door seals, dropping them into midair. The hijacker pulls a parachute cord, but they crash into the sea and he dies on impact. Swamp Thing floats to the island of Kala Pago, where High Priestess Laganna and General Adam Rock of the People's Liberation Army are staging a revolution against the government for exterminating Laganna's race, the Sepp. Their goal: to use her talisman, the sole remnant of her people, to restore freedom to her country. She and Rock bring Swamp Thing to a graveyard to reveal their army: a legion of undead soldiers who died fighting tyranny. Government troops spot them and open fire, and Swamp Thing trips a wire that topples a tree on his head. He awakens in a cell and breaks free as Laganna's army of dead arrack the encampment. Sickened at the carnage, Swamp Thing rushes to destroy the talisman, returning the dead to their graves. Preferring to die a soldier, Adam Rock rushes the troops and is gunned down. Swamp Thing tries to lead Laganna to safety, but she stays at Adam's side until troops execute her. Meanwhile, Matt and Abby set out to rescue Bolt from Sanobel Mission, a Caribbean jungle sanctuary. There, wheelchair-bound with a broken spine, Nathan Ellery and his underling, Dr. Pretorius, torture Bolt for information on Swamp Thing.

Trivia
• It's possible, though not specifically stated, that Adam Rock might have been intended to be a relative of DC's famed World War II soldier, Sgt. Frank Rock.


Cover Variations
None

Other Collections
None

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