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

As the clock strikes midnight at Constantine's New Year's Eve bash, all Hell breaks loose. Reality falters and past, present and future collide in the creation of a new world based on Bernie's beliefs. Little green aliens and laser-wielding Egyptians inhabit this altered world, and the Green is extremely polluted. Damaged from his exposure to toxins, he cannot re-enter the Green until Baker and Black Orchid help him. Eventually, the group realize the source of the change-Bernie himself-and put the world aright. The experience gives Bernie new priorities, and at 4:45 a.m., he returns home to tell his wife Sara and daughter Nicole of his epiphany. Finding the lock changed, he opens the door with a credit card and walks upstairs to see Sara in bed with her new lover, Dave. At gunpoint, Bernie tells them what happened this evening, but they don't believe a word of it. Bernie professes his love for Sara and says he wants to come home again, but when she responds "Fuck you," he turns the gun on himself. Luckily, the chamber is empty, but Dave beats him up and throws him out.

V2K-Totems: "Y2K Bug"

NOTE: This issue was excerpted in a promotional pamphlet titled V2K Preview.

Alternate Timeline: In another reality, a cosmic anomaly spreads a cloud of radiation over the Earth that destroys every male human on the planet with the exception of Superman. Several unsuccessful attempts to bypass the plague are made before one finally succeeds. Swamp Thing is among those asked to help find a cure, but even his efforts prove fruitless.

JLA: Created Equal #1: "Book One-The Fall"

Alternate Timeline: The Time Trapper, a warlord from the future, sets up a temporal fluke field in the timestream to make time travel between 1990 and 2010 virtually impossible. Since the continuum has been weakened by the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the fluke-field bubble enables realities wiped out by the Crisis to exist once more. As a result of the moir� effect rippling across the timestream, Rip Hunter and other time travelers are drawn to this point and cut off from their own eras, on a world where the superhero ideal has gone awry. The metahumans have splintered into eight Houses, each prepared to attack the others. Determined to rid the world of super-powered beings, John Constantine offers to help Batman, the Shadow, Doc Savage and Tarzan oust them all. He then meets with other Houses, promising to assist in their campaigns as well. Constantine helps Hunter escape to 1987, asking him to enlist the aid of his prior self in alerting the superheroes of this bleak future—knowing this will cause the very chain of events leading to this age of Twilight. A war erupts among the Houses, killing many heroes and villains. An army of aliens then invades, hordes of Thanagarians, Green Lanterns and Martians decimating the other Houses. Captain Marvel reveals he's actually J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, having taken Marvel's persona to catch Superman by surprise. Superman fights valiantly but is destroyed, leaving the aliens to govern Earth. Batman's forces attack, alongside others Constantine recruited, creating a standoff with the aliens. An army of Qwardian weaponeers, armed by Constantine in exchange for Earth's immunity, suddenly besiege Mars, Rann and Oa, forcing the alien heroes to flee Earth and defend their homes. With only Batman and other non-powered heroes left on Earth, mankind can finally reorganize society free of super-dictatorship, and Constantine can go back to living peacefully with his loving wife—or so he thinks, for in sending Hunter back to manipulate his prior self into causing this chain of events, he infuriated the younger Constantine, who got even by preventing himself from meeting the woman he was fated to marry.

Twilight of the Superheroes [unpublished]

NOTE: Alan Moore—fan-favorite Swamp Thing scribe and creator of John Constantine—proposed this 12-issue miniseries to DC Comics around 1986, but DC opted not to publish it. Despite DC's attempts to remove it from the 'Net, the Twilight proposal has been circulating among fans and is available here and on other sites. These events are included here for posterity, paraphrased from Moore's own words. According to the proposal, John is married to Fever, a character Moore created for the DC series Vigilante. It's interesting to note that this proposal was submitted pre-Hellblazer, and that in it, Moore suggests a spinoff title for John Constantine.

Plagued by nightmares, 18-year-old Mary Conway decides not to join her boyfriend David and best friend Catherine at their usual Friday-night hang-out behind the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. The nightmares, as usual, involve willow trees ripping off her skin. On the last day of high school before graduation, Mary names a sapling of a laurel tree (laurus Nobilis) Daphne after the woman who saved herself from Apollo's lust by becoming a laurel. Catherine picks her up and they head to Magnificat Preparatory School For Girls. Father Burnell, her Ethics teacher, urges her to make the most of her life, for God has a purpose for her. Attending her final fencing class, she grows disoriented by visions of classmate Dianne transforming into John Constantine. David takes her home, where she relates visions she's been having lately. She says she's ready to lose her virginity, and the two make love. The next day, Mary, David and Catherine park behind the sign to share horror stories and marijuana. Her tale, about a Louisiana swamp creature eating children, freaks them out. David heads home to stop his parents from fighting (their usual state), and Catherine fears she'll be alone when he heads to NYU and Mary goes to Stanford. A few days later, Mary visits the coffee shop at which Catherine works. Catherine says she's going to the prom with Parker, a boy both suspect is gay, just so she can get out of the house. Dave pulls up front, crying. His parents are getting a divorce, and he isn't taking the news well. The girls console him, and he vows they'll always be friends. On prom night, the girls get dressed in Mary's room. Catherine is stunned to see a copy of Tori Amos' rare CD, Y Kant Tori Read?, but Mary knows not where she got it, as she has few memories from before the coma. At the prom, Mary goes outside for fresh air and catches Dave and Catherine kissing. Her pain breaks through to her subconscious mind, freeing her true self: the elemental spirit of Tef�, chronologically age eleven but in the physical body of an 18-year-old. She manipulates Catherine's corsage to rip her apart from the inside, summoning grass to engulf Dave so insects can consume him.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #1: "In Lieu of Flowers"

NOTE: This issue was excerpted in a promo pamphlet titled Swamp Thing/Lucifer Preview. Tef�'s chronological age, 11, is derived from her being born in 1989 in series 2, issue #89.

Next, Tef� creates a double of Mary by manipulating her sex organs to act like a flower's carpel and stamen.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #6: "Killing Time, Part Three-Destiny Manifest"

Finally, after growing Mary's double, Tef� slits its throat to make the police think this a triple homocide. The next day, Abby and Alec read of the incident in Houma's Daily Courier and know they must act. As the survivors hold funerals for the teens, Abby flies from Houma to see the Conways.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #1: "In Lieu of Flowers"

Recalling her nightmare of a man in a trenchcoat killing a duplicate of herself as she awoke from her coma, Tef� returns to the hospital. There, an old bay tree tells her where to find the shallow grave in which Constantine buried the real Mary Conway's body. Entering what is left of the body elementally, she communes with every remaining cell in the bones and learns that Mary's leukemia had gone into remission, and that had Constantine not killed her that night, she would have lived. Inadvertently, Constantine murdered an innocent girl before her time had come.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #10: "Silk Cut"

Jenny and Donald Conway welcome Abby into their home, recognizing her from Elysium Lawns. In the backyard, an exhausted Tef� rests on the grass and is drawn into the Green. Her animal mind recoils in fear, so an emissary is sent to ease her transition. He is Knoll, representing the North American Chapter of the Grass, and he reveals the past she has forgotten. He shows her the burning spirits of the Parliament of Trees, whom he says imitated human government, grew susceptible to human shortcomings and went mad with power. Still, their motives were correct, if not their methods.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #2: "A Tree Falls in the Forest"

Unbeknownst to Tef�, her subconscious animal mind has reshaped the Green in the image of human cities, complete with skyscrapers, pea-pod monorails, bridges of vine spanning rivers of sapwater and moss-encrusted mockeries of men, such as Knoll, throughout. It is not a natural state for this realm.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #2: "Bad Seed, Part Two"

Knoll gives Tef� an ultimatum: either she is with the Green or against it; conceived as a weapon of the Green, he says, she must obliterate humanity and reclaim Earth for the plant kingdom. Her father, he adds, is a traitor to the Green for refusing to play the role he was assigned, but Tef� can aright the situation. Tef� refuses to be his pawn, however, angering the grass spirit. Morality, he says, is a human idea-the fact that she can destory man makes it right, and if she wants to know about Good and Evil, she should ask the Tree of Knowledge. Taking him literally, she departs the Green, leaving Knoll incredulous. Abby tells the Conways that her daughter passed away just like theirs, and as they listen in shock, she says her husband is the Swamp Thing they'd heard about back in Louisiana. She talks of the Parliament of Trees, the Sprout, Tef�'s birth and the near-destruction of mankind. She explains how she, Alec and Constantine switched Tef�'s body for Mary's three years ago to suppress Tef�'s powers and allow the Conways not to lose Mary to leukemia. When she finishes, Jenny slaps her face, accusing her of desecrating Mary's memory with lies. Tef� watches as Abby sadly departs, then digs up Daphne and runs off with the potted plant on a quest for self-knowledge.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #2: "A Tree Falls in the Forest"

NOTE: Though well-written, this issue is not without a number of continuity quirks. The Tree of Knowledge has already been identified as Tuuru, a co-founder of the Parliament of Trees, who burned along with the rest of the Parliament three years prior. Moreover, that anyone would think Alec a myth is odd, given his attacks on Gotham City and the Cajun village, his widely publicized gubernatorial campaign and his recent unification of every mind on Earth. He's a well-documented being at this point. More to the point, on an Earth populated by hundreds-possibly thousands-of costumed superheroes, why would someone have a hard time believing in a man made of moss? This is the same problem that plauges V2K: Totems (see December 31, 1999 entry).

A week later, Tef� enters a church to speak with Father Burnell, a priest who was close to Mary. She asks about the Tree of Knowledge, and he quotes a passage from Genesis, Chapter 3, detailing Adam and Eve's fall after they ate from the tree. He asks if she believes in God, but she skirts the question, saying her father once told her a story about meeting Christ. She asks if taking a life is always wrong, and if the Tree of Knowledge would be able to tell her exactly the right thing to do if she were a god. If she thinks the answers to her problems can come from a plant, he replies, she needs a botanist, not a theologian. Setting out to find one, she ends up at Davis Yard, a branch of the United Pacific Railroad, to catch a train to Harvard University. When a homeless man tries to rape her, she peels the epidermis off his arms, then takes his clothes and hops a train car. Inside is a young lawyer named Michael Krauss and his gay lover, Christopher, who is dying of AIDS. They are "recreational riders," Yuppies who like cheap thrills and cheaper vacations. They met when Topher, protesting the destruction of the rain forests, mistook Michael for a logger and beat him with a protest sign. Ever since, they've been in love. Now, Michael is bringing him to die. The train arrives at a mountain pass with a steep drop, but Michael can't bring himself to push Topher out so Tef� does the deed for him. Eventually, the train pulls into a diesel fueling station in Washington, D.C., where Michael thanks her for helping him and gives her his card in case she ever needs help.

Vertigo Secret Files & Origins-Swamp Thing: "Bitter Fruit"

NOTE: The Christ reference is to Rick Veitch's highly publicized script for issue #88 of the second series, rejected for its inclusion of Christ as a comic book character. This caused quite a stir in the comics industry and resulting in Veitch's and others' departure from the series. For years, fans have urged DC to make things right by finally publishing the long-lost tale of Swamp Thing's meeting with Christ, and this mention marks the first official in-universe recognition of that missing chapter from Alec's history.

Still seeking the Tree of Knowledge, Tef� wanders into a park owned by "Safari Sam" Zelevansky, a former professional game hunter who decided to preserve nature instead of killing it.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #4: "Killing Time, Part One-The Pride"

The park is located in Los Angeles, California.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #8: "Concrete Jungle, Part Two-Beneath a Crown of Laurel"

A shaven-headed park ranger nicknamed Pilate nearly shoots Tef� in the head with his Winchester Model 70 rifle, which he calls Allison. Though attracted to her, his concern is with a recently escaped lion. Plus, testicular cancer precludes him from having any sexual partners. In a clearing, they find the half-eaten body of a gazelle. As a vegetarian, the sight sickens him, but she knows that killer instincts cannot be curbed. Reaching down to touch the animal's side, she heals its wounds, and Pilate is stunned as it gallops away―moreso when he sees that her actions killed several nearby trees, as though one kingdom draws life from another. He asks what she is but admits he doesn't believe her answer. Used to people accepting her story at face value, she likes his skepticism. Having been born in the 70s and grown up in the 80s, he was once "an aimless loser." Like three generations of his family before him, he joined the Marines and found a purpose in his life. An A.S.P.C.A. monitor named Ike, a neo-Hippie who frequents the parks hoping to catch Safari Sam mistreating the animals, shows up intending to hit the lion with a tranquilizer gun. Pilate chases him off, then tells Tef� about his tour of duty in Panama in 1989, where he went A.W.O.L. after being ordered to shoot innocent civilians. Having ruined his life by making his own decision, he suggests she stop thinking for herself and do whatever the Green asks of her. They find Ike near a food kiosk, his stomach ripped open. The lion approaches, and when Pilate hesitates in shooting, Sam shows up to finish the deed. In fury, Tef� tries to kill the man, but seeing Sam's remorse at Ike's death, she spares him. Pilate suggests she leave before the police show up, promising to shut the place down for good. Both have learned that just because they can kill doesn't mean they should kill. She asks him to take care of Daphne for her, as the next leg of her journey will be dangerous. He agrees, giving her his Special Operations dogtags (blank due to the covert nature of their missions) to remember him.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #4: "Killing Time, Part One-The Pride"

NOTE: Chronologically, issue #4 occurs before #3. It should be noted that in a framing commentary, Pilate says he hasn't seen her in six months, but upon their reunion in issue #8, Tef� says four months have passed.

Tef� signs aboard the crabbing barge Kelly to learn about the world and her place in it. Aboard the Kelly, she develops a friendship with the First Mate, Cheryl, with whom she shares a cabin.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #3: "Kill Your Darlings"

Summer 2000 A.D.

Alternate Timeline: In another reality where superheroes and meta-humans no longer walk the Earth, spectral visions of Alec, Animal Man, Morpheus, Death and others attend a funeral for the legendary Jack Carter.

Planetary #7: "To Be in England, in the Summertime"

At his law firm in Washington, D.C., Michael Krauss receives a visit from Special Agent Romero, Area Head for Counterinsurgency of the D.D.I. (Defense Department Intelligence), who shows a photo of Tef�. He initially denies knowing her, then admits the truth but says Tef� had no part in Topher's death. Romero executes him by slitting his throat, then calls her supervisor to report in. The Director says to follow the girl and eliminate everyone she knows, but not to harm or confront her. The Swamp Thing believes his daughter dead, and for now, the director wants it to stay that way.

Vertigo Secret Files & Origins-Swamp Thing: "Bitter Fruit"

NOTE: The resurgence of the D.D.I., Matt Cable's employer, is a surprising development. According to issue #79, the organization was dissolved in 1988 to keep George Bush Sr.'s name out of the Iran-Contra scandal, and issue #84 established that all records of its existence were erased by the government. Apparently, it was re-formed over the years.

A few weeks after Tef� leaves Los Angeles, Romero pays Pilate a visit to determine what he knows. Wary of speaking with a Federal agent, he tells her nothing useful and she leaves him alone.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #8: "Concrete Jungle, Part Two-Beneath a Crown of Laurel"

Pilate's intuition saves his life-had he let on that he knew more, Romero would have executed him.

Vertigo Secret Files & Origins- Swamp Thing: "The D.D.I. Secret Files"

Georgette "Georgie" Weiss, an angst-ridden 16-year-old groupie for the H�sker D� tribute band Arcane, begins following them around the country, covering all of their shows for her quarterly fanzine, Arcanium. Her parents, living in Philadelphia, hate this kind of music, and Georgie's decision to run away and follow a band is partly meant to rebel against them.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

mid- to late 2000 A.D.

Senator Culler Strand, covert director of the D.D.I. (Defense Department Intelligence), joins the U.S. presidential race as an independent candidate for the Progressive Party, running against Decomcratic nominee Al Gore and Republican candidate George W. Bush.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #8: "Concrete Jungle, Part Two-Beneath a Crown of Laurel"

August 25, 2000 A.D.

Arcane, a H�sker D� tribute band, performs in Los Angels, California.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

August 28, 2000 A.D.

Arcane, a H�sker D� tribute band, performs in Seattle, Washington.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

September 1, 2000 A.D.

Arcane, a H�sker D� tribute band, performs in Cleveland, Ohio.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

September 4, 2000 A.D.

Arcane, a H�sker D� tribute band, performs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

September 5, 2000 A.D.

Arcane, a H�sker D� tribute band, performs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

September 8, 2000 A.D.

Arcane, a H�sker D� tribute band, performs in Richmond, Virginia.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

September 13, 2000 A.D.

Arcane, a H�sker D� tribute band, performs in Wheaton, Maryland.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

September 16, 2000 A.D.

Arcane, a H�sker D� tribute band, performs in New London, Connecticut.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

September 20, 2000 A.D.

Arcane, a H�sker D� tribute band, performs in Springfield, Massachusettes.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

late Setpember 2000 A.D.

Four months into her tour aboard the Kelly, Tef� watches the sea from the deck of the crabbing barge. A crewman named Larry, a would-be writer, has cast her in his novel, Tempest Redux, but can't find a way to finish the book. Inspired by the bad weather, he decides the key to finishing is to become the storm. He spends a few hours mulling over the plot, then decides to put it into effect. Second Mate Hank says the Coast Guard is reporting swells up to twenty feet off the Aleutians, causing havoc for the Skipper in the wheelhouse. As they prepare for the storm, First Mate Cheryl urges her father, the Skipper, to head for the mainland. He is unwilling to give up a successful catch, however. Frustrated, she heads back to her cabin to talk to Tef�. Just as she resents her father's refusal to listen to her, Tef� resents Hank's refusal to accept her as his equal. Cheryl asks if Tef� would ever do anything to change her life if it meant alienating her parents, and Tef� says sometimes it's necessary to take control of one's life. Cheryl passes a note under Hank's door saying she's pregnant with his baby, but Larry intercepts it. He visits Tef�, saying he's tried to make her character work but that she's too one-dimensional; sometimes, he laments, a writer must cut out that which he loves most. With that, he pulls out a knife and stabs her in the back. Cleansing his bloody hands in the rain, he gives the note to the Skipper, who heads off in fury to find his daughter. The Skipper finds Tef�'s body and arrests Hank for murder, ordering Larry to prepare a noose. As Hank dies of strangulation, the Skipper shows Cheryl the note and says she'll get an abortion once they return to land. Furious, she accuses him of killing Tef� and forces him at gunpoint to jump to his death. Fraught with guilt, she turns the gun on herself. Tef� intervenes, but Larry shoots Cheryl, reminding her that in stories of man vs. nature, nature always wins. Tef� grows monstrous ams and tosses him into a bin full of hungry crabs. She tries to save Cheryl's life, but her injuries are too far gone, and she and her unborn baby both die, leaving Tef� alone on the storm-tossed barge.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #3: "Kill Your Darlings"

The storm decimates the Kelly. Tef� eventually wakes up alone on the twisted deck of the barge.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #4: "Killing Time, Part One-The Pride"

The Kelly washes up on the shore of Alaska, near the Tongass National Forest.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #5: "Killing Time, Part Two-Burning Down the House"

Tef� makes her way to dry land and collapses unconscious. Pilate's dogtags are no longer around her neck. An Inuit named Barnabas Tookoome finds her lying unconscious on the beach.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #4: "Killing Time, Part One-The Pride"

Recalling stories his gransfather told him of how the dead live beneath the sea, Barnabas wonders if Tef� escaped that underwater world. He deems her the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #5: "Killing Time, Part Two-Burning Down the House"

Barnabas carries Tef� to his cabin. He finds the dogtags and pockets them for sake-keeping.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #4: "Killing Time, Part One-The Pride"

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Risk Management, gets downsized, and most of the agents are fired. Those dismissed leave their plants with Todd Ritondaro, one of the few remaining agents, who earned the nickname "Agent Orange" for his ability to kill any plant placed in his care.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #6: "Killing Time, Part Three-Destiny Manifest"

Awakening from a nightmare of fire in which her next decision spells life or death for others, Tef� finds Barnabas watching her, holding Pilate's dogtags. His face is half-disfigured from burns. No one else survived the crash and he hasn't called anyone since she carries no identification. Having watched her wounds heal before his eyes, he believes her to be Okpik the Snowy Owl, the Spirit of Nature, his grandfather (an Angakok shaman) told him about when he was a boy. She thanks him and prepares to leave, but he begs her to stay; having heard her speak of elementals in her sleep, he wishes to meet the fire elementals responsible for his scars, but she says there are no such beings. Using her power, she restores his face to normalcy, but he makes her un-do the change, saying this is who he is. A radio broadcasts a mayday call from Danny, Fire Boss of Tanker 31. A major blowout in Sector M of the Tongass National Forest has cut off their escape route, trapping them in the fire. A chopper, the Rain Dear, rushes to rescue the firefighters, but Danny and his partner Randy burn to death. Barnabas used to work with Danny and mourns their deaths. Tef� runs to save the trees but enters a metaphorical village burning within the Green. She meets Sitka, a tree spirit, who says she's considered a heretic here in the Old Country. Another spirit, Hemlock, represents a nearby tree over 500 years old. According to Hemlock, Ikkuma�luk-the Spirit of Fire-has gone wild due to mankind's presence in the forest. Thinking him the Tree of Knowledge, she borrows the dead firemen's flesh and tries to protect the grove. However, when a tanker plane spots a family of campers two sectors south, Barnabas tells her to start a backfire to draw the fire away from them. Torn between saving trees or humans, she turns to Hemlock, who says she must follow her heart and live with her choice. Igniting a branch, she sets Hemlock afire, unleasing Ikkuma�luk. The dragon of Inuit myth burns the Green village, sending many inhabitants to the immortal collective. Once the campers are safe, she puts the fire out, but Hemlock is dead. Sitka and other spirits are furious, vowing to destroy her after rebuilding the Old Country. Barnabas asks if she saw any fire elementals, but she is too distraught to talk. They drive to the ridgeline to rescue the campers. At first Tef� is kind to the family of three, but when she learns their carelessness caused the fire, she forces them all into the car at gunpoint.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #5: "Killing Time, Part Two-Burning Down the House"

NOTE: Tef� tells Barnabas there are no fire elementals, but issue #170 reveals otherwise, as she well knows. She could also have taken him to see Firestorm the Nuclear Man, who had once embodied a fire elemental before it abandoned its role on earth in the series Extreme Justice. Granted, she might not know about Firestorm, but her experiences in Mark Millar's Swmp Thing run did, at least, show her that fire elementals exist. That Tef� would lie to the man who just saved her life is an indication of her disturbed nature.

Writing her father a letter explaining her actions, Tef� sees a flower stand and tells Barnabas to pull over. Harrassing the owner for killing so many flowers, she expels a hundred pounds of pollen, nearly asphyxiating the man. Driving silently, Barnabas is disturbed by such violence. They stop at Harvey's Hamburgers to feed the hostages. Barnabas tries to reason with her, humbly deferring when she reminds him she's a god whose actions are beyond his comprehension. That night, she apologizes and asks about his family. His mother died when he was born, he says, his father a few years back. He tries to kiss her, but she resists, saying their work will be done in the morning. Meanwhile, two agents at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Risk Management, Molly Hayes Kilroy and Todd Ritondaro, view a tape of the flower stand incident, recorded by a Canadian Mountie traffic camera. Kilroy wants to investigate, but Ritondaro is wary, citing department policy of turning all superhuman-related cases over to the D.D.I. Despite his disdain for violence, he agrees to join her.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #6: "Killing Time, Part Three-Destiny Manifest"

To cover themselves while on their mission, Agents Kilroy and Ritondaro tell their boss, Pollack, that they're investigating grain silo safety.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #16: "Red Harvest, Part Six-Woman in Green"

Back in Houma, Abby returns to the swamp after a day shopping for supplies. Alec has rebuilt their old home, and they have resumed their marriage. Kudzu, a Samurai assassin for the Green, tries to abduct Abby. Alec throws him across the room, taking Kudzu aback; he'd not sensed the elemental's presence, for Alec has severed his connection to the Green. This leaves him susceptible to attack, however, and Kudzu cuts him with his saber, wounding his shoulder. Kudzu demands to know where Tef� is, leaving unsatisfied when Abby says she has died. Meanwhile, Tef� lets the campers out of the car and walks them into the desert. There, she gives the father, Wyatt, a choice of who shall die: his wife or his daughter. Ignoring his wife's plea to choose her, he chooses his child instead. Seeing a parallel to how her own father put Abby's needs abover hers, Tef� fires into the air to scare them, then leaves them unharmed, telling Barnabas killing isn't the only way to hurt someone. Horrified at his choice, the wife wants nothing more to do with him. Driving away, Tef� wonders if she's a bad person and whether she should destroy the human race or save them from the Green. One thing she knows for sure as she rips up the letter: no one will make her decisions for her again.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #6: "Killing Time, Part Three-Destiny Manifest"

Romero writes a memorandum to the D.D.I.'s director in regard to Operation: Loose Ends. Her report provides surveillance photos and personal information regarding Tef� Holland and "those subjects with whom she has come in contact and possibly shared sensitive information about herself with during the last several months." Romero recommends the "expeditious cessation of all witnesses" and requests all further correspondence be done via secure landlines and/or encrypted digital channels, as she hates typing. Among the clutter on Romero's desk are notes on Sunderland Corp. and the Conclave, a file marked "Dudleyville" and a CD of the H�sker D� tribute band Arcane.

Vertigo Secret Files & Origins- Swamp Thing: "The D.D.I. Secret Files"

NOTE: Romero's calendar reads August 16th, but since that doesn't mesh with other story details, I am ignoring that date and assuming she's behind in updating her calendar.

Tef� considers calling on Michael Krauss in Washington, D.C., unaware of his recent death, but changes plans when she sees a flier advertising the H�sker D� tribute band Arcane, next scheduled to play New York on September 24th. In Blaine, Washington, a few miles south of the Canadian border, Agents Kilroy and Ritondaro follow her trail. Wyatt flags them down, asking for help and telling of his family's kidnapping. From his description, they know he's encountered Tef� Holland.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

September 24, 2000 A.D.

Tef� and Barnabas arrive in Manhattan. When a man hits on Tef�, Barnabas beats him severely. Tef� notices this, but doesn't comment. She hopes to find a connection between the band and her uncle, Anton Arcane, for understanding his evil might increase her self-knowledge and help her not turn out the same way. Checking several clubs, they meet a 16-year-old groupie named Georgette "Georgie" Weiss, who says Arcane is playing that night at Naked Aggression, a club in the meat-packing district. The editor of the quarterly fanzine Arcanium, she has followed them across the country for two months and accompanies them to the show. There, Barnabas asks Tef� if the music bothers her, for an experiment he did in fifth grade found that plants thrive better with classical music than heavy metal. She chasties him for experimenting on living things, and when he reminds her of her own experimentation with the campers, she walks off, offended. Georgie says her parents hate this music, and that she ran away from home in order to do what makes her happy. This resonates with Tef�, who persuades a guard to give her backstage passes. Hanging with the band, she learns that they have no connection to her uncle; consisting of vocalist Clay Adams, guitarist Junior Sharp, bassist Brett Oh and drummer Fuckhead, Arcane is named for a Dungeons and Dragons character Brett used as a kid. They invite the trio to party with them, but Tef� is ready to leave. Georgie stays behind, despite Barnabas's concern for her well-being. That night, as they sleep in a stolen van on Astor Place, Georgie shows up battered and bleeding, having been raped by all four band members. Barnabas stands to confront them, but Tef� takes the lead; storming into their room at the Hotel Earl, she triples the dosage of cocaine and heroine in their blood and rips apart their genitals so they can never rape another woman. When she tells Georgie she should have fought harder, however, the hurt teen calls her a monster. This causes Tef� to slap her hard, which she immediately regrets. Furious, the groupie runs off, telling her she's worse than Arcane.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #7: "Concrete Jungle, Part One-Flesh and Blood"

October 2000 A.D.

Georgie leaves Tef� and Barnabas a note saying she's heading home to Philadelphia, so they head to Port Authority to find a bus to that city. However, they get lost and end up in Grand Central Station. There, Tef� senses Daphne and turns to see Pilate, who is happy to see her but is uncomfortable with another male presence. To both men's surprise, she tells them she plans to work alone herein. When someone steals their stolen van, Pilate wonder if Romero might have impounded it. He tells them of her visit to his home in L.A., inviting them to stay with him in New York. Reluctantly, Tef� accepts. Ever since Romero's visit, Pilate has been laying low in New York, living in a crime-scene apartment where a grad student was bludgeoned to death by a mystery assassin. A marginal wood-fern sits nearby, starved for water. After Tef� goes to bed, Pilate and Barnabas discuss their plans. Pilate believes she's what she says she is, and this has him concerned―depending on which side she chooses when the Green takes over the planet, they'll need to be there to help her, or to help end her. Uncomfortably, Barnabas agrees. That night, Tef� dreams of Constantine, Mary Conway and others, including a human Daphne taking her to the domain of plant dreams. There, she witnesses the fern's memories of the murder. Waking up, she heads off to find "the one who smells like burning leaves." Confused, her friends follow. She bursts into an adjoining apartment to find a middle-aged man smoking a cigar. Coating him in tobacco leaves, she threatens to smoke him unless he talks; terrified, he admits he killed the student because his cooking stank. Tef� takes the evidence to the police, who give her a $10,000 reward for solving the crime. Pilate sees their van in the impound lot, an indication Romero had nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, the agent has found them, watching them from behind a newspaper bearing the headline, "Independent Candidate Strand Leads Bush and Gore in New Poll." Tef� visits the F. Gordon Foster Hardy Fern Collection and bribes a caretaker to watch over the victim's fern. With the rest of the money, she sets out with Pilate and Barnabas, abandoning her search for the Tree of Knowledge to pursue a new mission.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #8: "Concrete Jungle, Part Two-Beneath a Crown of Laurel"

NOTE: Issue #4 implies Tef� and Pilate will be separated for six months, but in this issue, Tef� says four months have passed since their last meeting.

November 7, 2000 A.D.

Kudzu searches Barnabas's Alaskan cabin. Finding strands of Tef�'s hair, he vows to kill her and avenge the trees of the Old Country. His quarry and her comrades stop at a diner; they are fiercely loyal to her, but she has no clue what to do next and fears looking like a fraud. This being Election Day, they discuss who they'd have voted for had they been able to vote. Barnabas is undecided, while Pilate staunchly supports independent candidate Culler Strand. The conversation turns to whether they've seen their fathers cry, and each considers the question.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #9: "Concrete Jungle, Part Three-In the Air, on Land and Sea"

Pilate recounts January 28th, 1986, when he and his father, a retired master gunnery sergeant for the Marines, snuck onto the Cape Canaveral base to watch the launch of the space shuttle Challenger. His father was a harsh man who showed his affection by being even harsher, but 15-year-old Pilate loved him nonetheless. At the time, Pilate was a space enthusiast, and though his father hoped he'd follow in his footsteps as a Marine, NASA was an acceptable second choice in his eyes. Sadly, the Challenger disaster killed not only the seven astronauts aboard, but also Pilate's dreams of going into space. This day was the closest Pilate ever came to seeing his father cry.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #9: "Concrete Jungle, Part Three(a)-73 Seconds"

Though Barnabas reveals no details, he privately recalls a year earlier, shortly after he got out of the hospital for his burns. His father, a geologist studying the Mount Dedoubt volcano, disapproved of his career as a smoke-jumper, which he attributed to a thrill-seeking bent. Visiting his father on the job, Barnabas tried to patch up their relationship but only made things worse when he got defensive over his father's distant attitude and insulted the man's profession. Striking him on the burnt side of his face, his father defended his work as more vital than anything Barnabas could ever accomplish. Barnabas said he was leaving for Nunavut to learn more about his grandfather and his heritage. His father, who'd had to handle a great deal of anti-Eskimo bias in his career, scoffed at the idea. This so enraged Barnabas that he grabbed a rock and beat his terrified father to death, then dropped the body down a fissure to hide the crime. He has carried guilt over this act ever since.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #9: "Concrete Jungle, Part Three(b)-Nunamignut Uteqihut"

NOTE: The subtitle, in the language of the Inuit, translates as "They Are Home."

Tef� remembers being four years old and learning from her father about her role as an elemental. He explained how humans caused polution, resulting in global warning that damaged the planet. This, he told her, would some day be her responsibility. As a young child, she felt pressured by such talks but did not complain. One day, a father-and-son fishing team interrupted their relaxation, their boat spewing smoke and flame into the environment. Tired of human selfishness, he tried to scare the father into thinking about his actions. Wishing only to please her father, Tef� nearly drowned the young boy in the bayou. Realizing he'd failed to teach her compassion, her father cried that day, an image that haunted her still even though most of her childhood was still a blur.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #9: "Concrete Jungle, Part Three(c)-Forget Me Not"

After finishing her tale, Tef� turns to watch a telelvion news report that Progressive Party candidate Senator Culler Strand has dropped out of the U.S. presidential race. Insiders claim the campaign was hopelessly derailed after his daughter Heather, a senior at a private boarding school in Washington, D.C., made a staememt to the press claiming her father was a sociopath out to destroy the world. Though Strand and his wife, Genevieve Burgdorf-Strand, urge supporters not to blame their daughter for destroying the election, she receives dozens of death threats. With renewed purpose, Tef� tells Barnabas and Pilate that their next stop is a rescue mission in the nation's capitol.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #9: "Concrete Jungle, Part Three-In the Air, on Land and Sea"

NOTE: Culler Strand's wife is spelled "Genvieve" in this issue but "Genevieve" in all future appearances. For the sake of sensibility and consistency, I am using the latter spelling.

Wth frontrunner Strand out of the picture, Al Gore and George W. Bush continue to battle it out. However, the election ultimately goes to corrupt Metropolis billionaire Lex Luthor, an independent candidate, who wins the election on a platform of promoting technological progress.

NOTE: Strand is not mentioned in Lex 2000, nor is Luthor mentioned in Swamp Thing, but both are shown to be running in the 2000 election. In real life, Bush wins the electoin...making many wish Luthor had, indeed, won after all.

Pulling off the New Jersey Turnpike in a stolen van, Pilate gets lost in Newark. This is the eighth time he's lost his way, and Barnabas urges Pilate to let him drive. When Tef� threatens his manhood, he asks a man in a trenchcoat for directions. The man is John Constantine, who says they're exactly where they're supposed to be. Stunning Barnabas with news that his father says "hello," Constantine asks Tef� to get out of the van. She knows who he is and makes it obvious she despises him. Her parents have asked him to find out if she's really dead, and he's here to bring her back to the swamp. She tries to strangle him with the tobacco in his lungs, while he tries to cast an obedience spell on her, but their connection somehow prevents them from hurting each other. She asks how he turned her into Mary Conway, which he explains. Unable to forgive her parents for abandoning her, though, she refuses to go back. Given his own horrible upbrining, he berates her for being a spoiled brat, saying her parents are two of the most decent people in the world. He calls her a teenage clich� with no master plan, but she disagrees―Earth is on the brink of its final war, and she must decide who wins. He doesn't buy her "Greenpeace angle," saying she's not so much concerned about the Green but rather afraid of being hurt by "the big, bad human race." In retaliation, she reveals she saw him kill the real Mary, and that an old bay tree at the hospital told her where to find the grave. Entering what was left of the body elementally, she communed with its bone cells to learn that Mary's leukemia had gone into remission―had he not killed her, she'd still be alive. If he tells her parents she's alive, she warns, she'll tell them the truth. To reinforce the threat, she briefly takes on Kit and Astra's faces. As she drives off in the van, Constantine realizes she's a chip off his old block.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #10: "Silk Cut"

Guilt feelings eventually get the better of Constantine, who tells Alec and Abby Tef� is still alive. Alec sets out to try to find her to question her about the deaths of Mary Conway's friends.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #18: "Last of the Loose Ends"

December 2000 A.D.

Detouring to Boston, Tef� visits the home of a Harvard botany professor, Dr. Geoffrey Curtis. The place is surrounded by S.W.A.T. teams and curious onlookers. The negotiator on the scene, a Black man named Wilkes, begs the Captain for more time, but a shot has been fired and the Captain is about to storm the scene. Tef� wanders past a line of riflemen itching to fire. One makes a racial joke about Wilkes, calling him a "Negrotiator," then sees Tef� and orders her to raise her hands. She melts their faces and hands, warning them not to call for backup or else Daphne will rip off their skin and consume their innards. The house is decorated for Christmas, with Curtis kneeling on the floor, a shotgun in his lap. In the corner is the body of his wife Natalie, a hole in her chest. Realizing she's not there to arrest him, he says that a week ago, his wife confused harmless poinsettias with poisonous mistletoe and left the latter in the reach of their daughter Thomasin's crib. The girl ate several berries and died an excrutiatingly painful death. Horrified, Curtis shot his wife. He'd always believing plants existed to make the world a stronger, more beautiful place, but now he realizes most plants are vicious and selfish. Tef� holds the mistletoe in her hand and grows more berries on it, then hands it to him to consume. Overcome with grief, he eats the berries and joins his family in death. Learning a great lesson from the professor's pain-that plants and humans are not that different-Tef� departs.

Winter's Edge #3: "Sow and Ye Shall Reap"

NOTE: Chronologically, placing this tale is problematic. It would seem, given the Harvard connection, that this story follows issue #2, but since it's Christmas and issues #1-2 occur in June, that doesn't work. Since she's on her own, it would seem to take place early in her journey, but again, the Christmas setting precludes such a placement. Given the cover date of issue #9 (December 2000, the same as the Winter's Edge special) and the existsnce of snow in that issue, I have set this story after her talk with Constantine in issue #10. The flow from one issue to the next is admittedly clunky, but no other placement works.

early to mid-2001 A.D.

The Waverider (Matthew Ryder) travels back in time from the year 2030 to stop a cruel warlord named Monarch from dominating the world. He inflicts great evil in the name of great good. Many of the Waverider's fellow meta-humans unite to stop him, and Alec is among those who answer the call.

L.E.G.I.O.N. Annual #2: "2001"

NOTE: An Armageddon 2001 crossover.

Special Agent Romero visits Georgie Weiss at her home in Philadelphia and shows a photo of Tef�. Satisfied that the girl knows nothing of Tef�'s true nature, Romero lets her live. When Georgie's father comes home, the agent makes a hasty retreat.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #11: "Red Harvest, Part One-The Virgin Thorn"

Agent Romero eventually changes her mind, however, and returns to finish the job. Scalping young Georgie, she defecates in her skull before leaving her for dead.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #17: "Red Harvest, Conclusion-Topiary"

Tef� tries to simulate gasoline for their car, accidentally causing an explosion. Luckily, Heather Strand's boarding school. Twin Oaks Academy. is within walking distance. Lagging behind, Barnabas admits to Pilate that he's no longer sure about Tef� or her cause; the car incident has only confirmed his wariness. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Heather Strand tells her bodyguard Weymouth, Secret Service Agent One-Nine, she wants to go out for a smoke. He refuses her request, as she has received nearly a thousand death threats in under a week. She gets even, taunting him about having been disgraced for breaking the Service's Vow of Silence during the Ken Starr hearings against his former employer, President Clinton. He tells her she's not as smart as she thinks she is, and that the claims she's made about her father are lies. In response, she says her father molested her when she was six. Outside, Tef�'s team scout the school grounds. Their plan: to create an emergency situation requiring an evacuation. When Tef� tells Pilate to shoot any guards in sight, however, he refuses to kill innocent people, forcing her to find an alternate solution. At the site of Tef�'s burning car, Romero watches as fire personnel extinguish the blaze. She reports that she's lost her prey, blaming it on the need to eliminate anyone who has come into contact with Tef�, but the director wants her to continue, determined not to let the Swamp Thing find out his daughter lives. Ritondaro and Kilroy track Tef� to the NYPD's 12th Precinct, surprised to learn their killer solved a murder. Since the check was made out to Barnabas, they decide to find him as well. As they stop to eat at the Barton Arms Club, Kudzu watches from a nearby building. Back at the school, Barnabas starts a fire. As Weymouth escorts Heather to safety, Pilate shoots the earpieces of other agents to keep them from alerting him as to Tef�'s actions. Tef� reanimates the dead of a nearby cemetary to hold the agents at bay while others carry Heather off into the woods. Tef� drops control of the corpses, and they fall dead once more, much to the agents' confusion. As she and her friends load Heather into a waiting car, Romero kills Weymouth and the other agents to keep them quiet, then calls for cleaners to take care of the bodies. In the car, Tef� introduces herself to Heather, who punches her hard in the face.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #11: "Red Harvest, Part One-The Virgin Thorn"

NOTE: Romero's complaint about having to assassinate all who come in contact with Tef� is odd, given that she herself suggested such a course of action in the "D.D.I. Secret Files" feature in the Swamp Thing Secret Files & Origins special. It should be noted that "weeks" are said to have passed since they got the reward money in New York (in issue #8), but that figure seems to be an underestimate and should rightly be "months."

Stabbing Pilate with a pencil, Heather escapes the car and runs into the woods, screaming. Tef� stops her with a maze of vines. Outside the maze, Pilate tells Barnabas he's had enough and plans to leave once Tef� heals his wound. Revealing to Heather her true nature, Tef� eventually calms the girl down. Back at the school, a team of D.D.I. cleaners dispose of the reanimated corpses while Romero executes the Secret Service Agents who witnessed the attack. She tells the director she can convince the media a radical group murdered the agents and kidnapped Heather. Curious about Tef�'s choice of captive, the director orders Romero to find Heather Strand. Tef� tells Heather a war between the plant and animal kingdoms is looming, but she hasn't yet decided which side she's on. She captured Heather to ask her help in making a decision, for only she can understand Tef�'s situation-they have much in common, including fathers who have tried to destroy the world. This touches Heather, who considers her own father a monster. Kilroy and Ritondaro get a hotel room for the evening and, in the morning, discover their car has been immobilized by a vine growing throughout the axel. Unable to recall the name of the vine, Kilroy thinks hard for a moment, then remembers: kudzu. At that moment, the Green assassin of the same name appears behind her, samurai sword drawn. Tef�'s group arrive in Virginia, where she and Heather discuss the moral dilemna of destroying one kingdom so both won't die. Heather likens the situation to conjoined twins, citing a recent case in which parents chose not to separate them even though neither would survive, but the courts stepped in and separated them anyway. Heather agrees to help Tef� make her choice, but under one condition: that she, in turn, assassinate Heather's father. Changing Heather's face to make her unrecognizable, Tef� brings her back to Barnabas and Pilate in time to hear a radio broadcast mentioning that Heather's guards were all killed. Assuming this her father's work, Heather knows her choice to be the right one.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #12: "Red Harvest, Part Two-Stockholm Syndrome"

At a diner called Mr. Pancakes, Heather tells Tef�'s team about her father's plan to use biological weapons to kill every life on the planet but himself. Pleading with Pilate to believe her, Tef� appears jealous over Heather's attention to him. Eventually, Tef� decides they must return to California. Ritondaro fires several rounds at Kudzu, but the assassin disarms him and urges them to end his search for the Holland girl, for if they interfere in his task, they will die. He vanishes in a puff of smoke, leaving Ritondaro shaken. Tef� and company reach Eureka, a city in California's Humbolt County. Heather wants to stop for food, but Tef� prefers to wait until sunset so they can steal a new car as well. At a road block, a police officer explains that park rangers are investigating the possible death of a "plant girl." Tef� and Heather get out to talk to a pair of environmentalists named Lara and Oscar, who believe Earth First and other civil disobedience groups aren't extreme enough in their approach. Silvana, the dead "plant-girl," joined their outfit a few weeks before. Still na�ve enough to believe in passive resistance, Silvana staged a tree-sit atop a thousand-year-old coastal recwood, vowing to stay there until Killian Lumber promised not to cut it down. A week into her cause, Oscar says, the lodgers killed her, leaving the body at the tree's base for them to find. To his astonishment, Tef� climbs straight up the 200-foot trunk. Barnabas and Pilate take a walk in the forest to relieve their bladders. Pilate doesn't believe Heather's story but thinks Strand must have molested her, as Pilate's uncle did to his sister. Barnabas wonders if they still have the right to kill him now. Near the top of the redwood, Tef� tries to commune with the tree but it won't tell her much. A cut branch confirms that Silvana was murdered... but not by loggers. Meanwhile, Romero visits Mr. Pancakes and tortures the staff to death. Unable to get much information from them, she calls her director, who orders her to visit Mary Conway's parents in Los Angeles.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #13: "Red Harvest, Part Three-Carrying Capacity"

Tef� communes with the redwood, receiving a vision of Silvana's murder but not the killer. Below, three loggers approach Heather and the environmentalists. Chainsaws blaring, they plan to cut the tree down. When Oscar refuses to get out of their way, the loggers threaten to cut through him as well, but Lara pulls a gun on them, warning them off. Pilate and Barnabas steal a car, disussing whether either of them have a crush on their female companions. Pilate denies being interested in Heather but thinks she might have an interest in him, while Barnabas is cut short in admitting his love for Tef� by gunshots in the distance. Hearing the same, Tef� rushes down the tree to find loggers and environmentalists embroiled in a heated debate over causing the extinction of a plant species versus saving a handful of humans. To give the loggers a new perspective, Tef� rapid-ages some newly-planted seeds, ensnaring the men in the branches as they grow hundreds of feet high. Lara asks her to grow millions of trees in the rest of the forest, holding a gun to Heather's head, but Tef� says she cannot since it's too much work and only temporary. She threatens to kill Oscar if Lara doesn't let Heather go, but the radicals are willing to die for their cause. Realizing her bluff has been called, Tef� agrees to try. Meanwhile, at the Filter Internet Caf�, Ritondaro and Kilroy commandeer a customer's computer to look up the name "Holland" and find out why Kudzu's trying to kill Tef�. Accessing a CIA database, they read about Alec's transformation into the Swamp Thing and a file on his 11-year-old daughter. The age discrepency confuses them, but Kilroy believes theyve found their prey. Back in the forest, Pilate shoots the gun out of Lara's hand. Barnabas says news crews are on their way and they must leave. Before they go, Tef� reveals who killed Silvana: the very tree she was climbing. Realizing she'd save more trees as a martyr than she would as a protester, the tree refused to bend during the storm, letting its branches holding the platform snap clean off. The environmentalists are stunned, unable to accept that nature cares nothing for humanity-not even the "good guys."

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #14: "Red Harvest, Part Four-Fall"

NOTE: Kilroy finds a website claiming Tef� was seized by the military for observation in 1996, but that actually occurred in 1997.

Pilate steals a Winnebago with a "For Sale" on it. As Tef� tends to Daphne, Pilate asks what's wrong since she's been brooding ever since the logger incident, but Tef� says she's fine. Worried that Pilate might leave, Heather begs him not to go, and he assures her he'll stay as long as Tef� needs him. Meanwhile, Kudzu is attached to the bottom of the trailer. Tef�'s group park at the Malibu Beach RV Park, where Pilate and Barnabas head outside to play some ball while Tef� and Heather watch the news. A reporter named Brooke interviews Heather's parents about her abduction; though she has only been gone a week, her father has already gone back to his normal political career. Heather begins to suspect Tef� is jealous of her and Pilate and promises not to let a guy come between them, much to Tef�'s relief. Barnabas asks Pilate about the righteousness of their cause, worried that they're doing the wrong thing. Pilate assures him that if Tef� ever decides to destroy humanity for the Green, they'll be the ones to stop her. Kilroy and Ritondaro visit a nursery called Guzman's Green Field to purchase defoliants, but the strongest the owner has is crabgrass killer. Kilroy hopes to use it on Kudzu before he can harm Tef�; though she knows the girl is deadly, she believes Tef� can change. Since Kudzu took her cell phone, a friend at Landsat tracks the assassin's movements. She wonders what technology the government used to trap the girl in 1997. At the moment, Romero ponders the same question as the D.D.I. director explains her own involvement in Tef�'s entrapment five years earlier. To this day, no one knows how Tef� escaped, for the containment unit was never compromised. Romero arrives at the former home of Mary Conway, where she bounds Donald and Jenny Conway and begins her interrogation. At that moment, Kilroy's friend gets a fix on Kudzu in southern California as he spies on Tef� planning her final assault.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #15: "Red Harvest, Part Five-Burning Bushido"

NOTE: Although the evidence is circumstancial at best, it appears at one point that Tef� is about to tell Heather she is attracted to her but is interrupted before she can do so.

Romero proceeds to the CDM Chemical plant on Lithcott, where she plans to trap Tef� in one of Woodrue's containment units. In the trunk of her car are the Conways, bound, gagged and naked. Meanwhile, as Tef�'s group arrive at the site of Senator Strand's next speech in L.A., Heather asserts her right to kill her father when the time comes, so Tef� tells Pilate to take up a back-up position while Barnabas waits with the car. Pilate wonders if Tef� still retains any of Mary Conway's personality, but she denies it. He asks what their plans are after killing Strand, and Tef� says their next stop will be Australia so she can get away from humanity and the Green for a while. At the van, Heather asks Barnabas why he didn't let Tef� fix his face; he evades the question, warning that killing her father may not solve her problems, as he knows too well. Driving to southern California, Ritondaro checks in with his boss, Pollack, who says he and Kilroy are fired if they're not back at their desks the next day. Willing to see this through, they decide to stay with their mission. They also promise not to hurt Tef�, no matter what she does to them. Tef�'s plan goes into action; Heather pours on the sex appeal of her new look as her father's convoy pulls up outside a building. Pilate, Barnabas and Tef� watch from their vantage points, but all goes awry when Kudzu shows up and stabs Tef� with his Samurai sword, causing her to drop her spell over Heather, who reverts to her normal appearance. Stunned, Heather is helpless as Secret Servoce men force her into a car. Kudzu is amazed at Tef�'s healing powers, as he'd been told nothing could survive his blades; still, he's confident a beheading will end her life. A gunshot to his head divert's Kudzu's attention and he turns to ensnare Barnabas and Pilate in his tentacles. At the CDM Chemical plant, Romero taunts the Conways, tied naked to chairs. Romero receives a call from the director, who sends her to retrieve Tef�. Kilroy and Ritondaro save Barnabas and Pilate from Kudzu; dousing him in defoliant, Kilroy tries to find Tef� but falls to Kudzu's sword. Ritondaro triggers a booby trap to electrocute the assassin. He survives, but Tef� grabs his sword and severs his head. As Ritondaro rushes Kilroy to the hospital, Romero pulls up in a car, tosses Tef� a photo and drives off, leaving Tef� in shock at the sight of her foster parents in such torture.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #16: "Red Harvest, Part Six-Woman in Green"

NOTE: "A few weeks" are said to have passed since Tef� tortured the couple who burnt down the forest (in issue #8), but "months" would appear a more accurate statement.

As the director of the D.D.I. interrogates Heather, Pilate and Tef� argue over their next move. She wants to save the Conways, but he believes they must save Heather first. Unable to agree, they go their own ways, Barnabas siding with Tef�. Nearby, Kilroy dies at the L.A. Veteran's Hospital. A chaplain tries to comfort Ritondaro, but he's more concerned by the sight of Pilate stealing his car. As Tef� and Barnabas arrive at the pesticide factory, the director reminds Heather of the first time she saw Tef�, many years before: when Tef� was captured by the military, Heather was a child on the same base and locked eyes with the trapped elemental. Tef� hated her for being free, the director lies, and never forgot her face, dropping Heather's disguise in order to betray her. Heather is stunned, not sure what to believe. Tef� bursts into the factory to find her parents seated with five pounds of C4 explosive strapped to their genitals. Romero shows her the containment unit, threatening to kill the Conways unless she climbs inside. Unable to trust Romero to keep her word, she finally decides to do the right thing. As the unit closes, Romero shoots Barnabas in his good eye and gloats to a horrified Tef� that she's been killing everyone close to her for a year-and-a-half now. Ritondaro bursts into the room and shoots holes in the containment unit window. Once freed, Tef� kills Romero with a giant crushing vine, then runs to Barnabas to save his life. Barnabas admits to having killed his father and tells Tef� she must forgive her father or become just like him. As he dies in her arms, the D.D.I. director watches from a remote screen. She tells Heather to record a statement condemning the "terrorists" who kidnapped her and apologize for her accusations against her father. Heather refuses, saying her father is evil, but to her horror, the director rips off a wig, revealing that she is Heather's father, and if she doesn't cooperate, he'll cut off her breasts and leave her for the dogs. Meanwhile, as Ritondaro frees the Conways, Tef� runs outside to find her real father waiting for her.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #17: "Red Harvest, Conclusion-Topiary"

NOTE: Romero tells Tef� she's been following her for a year-and-a-half, but that figure seems a bit of a stretch considering that Romero first showed up in July 2000.

Alec tries to talk to Tef� but she destroys his body and asks Ritondaro to take the Conways to the hospital while she disposes of Barnabas and Romero. The Conways want to speak with her, but she declines, putting that phase of her life behind her. She tells Ritondaro to return Daphne to the Conways, asking his help in destroying Romero's employers. He balks at the idea of one man taking down the D.D.I., but she gives him Kudzu's swords to do the job. As he and the Conways leave, Alec grows a new body, asking about Tef�'s involvement in killing Mary Conway's friends. She is defiant, still angry that he abandoned her. She asks when he reunited with the spirit of Alec Holland and got back together with Abby, but he is more interested in talking about her situation. Finally, she asks his help in getting where she needs to go, then enters the Green to create a new body for herself from the flesh of the deceased. Realizing how much she reminds him of Constantine, he folllows her to the banks of the Yangtze River in China, where mankind's over-forestation has made it so that nearby farms are often washed out. She speaks of her quest to find the Tree of Knowledge. He says he has met entities claiming to be that tree, but none have been particularly wise; he also says he was wrong to try to wipe out humanity, and to ask her to do such a thing. She confronts him about brainwashing her and placing her with total strangers. He says it was done out of love, to protect her, but she dismisses the idea, saying the only person he's ever loved is Abby. He loves all humanity, he says, but she accuses him of neglecting his responsibility to humanity and nature, of being too afraid of making mistakes. To prove her point, she destroys the dam holding back the river from the village. Growing quite tall, he alters the water's flow, saving the village. He nearly kills her to prevent her from murdering more innocents, but when she says she only wanted to force his hand in saving them, not kill them, he realizes she has grown and must find her own way. Bidding farewell, he suggests she continue her personal search. The one true Tree of Knowledge, he says, is rumored to be in Africa. Returning to California, she finds Pilate standing over her, worried about her. When he heard Heather on the radio, denouncing them as terrorists and apologizing for lies she spread about her father, he knew they'd been wrong about her and came back to help his friends. Tef�, admits she was wrong about many things as well. Their next stop: Africa.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #18: "Last of the Loose Ends"

NOTE: Alec's claim that many have claimed to be the Tree of Knowledge but that the one true Tree is rumored to be in Africa does not reconcile with previously established facts. It has been pretty explicitly stated that Tuuru, co-founder of the Parliament of Trees, is the Tree of Knowledge, and he burned along with the rest of his fellow members in Brazil in 1997. In the history of the series, no other tree has been given that distinction.

mid- to late 2001 A.D.

Tef� and Pilate spend six months traveling Africa in search of the Tree of Knowledge. Along the way, they meet and deal with amputee camps in Sierra Leone, civil war in Angola, slavery in Sudan, female genital mutilation in Ethiopia, starvation in Somalia and elephant poachers in Namibia. Wherever they go, animals of every kind recoil from Tef� in fear. Over time, Tef� grows obsessed with making the world a better place, and Pilate sees a difference in her as her murderous rage is replaced with sadness and frustration at her inability to make a real difference.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #19: "Rootless"

A local magician named Mtakwishayenu ("Wish") approaches Tef� and Pilate, having been warned of their arrival by John Constantine. Turning Pilate's rifle into a snake, she says to go home and take their "White man's burden" with them. Tef� changes her pigmentation to match Wish's, showing that race is not an issue. This insults Wish, who refuses to show them where the Tree is; instead, she transports them to the Kalahari Desert, once home to the Herero tribe. Tef� needs their permission to seek out the Tree, but the tribe was killed off at the turn of the 20th century by German colonials. Wish tells Tef� she must speak with the dead before she can proceed. Tef� enters the Green, hoping to find the spirits of the Herero. She meets two spirits, who tell her she is unclean and cannot meet the Tree for her hands are soiled with blood, her heart with guilt. Her good deeds, they say, have been for purely selfish reasons, to earn redemption. To become clean, she must make retribution for the lives she has taken by taking her own life. She considers it, but says she cannot kill herself until she has found a way to give back as much as she has taken. The Herero ask her to leave their realm, offering a word for her to remember: "Omumborombanga," or "Tree." Topside once more, she tells this word to Wish, who is amazed-the Herero have granted her permission to seek the Tree of Knowledge. To find it, says Wish, Tef� must look in the first place she should have looked all along: the swamp.

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #19: "Rootless"

Wish takes Tef� and Pilate to the Okavango Swamp in Botswana. Pilate considers the question of why he's followed Tef� around the world and realizes the answer: as in the story "The Lady and the Tiger," he wants to find out which door she'll open, saving the planet or destroying it. Suddenly, ape-like beings attack. Wish and Tef� try to use magic, but the apes overwhelm them, leaving Pilate and Wish unconscious and carrying Tef� away. She awakens before the Gardener, who serves as a link between mankind and the animal kingdom, protecting the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Tef� tells the Gardener she is here with the Herero's permission, but the Gardener denies her acces, saying she has guarded the Tree since millions of years before the Herero. When Tef� reveals who she is, however, the being changes her mind and tells Tef� the fruit bestows upon those who eat it visions of the greatest good and greatest evil of which they are capable. Tef�'s first bite propels her forty years into her the future; looking remarkably like Abby, an older Tef� tells her younger self what will happen in the coming weeks: with more than a third of Botswana's adults infected with HIV, Tef� will grow tired of waiting for developed countries to share their medicines and use her elemental dominion over blood to find a way to destroy the virus. This will attract the attention of Pestilence, the virus elemental, who will infect Pilate to protest her attacks upon its kingdom. Unable to save one life at the cost of thousands, Tef� lets him die, then goes on to eradicate countless diseases, saving millions of lives. When Alec takes root, she reconciles with her mother and assumes his place as the planet's guardian. Returning to reality, Tef� is horrified that she'd let a friend die so she could become a hero. The Gardener suggests she take another bite, but this vision is even worse; having been betrayed by Pilate, Tef� decides to end humanity in the name of the Green. To that end, she alters her appearance to trick Constantine into impregnating her so she can sire the Antichrist and wipe out the species to achieve global peace. As this vision ends, the Gardener tells her the Tree only shows good and evil-she must figure out which is which. Tef� is transported to Tunisia with Wish, who rescued her and Pilate after the apes attacked. Tef� considers the lesson she's learned: the power to decide the world's fate doesn't give her the right to do so, and though she can save either humanity or the Green, she must work with both to unite them. Rejecting either vision of the future, she plants the apple in the sand, choosing instead what's behind "door number three."

Swamp Thing (Series 3) #20: "Saga"

NOTE: Wish says the Garden of Eden is a fairy tale. However, as revealed in the second series, she is incorrect-Eden is the origin of the first Erl-Kings and is located in Africa. Eden is also the subject of a Hellblazer story arc, beginning in issue #184.

At some point, Alec repairs his connection to the Green.

Hellblazer #184: "Third Worlds, Part One: The Wild Card"

NOTE: This is conjecture, based on Alec's ability to enter the Green in this issue.

Alec and his daughter Tef� speak, the details of which remains unrecorded.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #5: "Bad Seed, Part Five"

NOTE: In issue #5 of the fourth series (2004), Alec says it has been over a year since he and Tef� last spoke. Since their last recorded meeting (series 3, issue #18) occurred in 2001, we can assume they met again after that, some time early in 2003.

Cryptozoologist Coleman Wadsworth investigates an unusual sighting in Georgia but finds only a fisherman suffering the effects of alcoholo detoxification.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #7: "Missing Links, Part One"

NOTE: Coleman Wadsworth is a tribute to noted cryptozoologist Loren Coleman.

On a mushroom and fungus-covered planet ruled by the Grey, a fungus spore ejects into the air. Escaping the planet's atmosphere, the spore travels through space all the way to Earth, where it descends among the buildings of Gotham City. Landing on Batman, it enters his bloodstream and begins to grow, altering his body from the inside out and restructuring it as a fungus-based lifeform.

Batman: Detective Comics #776: "Spore, Part One"

Quarantining himself for two days in the Batcave, the Dark Knight works hard to prepare the Nanobat to restore his form while fighting a loss of clarity accompanying his alteration. As the spore grows within him, he finishes the Nanobat, which he injects into his own bloodstream. The microscopic machine plants itself in an artery, where it sets about the task at hand: destroying the fungus utterly.

Batman: Detective Comics #777: "Spore, Part Two"

The Grey spore turns Batman's body into a giant, mindless fungus, filling the Batcave to overflowing and destroying Wayne Manner in the process. Bursting forth from the ground, it makes its way to the city and wreaks destructive havoc on the cityscape until Superman shows up to battle the creature.

Batman: Detective Comics #778: "Spore, Part Three"

Surveying the damage caused by the creature, Superman attacks, unaware it's Batman. The battle is fierce, and Superman is swallowed up by the alien fungus. Before long, the fungus that was once Batman's body envelopes Gotham, then the United States, and eventually, the entire planet... and all the while his cowl and cape remain attached to the spot that was once his head and shoulders.

Batman: Detective Comics #779: "Spore, Part Four"

As Batman's Grey-altered body engulfs the planet, the Nanobat reproduces repeatedly until enough units exist to fight the alien cells. The Nanobats gain the upper hand, destroying cell upon cell until locating and eliminating the spore that caused the trouble. The Grey's hold broken, the alien fungus withdraws from the planet, shrinking in size to release Gotham City and Superman from its grip. As Batman returns to normal, he stares at Superman in silence, relieved to be himself again.

Batman: Detective Comics #780: "Spore, Part Five"

While searching for a being called the Shadow Dog, John Constantine visits the area of the Brazilian rainforest once home to the Parliament of Trees. After four years, the empty ground holds nothing but ash. A contemplative Alec says he has kept the area bare as a memorial to the brave soles who passed. Constantine strikes a match, which immediately blows out, reminding him Alec controls the other elements as well. The mage tells him something is about to disrupt the world, and it's up to him to fix the problem. Alec grabs him by the throat, annoyed at yet another attempt to manipulate him. Still, Alec agrees to check out the subtle realms beneath the Green. In the nearby town of Juliema, Constantine's traveling companion, Angie Spatchcock, grows tired of waiting for him. Paho Bokhari, a friend of Constantine, gives Angie a playing card to pass along to him him―a Joker―then is led away by two thugs to see a gangster known as Seňor Goterrez. Bokhari sits for a hand of poker with Goterrez and two others, Nuno and Wells. When the others drop out, Goterrez bets their souls on the next hand. When Constantine receives the card from Angie, Bokhari switches souls with the Brit to make it look as if he were trying to escape. This gives Goterrez false confidence, leaving him stunned when Bokhari wins the game. As per the rules of the game, Goterrez's assistant Camilo kills his boss and takes his place, grounding him up so the cards can take his soul. Finally, Bokhari tells Constantine a dream told him where to find the Shadow Dog: in Eden.

Hellblazer #184: "Third Worlds, Part One: The Wild Card"

NOTE: Constantine says the land where the Parliament of Trees once stood has been ash for four years, but Knoll showed Tef� their still-burning form less than three years before. Perhaps, though their spirits burned within the Green, their physical manifestation had burnt away. Another problem, though―the rain forest containing the Parliament of Trees was destroyed six years ago, in 1997. Surely it didn't burn for two whole years?

Constantine and Angie fly to Western Iran's Isfahan Airport, where an associate named Salmi picks them up and takes them to the feared city of Be'esira. There, on the Iranian border, lies a place close to the Garden of Eden. Constantine and Angie ascend a rocky mountain pass, where armed guards take them to an old woman named Ghurdson, also called the Great Mother. She leads an extremist group, the Binei Gadol, who believe themselves the descendants of Cain and are awaiting a pardon from God and an invitation back to Eden. Ghurdson, who harbors ill will toward him over his theft of an ancient scroll, the Testament of the Nephilim, has him chained up and tortured by her assistant, Beirti. Constantine asks Angie to tear out a few hairs from his head and bury them in the Garden of Eden. Meanwhile, he must face a Trial by Ordeal to prove his innocence. Following his instructions, Angie sets out to find the Garden. There, an angel wielding a flaming sword bars her entrance, placed there by God after Adam and Eve were cast out. Ghurdson visits Constantine in his cell, asking why he has come back. He explains that he is looking for the name of the un-named beast that left Eden with them; alas, she knows not its name. At his trial, Beriti accuses Constantine of seducing her to get the location of the scroll. He denies stealing the scroll, offering no comment on the seduction, then places his hand in a vat of boiling water. If he is innocent, the ritual claims, God will protect him from boiling. Using a meditative technique to convince his hand it's not burning, he passes the ordeal and is allowed to leave. Once in the desert, however, he drops the spell. Holding his blistered arm in agony, he tells Angie he burnt the scroll and ate its ashes because it was too dangerous for anyone to possess. That night, Alec appears as a cactus-covered Swamp Thing to report that the Green noticed something enter the world of flesh six days prior, followed by something smaller two days later. They have come before, Alec says, most recently in Tasmania 200 years earlier.

Hellblazer #185: "Third Worlds, Part Two: Ordeal"

Following Alec's tip, Angie and Constantine travel to Tasmania, where he receives a vision of the Shadow Dog's last appearance, two centuries past. He also learns its true name: the Kua I'ipa.

Hellblazer #186: "Third Worlds, Part Three: The Pit"

Inter-Sect Enterprises, a massive holdings company, uses fear tactics to terrify other corporations into forming mergers and alliances with it. Many succumb to such tactics, handing power over to Inter-Sect. Others, including MetaTech CEO Alan Windsor (formerly of Sunderland Corp.), visit the firm's Sausalito headquarters to suck up to Inter-Sect without having to give up their own advantage.

The Power Company #18: "Hostile Takeover, Part Three—Poison Pill"

May 10, 2003 A.D.

John Constantine turns fifty years old.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #63: "Forty"

December 25, 2003 A.D.

Alternate Timeline: On Christmas night, the members of the Justice League separate for the evening to celebrate the holiday season. Green Lantern (John Stewart) and Hawkgirl (Shayera Hol) visit a local bar on Earth, outside of which the Swamp Thing shambles by.

Justice League Unlimited episode #49: "Comfort and Joy"

NOTE: This animated television series falls outside regular DC/Vertigo continuity. "Comfort and Joy" originally aired on December 13, 2003.

c. 2003 to 2013 A.D.

Alternate Timeline: In one possible reality, this approximate span of time will come to be known as the Typhoon Decade. During this period, the world undergoes devolution and depopulation, and comes under the rule of the Council of the Rising Generation, which institutes sweeping, sanitizing changes to make society cleaner and more pleasant. Among such changes: carnivorism and smoking are deemed criminal acts.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #36: "Undiscover'd Country"

The fallen angel Dekker, cast out of the court of the Archangel Michael for putting forth the outrageous idea that humanity constitutes an elemental force, tries to regain entrance to God's Kingdom by proving his theory. Determined to find one being who embodies the human element and bring him under his aegis so he can pull the human's strings while posing as his servant, Dekker has discovered that the force he seeks resides in the body of the Swamp Thing. Approaching billionnaire technologist and big game hunter, Maximillian "Max" Ramhoff, he offers his services as the man's assistant. The slovenly hunter hires him, both grateful for Dekker's seemingly absolute devotion to him and disturbed that man never seems to sleep. Having learned of the Swamp Thing from Anton Arcane, Dekker entices Ramhoff with the lure of adding the creature to his collection. The hunter is intrigued.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #8: "Missing Links, Conclusion"

NOTE: No specific date is provided, si I have set the beginning of Dekker's service to Ramhoff here to allow for time before their story arc.

After archeologists discover a 300-year-old slave burial ground, two Howard University students find the skull of a mistreated and malnourished slave. On the slave's coffin is an Akan symbol called the Sankofa, signifying Ghana origins. The symbol warns that to build the future, one must look to the past. That night, a limo driver named Marks picks up gangster kingpin Papa Midnite and drives him to his club, Midnite's. Marks asks him for a loan so he can get treatment for his wife Sarah, who has sickle cell anemia. Midnite warns him that a debt is a serious thing, but if Marks is willing to risk the consequences, then he's glad to loan him the money. Inside his club, Midnite meets with two local gangsters, Robbie "Stenkin" Jenkins and William "Willie" Bobo, who run the Staten Island crime scene. He informs them that he's taking fifty percent of their action, using a display of magic to quell their protests. As he does so, the Sankofa glows green, shooting a beam of light to the sky. Seeing the light, Midnite leaves the others with his assistant, Johnson, and heads outside to confront the spirit of Fortune, the slave buried in the coffin. Fortune wears a necklace belonging to Midnite and blames him for the fate of his father, a slave named Cuffee, whom Midnite betrayed during his youth in New York in 1712. The two go on a walking vision of the past, with Midnite appearing to be walking alone. Jenkins and Bobo consider shooting him, but hold off, wondering what he's up to.

Hellblazer Special―Papa Midnite #1: "Chapter I"

A constable on horseback sees Papa Midnite and tells him the park is closed. When his comments become racist, Midnite gives him a glimpse of the walking vision, leaving him disoriented. Jenkins and Bob, frightened by what they've seen, decide to call someone else in for the job.

Hellblazer Special―Papa Midnite #2: "Chapter II"

Determined to have Midnite killed, Jenkins and Bobo arrange to meet John Constantine via a mutual acquaintance at the Blarney Stone pub. Bobo is uneasy about him, but Jenkins calms his partner down and offers Constantine the job. Unbeknownst to them, Midnite passes their car moments later, his face plastered on the Times Square videoscreen. Fortune's ghost, visible only to Midnite, does not appear beside him. Two street vendors—Dio Otubanjo, a Yaruba from Nigeria, and his Bantu cousin, Oh Jaoa—try to scam Midnite into buying a fake Rolex watch. Speaking in their native tongues, he unnerves each with knowledge of their past crimes. Constantine and Midnite eventually cross paths, and with a snarky grin, Constantine congratulates him on his obvious weight loss.

Hellblazer Special―Papa Midnite #3: "Chapter III"

Constantine tells Midnite that when last they met—when Midnite supposedly died plummeting from a great height—he knew the other had not really passed away, since he cannot die until White men no longer run America. Midnite mocks the Western dismissal of Yoruban magic as voodoo, saying Constantine knew him as a voodoo witch doctor only because he was unable to see him any other way. Constantine asks his help for the coming fight against the Kua I'ipa, the Shadow Dog of Aboriginal myth, which is about to cause the end of days, but Midnite refuses to take part, still angry at Constantine for causing his fall (both literal and societal) and subsequent struggle back to the top.

Hellblazer Special―Papa Midnite #4: "Chapter IV"

As Midnite continues walking the streets of New York, two cops stop him, claiming he matches the description of a robbery suspect. Inside a waiting van are several Black men, all with very different looks. One cop recognizes Midnite and apologizes, aware of his reputation. As Midnite walks away, the suspects all vanish, replaced by Jenkins and Bobo. Midnite visits an African burial ground in lower Manhattan, where his followers died due to his mistakes in 1741. Their spirits welcome him, even as Fortune arrives to condemn him for failing to help his people in the past two-plus centuries. His spirit finally at rest, Fortune's body fades away in his coffin, but not before Midnite retrieves the Sankofa necklace Fortune stole from him centuries earlier. Trapped within it is the spirit of Daniel Horsmanden, the White racist who defeated his attempted slave revolt back in 1741.

Hellblazer Special―Papa Midnite #5: "Chapter V"

To defeat the Shadow Dog, Constantine assembles a team of master magicians: Donatus Chalice of the Closed Order of the Alexins, Alba, Ken "Map" Ondaatie, Clarice Sackville, Ravi and Nathan "Nat Kuhn" Arcane, the "black sheep" of the Arcane family (he's the sane one). As Constantine explains their mission, Alec senses something squirming through the Green, heading toward Bethlehem.

Hellblazer #189: "Staring at the Wall, Part One"

With help from the others, Nathan Arcane uses an Abano ritual to summon and slay the spirit of Kua I'ipa, the Shadow Dog. However, they realize too late they've been tricked-the being they've invoked isn't the Shadow Dog, but rather the last Beast of Eden, cast out with Adam and Eve. What's more, the Kua I'ipa was created by God as a guardian to protect humanity from the Beast. Now that they have slain it, the Beast is free to wreak havoc in mankind's subconscious.

Hellblazer #190: "Staring at the Wall, Part Two"

The Beast's evil spreads around the globe, washing over humanity in a terrible wave of murder and unspeakable acts. Blaming himself for this mistake, Constantine decides to battle the Beast head-on by killing himself and entering the realm of the subconscious. Before doing so, he outlines his plan to his niece Gemma, a fledgling magician herself, relying on her help to get out of this alive.

Hellblazer #191: "Staring at the Wall, Part Three"

Gemma enlists the help of Constantine's friend Chas in saving her uncle's life. Placing an African violet near his head, she summons Alec to form a body from the flower. Reaching tendrils into Constantine's lungs and heart, Alec keeps his body alive while the mage's spirit battles the Beast on the subconscious level. The Beast reaches out to all humanity, touching the minds of Tim Hunter, Lucifer and others. Finally, it takes possession of Chas and Gemma's minds as well. Possessed, Chas grabs a shotgun and blows Alec's head off, while Gemma picks up the razor blade and prepares to slit her uncle's neck.

Hellblazer #192: "Staring at the Wall, Part Four"

Growing a new head, Alec knocks Chas unconscious while Angie Spatchcock takes out Gemma with a pre-Lapsarian branch she picked up in Eden. Unable to survive contact with such wood, the Beast flees the scene. Alec is fascinated at how different the branch feels than normal wood. Cutting himself with the razor and placing the branch within the wound, he grows a suit of armor from the strange wood. Entering the Green, Alec travels the subconscious realm to battle the Beast and save humanity. However, rather than backing off from the Eden-forged wood as expected, the Beast weakens him by forcibly separating the elemental's body from the spirit of Alec Holland. Without a human mind, Alec cannot exist in the realm of the human subconscious and is cast out into the Green. Constantine's fellow magicians revive the Shadow Dog, which kills the Beast once and for all. Constantine returns to the world of the living, but with total amnesia. As for Alec, the elemental realizes that yet again, for all his efforts, he was merely a diversion in Constantine's plan, meant only to distract the Beast while the magicians summoned the real power. Furious, he decides never again to let the Brit manipulate him, and that he never needed Holland's humanity anyway.

Hellblazer #193: "Staring at the Wall, Conclusion"

NOTE: Constantine's amnesia is dealt with in subsequent issues of Hellblazer.

Stripped of Alec's presence, the Swamp Thing turns his back on the machinations of men and seeks out the solace of the Green, relinquishing his sense of self to contemplation of the rootweb of life. Instead of the usual oasis of calm introspection, he finds insanity, for the Green has been reshaped in human terms, with skyscrapers, pea-pod monorails, bridges of vine spanning rivers of sapwater and moss-encrusted mockeries of men. Knoll, representing the North American Chapter of the Grass, greets him as he enters, but the elemental has no use for such humanoid "puppets" and wipes the Green clean of Knoll, the cities and all vestiges of humanity. Aghast at what he has seen, the elemental wonders who could have made such changes and comes to a furious conclusion: Tef�.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #2: "Bad Seed, Part Two"

Sargon the Sorcerer returns from the dead and sets up shop in an old castle in the Schwarzwald Black Forest in Freiburg, Germany, where the Green's power is the weakest. Retrieving the Ruby of Life, he finally learns its true purpose-as a conduit for elemental powers-which had eluded him throughout his life. Seeing an opportunity not only to avenge himself on Swamp Thing but also to rule the world, he sets about luring Tef� into his control so he can seize both her and her father's powers.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #4: "Bad Seed, Part Four"

Sargon creates a rock Golem, animated by the power of the Ruby of Life to resemble the Swamp Thing. Thus, he can coerce Tef� into believing her father intends to kill her.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #5: "Bad Seed, Part Five"

Sensing Sargon's return, Constantine asks a friend in Hong Kong, a clairvoyant named Fengis, to find out what he can about Swamp Thing, Tef� and Sargon the Sorcerer. Fengis uses his mental powers to bypass a series of scrying wards intended to keep outsiders from breaching the secrets of the ancient magicians' Lodge. It isn't easy, but in time he locates the information Constantine seeks.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #4: "Bad Seed, Part Four"

Separated from Alec Holland, the Swamp Thing ends his relationship with Abby so he can become one with the Earth. Some time later, two alligator poachers roam the Louisiana swamps. One, Grady, scares the other by telling the tale of Alec Holland's death, when his barn blew up in this vicinity. To their horror, a corpse rises from the swamp, trying to utter the word, "Help." As the poachers run off, John Constantine stands nearby, lighting a cigarette. In Colorado, Abby hires climbing guide Joe Weathers to lead her on a hike through the mountains so she can work out her feelings for Alec after what has happened. Joe does a double-take when the cliff shape differs from its norm, but Abby recognizes the contour-the mountain has taken on the shape of Alec's face.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #1: "Bad Seed, Part One"

NOTE: This issue was excerpted in a promo pamphlet titled Vertigo Horizon #12. It should be noted that there are several continuity errors here. First, the Hollands' barn did not blow up; Alec found it intact after the fire in issue #1 of the first series, and again in issue #28 of Series 2. Second, Alec's corpse should not be in the swamp, as he dug up his remains in issue #28 and created for himself a proper grave.

At 12:41 a.m. in the emergency room of University Hospital in Freiberg, Germany, doctors declare a teenaged girl dead on arrival following a drug overdose. Suddenly, the girl's body comes back to life as Tef� "borrows" it, ejecting all of the corpse's multiple body piercings. Wryly, she promises the frightened doctors she'll return the body when she's through.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #2: "Bad Seed, Part Two"

NOTE: It's unclear why Tef� needs this girl's body, as she already has one of her own.

Tef�, age thirteen chronologically but clad in the older body of the teenage junkie, returns to Brazil to bid farewell to the Parliament of Trees. Viewing the burnt-out husks of her former caretakers, she recalls their ironic advice: "Avoid anger, for anger is like wildfire." She forgives them for using her when she was young, saying she has come to realize she's not the person they tried to make her. To her shock, a tiger and other animals commune with her, saying her existence threatens the natural order. The Green is her enemy, they warn, and her father intends to kill her and seek dominion over all flesh. They urge her to flee to the Black Forest, where the Swamp Thing's power is weakest. Constantine and Alec's corpse check into a hotel, where the mage reminds a confused Alec of the events leading to his death, his resurrection as the Swamp Thing and his recent separation of mind and body. Since the latter, his elemental side has become unimaginably powerful. Constantine plans to reunite them; since this requires a storage medium, he has re-animated Alec's corpse. Meanwhile, Abby enters the "eye" of Alec's cliff-face, which promptly closes, preventing Weathers from following her inside. There, a fiery vision of her husband tells her she should not have come here.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #1: "Bad Seed, Part One"

NOTE: Hellblazer #184 reveals the Parliament of Trees completely burnt to ash, with no remaining trees standing. Here, however, we find their burnt-out husks.

In Colorado, Alec's elemental side tells Abby he no longer has need for a name now that he has shed his humanity. He is the Earth, he says, proclaiming, "I am everything." She argues that without Alec's conscience, he is not whole, but he feels Alec Holland restrained him within a petty cage of morality; now, his concerns are on a more geological scale. She challenges that idea, asking why he still takes human form, but this infuriates him, as he has seen and corrected the chaos Tef�'s humanity brought to the Green. Elsewhere, their daughter takes a cab to the Schwarzwald Black Forest in Freiburg, Germany, and lets her senses guide her to a house that reminds of her of the Brothers Grimm tales. Along the way, animal spirits urge her to move swiftly. Back in Louisiana, patrons complain of seeing a dead body in the hotel. Two cops investigate, and Constantine controls their minds to make them drive him and Alec's corpse to Colorado. Tef� enters a vast haunted castle, where Sargon the Sorcerer awaits, floating in mid-air. He tells of his past encounters with her father and gives her his Ruby of Life, created 7,000 years ago with the sole purpose of elevating a human to godhood.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #2: "Bad Seed, Part Two"

Since achieving enlightenment, Sargon has come to understand all that was once hidden from him. The Ruby of Life is a conduit for elemental powers and he has been its keeper, but as an elemental in flesh form, Tef� is its master. She rejects the gem, however, tired of others trying to control her destiny. He asks her to give him a chance to teach her, saying her father has refused to show her the Red, the realm of all flesh, fearing what she could become. Despite her skepticism, she is intrigued. Constantine's police escorts arrive in Colorado, where Abby is keeping warm near a campfire. As Alec waits in the car, Constantine compares notes with Abby regarding the elemental. She fears what the creature might do to their daughter, but her real shock comes when she sees a corpse get out of the car. Reaching out a bony arm, Alec cringes when it falls out of its socket onto the ground. Suddenly, the elemental's angry form rises from the campfire to warn Constantine not to meddle in his affairs. When the mage asks for a light, the Bog God makes his cigarette explode, then vanishes. Sargon leads Tef� into the Red, and she is overwhelmed by the ever-flowing blood of this domain. It is her domain, he says, urging her to bend it to her will as its first queen. Wired into every living creature on the planet, she is awed and excited by such power. Constantine calls in a favor from a U.S. Air Force officer named Kowalski to have himself, Alec and Abby smuggled to Germany's Rhein Air Force Base. Constantine once saved the man's life when a hooker turned out to be a vampire, and the officer, in turn, smugggles silk cut for him out of Germany. In the Black Forest, Tef� has second thoughts about taking the Ruby, but Sargon says if she refuses, her father will kill her, seize her power, end the human race and usher in a New Eden. Sargon suddenly falls to the ground in agony, warning that her father is coming. Bursting from the ground as a giant stone behemoth, the elemental backhands Tef� and orders her to surrender her powers to him, promising a quick death if she cooperates. Furious, she rushes at him, ready to fight.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #3: "Bad Seed, Part Three"

NOTE: Sargon tells Tef� that Alec has slain the champions of earth, air, fire and water and absorbed their powers. However, that simply isn't true-he did kill Nelson Strong, the earth champion, but the others were slain by the Word, not Alec. In fact, the others gave their powers to Alec willingly, happy to have him as their champion.

This is not really Alec, but rather a rock Golem, animated by the power of the Ruby of Life to resemble the Swamp Thing. Sargon's hope is that he can coerce Tef� into believing her father intends to kill her, thus ensuring that she will strike first blood.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #5: "Bad Seed, Part Five"

Tef� attacks the Golem in fury, but he crushes her in his rocky fist and tosses her broken body to the ground, giving her three days to hand over her powers. After he leaves, she regenerates her body. Flooding her body with endorphins and rerouting pain impulses to the brain's pleasure center to replace the agony with pleasure, she vows to defeat him. At Rhein Air Force Base, Kowalski drops Constantine and company off at a Wertz Car Rental, saying he and Constantine are now even. Alec thanks Abby for standing by him, and though she doesn't mind, she longs for the way things used to be in days past, knowing they can never go back. As she rents a car for their journey to Freiburg, Constantine tries to cheer Alec up. Alec's memory is coming back, particularly his love for Abby, and he wonders how she ever turned her back on a normal life to offer unconditional love to a monster. In Sargon's castle, Tef� creates a dragon-like steed and trains it using the Ruby of Life. Sargon urges her to keep training so she can attain a greater degree of control over her powers, but she spurns any talk of destiny. Outmatched in the Green, he says, she must become a predator in the Red, able to face her father without mercy-the fate of the world hangs in the balance. At his parental tone, she mutters, "Yes, Dad," and returns to her training. Constantine calls his friend Fengis in Hong Kong to find out what he's learned about Sargon. Fengis says Sargon has returned from the dead and is living in the Black Forest with Tef�; worse, he's regained the Ruby of Life and figured out its true purpose. Constantine goes ill at the news. Meanwhile, Abby visits Tef�, halting her second day of Ruby training to talk about all that has happened. Tef� is cold to her, saying Abby wants her dead as much as Alec does. Abby is stunned to hear Alec tried to kill her, wishing she could make up for being such a bad mother all these years, but Tef� wants no part of it. She plans to kill Alec when the time comes, as well as anyone who stands beside him. To Abby's horror, Tef� places the Ruby inside her body and transforms into a giant dragon, ready to face her father in a re-match.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #4: "Bad Seed, Part Four"

Tef� tries to intimidate Abby with her dragon-esque form to show how it feels when someone you trust turns out to be a monster. However, her actual father rises from a nearby grove of trees, claiming he's been searching for her. He is unaware of recent events and says he hasn't spoken to her in over a year. When he offers to combine his powers with hers to repair the world, she beheads him, believing he's out to kill her. He regenerates as a tower of water, and Tef� mutates a group of caterpillars into a race of flying creatures, which flock to the sky and blot out the Sun in order to destroy the Green. In response, he burns them all, setting the sky afire. As Alec and Constantine plan their part in the battle, but Sargon shows up to stop them. Telling his corpsey companion to find and anger the Swamp Thing, Constantine turns to Sargon, who is far more powerful than he'd imagined. Electrocuting and distorting Constantine's flesh, Sargon reveals that he's using the Ruby to tap into the girl's power. Up above, the elemental grows tired of Tef�'s efforts and hits her with an immense jolt of lightning, burning her to a crisp. As her dead body slams into the ground, Sargon gloats over the success of his plan; the Ruby of Life was created to turn man into god, and now the time of his apotheosis is at hand. However, Constantine reminds him of Alec's reanimated corpse, which Sargon failed to take into account. Sargon realizes his error too late to stop fate, for at that moment, holding his daughter's body in his bony arms, Alec defiantly faces his elemental side. The Swamp Thing is unmoved; having absorbed her powers, he offers to restore Alec's flesh if he goes in peace. When Alec refuses, the elemental strikes him down in a wall of flame, causing history to repeat itself. Freed from its corpse-like existence, Alec's mind re-joins the elemental's brain, restoring him to his former state. His elation is short-lived, however, as he recoils in horror at having killed his only daughter.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #5: "Bad Seed, Part Five"

NOTE: Alec says it's been over a year since he and Tef� last spoke. Since their last recorded meeting (series 3, issue #18) occurred in 2001, we can assume they met again after that, some time early in 2003. Also, why does Alec think he's actually killed her? She's an elemental, which means destroying her body doesn't destroy her—she can just makes a new body, as she's done many times. Incidentally, this issue contains a preview of Books of Magick: Life During Wartime.

Alec removes the Ruby of Life from Tef�'s body and places her on the ground, breathing life into her once more. Tef� awakens in terror, and Abby shelters her shaking form as Constantine recovers from his own attack. Sargon faces Alec in battle, reveling in his newfound control of the elements. Rising to monstrous heights, Alec brings a mammoth fist down to crush his enemy, but to his surprise, it disintegrates inches from Sargon's unharmed head. Too late Alec realizes what has happened, and as Sargon leeches his and Tef�'s combined powers, a nearby mountain rises up to fight him. Badly hurt, unable to defeat his own elemental nature, Alec retreats into the Green, much to the delight of the Sorcerer. His only hope lies in self-sacrifice, for nature is not human-hearted and Sargon would never expect such a tactic-if he has already shed his powers, Sargon cannot steal them. To that end, Alec throws his humanity out into the void, casting out with it his hold over the six elements (earth, air, fire, water, flesh and root) so that, in time, they can find new champions after he is dead. His powers suddenly gone, Sargon rants in fury until Abby slams him in the head with a branch, knocking him unconscious. Abby asks if Alec is really dead this time, but Constantine has one more trick up his sleeve: using the Ruby's powers, he give Alec's essence a soft landing in the Green. He bids Abby to return to the bayou, saying Alec will be waiting for her there, but Abby is tired of living a life of monsters and madness and wants to take time to give Tef� a normal life now that she's fully human. Walking off with Tef�, she asks Constantine to tell Alec she's sorry. Some time later, Alec reforms in Louisiana, his visage one of massive confusion.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #6: "Bad Seed, Part Six"

As Alec lets his powers go, they ripple in an expanding wave across the entire spectrum of reality. On this day, known in the Green as the Day of the Great Release, life everywhere is enhanced. Artists became breathtakingly inspired (even graffitti artists); no animal, vegetable or mineral falls to war, famine, predator or disease for hours (not even a soldier named Albery, horribly burned in a Jeep explosion); every expectant mother in the world gives birth effortlessly to healthy babies (no matter how far along in their pregnancies); and everyone, everywhere, benefits from the release...all, that is, except for Professor Jordan Schiller, who suffers a stroke in the campus dining hall, leaving him custodian to a fraction of the Holland Mind.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #19: "The Holland Mind"

The transformation frees Alec of any "convoluted cosmologies and power cravings."

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #15: "Healing the Breach, Chapter I-The Emotional Hostage"

In shedding his elemental spirit, the Holland-Mind, Alec loses vast amounts of knowledge of his past and his abilities. Part of that knowledge enters the mind of Professor Jordan Schiller, former mentor of Alec Holland and ex-lover of Alec's wife Linda, while he dines at the campus cafeteria. This causes Schiller to suffer a stroke, an experience he finds glorious and pain-free thanks to the elemental influence. The rest of Alec's knowledge lives on in the Green, waiting for him to one day to reclaim it.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #16: "Healing the Breach, Chapter II-Where the Rushing Waters Go"

Studying hypoxia in the waters off coastal Louisiana, the botanist serves aboard the research vessel Pelican at the time. The stroke leaves him paralyzed and prone to inattention and stuttering. Physical and speech therapy help, but over time, his mind wanders more and more. The Louisiana University Marine Consortium, the organization funding his expedition, wonders if he is still competent to remain on the team. Following the stroke, the Holland-Mind-the elemental essence freed from the Swamp Thing's body-attempts communication through his body's bacteria. This causes Schiller continuously to relive the regretful events of his life 30 years prior, when he pushed his star pupil away for loving the same woman he loved. The Holland-Mind hopes that through Schiller, it can convince the Swamp Thing to stop wallowing in misery and start fixing the Green once more.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #15: "Healing the Breach, Chapter I-The Emotional Hostage"

For eight months, Schiller is unable to comprehend what has happened to him, and what he carries.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #16: "Healing the Breach, Chapter II-Where the Rushing Waters Go"

Eventually, the pieces of the Holland Mind, scattered across the cosmos as individual fragments, begin reforming into a single collective as each aspect realizes that rejoining is far preferable to loneliness. The reforming mind sets out to reclaim all its lost aspects, for only then can it rejoin the elemental form of the Swamp Thing.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #19: "The Holland Mind"

Alternate Timeline: In a reality in which world-renowned botanist and biochemist Alec Holland never became the Swamp Thing, Poison Ivy stumbles into his Louisiana bayou home one night and dies in his lab. The idea of a plant wishing to be human fascinates and terrifies him. His assistant, Dr. Pamela Isley, says she created Poison Ivy years earlier to deal with Batman while she gave up a life of crime to begin a new existence with Alec.

Batman Adventures #16: "The Flower Girl"

NOTE: Based on the Batman Animated Series, this tale falls outside DC/Vertigo Comics continuity.

Abby enrolls Tef� at a public high school and tells her that her father is dead. The children at the school, sensing something different about her, are quite cruel, particularly when she claims her father was the Swamp Thing. Confused and hurt, Tef� herself begins to wonder if she is making it up. A fellow student, Columbia Cooper, sits nearby, reading I Saw the Thunder Lizard and Other Tales of Cryptozoology, by Coleman Wadsworth. Overhearing Tef�'s stories, fascinated by the supernatural, Columbia is intrigued and decides to find him for herself.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #8: "Missing Links, Conclusion"

Abby begins dating a musician named Jake. He is Black and appears to be younger than she is.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #9: "Love in Vain, Chapter One"

NOTE: The placement of these events is conjectural; they apparently happen between issues 6 and 9, but until more details of their relationship are revealed, it is difficult to be more specific about the chronology.

Jake invites Abby to a Sunday lunch with his family at his sister's house. While she is in the bathroom, she hears Jake's father Ray ask him, "Could you have found a Whiter woman?" More amused by the comment than offended, Abby says nothing about it.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #14: "Measure of Faith, Chapter Two"

Ramhoff charters a Gulfstream IV and hires Coleman Wadsworth to investigate sightings of a giant bird-like creature in Louisiana. Unbeknownst to Wadsworth, Dekker is tracking his progress the entire time. While Wadsworth embarks on his journey, Ramhoff stalks and kills a Yeti in Nepal, intending to add its pelt to his trophy collection of unusual and mythical beasts. Back at his estate, filled with the stuffed corpses of a coelacanth, a thunder lizard, a pterodactyl, a sabre-tooth tiger and other such creatures, Dekker reports that Philips in Taxidermy is unable to do a complete pelt since Ramhoff shot its head off; unphased, he says to make ashtrays from its hooves. Meanwhile, the cryptozoologist comes across Alec sitting in the mire, its mind half-insane from loneliness. The creature, upon seeing him, rises up and chokes him unconscious. He later awakens to find Alec looking over him. For the next six days, he endures its silent efforts to nurse him back to health by feeding him insects and other natural items. He studies Alec for four days, too fascinated to refuse food on the grounds of his vegetarianism. By day six, he tries to communicate, intrigued when it responds in English. However, his comments about solitude spark an hallucination in which Alec is a human married to Abby and living a normal life Tef�. The fantasy goes sour as visions of Arcane and other terrors from his past shatter his tranquility. In fury, Alec again throttles Wadsworth, ordering him to leave. The scientist begs to stay, but the creature says to leave while he still can. Wadsworth runs for his life, coming face-to-face with Ramhoff and Dekker, who have traced his signal and plan to "bag a Swamp Thing."

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #7: "Missing Links, Part One"

Columbia Cooper sets out in the swamps one night, determined to find Alec. She finds him half-crazed from hallucinations of Cranius and other Un-Men tearing him limb from limb, he nearly kills her until she mentions Tef�, which calms him. At that moment, Ramhoff and Dekker arrive, and the creature tells her to stay behind him. Ramhoff is amazed, and anxious to kill and stuff the creature. Columbia recognizes him from a profile in Wired magazine about his invention of hiding words in websites that only show up in search engines, and the spark between the two is immediate. Alec destroys his safari gun, ordering them to leave. Ramhoff and Columbia run, leaving Dekker behind. When Alec reveals he is no longer an elemental, Dekker is furious at again having failed in his search. At that moment, Wadsworth shows up to warn the creature, but Dekker dispatches him with magic, then vanishes. Saddened by Wadsworth's death, Alec reads his notes, then leaves him to decompose alone. Scared off by Columbia's fan-like enthusiasm, Ramhoff returns to his mansion. That night, Columbia brings Tef� to the swamp to see her father, but instead they find Wadsworth's body. Excited that her father might still be alive, Tef� runs to find him. Alec sees her but hides in the bushes, unready to accept what he did to her until he figures out his own place in the world. Suddenly, the Un-Men illusion resumes, making him shrink in terror. After hours of wandering the swamp, Tef� and Columbia decide to return to civilization.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #8: "Missing Links, Conclusion"

Alternate Timeline: In an alternate reality created by the demonic children of John Constantine, Abby Cable falls victim to a serial killer in the "Lowlands Triangle" of Bamfshire, Scotland. Meanwhile, one of the demonic kids, Saul Constantine, crucifies the Swamp Thing in his private garden.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #200: "Happy Families"

Alternate Timeline: At Louisiana University, a trio of unpopular students, led by a teen named Alan, try to summon a demon to obtain the power to destroy their enemies (the in-crowd). In so doing, they inadvertently resurrect Solmon Grundy from the dead. A poster of Swamp Thing hangs on Alan's wall.

Justice League Unlimited episode #63: "Wake the Dead"

NOTE: This animated television series falls outside regular DC/Vertigo continuity. "Wake the Dead" originally aired on December 18, 2004. It is rumored that Alan may have been named for Swamp Thing scribe Alan Moore.

Sallie, a Cajun juju, cares for her ailing mother. The mother distrusts all men and refuses to see a doctor, and Sallie knows she will soon die. She doesn't share her mother's distrust of men, for she remembers meeting the Swamp Thing as a child and longs to see him again. When her mother dies, she buries her, panicking at the thought of being alone. Using a seed from a plant Alec left in her care in 1993, she performs a juju ritual to summon a demon lover in the body of a homonculus.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #9: "Love in Vain, Chapter One"

Because Sallie had planted the seed on the spot Black Jubal killed Arcane in 1974, her casting inadvertently awakens the scattered essence of Anton Arcane.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #11: "Love in Vain, Chapter Three"

NOTE: Black Jubal is not actually named in this story. Arcane merely says the seed was planted on a spot where Alec once killed him. Ironically enough, however, Alec never actually killed Arcane throughout the history of the comics, in the swamp or anywhere else. Arcane has died numerous deaths, but never at the hands of the Swamp Thing. He survived when Alec pushed him out a window in 1973; Black Jubal's fellow slaves tore him to pieces in 1974; Matt Cable defeated him in 1983 and again in 1984; and Tef� killed him in 1993, his final death to date, with help from Agony and Ecstasy. In fact, Arcane only ever died once in the swamp, and that was at the hands of Black Jubal; therefore, I assume he must be referring to that incident.

For several months, Sallie tries to bring the homonculus to life, spending night after night in the swamp. When dozens of rituals fail to animate it, she uses Alec's seed, which she keeps in a pouch around her neck, to give the creature life. Alec, meanwhile. wallows in memories of Abby, causing her to experience a flood of memories. She misses him, but wants no more of his world's madness.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #9: "Love in Vain, Chapter One"

During his wanderings, Alec notices an elderly gentleman out in the swamp. He senses gentleness in the man and allows himself to be seen from time to time. Amazed, the man tells his wife and others about it, and a joyful buzz goes around town: the Good Gumbo Man is back.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #10: "Love in Vain, Chapter Two"

The man's name is Bart, his wife's name is Elaine, and the reason he spends so much time in the swamp is that he has a still where he makes moonshine. Elaine sometimes feels he loves the still more than he does her, but since his absence gives her peace and quiet, she's okay with it.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #11: "Love in Vain, Chapter Three"

Near Xaphan's furnaces in Hell, the demon Josephine tortures Arcane, her victim and lover, whose body has grown tattered and torn. The seed in the pouch around Sallie's neck beckons to Arcane who, begs his lover to let him slip the Pit. She agrees, and he breaks free of his bonds, promising her even greater suffering among the living

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #9: "Love in Vain, Chapter One"

NOTE: Though great fun, this issue contains a number of continuity snafus. It says Alec and Sallie first met 10 years prior, but Alec and Abby were no longer together in 1995. Therefore, I am taking "10 years" as an approximation and setting their meeting in 1993. The bigger issues concern Arcane, primarily why he is being tortured in Hell, having been made a demon in series 2, issue #96, and having been freed from damnation during Mark Millar's run. Issue 11 reveals that he fell from God's good graces and was sent back to Pit, but not why he returned as a damned soul rather than a demon; I assume he lost his demonhood after Agony and Ecstasy dragged him back to Hell in #138. But why does he have the grotesque appearance of his demon days? At the end of series 2, Alec grew for him a brand new body-what happened to it?

Using Sallie's plant to gain passage to the Green, Arcane escapes Hell's prison.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #11: "Love in Vain, Chapter Three"

Arcane scratches a mote in Hell's ceiling in order to get back to the surface, neglecting to gate the hole on the way out. This creates a leak through which Hell's miasma begins seeping into the living world. In response, Hell dispatches the demon bounty hunter Worm Walker, a pair of giant grubs symbiotically encased within a faux humanoid shell, to hunt Arcane down.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #10: "Love in Vain, Chapter Two"

Unbeknownst to Worm Walker, this is exactly what Arcane wants, as he will need the bounty hunter's presence for a future portion of his plan to attain immortality on the mortal plane.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #12: "Love in Vain, Chapter Four "

To replace his tattered body, Arcane reaches out and locates Alec's mind. However, instead of a Swamp God, he finds only a hollow, confused shadow of Alec stumbling through the mire.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #11: "Love in Vain, Chapter Three"

Tef� admits she's been skipping school to find her father, but Abby urges her to leave him alone, wishing they could resume a normal life. At midnight that same night, Sallie finishes building the homonculus; sensing trouble in the swamp, Alec investigates. Tef� goes to a party at Columbia's house and hangs out with a local girl named Zaina, with whom she has been experimenting in lesbianism. Tripping on mushrooms, she finds it strange not to have her powers anymore; Zaina kisses her, and she responds. Meanwhile, Abby visits The Bayou Bistort Bar to see Jake, her musician lover, perform. After his final set, he takes her home to make love; he wants more from their relationship, but she hasn't yet let go of her feelings for Alec. Meanwhile, Sallie's homonculus comes alive as Arcane's spirit enters it. Both Alec and Tef� feel it as he returns to the world of the living.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #9: "Love in Vain, Chapter One"

Suddenly experiencing uncontrollable epilectic-like fits, Tef� begins screaming about how she is still connected to the Green. Zaina, having no idea what is happening, calls for an ambulance.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #10: "Love in Vain, Chapter Two"

The ambulance brings them to Bayou Oaks Hospital in Houma.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #12: "Love in Vain, Chapter Four"

Back in Hell, demons torture Josephine for letting Alec go, but he utters a Sumerian summoning spell while raping Sallie, allowing his lover to escape the confines of Hell. Alec feels the pain of her intrusion into the Green as she passes through it. Tef�, also affected by the Green's pain, begins hemorrhaging and is taken to a hospital. Sallie escapes before Arcane can give her body to Josephine, so he instead reanimates the body of her mother. At last, the lovers can be together.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #9: "Love in Vain, Chapter One"

Worm Walker, retracing Arcane's escape route, stop on the upper levels of Hell to watch the grazing demon yearlings. Meanwhile, Alec encounters a chloroplast being calling itself the Holland-Mind. Independent and self-replicating, housing the sum of his experiences, the Holland-Mind urges him to re-form so he can repair and defend the Green; he stands on the soul of a seed awaiting the formative drive of creativity to sprout-he must simply imagine growth. Alec expands his mind and taps into his forgotten ability to regenerate. Moments later, Sallie slams into him. Running from her encounter with Arcane, she thinks him a demon until recognizing him from her youth. Alec brings her to Bart and asks him to take her to the hospital.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #10: "Love in Vain, Chapter Two"

Worried that he'll get in trouble for his still, Bart instead takes the unconscious Sallie to his home for his wife to tend to. Against her better judgment, Elaine agrees not to call a doctor, freshening Sallie up and washing her clothes. The memory of their daughter Julie, who died as a child when she accidentally shot herself with Bart's handgun, compels Elaine to take care of the Cajun woman.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #11: "Love in Vain, Chapter Three"

Arcane and Josephine make love with their reanimated corpses, Josphine reveling in human sexuality. In Houma, Jake and Abby do the same. The phone rings, and Zaina says to come to Bayou Oaks Hospital. There, Abby learns what happened to Tef� and spends the night by her side as the child sleeps. In the waiting room, Zaina tells Jake she loves Tef�, but she knows her friend is only experimenting out of boredom; it's hard to know you're not enough for someone, she says, and Jake understands. Watching a doctor console a widow who has lost her husband of 45 years, they know their own relationships will not last as long. In the swamp, the miasma of Hell seeps into the real world as the damned rejoin the living plane. Alec feels the spreading sickness and tries to stop it.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #10: "Love in Vain, Chapter Two"

A belief vampire, trapped in Hell for an indeterminate time after passing through the wrong portal, makes its escape along with the damned souls. Since the creature-a psychic sorcerer that feeds on the devout-was never damned to Hell in the first place, Alec does not sense its passage through the Green as he does the others.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #14: "Measure of Faith, Chapter Two"

At Sallie's cabin, Arcane and Josephine watch the sunrise as their Hellish essence deforms nature around them. Awed by the beauty of the living world, she longs to kill all life and make it suffer until only they two remain to kill each other. Their bodies are rapidly decomposing, but Arcane has planned ahead; he will take Alec and Tef�'s bodies so they can attain immortality on this plane. Alec arrives on cue, but still disoriented, he does not recognize his old nemesis. Taunting him, Arcane vanishes, promising to return for his body. Alec starts to follow, but knows he must first repair the diseased Green. At that moment, Worm Walker breaches the leaking gate of Hell, entering the real world. Seeing Alec, the creature opens its trenchoat to reveal its true form: two giant grubs hiding within a maw in the faux torso. Without hesitation, the grubs attack Alec, shedding their humanoid skin.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #10: "Love in Vain, Chapter Two"

Worm Walker, attached to Alec's body, begins suckling on his memories of Arcane. Finding nothing useful, the demon brothers re-enter their humanoid shell and continue their hunt, leaving Alec beaten and unconscious. Arcane shows Josephine the joys of living suffering by tearing apart a passing motorist who stops to help them. He promises her a massive killing spree, but first they must secure Alec and Tef�'s bodies for themselves. That night, Sallie awakens in the home of Elaine and Bart, bathed and clad in one of Elaine's slips. Elaine is kind to her, telling her not to fret. Out in the swamp, Worm Walker attacks Bart at his still, suckling memories of recent events while Alec slowly rebuilds his mind and body. At the hospital, Tef� awakens from her 24-hour coma. Relieved, Abby tells her how much she loves her, then settles down for a meal with Jake in the cafeteria. Grateful for his help, she apologizes for not giving enough of herself or telling him about her past, saying she hasn't been with another man since John Constantine and is afraid of burdening him with her problems, but he assures her that whatever her problems, he'll be there for her. At that moment, Arcane arrives in the body of the dead motorist, accompanied by a pack of crazed dogs that begin tearing apart anyone in their wake. Making his way to Tef�'s room, he tries to steal her powers for Josephine but finds her a mortal and decides instead to use her to lure in her father. At that moment, Alec crashes through the front window of the waiting room, having sensed Tef�'s suffering through the Green. Seeing Abby with Jake, however, he sadly shambles back to the swamp. At first freaked out by his violence, then worried by his sadness, Abby follows him, leaving Jake sitting alone in the ruins of the hospital room. Sallie tells Elaine she regrets the path her life has taken, saying her mother never gave her a sense of how things should be. She asks if she can live with Elaine and Bart, but at that moment, the ghostly image of Elaine's daughter appears, re-enacting her accidental suicide as a child. Elaine is devastated, and Sallie runs outside to find ghosts of past killings re-enacted in an endless bloodbath. Her actions have unleashed Darkness on the world, and as she drops to her knees in despair, Worm Walker approaches from behind, ready to suckle on her mind.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #11: "Love in Vain, Chapter Three"

NOTE: Abby says she's not been with a man since Constantine. Apparently, she's forgotten about Donatien "Don" Reynard, with whom she shared a sexual relationship-she moved in with him for several months, in fact-from issues #135 to 161 of series 2. Then again, she was under heavy medication at the time; perhaps she has blocked out that period of her life. Ironically, Constantine introduced her to Don in the first place.

As the Hellish manifestations flood Houma, Ray returns to Breeze Avenue. There, Jake's grandfather hung himself when Ray was a boy. A vision of his father's hanging body awaits him. He visits a local hospital, hoping the ghost of his late wife, Louise, will be there, but he finds only echoes of those who died at the hospital, Louise included. The experience worsens his existing problem with alcohol.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #13: "Measure of Faith, Chapter One"

Zaina screams as Alec approaches, but he walks past her to Tef�s room. Abby follows as Zaina gets to safety. In the swamp, Worm Walker interrogates Sallie and notices the seed pouch around her neck tugging in one direction, drawn to Arcane. The demon forces her to lead it to its quarry. Amidst the slaughter at the hospital, Alec and Abby find a message scrawled in blood: "To God's House He Goes." With Abby on his back, Alec makes his way to a cathedral at Houma Town Center as the murderous visions continue. Grabbing an axe, Jake follows, prepared to rescue his lover. Inside the cathedral, inhabiting the motorist's decaying corpse, Arcane waits for Alec. Nearby stands Josephine, who has taken the form of several fused dogs and holds Tef�s battered body under one arm. Arcane assures Josephine that whatever happens, his love is real. In that moment, Worm Walker enters. Dropping Sallie, the demon demands the couple return with him to Hell. Arcane has a surprise, however: while in Heaven, he learned to craft the lightning of that realm. Subduing Worm Walker, Arcane waits patiently until Alec and Abby come crashing through the door. Alec immediately engulfs Arcane in his roots, but the sorcerer smiles, for Alec has fallen into his trap. Using the church as a generator, Arcane channels Heaven's energies to undock both Alec and Josephine's souls, trapping Alec within her body, and leaving Alec's body for himself. Josephine is stunned by the betrayal, but Arcane says it was the only way he could banish Alec to Hell and prevent him from regenerating. He offers Worm Walker a pact: the hunter can return to Hell with Josephine and let him live, or be buried beneath the church in a mayonaise jar. With little choice, Worm Walker accepts. A vortex to Hell opens, dragging Alec down along with the demons. Overcome with guilt for all that has happened, Sallie commits suicide by letting Josephine's dogs maul her. Once in contact with Sallie's seed, Alec regenerates and tosses Arcane into the vortex, leaving Sallie's broken body on the floor as the Hellish manifestations disspiate. Alec comforts Tef� for a moment, then picks up Sallie. Jake and Zaina arrive and Jake hits Alec with the axe, but the weapon passes through him harmlessly. Abby and the others watch as Alec returns to the swamp, where he absorbs Sallie's form into his own. Meanwhile, in Hell, the demons of Xaphan's Court delight in the capture of Arcane and Josephine-and the surprise announcement that the couple are expecting a child.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #12: "Love in Vain, Chapter Four "

NOTE: Alec is shown walking out of the hospital and into the swamp at the end of issue #11, but he's still inside the building in this issue. I guess he changed his mind.

To prevent further souls from escaping Hell, the architects of that realm clog the excretion of miasma and mend Hell's border. The Louisiana government orders an investigation of the manifestations as real estate prices suffer an historic drop.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #13: "Measure of Faith, Chapter One"

In time, locals come to refer to the Hellish incident as "the Houma Rapture."

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #14: "Measure of Faith, Chapter Two"

Late 2004 or early 2005 A.D.

The son of a Louisiana Cajun named Susannah is born.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #26: "Burying the Bones"

Early to mid-2005 A.D.

Warner Brothers releases Constantine, a theatrical movie about the exploits of John Constantine. A comic book adaptation, paperback novelization and video game are published to tie in with the film.

NOTE: This film gets so many details wrong (Keanu Reeves as an American Constantine whose name is repeatedly mispronounced, Chas as a teenager, Constantine's holy crossbow and demon-bashing brass knuckles, and so forth) that it's not worth mentioning here beyond this brief blurb. Suffice it to say that Constantine is even less faithful to Hellblazer than the old Swamp Thing films were to Swamp Thing.

A creepy preacher comes to Houma, promising "a new kinda' church, a new kinda' message." The secret locations of his evangelical services vary, shared via word-of-mouth. Many flock to his revivals.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #13: "Measure of Faith, Chapter One"

Those who join the revivals are reported missing by their families. The Houma Police Dept. receives numerous such reports over the course of several weeks.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #14: "Measure of Faith, Chapter Two"

The Cajuns build a shrine to Bon Gumbo (the Swamp Thing), hoping he'll return to help them again. One boy, in particular, prays Bon Gumbo can protect his father from going to jail for beating up a man named Hambone. Back in Houma, Abby ends her relationship with Jake, saying she needs space to sort out her feelings. Meanwhile, Alec spends the next month by himself, taking up residence in Sallie's deserted cabin as he wallows in loneliness, dreaming of faces for which he has no name.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #13: "Measure of Faith, Chapter One"

For weeks, Alec sense an evil presence in the swamp, trying to hide its true intentions with magic. Though it has taken the form of a benevolent preacher, but Alec recognizes a fellow monster when he sees one. It tries to contact his mind, but he resists its call. During this time, Jake comes to realize that the swamp creature is Bon Gumbo, not a demon.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #14: "Measure of Faith, Chapter Two"

Back in Houma, Jake has nightmares of the Swamp Thing. He calls Abby but reaches an answering machine. Jake visits his sister, her husband Steve and their two children for dinner one night, hoping to convince them to come with him to see their father. However, after witnessing Ray's abuse of their mother, she cut off all ties with him. Jake finds Ray drunk and watching an ABS News 7 broadcast about the recent madness. Ray tells him of the preacher in the swamps, whose next revival he plans to attend. Putting his father to bed, Jake heads for Abby's house. At Sallie's shack, Alec receives a visitor from Hell: a messenger from Xaphan's Court, who says the breach of Hell's borders has been reparied but that he must attend to the Green. Jake arrives at Abby's home, but she will not see him. Desperate, he says he must meet the creature, for he knows recent events are somehow connected to Abby's past. He was good to her, she says, but she can't help him. Tef� comes out to talk to him, saying Abby still loves him but that he should let her be alone. Elsewhere in the swamp, Ray attends the preacher's revival. The locals, amassed in the swamp, chant for the preacher to lead them. He says God created the plague of Hell echoes to draw them closer to Him, that they must willingly give their lives so the preacher can lead them to a higher plane. As he speaks, a serpent from around his neck roams the crowd, feasting on rodents. The preacher stops; sensing a newcomer, he summons Ray forth, asking what he seeks. Rays seeks confirmation that his wife forgives him for his beatings. A vision of Louise holding Jake as a baby appears, aging before him and begging him to join her in Heaven. Overwhelmed, Ray proclaims his faith, and the swampy waters rise to engulf him. Awed, the frenzied revivalists wait for the preacher to lead them to Heaven as well.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #13: "Measure of Faith, Chapter One"

Jake files a Missing Person's report with the Houma Police Dept., then heads home and falls asleep until his sister wakes him. The police have asked them to visit the precinct, she says. There, an officer says they've received numerous reports of missing people, all connected to the preacher, but they've combed the swamp to no avail. Jake drives to Abby's home. Tef� and Zaina are glad to see him, and Abby lets him in despite her reluctance. Jake begs her to ask the Swamp Thing's help in finding his father. She tells him of her past with Alec and takes Jake to meet him. Jake shows Alec a photo of his father, who has been missing for a week. Alec agrees to help him. Opening his nind, Alec hones in on the preacher's evil source. He travels to its location, resisting its attempt to control him. The preacher assures him he is enlightening his followers, not exploiting them. Alec watches as Elaine asks to be reunited with her daughter, whom she saw during the Houma Rapture. Urging her to have faith, the preacher raises the swampy waters to pull her down. Following her underwater, Alec expects to find piles of corpses but instead sees hundreds of happy converted, still very much alive and waiting to ascend to Heaven. Among them are Ray and Elaine. Grabbing Elaine, Alec returns her to the surface, disregarding her protest at being torn from paradise. The preacher brings Alec backstage and tries to control him with visions of Abby, but Alec sees through its magic, recognizing it as a belief vampire, a psychic sorcerer that feeds on the devout. Lost in the ether, it passed through the wrong portal and was stuck in Hell for an indeterminate time. During the Houma Rapture, it saw an escape route. Since it wasn't damned, Alec didn't sense its passage through the Green. Its goal: to harness the followers' faith to carry it to a gate out of this dimension, just beyond Earth's moon, so it can go home. It asks Alec not to interfere and returns to the flock in preacher form, claiming to have captured a demon and urging them to take refuge underwater. Energized by their belief, it raises them into the air, a ball of faith bound for the Moon. Alec considers saving them all, but decides to honor their faith and grabs only Jake's father. Returning the outraged man to his son, Alec returns to his cabin in the swamp.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #14: "Measure of Faith, Chapter Two"

A film telling the story of Alec Holland, unrelated to earlier efforts in 1982 (Swamp Thing) and 1989 (The Return of Swamp Thing), is scheduled for release but canceled before filming begins.

Swamp Thing: The Movie [canceled]

NOTE: The failure of Marvel's Man-Thing film has apparently put this project on indefinite hold.

Alec travels the swamp as a leaf in the wind, wallowing in remore and solitude, hoping never again to cause or endure pain. Meanwhile, aboard Louisiana University Marine Consortium research vessel Pelican, Professor Jordan Schiller reminisces about his past as a storm wages at sea. The crew is studying hypoxia off coastal Louisiana, and something is different about the Dead Zone this year-no life stirs beyond a foot below the surface. The crippled botanit's assistant, Terry, says the Consortium has asked him to take over the project since Schiller's stroke eight months prior left him unable to focus on his work. The news takes Schiller back to 1972, when he first met Alec Holland. Alec had been recommended by a fellow professor, Lang, for his theories on autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms. Though Lang saw Alec as something of a fantasist, he asked Schiller to give him favored-student status. Alec had come to Louisiana to study global carbon and sulfur cycling, hoping a serious study of the swamp-storm ecosystem's flow might reveal incredibly efficient biomass fuels-or even bioregenerative agents. His goal: to use the swamps to reverse damaged ecosystems and end world hunger. Back in the present, Schiller's mind wanders as the board meets to discuss a Cajun grass roots environmental movement to stop coastal erosion. The Holland-Mind locks consciousnesses with his, letting Schiller see the world through its eyes. The next morning, Schiller leaves Terry a goodbye note and heads for the bayou to meet his fate.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #15: "Healing the Breach, Chapter I-The Emotional Hostage"

Concerned about his mentor, Terry heads to the bayou to find Schiller and bring him home.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #16: "Healing the Breach, Chapter II-Where the Rushing Waters Go"

Hitching a ride with a one-armed Cajun named Barry, Schiller hires a Redbone (a mix of Cajun, Black and American Indian heritages) named Tee-Tonti to take him into the swamp in his boat. They travel beyond Port Fourchon, where Bayou Lafourche meets the Gulf of Mexico. There, the environment has been damaged by Global Technic, Textechcorp and other industrial giants. Against Tee-Tonti's advice, Schiller asks to be left at an abandoned cabin, and after the Redbone leaves, the professor gets his wheelchair stuck in the mud. He reaches out to the Holland-Mind and experiences more visions of 1972, when George McGovern challenged Richard Nixon for the U.S. presidency. Schiller and Linda were campaigning for McGovern, their teacher-student affair a secret. The Holland-Mind takes temporary possession of Schiller's body and voice, growing new limbs to replace Schiller's stroke-damaged ones. Through Schiller, the Holland-Mind confronts Alec in the swamp, urging him to repair the Green, which has suffered from his inaction. But once immersed, Alec finds the Green horribly poisoned by mankind and technology.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #15: "Healing the Breach, Chapter I-The Emotional Hostage"

Schiller recalls an incident in 1972 when, during a night of lovemaking, Linda teased him about their age difference, comparing him to Lolita author Vladimir Nabokov. Unable to commit emotionally, he'd joked that she should date Alec Holland since he was closer to her age and more handsome and brilliant than he; long frustrated by his emotional distance, she was not amused. Elsewhere, Alec explores the Green and finds an industrial protoplasmic chimera waiting for him. It analyzes him and tries to take a sample. He resist its pull, but it is too strong and merges with his mind. Fighting it off, he shatters the mechanism, revealing a strange sight at its core-an infant creature attached by umbilical cord to a large green crystal, the letters "MGC" on its back. Hurricane Erika devestates Port Fouchon as it heads up the Gulf Coast. At the Port Fourchon Diner, near the Mantoson Genomics Corporation (MGC), Tee-Tonti and others watch the storm's progress on The Sea Farer Weather Report. Barry, the one-armed Cajun, brings Terry to see Tee-Tonti, admonishing him for leaving the old man in the bayou. Terry demands the Redbone bring him to find Schiller, and the Redbone complies. Back in the swamp, the Holland-Mind bids Schiller to enter the Green so they can better communicate. Schiller tries to comply but is too tied to memories of the past. He recalls late October 1972, two weeks before Nixon's re-election, when Alec encountered Linda at a political rally. Alec had seen her sitting in the front row of Schiller's class and introduced himself while Schiller was urging others to support McGovern. Alec was immediately hooked, glad to have found a beautiful woman he could "geek out with." They became friends and she helped him with his papers. Schiller was afraid he'd lose Linda, but she assured him nothing was going on between them; in truth, his unwillingness to commit to her fully was a far bigger problem than Alec. For a while, she'd kept Alec at arm's length, insisting she loved another man (Alec had no idea it was Schiller). In the end, Alec's persistence won her over. In the present, Alec chastises the Holland-Mind for bringing another individuals into their nightmare, but the latter assures him Schiller has a place among them. Alec doubts he can cure the Green, sensing the robot he faced was being controlled from a dimensional aperture outside the Green. In the Gulf of Mexico, a helicopter brings project leader and college dean Dr. Merrill aboard the Pelican. The crew reports a dense pocket of matter rising toward the ship, but he orders them to stay on course. They have no idea that he serves a race of Eco-sorcerers at the core of the Dead Zone-the absence of life, fed by the toxin runoff of North American industry-and plans to help them rule the Earth.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #16: "Healing the Breach, Chapter II-Where the Rushing Waters Go"

The storm worsens, destroying Cajuns' homes and tossing Tee-Tonti's boat around. Tee-Tonti pulls the boat to shore and leads Terry to the cabin where he left Schiller. In the Gulf of Mexico's hypoxic Dead Zone, the Pelican's captain, fearing for their safety, tells Merrill he's moving the ship to safety. In response, Merrill (who now wears on his head a bubble containing the alien infant) shocks him with bolts of electricity. From below, a giant robotic creature decimates the boat as Merrill decrees this "the era of the Eco-sorcerers." Alec follows the angry tide to the Textechcorp factory, where he slams into an underwater pillar and sinks below. There, he sees a writhing mass of tentacles and multi-fanged mouths encasing a robot endoskeleton-animated waste, a compressed mass of dumped poison. At the cabin, Terry and Tee-Tonti find Schiller waiting for them, his legs and one arm regenerated from plantlife. This terrifies Tee-Tonti, who runs off in a panic. Nearby, homeless Cajuns fight to stay alive, begging Bon Gumbo to save them from the storm. In fear, Terry kneels before Schiller, who says to rise, explaining that Jordan Schiller is walking old, familiar roads and will return when he's seen all he wishes to see. Schiller, meanwhile, relives Election Night in 1972, when he received a visit from Matt Cable, who was helping the Mantoson Genomics Corporation (MGC) find new talent. The company was interested in Alec Holland, who had published some "curious speculations," and Schiller hailed him as the most brilliant student he'd ever had. Schiller told Alec about the discussion, urging him to do the right thing and approach the non-profits first. That night, McGovern lost the election to Nixon by a landslide. Devestated after all her campaigning, tired of sneaking around with a man who wouldn't commit, Linda left Schiller's home to be with Alec. Meanwhile, in the present-day Dead Zone, Alec communicates with the robot, which hungers to know what it is and where it came from. Streatching out his form to cover it in algae, he nullifies its effects on the environment, re-oxygenating the Dead Zone and helping nature break up the hypoxia. He then attacks the source of the problem—the bio-mechanical Eco-sorcerers destroying the Green—by breaching their dimensional aperture.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #17: "Healing the Breach, Chapter III-While Sinking"

Inside the MGC plant, Merrill gloats at having come so far. He is now just a dismbodied head, floating in a mechanical contraption, the Eco-sorcerers' controlling his actions. Outside, Tee-Tonti ses dying Cajuns and leads them to Sallie's old shack, where Alec now lives. Alec, meanwhile, is trapped inside the dimensional aperture, in the nursery of the Eco-sorcerers. Around them are bubble-encased infants, each giggling excitedly at his arrival. A decade earlier, Merrill says, his college had begun researching the Dead Zone. One night, Johnny Appleseed appeared, seeding him with aspirations of building a utopia; in reality, someone from MGC entered his room as he slept, pouring a control device and several infant creatures in his ears to incubate within him. His role is to protect the growing Dead Zone from preservationists so the Eco-sorcerers can prosper. Back in the swamp, as Terry and Tee-Tonti wait out the storm with the Cajuns, Schiller's mind wanders back to 1972, the day after the election, when his anger over Linda got the best of him, causing him to kick Alec out of his life. Later that day, Linda came by, furious at what he'd done. He'd told her he loved her, but it was too late, and he never saw either of them again. A few months later, Alec wrote to him, apologizing for breaking his heart and saying he'd taken the government job and was planning to marry Linda. Schiller never wrote back but always regretted how he'd treated them both. Finally, the Holland-Mind shows him one last vision-Linda's death and Alec's transformation, a mere year after he last saw them. In the Gulf, a defeated Alec meets the Seed-Gatherer, an interdimensional CEO attempting to take over the world. Ten years prior, the creature made deals with MGC, Textechcorp and other industries to weaken the enviro-operating system of the Earth. The plan was to create a monster of anti-life in the Gulf of Mexico, based on the unpublished genomics research data of Alec Holland, and control the fabric of nature itself. Furious, Alec musters the strength to kill the Seed-Gatherer, Merrill and all the infants. Before dying, the Seed-Gatherer warns him other Eco-sorcerers will seek revenge. Alec leaves the strange dimension behind, returning to the Green and the solace of his cabin, and MGC continues mistreating the environment and the people of the world. Alec tells the Holland-Mind it is safe to heal the Green. Schiller apologizes for hurting him in the past, but Alec no longer remembers him, Linda or the events that made him what he is.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #18: "Healing the Breach, Chapter IV-Seeding Madness"

Feeling responsible for what has happened, Alec returns to the Green several times, weaving himself through its fabric in an effort to heal it. Each time, he is jolted with an increasing shock of profound intimacy and love. As the Green becomes stronger, something at the crux of his being swells, causing him to feel the rise of narratives, affectations and recollections—his forgotten self. However, he rejects this side of himself, bracing himself against the tide of memory that washes over him. Retreating to the surface, he finds that he can no longer remember Linda, Abby or other aspects of his former life, having built a protective wall to shield himself from further emotion and pain.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #22: "The Bleeding Raconteur, Part 2-A Hair-Trigger Heart"

August 23-30, 2005 A.D.

Hurricane Katrina, the costliest and one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history, devastates Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi and other areas of the United States. Levees separating Lake Pontchartrain and several canals from New Orleans are breached a few days after Katrina subsides, flooding 80 percent of the city and many neighboring parishes for weeks. Almost 2,000 people die, and nearly a million are left without homes or businesses. The storm damage is estimated at more than $81 billion in damage, and the government receives a great deal of criticism for its handling of the crisis.

The Real World

mid- to late 2005 A.D.

Abby Holland starts doing volunteer work at the Houma Women's Center.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #21: "The Bleeding Raconteur, Part 1—StoryTeller Down"

The address of the rape-crisis center is 7856 Clubhouse Lane.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #25: "Meanwhile.in Houma"

In light of recent events in Houma, the city's collective mental health begins has been spiraling down and the Houma Women's Center is getting more calls than ever. Abby's boss is named Susan.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #21: "The Bleeding Raconteur, Part 1—StoryTeller Down"

Among Abby's clients is a teen runaway who traded sex for a ride to New Orleans and ended up stranded in Houma with herpes. She refuses to reveal her real name, checking in as Candy Jeanette Winter Taylor. The center's physician, Dr. Roleff, prescribes her Valtrex. Abby refers her to a shelter, but she hates it and stops going. Her attitude is hostile and rude, and she rejects Abby's attempts to talk to her. The product of parental sexual abuse, she aspires only to join the porn industry.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #25: "Meanwhile.in Houma"

After months of reformation, the Holland Mind nearly succedes in collecting all its lost pieces. Once done, it will become a single collective consciousness once more, able to rejoin the elemental form of the Swamp Thing. After it reclaims the aspect hidden within Jordan Schiller, only one piece remains unclaimed-a single, carefree aspect too afraid to rejoin the rest of the mind. That last aspect has manifested itself in the memory of being a 9-year-old boy in Alec's family home, enjoying breakfast and watching Satuday-morning cartoons. On TV is a toon called Willie the Crow and his Screwy Saturday Cartoon Hour-a bizarre metaphor the Holland Mind uses to explain to the boy the events of Alec's life ever since the Day of the Great Release, when Sargon the Sorcerer stole his powers. The pieces of the Holland Mind have been reforming ever since, each aspect preferring the rejoining to loneliness, and "Willie" is here to escort him back as the last remaining piece. Recoiling in fear, the "little boy" takes comfort from his mother, then hides inside another memory-that of an adult Alec lying with his wife Linda in a cabin after a night of passion. He tries to enjoy this moment of happiness, but all he feels is loneliness. He takes a shower with Linda, then finds a pile of Swamp Thing comic books in the cabin. As he reads the first issue, the parallels to his own life are unnerving, causing reality to bend around him. Willie the Crow arrives, urging him to return to the Holland Mind, but Alec retreats to his 9-year-old self and watches as his older form dies in the explosion that turned him into the Swamp Thing. Willie says this moment infects every action of the earth elemental-the death of the man, the birth of the god. Comforting the child in its arms, Willie assures him he'll feel better when he rejoins the Holland Mind and the elemental. Hand in hand, Willie and Alec become one with the collective. Back in the swamp, however, the elemental opts not to rejoin, saying it's not yet ready to take its next evolutionary step. For now, it enjoys being "minimal." The Holland Mind cannot force the union, it says, but in time, parts of it will seep in, causing memories to rise to the surface.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #19: "The Holland Mind"

NOTE: Issue #156 of the third series propels Alec into an alternate universe in which Swamp Thing is just a comic book created by DC Comics-in other words, he enters the "real" world. Given the existence of the same comic books in the Holland Mind fragment's hallucination, it's possible the "real" world is where it was hding (which would explain why it was the last to be found).

Jordan Schiller, his limbs and spirit rejuvenated by the Hollland Mind, opts to remain in the cabin with Alec, hoping to discuss the past with him. Ignoring him, as he is an unwelcome reminder of the past, Alec goes about his day as if the man were not there. The local Cajuns, realizing Bon Gumbo has returned, keep close watch on the cabin, hoping he will help them. For a time, Alec remains cooped up inside, but one day he heads out. The Cajuns gather around in awe, but he is tired of their praise and leaves-not just the swamp, but his entire frame of reference. Revoking his influence on the world, he shrinks his consciousness down to the size of an insect and leaves his dead husk behind. To his disappointment, he has underestimated the violence of the insect world, falling under immediate attack by a variety of bugs and spiders. In no real danger--he can resume his size at any time--he trudges on, hoping to find a "nowhere paradise" among the savagery. Shrinking ever smaller, Alec explores many microcosmic existences, each more savage and brutal than another. In the kingdom of single-celled organisms, viruses and bacteria glom onto him, offering no respite, so he shrinks to the size of an element, narrowly escaping a nuclear reaction. Going further, he finds the silent, beautiful paradise he has sought, but to his surprise, music begins playing, taking him to a small pub where an image of John Constantine awaits. This, "Constantine" says, is the Land of Road Signs, and it's his job to make sure Alec goes no further, for dangers lie beyond that even he cannot witness. When Alec ignores him and continues on, "Constantine" becomes a great beast of energy and chases him back up the evolutionary ladder. There, the Cajuns welcome him home. This time, he acknowledges their presence graciously, giving a plant to a woman named Susannah to help cure her baby son's cold.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #20: "Little Runaway"

NOTE: Susannah is named in issue #23.

Alec and the Cajuns form a new society based on Utopian ideals, far enough from civilization that the ouside world takes no notice of them. Tee Tonti, however, worries what will happen if ever the U.S. government were to find them and endanger their paradise in the swamp. Meanwhile, a resort company hires the Royal Construction Company to knock down the Cajun homes so it can build the Bywater Southern Comfort Chateau & Resort on the swamp land.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #27: "The Prison Tree, Chapter I"

The manager of the Houma Women's Center, Susan, offers Abby a paying position, impressed with her empathy for others. Abby rides her bike home, wondering if Alec still cares for her and Tef�, and if he knows she turned 50 today. There, a birthday banner hangs from her ceiling. Back in the swamp, Terry prepares to return to the university and urges Shiller to join him, but Schiller says his path lies here, where he can lve the mystery of life instead of studying it. Terry bids farewell to Tee Tonti, who has opted to stay at the Cajun camp. An old Cajun woman named Marcel Dupuis takes Tee Tonti to check on her ex-husband, William "Billy" Dupuis. They find him sitting on the porch of a dilapidated house, preventing a construction crew from demolishing his house. An aging raconteur, Billy spins yarns about the Dancing Ghost, King Toad and his Bayou Boys, and a Baptist Church near Fournier Creek that walks on chicken legs. The foreman is furious, determined to take Billy's land to build the resort. Marcel begs Billy to join them at the Cajun camp, but he declines, telling stories of The Man Who Wore His Ego Outside His Body, and the Fated Cajun Lovers of 1900. Tee Tonti and Marcel visit Alec and Schiller, begging the Swamp God's help. Despite his desire to be left alone so he can take root, Alec visits the old man, who tells him the story of Hagar the Unloved, the first single mother of the Bible, who still hungers for affection. He asks Alec to force the developers to leave, but Alec fears the attention that would attract. That evening, the foreman shoots Billy while the latter is telling the tale of The Boy Who Could Fly, If Only Straight Down. As Billy's lifeblood spills, it gives life to his stories. King Toad spots the foreman and chases him while the other stories head out into the swamp. Alec arrives as King Toad kills the foreman. King Toad agrees not to challenge Alec so long as civilization does not encroach on this territory. As the stories leave, Alec stares at Billy's corpse, interrupted by the crash of the Boy Who Could Fly, If Only Straight Down. Back at the Cajun camp, the Dancing Ghost appears to Schiller, followed by Hagar in the form of Linda Olsen Ridge, urging him to kiss her—which he does. Alec returns to his shack, stunned and ecstatic when Abby pays him a visit.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #21: "The Bleeding Raconteur, Part 1-StoryTeller Down"

NOTE: The name of the resort is revealed in issue #23. According to the Bible, Hagar was the Egyptian concubine of Abraham, who cast her out with their illegitimate son, Ishmael, at the behest of his wife, Sarah.

King Toad sends one of his sons, Nerk, to spy on Alec and learn all he can about him.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #24: "The Bleeding Raconteur, Part 4—Emendation"

With William Dupuis dead, the Bywater Southern Comfort Chateau & Resort decides to take his land illegally, demolish his home and build the new facilities.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #23: "The Bleeding Raconteur, Part 3—Letting Go"

Each of the stories created by William Dupuis represents part of his personality. King Toad personifies his anger at the world, for instance, while the Man Who Wears His Ego Outside His Body illustrates his shame at being uneducated. The walking church represents his hatred of religion, while the Fated Couple display his admiration for his people. Hagar, however, is the personification of a Biblical tale and takes on a life of her own, independent of Dupuis' feelings or insecurities.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #24: "The Bleeding Raconteur, Part 4—Emendation"

Jordan Schiller awakens alone in the swamp after an evening with Linda. Suspicious, he rushes to find Alec, but the cabin is grown over with vines and impenetrable. Inside, Alec and Abby make love until he suddenly stops, unable to connect to his memories of the past due to the wall he's built. She suggests they forget the past and build something new. Elsewhere, King Toad and his Bayou Boys approach Marcel Dupuis, followed by a funeral procession for her husband, led by the Fated Cajun Lovers of 1900 and their dead wedding guests. The other stories follow, with the foreman's crucified body nailed to the front of the walking church, the word "Assassin" scrawled in his blood. Calling her "Mot'er" (mother), King Toad tells her the devil is attacking from all sides and must be stopped. As the Bayou Boys feed Billy's body to an alligator, The Boy Who Could Fly, If Only Straight Down tells Marcel what Hagar is up to. Back at Alec's shack, Abby says she needs to tend to her normal routine, promising she'll be back. Worried, he follows her into the swamp. Meanwhile, Schiller visits the grounded boat that brought him here, and is again visited by Hagar/Linda. When Alec shows up, Hagar keeps changing form between Linda and Abby, and Alec realizes he's been duped. As Schiller takes cover in the boat, Alec roars in fury, grows a huge plant from the back of his neck, and runs through the camp, nearly mowing down several Cajuns in his path. Great plant stalks shoot up around him to cerate a great fence manifesting his pain. And in the Green, the Holland Mind decides it is time for it to become whole again.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #22: "The Bleeding Raconteur, Part 2—A Hair-Trigger Heart"

In the chaos, Susannah loses her baby and spends the next two days looking for him.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #26: "Burying the Bones"

Unsatiated in her hunger for love, Hagar takes refuge in a cave so she can hide from the world. The vegetation forms a conduit to Alec's mind. The experience causes Alec to relive the horrors he's faced in the 14 months since reforming his consciousness post-Sargon—Josephine and Arcane, the Seed-Gatherer, the extra-dimensional preacher, Arcane, Worm Walker and more. Back at camp, Tee Tonti tells Schiller someone has abducted Susannah's baby and Marcel. Amazed at the forest of plant stalks, Schiller ignores Tee Tonti's warning and walks in. Determined to watch over him, Tee Tonti follows. King Toad tells Alec he and his kind were born of mankind's fear, and that he's drawing a line between them and civilization. Marcel suggests he consult Bon Gumbo, but King Toad thinks the elemental has grown spineless, and that the time has come for violene. Not all the stories agree, however—Gabriel, the groom of the Fated Cajun Couple, wants to follow the King, but his bride Elsie does not, nor do the Boy Who Could Fly, The Man Who Wore His Ego Outisde His Body, or Sissy Bob (one of the Bayou Boys). Schiller and Tee Tonti approach the stalks, which now fill the area. Fascinated, Schiller climbs one to see the seedpod at top. Inside, Alec feels the pull of the Holland Mind coming closer and resists as much as he can, but three words calm him: "It's Abby's birthday." Looking up, he sees the Holland Mind, while visions of his Cajun neighbors, John Constantine and his 9-year-old self welcome him back. His younger self leads him toward a bright light, and Alec realizes he's no longer afraid. He asks what lies ahead, and the boy tells him, "You. Us. Waiting to be whole again." Schiller loses his footing and falls, caught by Tee Tonti, and everyone watches in amazement as the stalks merge to form the smiling form of the Swamp Thing, who greets Schiller warmly. Meanwhile, on the construction site at Billy Dupuis' home, the crew is unable to find either Billy or the foreman. The owner says to go ahead with their plans and worry about the legal ramifications later, but before they can start, King Toad and His Bayou Boys jump in and slaughter the entire group.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #23: "The Bleeding Raconteur, Part 3—Letting Go"

NOTE: Actually, it's no longer Abby's birthday—it's now one day later.

Whole once more, Alec assures the Cajuns he's not a threat, promising he'll be back after he helps ease Hagar's pain. Tee Tonti feels he owes them an explanation, but Schiller calms him. Returning to the cave, Alec tells Hagar there's no need for her to be in such pain, and that he knows a being who might help her. Weakened, she takes Abby's form but ends up wrinkled and deformed. He tells her he cannot love her, which infuriates her. Because of a curse from God in 1800 B.C.—that she'd forever seek love but never find it—she has spent more than three millennia being cast aside by lovers, and his rejection is too much to handle. Taking the form of a large insect, she sinks two pincers into him, but he turns into a tree trunk and subdues her. At the construction site, The Boy Who Could Fly comforts a frightened Marcel as King Toad and the Bayou Boys feast on the workers' bodies. Sissy Bob, a sensitive youth, cries over their actions, but King Toad believes the killings will strengthen his frail heart. Elsie stops her dead Uncle Bart from feasting and laments seeing another scene as bloody as her wedding day. Nearby, the Dancing Ghost keeps dancing, totally unphased, while the Man Who Wears His Ego on the Outside regrets the carnage—and that he didn't take part. Alec bursts onto the scene, pursued by Hagar, who beats him badly, forcing him to escape into the Green. The Boy Who Could Fly tries to help, but Hagar bats him away. Alec travels to the Gulf of Mexico to seek help from the robotic consciousness he'd trapped there. Grateful not to be alone anymore, it follows him back to the swamp. The robotic consciousness embraces Hagar, who senses its emptiness and understands Alec's intent-that it become her lover, and that she give its existence meaning. Grateful, the couple descends to the bottom of the Gulf. As Alec rounds up King Toad and the Bayou Boys in his tendrils, King Toad tells Sissy Bob to find Nerk. Alec asks The Boy Who Could Fly to bring Marcel back to the Cajun camp. The Boy asks what will become of them, but Alec doesn't answer as he departs for Abby's home in Houma and emerges from the roses she's cutting to wish her a happy birthday.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #24: "The Bleeding Raconteur, Part 4—Emendation"

Alec locks up the Toad King and the Bayou Boys in the limbs of a great tree in the swamp, the Prison Tree, where they can't cause any trouble. Sissy Bob and Nerk, however, remain unimprisoned.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #25: "Meanwhile.in Houma"

The Louisiana government sends out helicopters to search for the missing construction crews.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #27: "The Prison Tree, Chapter I"

Abby invites Alec into her house, where they engage in small talk to get used to each other. Tef� is staying at Zaina's house, so she asks him to spend the night and the two make love.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #25: "Meanwhile.in Houma"

NOTE: Alec and Abby have not held each other in a year, placing this tale (and those that follow, all of which take place over a handful of days) a year after issue #12. That issue occurred in 2004, placing the final issues of series 4 in 2005.

As Abby sleeps, Alec returns to the swamp, decomposing bodies so no outsiders will disturbn his realm. He visits the Prison Tree, where King Toad mocks him for not having the courage to do what's necessary to rid the swamp of man's depravations. Over at the Cajuns' temporary encampment, many refugees are considering leaving the bayou and starting a new life, but Marcel Dupuis says they must stay and fight for what is theirs, including Bon Gumbo. Susannah pummels Alec, saying her son was lost in the chaos two days ago. Blaming himself, Alec spreads his consciousness into the Green and finds the child's body, dead and infested with insects. He absorbs the baby's form into his own, and in so doing relives the child's limited memories in reverse, from death until birth. He then grows a fruit from the child's essence, minus the horrible final moments, and gives it to Susannah to eat. Feeding on the love she once fed her child, she takes its essence into herself and experiences the connection it felt for her. Grateful for such a gift, she embraces Alec.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #26: "Burying the Bones"

NOTE: Issues #25 and 26 take place simultaneously, with the bulk of issue #26 happening first.

Meanwhile, Sissy Bob finds Nerk and takes him to the Prison Tree. Nerk informs his father of Alec's relationship with Abby, and the Toad King sends them to kill her. Abby, meanwhile, awakens alone and finds a message from Alec: "When you're ready, I'll be waiting." Feeling as though her life without Alec hasn't been her own, she rides her bike to the rape-crisis center. Lurking in the shadows, Nerk spots her and tells Sissy-Bob to wait until nightfall. A teen runaway arrives at the clinic to see Dr. Roleff. She calls herself Candy Jeanette Winter Taylor, though Abby knows it's not her real name. She'd traded sex for a ride to New Orleans and ended up stranded in Houma with herpes. A victim of parental sexual abuse, Candy is defensive and rude, unwilling to share details about her personal life. Abby refuses to let it bother her and offers Tef�'s room for the night. Candy accepts, but keeps her guard up. Moments later, Nerk and Sissy Bob come crashing through the windows. Nerk pins Candy to the ground while Sissy Bob holds Abby up against a wall. Thrusting a hand down Sissy Bob's throat, Abby breaks free, busts a chair over his head and calls 911. Nerk attacks Abby, who scratches his eye out. Furious, he jumps on Candy and bites the top of her head off, then turns to kill Abby as well. Suddenly, shots ring out as Unit 23 of the local police arrive in time to stop Nerk from striking. The Bayou Boys make their escape, leaving Abby holding Candy's dead body as the police call for an ambulance and backup to find the creatures. Devastated, Abby remembers that with Alec, everything always seems amazing "until it all turns to shit."

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #25: "Meanwhile.in Houma"

The police question Abby, sending squads to find the "animals" that attacked the clinic as reporters interview her. Keeping her composure, she manages not to break down, though inside she is quite shaken. KATC, a Lafayette TV station, reports that after 24 hours of searching, the helicopters have failed to locate the missing construction workers. Terrebone Parish leaders organize a large-scale search operation, but recent events have limited their resources. Meanwhile, Jason Woodrue (split into multiple versions of himself) returns to the swamp as a wooden spider to locate Alec. Finding the Prison Tree, he watches Alec uproot the tree holding the strung-up Toad King and his Bayou Boys. Ecstatic and insane, Woodrue sings about his dream of being whole again. Alec bids the Prison Tree to follow him through the bog, quarantines the rest of the raconteur's characters down river and re-roots the tree near the Cajun camp so he can keep an eye on the toads. There, Jordan and Marcel discover an attraction to each other while picking wildflowers growing from Alec's footsteps. Back in Houma, Tef� returns home to find her house full of plants and Abby crying, unable to handle recent events. As Tef� holds her mother, a Cajun child finds Woodrue and shows his friend Jamie, who is amazed at the singing spider. Elsewhere, Alec invites Tee Tonti to sit and enjoy the beauty of the swamp. He feels responsible for the Cajuns' welfare, he says, and will not let the government destroy the life they've built. That night, Nerk and Sissy Bob run from house to house, murdering anyone they find. They break into the Royal Construction Company's equipment yard and set off an explosion that destroys the building, plunging the city into darkness. Meanwhile, Woodrue's fractured selves arrive at the swamp, anxious to be reunited. Seeing the Prison Tree, they ask why the Bayou Boys are tied up. Sensing Woodrue's devotion to Alec, the King Toad says it would please Alec if he were to free them.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #27: "The Prison Tree, Chapter I"

A series of explosions rocks Houma, engulfing the area in deadly flames. As state emergency units rush to help local firefighters, KATC's Dale Bennet reports on the blaze. As a fireman urges Abby to stay back, Nerk lobs dynamite at the firetruck, launching the man's burning body at her. In the swamp, Woodrue's spiderish clones overrun the Cajun camp looking for the "Alec Thing." Tee Tonti tells the boy who first found Woodrue to find the Good Gumbo Man, but Alec has gone to the fire. Sending Abby and Tef� to Zaina's house, he enters the flames. Woodrue's clones try to get the attention of a discarded Alec husk and think it's ignoring them. King Toad tries to coerce Woodrue into freeing him, and though Woodrue sees through it, he recalls how he never got better in prison and helps the toads escape. Back in Houma, Alec alters some trees to withstand the fire and makes others walk out of its path. Making his way through the flames, he finds Jake's father playing a guitar and waiting for the Rapture to take him. As Alec arrives, Jake runs out of the cabin with a picture album. Though still angry, he admits Abby belongs with Alec, not him. Alec thanks Jake for loving her, saying he lacked Jake's strength, but Jake rebuffs Alec's attempt at friendship. Suddenly, Nerk jumps from the bushes, grappling with Alec and blowing him up with dynamite. Alec rejuvenates and orders him to surrender, but Nerk, strapped with dynamite, runs into the spotlight of a polcie helicopter, drawing several cops' gunfire. Alec engulfs the Bayou Boy in plantlife, smothering the explosion, but the cops fire at Alec as well. Entering the Green, he travels to Abby's home, where she sits with Tef� and Zaina. His arrival startles Zaina, but Tef� calms her. Abby tells Alec she needed time to heal but is ready to return to the swamp with him. Tef� remains behind to explain things to Zaina, promising she'll join them soon. Meanwhile, King Toad returns to the Cajun camp, where Tee Tonti and others are trying to burn the Woodrue spiders. The clones join, however, forming a giant Woodrue that demands Alec's return.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #28: "The Prison Tree, Chapter II"

NOTE: Once again, the general populace is shown as being unaware of the Swamp Thing, despite past stories in which he has run for governor, threatened Gotham City and nearly destroyed mankind. And still it makes no sense—his existence, at this point, is a matter of very public record.

At 5:00 a.m. the next morning, the National Guard arrives to handle the aftermath of the fires. KATC interviews citizens on the street, who blame swamp monsters and even Satan. Alec and Abby return to the bayou, unaware of the chaos at the Cajun camp. There, Tee Tonti pulls a knife, ready to battle both Woodrue and the Toad King. Woodrue protests, wanting no violence, but the Toad King claws Tee Tonti's arm. As the Bayou Boys attack Marcel, Schiller and other camp tenants, Tee Tonti stabs the Toad King in the neck. Furious that this will anger Alec, Woodrue grows monstrous and calls forth great wooden spikes from the ground, skewering Tee Tonti and shearing off Schiller's wooden arm. Alec arrives moments later, shocked at the carnage that greets him. Woodrue's spiders swarm Alec, assuring him they are no longer violent, but Alec refuses to accept his apologies and forces him to accept the evil he's done. Filled with remorse and fury, Woodrue runs off into the bayou, vowing some day to return. Meanwhile, the Toad King abandons his sons and encounters Sissy Bob in the brush. He tells Sissy Bob the time has come to fight and hands him a knife, but his betrayal of the Bayou Boys is the last straw for Sissy Bob, who slashes his father's neck and stabs him repeatedly. Alec grows great tendrils to ensnare the remaining Bayou Boys, but it's too late to save Tee Tonti. Urging Abby to look away, he pulls the creatures underground, then bids farewell to Tee Tonti and introduces Abby to the Cajuns. The government launches "Operation: Bog," dispateching Army Reserves into the swamp to deal with the recent violence. The Mantoson Genomics Corporation, still interested in the area, offers the military its support. Alec promises to protect his friends but warns that there may be danger ahead. Still, they opt to stay and fight for their way of life. Alec brings Abby to Sallie's shack—their new home together—and for the first time in years, she feels truly at home again.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #29: "The Prison Tree, Conclusion"

The Boy Who Could Fly If Only Straight Down, The Man Who Wore His Ego Outside His Body and the Fated Cajun Lovers of 1900 all reveal their origins to the Swamp Thing. The Lovers' tale, set at the time of the Cousins Marriage Law's enactment, involves zombies in turn-of-the-century Louisiana, as well as the earth elemental of that era. As the war for the swamp wages on, the world perceive the Swamp Thing as a terrorist, and him and his followers as refugees. Eventually, Arcane and Josephine's Hell child is born—an atrocious insectillian monster with the soul of the Buddha, a completely evolved messianic being far beyond his years in wisdom. The child is persecuted by demons, so Swamp Thing returns to Hell to rescue him, bringing him back to the surface. There, the child's greater wisdom helps bring about a peaceful resolution to the war in the swamp.

Swamp Thing (Series 4) #30 and beyond [unpublished]

NOTE: Writer Josh Dysart had plans in mind for the fourth Swamp Thing incarnation, but those plans were cut short when the series was canceled at issue #29. Dysart has since provided some hints about those plans here.

On the seventh day of Arachne, the secret 13th month of the sorcerer's calendar, Baron Winter lends his home for a meeting of several Spectral Service mystics wishing to discover why they've all been dreaming of evil. Gathered are the backward-speaking magician, Zatanna; special agent Timothy Ravenwind, last of the Ravenwind witches; Ibis (Mister Invincible), an Egyptian mage once known as Prince Amentep; his lover, Princess Taia of Thebes; and skeptical parapsychologist Dr. Terrence "Terry" Thirteen. Holding hands in a circle, Zatanna leads them on a trip through the spiritual plane and into other universes, where they battle the Red God of Ys in a realm called "Never-Be-Found." What they find there proves too powerful, however, and a wave of fire—similar to that which once slew Zatanna's father Zatara at this same table—kills everyone but Zatanna and Winter. Distraught, Zatanna joins a therapy group for metahumans suffering from low self esteem.

Seven Soldiers—Zatanna #1: "Talking Backwards/Sdrawkcab Gniklat"

John Constantine, following the death of his sister, Cheryl Masters, visits a park and contacts Alec by addressing a tree. Alec appears in the trunk, recalling his recent vision of Constantine, who asks him a small favor: making sure there are flowers at Cheryl's funeral since he can't bring himself to attend. At the funeral, Cheryl's daughter Gemma watches as a priest says prayers over the casket, then turns in astonishment as the ground around it swells with beautiful vegetation.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #215: "R.S.V.P., Part 2"

Earth-2's Superman, Earth-3's Alex Luthor and Earth-Prime's Superboy attempt to destroy Earth-1 and restore their respective realities. This puts each at odds with the metahumans of Earth-1. Several magic-using and supernatural begins join forces to summon the help of the Spectre. Among them are Zatanna, the Phantom Stranger and the Swamp Thing. The attempt, however, is a failure.

Infinite Crisis #6: Touchdown

Alternate Timeline: In one possible future, Tef� Holland fights in the final magical conflict of this age. Others caught up in the battle include John Constantine, Dr. Fate, Zatanna, Etrigan, Jason Blood, Eclipso, M'Nagalah the Eternal, the Spectre, the Vampire Queens of the Cult of the Blood-Red Moon and Timothy Hunter. Many fall in the battle, the outcome varying from one reality to the next, and no one knows which future will come to pass.

The Books of Magic, Book IV: "The Road to Nowhere"

NOTE: The DC/Vertigo universe, since The Books of Magick was first published, has developed in different directions than author Neil Gaiman could have predicted—particularly in regard to Tef�, who no longer has any elemental powers at this point in time. This makes it unlikely these events will come to pass. Then again, in the genre of comic books, anything is possible.

[Synopsis coming soon.]

All-New Atom #1: "My Life in Miniature, Part 1"

[Synopsis coming soon.]

All-New Atom #2: "My Life in Miniature, Part 2"

[Synopsis coming soon.]

All-New Atom #3: "My Life in Miniature, Part 3"

[Synopsis coming soon.]

All-New Atom #4: "My Life in Miniature, Part 4"

[Synopsis coming soon.]

All-New Atom #5: "My Life in Miniature, Part 5"

[Synopsis coming soon.]

All-New Atom #6: "My Life in Miniature, Part 6"

Sandman (Sanderson "Sandy" Hawkins) tells Geo-Force (Brion Markov), a metahuman with the ability to manipulate the Earth's gravity, that his connection to the planet are becoming so high, they're "approaching Alec Holland levels."

Justice League of America #8: "The Lightning Saga, Chapter 1—Lightning Lad"

[Due out later in 2007.]

The Un-Men #1: "Get Your Freak On, Part 1"

[Due out later in 2007.]

The Un-Men #2: "Get Your Freak On, Part 2"

[Due out later in 2007.]

The Un-Men #3: "Get Your Freak On, Part 3"

[Due out later in 2007.]

The Un-Men #4: "Get Your Freak On, Part 4"

[Due out later in 2007.]

The Un-Men #5: "Get Your Freak On, Part 5"

Alternate Timeline: John Constantine, age 60, is remanded to Greenhill, a state-run hospital, for refusing to accept the sanitized changes imposed on society by the Council of the Rising Generation, and for not putting aside his self-destructive behavior. Despite his unrepentant vices, the government keeps him alive to serve as a warning to youths.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #36: "Undiscover'd Country"

c. 2013 to 2033 A.D.

Alternate Timeline: John Constantine, still living at the Greenhill hospital facility, grows older and more decrepit. He develops lung cancer but refuses to stop his self-destructive behavior. As society grows more sanitized, he remains disharmonious, sexist, negative and tobacco-addicted, much to the attending nuns' consternation. Healers at the hospital try to cure his cancer by having him sit in a pyramid for weeks, but it doesn't work. He often gets into trouble at the hospital, for such offenses as telling philosophically retrograde nursery rhymes to little children sent to lift his spirits. What's more, he continues to smoke and flout all rules about appropriate behavior.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #36: "Undiscover'd Country"

Alternate Timeline: In a future in which humnaity has grown wary of super-humans, Swamp Thing must maintain a low profile in public. Thus, he wears a trenchcoat and hat when visiting a local bar.

Kingdom Come, Book Two: "Truth and Justice"

NOTE: No exact date is provided, just a comment that a generation has passed. Of course, the bigger questions are why Swamp Thing would visit a bar. and how a trenchcoat would hide someone of his size and appearance.

Matthew Ryder (the Waverider) travels back in time to the year 2001 to stop a cruel warlord named Monarch from dominating the world. He inflicts great evil in the name of great good. Many of the Waverider's fellow meta-humans unite to stop him, and Alec is among those who answer the call.

L.E.G.I.O.N. Annual #2: "2001"

NOTE: An Armageddon 2001 crossover.

Alternate Timeline: The Golden Boy—John Constantine's stillborn twin in the "real" world, given a chance at life and the same name—is known in his old age as the Magus. Beloved by many, he lives in a church tower in the countryside called Ravenscar, with Benjamin Cox, Gary Lester, Zed, Errol, Marj, Mercury, Martin, Ritchie Simpson, Astra Logue and other friends inhabiting the surrounding land. In this reality, Mercury and Errol are married and have a son named Errol and a granddaughter named Mary, who is about to give birth to twins.with the Magus rumored to be the father. However, just like in the "real" world, this John (age 77) is plagued by visions of his stillborn brother and tries to sacrifice Lester to purge his other self. When lightning strikes the tower, Errol and Zed rush in to find the Magus dead. His followers are shocked, seeing this as the end of their way of life. Lester survives and is treated for his wounds, then sings a song heralding the Magus' accomplishments. Moments later, the Magus comes back to life, unable to shake the feeling he was not supposed to live, and that a dark time is upon them. Realizing he lives at the expense of his sickly twin's life, he journeys inside his own mind to meet the "other" John Constantine and make amends by switching places with him. Instead, his dead brother offers a better suggestion—that they return to the metaphorical womb of their battle and merge into one being, alchemically reconciling their elemental division.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #40: "Twins—The Magus"

NOTE: "Twins," the title of this two-part storyline, does not appear on the title page, which simply contains the subtitle "The Magus." The title "Twins" is stated in the letters column to issue #39.

Some time before 2033 A.D.

Alternate Timeline: Mercury, one-time friend of John Constantine from his days with the Freedom Mob, joins a band of boat-gypsies.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #36: "Undiscover'd Country"

Alternate Timeline: John Constantine, now a decrepit, toothless man of 80, refuses to embrace the sanitized existence imposed on society by the Council of the Rising Generation, even after 20 years spent at Greenhill. Ultimately, the council evicts him from the hospital. Though he is free to leave Greenhill and survive on his own, the council urges him to accept euthanasia, promising he'll be provided soothing music and sexual gratification, after which his body will be broken down to its component nutrients to replenish the Earth. As expected, he scoffs at the idea, opting instead to leave the community and take his chances among the bandits and savages of the outside world. Riding a cart drawn by a dog named Cerebus, he heads out to find Mercury, now about 60 years old, hoping she and her band of boat-gypsies will save him from his miserable existence. However, a pack of hellish hounds chases him over a bridge, forcing him to jump to his death into shark-infested waters.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #36: "Undiscover'd Country"

An Earth firm called McCauley Industries visits the homeworld of the Hssfsstss, a race that attained sentience in 1987 thanks to the Swamp Thing. The planet's digging machines burrow deeply into the planet, ripping away plants, discarding those they don't need and poisoning the land and water. Unable to communicate, the Hssfsstss nearly die as a species. An environmental group, the Forresters, protests the company's treatment of the planet, but owner Leland McCauley dismisses such complaints, saying his people did all customary scans and own the planet legally. J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, discovers the Hssfsstss are telepathic and contacts the Legion of Super-Heroes, who get a court order forcing McCauley to desist all activities. An investigation determines that he owes the Hssfsstss reparations, and the planet is deemed the property of the Hssfsstss. All alien influences leave the planet except J'onn J'onzz, who helps them thrive as a culture by finding a way to separate themselves as cuttings able to travel via floating pods. The Hssfsstss visit other worlds, communing with local flora to seek out and heal plant diseases. This lends them importance in the galaxy, and J'onn J'onzz, like Swamp Thing before him, becomes a hero to the Hssfsstss. For centuries, they tell tales of two Green Men: one of their creation, the other of their salvation.