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.