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The Timeline
Born on the Bayou A history and introduction Creature Features Articles and feature stories Cover Gallery Judge the books by the covers In the Swamplight Issue-by-issue breakdowns Elemental Lineage Past lives and other entities Upcoming Releases Coming to a bog near you What's New Bayou? Archived news updates About Me Portrait of a swamp-nerd Homepage Go back to the roots Contact Me Comments, corrections & tubers |
| Thanks to Joe Bongiorno, who first dragged me kicking and screaming into the mucky mythos of Swamp Thing, and to Paul Giachetti, who created the amazing header banner. Thanks also to reader 'Alec Holland,' whose support has been invaluable; Mike Sterling, for promoting Swamp Thing and this site; and Kevin Church, for his excellent optimization advice. And thanks to Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson, Alan Moore, John Totelben, Stephen Bissette, Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis and all the other creators whose work inspired this site. |
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Forgotten Lore: The Swamp Thing and Hellblazer Tales That Almost Were Over the years, several Swamp Thing- and Hellblazer-related tales have been conceived or announced that never saw publication, canceled for a variety of reasons—sometimes as per the writer's choice, other times on the editorial side of the desk. Listed below are summaries of a number of stories that never made it to a store near you. Covers, when available, are included below. For a selection of other unused covers, visit the cover gallery. And if you know of any tales I've overlooked, feel free to e-mail me and I'll be happy to add them. Swamp Thing Series 1, Issue #25: [Title unknown]   Writer: Gerry Conway (presumably) / Artist: UnknownSetting: 1976 Background: A promotional blurb at the end of issue #24 announced that the next issue would feature a meeting between Alec Holland (restored to human form) and Hawkman. That story never saw publication since the title was summarily canceled, and no further details have surfaced regarding the nature of this lost chapter, leaving many plot threads from #24 (such as the nature of Alec's rivalry with his brother Edward, the fates of Sabre and Solomon Smith, and so forth) dangling. A speculative fan-fiction version of what issue #25 might have been is available here. Synopsis: Alec Holland meets Hawkman while living at his brother Edward's home in Portland, Oregon. The details of this encounter remain un-recorded outside of the above-referenced fan-fic. DC Comics Presents [Issue # and title unknown] Writer/Artist: Unknown Setting: 1983 Background: An editorial comment in issue #16 of the second Swamp Thing series references events not shown in the issue, attributing them to a forthcoming tale in DC Comics Presents. That story was never published, however, and little is known about its contents.  Synopsis: Swamp Thing finds a signal device created by the Sunderland Corporation, designed to keep people away from the cemetary containing his and Linda Holland's graves.Swamp Thing Series 2, Issue #88: "Morning of the Magician" Writer: Rick Veitch / Artist: Michael Zulli Setting: Approximately 33 A.D. Background: This tale (famous among fan circles as the long-lost "Swamp Thing Meets Jesus" issue) was slated for issue #88 of series 2 but was canceled following a conflict between Veitch and DC Comics.  Concerned about a backlash similar to that following the theatrical release of The Last Temptation of Christ, DC opted not to publish the potentially controversial meeting between Jesus and the Swamp Thing. Veitch abruptly quit, and a new writer, Doug Wheeler, stepped in to finish the story arc in his own fashion. Ever since, fans have lamented the loss of Veitch, the popular follow-up writer to Alan Moore, and the final chapters to his time-travel multi-parter. Copies of both the script and the cover have surfaced on eBay and other online sources, and rumors crop up now and then that DC and Veitch might some day reconcile and publish it officially. This has not yet occurred, though issue #90 and the Swamp Thing Secret Files & Origins special both reference the events of this story, implying they still occurred off-screen. It's interesting to note that although fan rumblings about this issue often mention Swamp Thing becoming the Cross upon which Christ was crucified, and learning from Christ how to be peaceful in defeating his enemies, such elements are entirely absent from the script. Synopsis: On the night of the Last Supper, three dark sorcerers plot to derail Christ's growing movement; 33 years earlier, they had posed as Magi to spy on his birth and determine if he represented a threat. Not recognizing his powers, they let him live, a decision they now regret. The sorcerers summon Bilial, King of the Enochian Demons, asking that he destroy the Son of God. As a sacrifice, they pluck out their eyes and add them to a stew of human body parts. Bilial considers their request while feasting on their eyes, intrigued by the thought of succeeding where Lucifer failed. In the bedroom of prostitute Mary Magdalene, a Roman guard named Marcus (the Golden Gladiator) relaxes after a night of love-making. As payment, she asks that he spare the life of a Nazarene carpenter whose message of love has angered Pontius Pilate. He promises, but as he leaves, Bilial enters his body, laying an egg in his stomach. Meanwhile, thrown back in time by the Claw of Aelkhünd, Swamp Thing is drawn to this era. Arriving in Jerusalem, he disguises himself as an olive and spies on Christ meditating in the Garden of Gethsemane. Back at Mary's home, Centurions search for Marcus and find him passed out in an alley. His face has yellowed and his eyes have reddened, and when they wake him, he spouts dark poetry. Unaware what has happened, they find this amusing and lead him away. In the Garden, Swamp Thing makes his way to the Holy Grail, offering fruit nectar to Christ's wine to soothe his contemplations. Fully awake and rhyming galore, Marcus resumes his duties and learns that Judas Iscariot has turned informer and will lead them to Christ. Mary protests, reminding him of his promise, but the possessed Marcus slaps her and leaves to round up the Apostles.  The Centurions and Apostles enter the Garden, where Swamp Thing confronts Marcus in an effort to protect the Messiah, noticing the signs of a rhyming demon beneath Marcus's human features. Swamp Thing throws Marcus against a wall. Peter mistakes him for an Angel, inspiring the Apostles to revolt against their captors. In the meleé, Peter severs Marcus's ear. As Jesus drinks from the Grail, consuming Swamp Thing's body, the elemental is gripped in the Power of God and bears witness to a miracle: Christ picks up the ear and heals Marcus, performing an exorcism. As Marcus vomits up an infant demon, Swamp Thing recognizes the birth of Etrigan. Bilial is furious, having intended his son to reign as a Prince of Hell; instead, the exorcism has bound him to Earth. The Centurions arrest Jesus and the Apostles, bringing them before Pilate. Judged guilty of blasphemy, the Messiah is put to the lash and condemned to crucifixion, which he silently endures. Mother Mary and the Apostles look on sadly as he hangs from the Cross in Golgotha. Joseph of Arimethea carries the Grail to the Cross and catches Christ's blood in it; around his neck is a piece of amber (within which Swamp Thing has been trapped since the days of Camelot), which he places in the Grail. Marcus and Mary watch from a distance. Marcus blames himself, but she reminds him of Christ's teaching that "forgiveness begins with the self." His resolve renewed, he vows to put an end to Tiberius Caesar's tyranny, knowing this day the Son of God has been slain. As Christ dies, Swamp Thing's spirit is thrown back into the maelstrom of time to continue on its journey. At last, he understands what has been sending him through time, for in consuming him, Christ made him part of his master spell of love over all of existence.Swamp Thing Series 2, Issue #89: "Retro" / Issue #90: [Title unknown] Writer: Rick Veitch / Artist: Unknown Setting: Billions of years B.C., 1989 Background: Following Veitch's departure, these two issues were scrapped, along with the infamous issue #88, to be replaced with new chapters from replacement writer Doug Wheeler. Apparently, both issues—which would have completed Veitch's time-travel odyssey, culminating in the defeat (and redemption) of Anton Arcane—were plotted with help from Neil Gaiman but never got past the treatment stage. Still, some plot details are known, which have been largely contradicted by later events and would no longer fit established continuity. Whether by coincidence or design, the idea of Arcane's redemption was later revisited during Mark Millar's final story arc. Synopsis: Swamp Thing is thrown back in time by the Claw of Aelkhünd to witness the dawn of life on Earth. Adopted by a civilization of plant beings, he takes a job and starts a family of his own. In time, he forgets his future wife Abby, but as his memories return, he struggles to recall who he really is. Ultimately, he becomes trapped within the Claw for billions of years. During this period, he meets time travelers Anthro and Rip Hunter and defeats his lifelong enemy, Anton Arcane. Finally, in 1989, John Constantine smashes the Claw of Aelkhünd, releasing the Swamp Thing back to his proper era. Swamp Thing battles Arcane, who grows into a giant ball of hatred, which he levels at his greatest enemy. Arcane's shots go right through the elemental, though, thanks to what Jesus taught him in 33 A.D. ahout how to deal with conflict peacefully. Frustrated and furious, Arcane burns out all of his hatred. Swamp Thing and Abby are reunited, daughter Tefé is born and Arcane becomes a normal human being who, purged of his hate, lives happily ever after as an ordinary country doctor. Aquaman IIWriter: Neal Pozner / Artist: Craig Hamilton Setting: 1986 Background: Announced in the summer 1986 Amazing Heroes Preview Special for a fall 1986 release, this four- or five-issue miniseries—a sequel to DC's first Aquaman miniseries—would have featured (had it ever been published) Swamp Thing's longtime nemesis, the Sunderland Corp. Synopsis: After 2,000 years of isolation, Aquaman's home of Atlantis begins interacting with the surface world. Much technological trading takes place between the surface and underwater cultures, courtesy of Sunderland Corp. Pac-Man games, hula-hoops, disco clothes and even a fast-food restaurant become popular in Atlantis, but not all Atlanteans see this as a positive step. Aquaman returns to the surface world to address the Sunderland Corp., which puts him through a series of tests to find out just how formidable a foe he can be. Swamp Thing/Mr. Monster  Writer/Artist: UnknownSetting: Unknown Background: This crossover tale was solicited but never produced. Mr. Monster debuted in an obscure comic published in 1947, and was revived by writer Michael T. Gilbert for Eclipse Comics in 1984. At one point, DC and Eclipse had intended to produce a crossover venture between the two titles, but that never came to pass. The crossover was discussed in Amazing Heroes #77. Synopsis: Swamp Thing encounters the being known as Mr. Monster. No story details regarding this adventure have been uncovered. The Nukeface Manifesto Writer: Stephen R. Bissette / Artist: Unknown Setting: 1998 Background: Bissette pitched this sequel to Alan Moore and John Totleben's "The Nukeface Papers" (presented in series 2, issues #35-36) to editor Karen Berger in August 1998. Though Berger liked it, and though Totleben gave Bissette permission to write it, this story has never been published. The proposal is available in its entirety here and here.  Synopsis: In a posh estate near the New York-Connecticut border, a gatekeeper lies beside an open gate. His uniform is smoldering, the skin burned and pitted. Exposed skin on his hands and face is partially liquified, his eyes white like cooked eggs. Alongside him are two dogs, their gums toothless, patches of hair scorched from their hides. One bears the scars of handprints, burned into the singed fur of its neck and haunches. The tarmac leading to the front doors has an odd look to it, as though heated along a specified pathway that meanders to the front door of the estate. The concrete stairs leading to the door are unblemished, but the black paint on the cast-iron railing is blistered with the outlines of human hands. Spilling out of the hallway and over the welcome mat is the seared body of an old man dressed in a silk robe. The jaws are particularly ravaged, sans lips or chin, as if some corrosive substance had been poured over them. The narrator of the story, a reporter for a nationwide alternative paper, is investigating and reporting on a series of homicides. Each victim has been a prominent figure in the nuclear power, waste or regulatory industries, killed by exposure to an extremely volatile toxic substance. The only pattern is a series of badly-written letters, which the narrator has received via mail. Strung together, they form a manifesto targetting those advocating and profiting from nuclear power. Though a target for authoritarian scrutiny, the reporter publishes the letters and investigates the events linked to them. The police and FBI refute his theory that the killer is a homeless person, once an employee of a nuclear facility, whose unique biology has absorbed and accommodated toxic substances over the years. This, he thinks, is the source of the man's grudge driving him to kill. The reporter dubs this nuclear phantom "Nukeface," after a child's rhyme overheard in a remote part of Pennsylvania, and calls the letters "the Nukeface Manifesto."Swamp Thing Origins: Go With the Flow Writer/artist: Stephen R. Bisette Setting: Prehistory (exact date indeterminate)  Background: Bissette (a fan-favorite artist during Alan Moore's tenure as writer on Swamp Thing's second series) pitched this story to editor Karen Berger in September 1998, broken up into four parts, entitled "Water," "Land," "Air" and "Fire." Expanding on a sequence Bissette conceived and penciled for issue #63 of the second series, this was intended as a self-standing graphic album or series of short series. Though Berger liked the pitch, it was never published and contradicts history later established. As the author writes at his website, "It tells of his life as an elemental, eternally manifesting itself among whatever dominant life form caught his interest, until finally there came a being which mastered the one element Swamp Thing could not." (Ironically, Swamp Thing ultimately gains control over the element of fire, during Mark Millar's final story arc.) The proposal is available in its entirety here and here.Synopsis: In the beginning, before there are swamps or things, the Swamp Thing is born of the chemical soup as it is excited into the earliest life. The entity lives when life is new, watches when there are no eyes and interacts when there is no sentience. It swims and sings among single-celled orgnanisms, recalling every moment, and when single cells form communal beings, it contours itself into their shapes to move among them undetected. It watches as multicellular beings self-replicate asexually, then later split into genders. As coral gives way to chitinous armor, as hydra makes way for jellyfish, as sponges spread beneath swarms of trilobite, the Swamp Thing swims with them, and when the great sea scorpions seize and dismember their prey, it plays both the hunter and the hunted. As notochords become spinal columns, as spineless jawless swimmers attach their suckered mouths to oversized superfishes, and as the first fish raise their lobe-fins to the air and crawl upon the land, it follows. On land, it metamorphs with several dominant lifeforms, from lungfish and amphibians to reptiles and dinosaurs. When a monstrous forest fire rages, he witnesses the survival of flying creatures. Intrigued, he emulates their freedom, mirroring their forms as he moves up the food chain, from flies to dragonflies and on to pterosaurs and birds. In time, the nest of a species he is imitating is raided by early man, and he follows its evolution until fleeing his first encounter with fire being wielded as a weapon. Taking humanoid form, he carries the memories of all former incarnations. Discovering how humans re-invent themselves with every generation, however, he decides to forget the past, embracing mortality as an individual rather than a collective elemental consciousness. And he deems fire—the one element he can neither withstand nor control—the vehicle of his eventual rebirth. Swamp Thing Novels 
Writer: Stephen R. Bisette / Artist: Jon TotlebenSetting: The late 1980s Background: Bissette had been slated to write a trilogy of novels for iBooks and Byron Preiss, with Totleben providing the cover and interior illustrations. The project got as far as a contract being sent to the author (several months late, according to Bissette), but contract disputes with the publisher resulted in the trilogy's abrupt cancelation. Further details are posted on Bissette's blog. Synopsis: The details of these books remain unknown, other than that they would have been set around the time of the Alen Moore era. Twilight of the Superheroes Writer: Alan Moore / Artist: Unknown Setting: 1987, 1995, 2000  Background: 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 (subtitled "The Interminable Ramble") has long been circulating among fans and is available here and on other sites. It's interesting to note that this proposal was submitted pre-Hellblazer, and that in it, Moore suggests a spinoff title for Constantine.Synopsis: In 1987, John Constantine receives a surprise visit from time traveler Rip Hunter, who knows everything about him, including personal details he's told no one. Hunter says he's come back from the world of Twilight (c. 2000 A.D.), and that the Constantine of that year helped him escape so he could enlist his younger self's help in alerting Earth's superheroes of a bleak future awaiting them. Created by the Time Trapper's attempt to defeat the Legion of Super-Heroes, this war-torn future will end in all super-powered beings being either killed or exiled. Family structures and society in America began breaking down in 1995, not due to any sort of post-holocaust scenario, but rather to post-Cold War terror at the realization that nuclear war was not going to happen, and that America now had to deal with the future. Earth's so-called "super-villains" tried to exploit this uncertainty and disaster for their own gain, prompting the Justice League of America and other metahumans to plot to remove them all.  Their efforts were so effective that Americans came to see them as the only effective force for reason and order. This went to their heads, and to secure their new power base, the heroes passed a motion outlawing aliens on Earth. This decision caused a rift among the ranks, and many heroes went their separate ways. In time, eight ruling Houses arose among the metahuman community, with the House of Secrets containing the only surviving super-villains. It wasn't long before rivalries and perceived insults created schisms between the heroic Houses. Stunned to learn all this, Constantine agrees to help Hunter contact and warn the metahuman community. Some take his advice, while others do not. Unable to reach them all, he worries that he might not succeed in averting disaster, but takes comfort in Hunter's revelation that a woman in a bar will ask him for a light, and that they'll fall in love and spend their lives happily married (this woman would have turned out to be Fever, a character Moore created for the DC series Vigilante). Only after Constantine finishes contacting the heroes does Hunter deliver the rest of the message: The older Constantine has manipulated his prior self into bringing about the very events he's warned everyone about, thus ridding the world of super-beings. Furious at being conned, Constantine gets even with his older self by letting the woman he's slated to marry walk out of his life without getting to know him—changing history and denying himself the true love and happiness he knows he was destined to experience.Hellblazer Issue #141: "Shoot" Writer: Warren Ellis / Artists: Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning Setting: 1999  Background: As infamous to Hellblazer fans as Rick Veitch's Swamp Thing aborted issue #88 is to readers of that series, "Shoot" has a similar publication history and resulted in the premature and unceremonious end of Warren Ellis' run on Hellblazer. In the wake of the Columbine high-school shootings, Vertigo opted not to publish this similarly themed story, deeming it too uncomfortable a subject. Ellis quit as a result, just as Veitch had done, and this story ended up in comic-book limbo, even though it had already been illustrated and laid out. Copies of the comic are available online. You can download the pages here, or read a more detailed account of the comic's history here.Synopsis: Penny Carnes, a psychologist specializing in mass/spree killings, becomes obsessed with determining the identity of a mysterious trenchcoated figure caught on tape and in photographs from a number of recent high-school shooting incidents. Pouring over the history of the Jim Jones massacre in Jonestown for a week, with little sleep in between, she tries vainly to understand the reason so many American high-school students have taken to killing themselves and their fellow classmates. John Constantine, the trenchcoated individual in the photos, is also investigating the trend, as a favor to a friend whose child was among the victims of a recent shooting. One night, Constantine visits Carnes to provide the key piece of the puzzle she has overlooked: The real horror of the situation isn't that teenagers are killing their fellow students...it's that the victims want to die. Looking closely, Carnes is horrified to realize that one victim about to die is facing his attacker calmly, uttering the single word "Shoot" as others expectantly await their deaths as well. "Daphne" Writer/artist: David Sexton Setting: Late 1960s, 1994 (estimated) Background: This story was slated to appear in a Vertigo Comics anthology edited by the late Neal Pozner. Following Pozner's death in 1994, the project was shelved. Little else is known about this lost tale.  Synopsis: Scientist Alec Holland, some time before his transformation into the Swamp Thing, cheats on future wife Linda Holland by having sex with Pamela Isley (the future villain known as Poison Ivy). Isley holds this indiscretion over his head for years to come, though it is unclear if Linda ever learns of Alec's infidelity. Years later, in 1994, Swamp Thing amd Isley run into each other in the swamp and reminisce about their old times together. She claims to have reformed, but he is skeptical. In truth, she has grown a deadly Venus Flytrap, which attacks him. Isley taunts him as he battles the plant, reminding him that he slept with her and betrayed Linda. Sending thorns to tear her coat, he reveals her Poison Ivy costume hidden underneath. He tries to leave but is lured into a magic circle of mushrooms. She has made a deal with his fellow Erl-Kings, she says, who have taught her to steal the power of one of their kind. She starts the spell, but the rush of power disorients her and she breaks the circle. This disruption in her magic frees Swamp Thing, and she tries to run away but the Erl-Kings punish her for her failure, turning her into a tree."The Day My Pad Went Mad"  Writer: Neil Gaiman / Artist: UnknownSetting: 1985 Background: Gaiman wrote this story after asking Alan Moore's help in writing his first comic-book script. Moore reportedly described the ending as being "a little wonky." The sory has never been published, though Gaiman described it in the introduction to his trade paperback, Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days, which reprinted several of his works (including Swamp Thing Annual #5 and Hellblazer #27), and also included a previously unpublished Swamp Thing tale called "Jack-in-the-Green." The title "The Day My Pad Went Mad" was inspired from a poem by John Cooper Clarke. Synopsis: Following the events of Swamp Thing issue #51, John Constantine returns home to his flat in England, only to find something unusual growing in his refrigerator. Gaiman has never revealed what was growing there, or why, though Andy Diggle made recent reference to the incident, shedding some light by revealing it involved a reanimated chicken carcass. The Sandman Presents: Marquee Moon Writer: Peter Hogan Artists: pencils—Peter Doherty; inks—Matt "D'israeli" Brooker (pages 1-45) and Doherty (pages 46-56) Setting: 1977  Background: British writer Peter Hogan, best known to comic-book readers for his work on 2000 A.D., wrote a followup to his popular miniseries, The Sandman Presents: Love Street, in 1997. Unfortunately, The Sandman Presents: Marquee Moon, as it would have been called, has never been published, even a decade after it was first solicited.Synopsis: Love Street offered insight into John Constantine's youth in the 1960s, setting the stage for the cynical magician he would someday become. Marquee Moon would have revisited Constantine's early years, showcasing his time spent as a punk rocker in the band Mucous Membrane, and his 1977 encounter with an American woman with a secret, who'd moved to London and discovered punk-rock music for the first time. Had this 56-page one-shot seen publication, The Clash would have made their comic-book debut. With Hogan's kind permission, Roots of the Swamp Thing now hosts the text and lettered art pages to this inexplicably unpublished chapter in Sandman and Hellblazer history, along with an introductory interview conducted to explain Marquee Moon's history and context, as well as an essay Hogan included with his initial proposal. This essay provided artists Matt "D'israeli" Brooker and Peter Doherty, as well as Vertigo editor Alisa Kwitney and Sandman creator Neil Gaiman, a detailed look at the 1970s London punk-rock scene, and is a fascinating read in its own right. Click here to read Marquee Moon. "Notes Towards a Vegetable Theology" and Swamp Thing Series 2, Beyond Rick Veitch Writer (Essay): Neil Gaiman Writers (Aborted Swamp Thing run: Neil Gaiman and Jamie Delano  Setting: 1989Background: In 1989, Neil Gaiman wrote an essay entitled "Notes Towards a Vegetable Theology," to serve as a bible to DC's supernatural comics line. The essay tied in with his plans for the Swamp Thing character when he and Jamie Delano were hired to succeed Rick Veitch as Swamp Thing writers. After Veitch prematurely quit the series in protest over DC's cancelation of issue #88 (his well-publicized "Swamp Thing meets Jeses" story—see above), Gaiman and Delano showed their support for Veitch by declining the job, and Doug Wheeler took over writing chores instead. Gaiman's "Vegetable Theology" was originally slated for printing in an issue of Black Orchid, but that never happened. Reproductions of the essay have since been auctioned by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, but otherwise, it remains unavailable to fans. Synopsis: Unfortunately, other than to those who purchased the auctioned reproductions, the details of the essay are unknown. In an interview, Gaiman has stated: "I didn't really have any [specific plans for the Swamp Thing character]. We never quite really got that far. I had a few ideas about what I was going to do. It was going to be me and Jamie Delano. We were going to split it, and do sort of three issues each on a turnabout basis. Neither of us could have done another monthly book at twelve issues a year, but we could have done it on that basis. It really hadn't even got to the plotting stages.  Having said that, there was a lot of stuff that I did, back when I was originally creating Black Orchid, in terms of working out a unified vegetable theology in the DC world. So there is a lot of stuff in the background that I know about the Swamp Thing world that we never used. Some of that was hinted at in the Annual [Swamp Thing #Annual 5]." Gaimain later told the interviewer: "I was going to bring him [Jason Woodrue] back as a villain. He was getting back to being Woodrue, the Rue of the Wood, and probably on a much bigger scale, a much nastier scale. It would have been fun, but again it didn't happen. I probably would have brought back Black Orchid in there. I don't know, because as I said, it never got that far. Rick still had a few issues. I talked to Rick, we sort of co-plotted Rick's last few episodes, which never saw print. When I say co-plotted, I mean that we had long bull sessions about them when I stayed up in Vermont for a couple days last Winter. I spent a day with Steve Bissette, a day with Rick, and the evening I spent with Rick we were plotting out Rick's final sequence. Rick had the end of the time-travel sequence, and some Arcane stuff. We talked through what we would have done during the 'birth of the baby' story. We would have done a whole Gifts of the Magi' number, with various characters coming up, and bestowing the newborn child a gift. What John Constantine would have done, and so forth." You can read the full interview here.Swamp Thing Series 3, The Series That Never Was Writer: Darko Macan / Artist: Unknown Setting: 1997  Background: When Vertigo decided to relaunch Swamp Thing for a third series in 1999, Macan was invited to submit a proposal at the same time Brian K. Vaughan proposed his own take on Tefé Holland's future in the wake of Mark Millar's concluding second-series storyline. Vertigo opted to go with Vaughan's run, and few even knew of Macan's proposal until this site posted it in its entirety, with Macan's kind permission, here.Synopsis: Forming a new body after being betrayed and destroyed by her father at the end of the Millar run, Tefé discovers her death caused her to miss the moment when every mind on Earth shared in his revelation. Bitter, she grows desperate for her parents' love. Disconnected from the soul of Alec Holland, however, and elevated to near-godhood, her father is too busy with affairs of the world to have time for her. Tefé grows an adult body, has sex with an industrialist, throws all plants out of his house and manipulates him into damaging the Green. This hurts her as well, but she endures it to punish her father. Still, Swamp Thing repairs the damage and fights the monsters she creates, convinced she'll come around. Unable to hurt her father, she punishes the industrialist instead, then turns her attention to her mother. De siring a normal life, Abby (who has found a new live-in partner—possibly Don Reynaud, whom she was dating near the end of the second series—and bore a baby girl) is unhappy to see her. This enrages Tefé, who uses her flesh-molding ability to turn the baby into a series of creatures. Unable to break Abby, she restores the infant's body (which retains Tefé's metamorphic skills) and flees. Tefé visits London to see John Constantine, who tries to be a father but is unsuited to the role. She leaves him but is not angry, knwing he at least tried. Tefé learns about her inherited demon blood and visits Hell to find Nergal. Delighted at the chance to shape a creature so powerful, he takes her on as an apprentice. Being a demon, however, he cannot love her, so she leaves the underworld. Anton Arcane appears to her. Hoping to atone for his sins, he adopts his grand-niece and takes her back to his former Balkan village. The locals are terrified at his return, but upon seeing the changed man he's become, they take advantage of his and Tefé's powers, seeking their help in healing deformities and other fleshly dysfunctions. Though Arcane is willing to be used, she is not and leaves. Out on her own again, Tefé encounters Arcane's sister Aniela, long thought deceased. Aniela has been living a low-profile life, running an old-fashioned boarding school for girls—very old-fashioned, as Tefé learns when her grand-aunt invites her to become a witch.Swamp Thing Series 4, Beyond Issue #29 Writer: Joshua Dysart / Artist: Paul Pope and others  Setting: 2005Background: When Joshua Dysart took over the writing chores on the fourth incarnation of Swamp Thing (as of issue #9), he had several long-term plans in mind. Unfortunately, those plans were cut short when the series was prematurely canceled, only 21 issues into his run, at issue #29. At the end of the final issue, Alec Holland had reformed his fractured elemental consciousness; defeated Arcane, the Toad King and Jason Woodrue; and reunited with his wife Abby and daughter Tefé. But there was still more story to tell, and only Dysart knows what would have happened next. Synopsis: Although Dysart prefers to keep specific details of these stories secret for now (in case a future opportunity to revisit those concepts should ever crop up), he has provided several hints for readers of this site (available here). The origins of The The Boy Who Could Fly If Only Straight Down, The Man Who Wore His Ego on the Outside, and the Ill-Fated Cajun Lovers are explored. The latter tale involves zombies in turn-of-the-century Louisiana, the Cousins Marriage Law and a turn-of-the-century Swamp Thing. Meanwhile, the war for the swamp wages on as a result of King Toad, Nerk and Sissy Bob's assault on Houma. Thus, Swamp Thing is perceived as a terrorist, and he and his followers become refugees. Eventually, Anton Arcane and Josephine's child is born in Hell. An atrocious insectillian monster with the soul of the Buddha, the child is a completely evolved messianic being, far beyond his years in wisdom. The child is persecuted in Hell, so Swamp Thing descends to rescue him and bring him back to the surface, where the child's greater wisdom brings about a peaceful resolution to the war. Swamp Thing Video Game 
Background:
In the early 1990s, Imagineering Inc. created a licensed side-scrolling video game cartridge for the Gameboy platform. The game was never officially published, though bootlegs can sometimes be found online. A walkthrough/FAQ of the various levels of the game can be found here in text-only format.
Synopsis: (From the walkthrough/FAQ) "Deep in the swamps and bayous of Louisiana...Dr. Alec Holland, a bio-chemist, created a formula that would revitalize and revive plant growth in the barren areas of the Earth. His hope was to be able to eliminate world hunger. But, the evil and twisted Dr. Anton Arcane had other plans...to steal the formula and use its bio-restorative properties to achieve immortality! The twisted doctor snuck into Holland's lab one night and planted a bomb, stealing the formula in the resulting explosion. Dr. Holland was trapped inside as some of the formula exploded and saturated his body with it. As Holland threw himself into the swamp outside, something strange began to happen—the organic matter in the murky water interacted with the formula in his body, changing him into the massive Swamp Thing! Now the Swamp Thing is angry...and hungry for revenge."  Swamp Thing MovieWriter: Len Wein / Director: Unknown Background: In 2005, Vertigo had plans to produce a new Swamp Thing feature film, unrelated to the previous films and television series and written by Swamp Thing creator Len Wein. However, the absolute failure of Marvel's Man-Thing film precluded Swamp Thing's production, and the project was ultimately canceled. Synopsis: Scientist Alec Holland is killed while creating a bioregenerative formula. Propelled into the swamp, he burns to death and is reborn as a muck-encrusted creature known as the Swamp Thing. | |||||||
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Swamp Thing, Hellblazer and The Un-Men are
the properties of DC/Vertigo Comics. No
copyright infringement is intended.
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