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The Swamp Thing is a fictional character created by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson for DC Comics and featured in a long-running horror-fantasy comic book series of the same name. The character is a humanoid mass of vegetable matter who fights to protect his swamp home, the environment in general, and humanity from various supernatural or terrorist threats. The series has been continued by a number of writers, including Alan Moore, whose reinvention of the character was particularly influential.
The Swamp Thing character first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (June-July 1971), with the name Alex Olsen. The comic is set in the early 20th Century, when scientist Alex Olsen is caught in a lab explosion caused by his co-worker, Damian Ridge, who intended to kill him to gain the hand of Olsen's wife Linda. Olsen is physically altered by chemicals and the forces within the swamp. He morphs into a monstrous creature who kills Ridge before the latter can murder Linda. Unable to make Linda realize his true identity, the Swamp Thing sadly ambles to his boggy home.
After the success of the short story in the House of Secrets comic, the original creators were asked to write an ongoing series, depicting a more heroic, more contemporary creature. Swamp Thing #1 (1st series, October-November 1972, by Wein and Wrightson) was created, changing the time frame to the 1970s, featuring a completely new version of the frightfully foliaged character. Wein named this version's human alter-ego Alec Holland, a scientist working on a secret bio-restorative formula ("that can make forests out of deserts") in the Louisiana swamps. Holland is killed by a bomb planted by agents of the mysterious Mr. E (Nathan Ellery), who wants the formula. Splashed with burning chemicals in the massive fire, Holland runs from the lab and falls into the muck-filled swamp, after which a creature resembling a humanoid plant appears some time later. The creature, called Swamp Thing, was originally conceived as Alec Holland mutating into a vegetable-like creature, a "muck-encrusted mockery of a man". However, under writer Alan Moore, Swamp Thing was reinvented as an elemental entity created upon the death of Alec Holland, with Holland's memory and personality intact. He is described as "a plant that thought it was Alec Holland, a plant that was trying its level best to be Alec Holland.". This was Alan Moore's second "re-invention" of a comic book character, the first being Miracleman. Moore's re-inventions are particularly unique, in that instead of doing a complete reset for the retcon, he invents a background which explains why the earlier stories were simply a different, less knowing perception of the events the earlier stories told about.
The major difference between the first and second Swamp Thing is that the latter appears more muscular than shambling, and possesses the power of speech. Being able to speak only with great difficulty, Alex Olsen's speech impediment is a major reason why his wife could not recognize him. In Swamp Thing #33, Alan Moore attempted to reconcile the two versions of Swamp Thing with the revelation that there have been many previous incarnations of Swamp Thing prior to the death and "rebirth" of the Alec Holland incarnation. Three others are notable: Albert Hollerer was mentioned and Aaron Hayley appeared in the Swamp Thing: Roots graphic novel (1998) set in the 1940s, and Alan Hallman, the Swamp Thing of the 1950s and 1960s, introduced in Vol. 2 #102 (December 1990) and eventually, after being corrupted by the Gray, killed by Holland. As a result, Holland is known as Swamp Thing IV by the editors of the DCU Guide. The principal two Swamp Things are also connected in that Holland's first wife is Linda Ridge, a descendant of Damian Ridge.