The Complicated History of Alec Holland

My original plan was to just jump straight in to the New 52 Swamp Thing series, for no other reason than that's the one with which I'm most familiar. As I started pouring through Scott Snyder's run on the book, however, it struck me that readers who only knew the Alan Moore and/or Vertigo era of Swamp Thing would be very confused by the New 52 presence of a very alive and very (initially) human Doctor Alec Holland. Between 1972 and 2011 the good doctor as been through at least four iterations. Before diving into a seemingly random place into continuity for the sake of convenience, then, I thought I'd dig a little into how Alec has been portrayed and perceived over the decades.

I think it's safe to say that most Swamp Thing fans are familiar with his origin, but let's have at it nonetheless for completion's sake. Alec makes his first appearance in Swamp Thing (volume 1) #1. I'll be going into more detail about this issue and those immediately after in the near future. Suffice it to say, however, that this was the moment that started everything, regardless of writer interpretation. It's here that Holland is caught an explosion, burning him alive and coating him in the experimental bio-reseorative formula, driving him into the swamp, where a man-like creature of swamp muck would emerge.

For couple of years in the early 70s, and another couple of years in the early 80s, beginning with Saga of the Swamp Thing #1, this creature WAS Alec Holland. During this time, Alec was a man transformed by science gone wrong, in it's way somewhat similar to what Marvel had been doing already for a decade with the Hulk. Rather than being a Jeckle and Hyde story, with the character dealing with the inherently strangeness that was 60s and early 70s science fiction, Swamp Thing was a tale if a man trapped unchangingly in his own monstrous body, besieged by the forces of the occult.

Less than two years after the launch of Saga of the Swamp Thing, the eponymous creature was changed forever when legendary writer Alan Moore revealed, in issue 21, that Alec Holland had died moments after his flaming dash into the marsh. What had emerged, the beast that had gone by the moniker of Swamp Thing, that had battled a maniacal necromancer, encountered the Bat of Gotham, and been both the protector and downfall of the harbinger of the Antichrist, had actually been a plant elemental with the memories, intellect, and emotions of Alec Holland.

This version of the Swamp Thing became the status quo for roughly two and a half decades. Then, in 2011, things got confusing. Following the Blackest Night event, in which most of their heroes of the time battled against the death-empowered Black Lantern Corps, DC released the follow up event Brightest Day. A handful of heroes, resurrected by the life-empowered White Lantern battery, were charged with finding the ultimate champion of life. That champion, as it turns out, was to be Alec Holland. Having lost Holland's mental imprint, Swamp Thing for some reason now believed itself to be Nekron, the founder/leader/ of the Black Lantern Corps, becoming a rampaging avatar of death. Transformed by the White Lantern into a new omni-elemental Swamp Thing, Alec battles and defeats his now-dark doppleganger, eventually heading off to wreak havoc on those who would threaten the environment.

While this might not be a reintroduction to the mainstream DC universe that Swamp Thing fans were hoping for, it was at least a singular storyline. A few months later, however, DC would introduce the continuity shakeup that was the New 52.
In the first issue of the New 52 Swamp Thing series, Alec Holland is very much alive, though human (again?). It is revealed that in this version of reality that it was Parliament of Trees that had revived Holland. They reveal that it had always been Alec's destiny to become their greatest champion, their "warrior king", and when the lab explosion had left his body too ravaged to transform they had created a body in which to house a copy of his consciousness. That copy now apparently dead, Alec possesses all of the memories accrued over the years, including strong feelings for Abigail Arcane. Eventually, to save both Abby and himself from the Rot, Alec accepted his destiny, becoming the champion of the Green.

Now, with DC a year into it's Rebirth initiative, Swamp Thing's mythos appears to have evolved into in an amalgamation of element's from the character's publication history: the origin as established by Wein, the elemental abilities as introduced by Moore, and Abby's connection to the Rot courtesy of Snyder. The question then, is which version is considered the best by Swamp Thing fans?

Easy. All of them.