History ComicBook / SwampThing

%%* EvilCounterpart: Jason Woodrue

* EvilUncle: Anton Arcane, to Abigail.

* LawyerFriendlyCameo: "Pog", whose title character was ComicStrip/{{Pogo}} in a spacesuit. There's even a reference to the ''Pogo'' Christmas song, "Deck the Halls With Boston Charlie." Amusingly, Pog had a brief cameo in a later issue by another writer who didn't seem to recognize the referenced character.

** Tefé in Brian K Vaughan's volume.
** Alec himself in the New 52, taking over for his replica. A few previous Swamp Things also play a part in the series.

** Swamp Thing undergoes a major one after learning that he is the TomatoInTheMirror. Abby also has one after she realizes the AwfulTruth about her husband.

* TomatoInTheMirror: Swamp Thing learns that he was never Alec Holland -- physically, at least. He still retains Holland's consciousness, and Abby still calls him Alec. And then he ''meets Alec's soul in Heaven'', the final nail in the coffin of the idea that he's anything more than a copy of Holland's memories.

* TricksterMentor: Constantine.

* SpinOff: [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]] first appeared during Alan Moore's run before eventually getting his own series.

** [[http://www.angelfire.com/pop/bay55/SwampThing/SwampBook022.html According to inker John Totleben]], Woodrue's dilated pupils, in the close-up panel after he tastes the Swamp Thing's tuber in issue 2:22, are a deliberate if covert indication of [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs drug use]], still forbidden under the then-current version of the UsefulNotes/ComicsCode unless depicted as a "[[DrugsAreBad vicious habit]]." (Totleben states further that Woodrue's subsequent use of an EEG device was a smokescreen for the ''real'' method by which he tapped into the Green.) When DC began releasing the title without the Code's seal of approval, it freed the creative team to make the tubers' psychedelic properties more explicit and give them a recurring role in the series.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: The Swamp Thing stops Woodrue's rampage by asking [[spoiler:what plants will breathe without animals to exhale carbon dioxide]]. Woodrue has a VillainousBSOD.

%%* MuckMonster

* TheQuietOne: Swamp Thing in his early days said very few words due to his transformed state making it very difficult for him to speak.

* BodyHorror: The Monkey King takes on the shape of its targets fears, but not very well, which just makes it all the more disturbing when it tries to look like Paul's mother.

* TheQuietOne: Swamp Thing was one in his early days said very few words due to his transformed state making it very difficult for him to speak.

* ComicBookDeath: Anton Arcane died in the last issue before Moore took over. Of course, in comic books, dead doesn't necessarily mean ''dead''.

* TheQuietOne: Swamp Thing was one in his early days. It wasn't that he ''couldn't'' speak, just that it was difficult.

* AlliterativeName: Anton Arcane and his niece Abigail.

* BigBad: Anton Arcane.

%%* EvilSorcerer: Arcane.

* GreenAesop: Though Alan Moore likes his Aesops Subverted, or DoubleSubverted.

* HorrifyingHero: Swamp Thing.

%%* FrankensteinsMonster: Patchwork Man.

%%* PlantPerson

%%* Reality Ensues: Drunk driving at night will kill you, regardless of whether you're trying to make things up to your wife.

* SpinOff: [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]] first appeared during Alan Moore's run.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Downplayed but still notable. When Darkseid appears in issue #62 of the second volume he is notably quite patient and cordial to Metron, and even jokes once or twice (Hell, he even [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness laughs]] at one point!]]) It could be justified by the fact that Metron is one of the very few people Darkseid somewhat respects.