Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles
Swamp Thing
Doctor Alec Holland was a brilliant botanist and biochemist who worked on a bio-restorative formula he believed could solve the world hunger. He toiled away on this project in a remote laboratory hidden in the Louisiana swamplands.
The agents of a competitor broke into his lab and set a bomb. Holland was caught in the explosion, which both drenched him in the bio-restorative formula as well as set his body ablaze. He ran into the swamp before he died and the bio-restorative chemicals interacted with the plant life of the swamp. The flora had been somehow imbued with an imprinting of Holland’s consciousness. Having gained a sentience, the flora formed into a humanoid form and rose up from the bog as the Swamp Thing, the latest in a long line of Earth elementals charged with protecting the planet’s fragile environment.
Years later, Poison Ivy and The Floronic Man stole the information the government had accrued on how Alec Holland had been changed into the Swamp Thing. The pair planned on releasing a giant cloud of bio-restorative spores that would cause all organic life on earth to become floral based hybrids; the world would be repopulated with swamp things whom Poison Ivy and The Floronic Man could control and lord over.
Fortunately, the villains’ scheme was thwarted by Batman and Nigtwing with the invaluable help of Harley Quinn. The Swamp Thing itself rose up in the climax of the altercation, but chose to do nothing to affect the outcome. Instead it was Harley’s pleading to her friend Ivy that turned the tied and enabled the heroes to win out.
Actor John DiMaggio provided the voice for The Swamp Thing. The character initially appeared in the Justice League episode ‘Comfort and Joy’ but featured more prominently in the animated movie, Batman and Harley Quinn.
