DC, in addition to publishing thrilling tales of heroic adventures and detective mysteries, has a flair for producing some of the most memorable horror comics ever published. DC published the first edition of House of Secrets from November 1956 through October 1966, an 80-issue anthology featuring elements of mystery, fantasy, and raw, blood-curdling horror.
The goal was to provide a pleasant, immersive experience for readers that did not require the same level of fanaticism that their more prominent products do; and while the storylines were essentially unimportant, a couple of characters did make it into the main DC Universe. One of these happens to be the Justice League of America’s most underappreciated member; yes, we are talking about Swamp Thing.
Fan response to the character, which debuted in what was supposed to be a solo story as part of The House of Secrets #92, was so strong that DC decided to give it a larger position in the DCU as well as a standalone series. Swamp Thing (previously botanist Alec Holland) is the embodiment of The Green, the elemental force that unites all plant life in the Universe. As such, he defends both plant life and mankind from threats of any kind, including those emerging from it.
Swamp Thing has developed a cult status over the years, becoming one of the Universe’s most powerful elemental beings and even inspiring the frickin’ Life Entity. That said, it makes him hazardous for anybody looking to take advantage of either of his territories, giving Swamp Thing a wide and unusual cast of villains. Let us take a look at the greatest of them now that the Swamp Thing TV series is on its way. The Top 6 Swamp Thing Villains Have Been Revealed.
Floronic Man
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The Earth laughs in flowers”. Normal people like you and I would equate that with poetry; Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson saw that and thought, “Hey, that’s not a bad idea for a supervillain character!” Debuting in The Atom #1 all the way back in 1962, Jason Woodrue wasn’t always an inhabitant of Earth.
Originating in the Dryad dimension that existed parallel to Earth, he was a rogue mad scientist who traveled to Earth after being exiled from his own dimension. He used his exhaustive knowledge of botany and chloro kinetic abilities to grow exotic, life-like plant organisms in an attempt to take over the planet, calling himself the Plant Master.
Though Woodrue would be defeated and sent back to his own dimension by The Atom, he’d return in Flash #245, ingesting a concoction that would transform him into what we know him as today. He became a plant-human hybrid, with skin as strong as the bark of an Oak and hair as green as leaves.
Calling himself the Floronic Man, his first attempt at terrorizing the world was pelting Green Lantern with seeds and cacti, but he’d soon grow into an ecology-destabilizing menace after coming into contact with the yin to his ever-degrading yang; Swamp Thing. The two green men crossed paths during Alan Moore’s exceptional run with the character, specifically Swamp Thing Vol 2 #21.
Believing Swamp Thing’s body held the key to Alec Holland’s Bio-Restorative Formula, General Sunderland brought in Floronic Man to study his body. Thus began his manic obsession with the Avatar of the Green, as Floronic Man was fascinated by Swamp Thing’s actual bio-composition, which was always assumed to be a mutated version of Holland’s own body.
The revelation that Swamp Thing was actually a collection of bio-mass imbued with the consciousness of Alec Holland was too much for the hero to handle, and he snapped under its weight, laying waste to General Sunderland and escaping the facility.
He gave up on his quest for humanity and took root in the Louisiana swamp, which allowed Woodrue to experiment on him and come in contact with The Green, which corrupts him and turns him into a flesh-hating, genocidal maniac. He tries to eliminate all animal life on Earth and it takes everything Swamp Thing has to stop The Green and make it appreciate the role of animals in the eco-system.
His appearances have been sporadic since, but nevertheless, Floronic Man is the anti-Swamp Thing, and that alone merits his appearance on the list. We hope that changes now that the TV show is on the way; and if we’re being honest, we just wanna see some weird plants do some weird things.
Anton Arcane
Imagine any of the most heinous crimes that one can possibly commit; chances are this guy’s done all of those things, and then some. Anton Arcane is a character straight out of a Clive Barker novel. Born at the beginning of the 20th century, Arcane displayed signs of depravity, hedonism, and a disturbing penchant for violence from a young age, actively abusing his siblings when his father wasn’t around.
Anton developed a deep interest in biological science and enrolled in Hamburg School of Medicine, eager to “explore his own appetites” until he was expelled for unethical surgical experiments, among a dozen other gut-wrenching violations, all in an attempt at becoming “immortal”.
Arcane enlisted in the German military during World War I and became a field doctor on the Western Front, where he dementedly experimented on the mortally wounded. It was during his tenure of service that he would meet his arch-nemesis and object of obsession. Arcane was invited to Hans von Hammer’s home to heal a soldier’s peculiar injuries, held together by plant matter.
Upon arriving, he was immediately recognized by the entity that would become his lifelong enemy in the future; a time-displaced Swamp Thing. Fascinated by Swamp Thing’s existence, Anton restricts the creature and, hoping to make it his own. Using a mix of science and sorcery, as well as the mystical Claw of Aelkhund, Anton tries to figure out the secret of Swamp Thing’s immortality.
When he fails to do so, he decides that he will scour the Earth for every source of occult power he can find and use it to gain immortality, going so far as instigating World War 2 by influencing Hitler in order to create a “steady supply of sacrifices”. Since then, he’s been locked in an eternal battle struggle with Swamp Thing that has taken him to the furthest regions of human existence, including Hell.
In the New 52 reboot, he was introduced as the Avatar of the Rot; the direct anti-thesis of the life-generating Green. Now being fuelled by Rot energy, Anton Arcane became more powerful than ever before; and he was already pretty friggin’ unkillable. Being immortal, the only way to kill him is through sorcery or eternal limbo; before New 52, only Arcane’s soul was immortal and he needed new bodies to keep himself alive.
Also, he was able to control dead bodies via necromancy as well as employ his exceptional surgical skills to create a legion of deformed monsters to take on the forces of the living. After becoming the Avatar of the Rot, Arcane can control death, decay, and rot with his sheer willpower and his immortality extend to his entire being.
Using his newfound powers, Arcane proceeded to take on the forces of both The Green and The Red and actually managed to infect The Green with Rot before he was expelled from it and the Parliament of Trees managed to cure the Green of its affliction. Even after death, he’d continue to be a thorn in Swamp Thing’s side, and it was only when he was imbued with the Life Entity that Swamp Thing finally got rid of Arcane once and for all.
Un-Men
Though they couldn’t be further apart on the moral compass, Anton Arcane and Victor Frankenstein share at least one similarity: they’re both naturally curious about the nature of life and have dabbled in necromancy to reveal its secrets. But that’s where the similarities end because while Frankenstein created his monster purely as an experiment, Anton Arcane made his with the intent to serve as soldiers.
As a result of his first experimentations in pursuit of immortality, the Unmen is a genetically-altered subspecies of beings, no two of whom are alike. Bernie Wrightson depicted them as hideously deformed humanoid creatures that exist only as a grotesque menagerie of bodily aberrations: multiple heads, extra limbs, and even partial animal anatomies can be found amongst their subservient ranks.
They were made to become “perfect soldiers” who are “infinitely adaptable”, “never complain”, and “always follow orders”. Arcane’s super-soldiers could adapt to any environment, were completely devoid of fear, and some even possessed enhanced capabilities thanks to their Creator’s scientific and sorcerous abilities. Chief among them were Ophidian, a talking snake-like creature with 10 pairs of legs and the power of hypnosis; and Cranius, Arcane’s majordomo and the leader of the Un-Men.
Called “the living brain”, Cranius has an uncomfortably-oversized brain with a human face that is grafted onto a gargantuan human hand. Cranius uses his fingers for locomotion and is shown to have telepathic powers in later appearances. Being Arcane’s chief lackeys, the Unmen have gone up against Swamp Thing on a number of occasions, but have never managed to finish the job and almost always managed to mutiny against their maker.
After the first generation of Unmen turned on him, Arcane created the next using insects as his base, hoping that their comparatively simpler cognition patterns would keep them from rebelling again. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, and they turned on him yet again, this time devouring their creator and leaving no trace behind.
Fuelled by primal rage, depravity, and an endless streak of pure madness, the Unmen were the perfect cannon fodder for Swamp Thing and we can’t wait to see all the deliciously twisted versions that the new TV series whips up.
M’nagalah
If you’ve been getting a positively Lovecraftian vibe from this list so far, we can’t blame you. After all, Swamp Thing originated from a scary story. But all the Floronic Mans and Anton Arcanes of the cosmos cannot hold a candle to the Great God of Cancer himself, created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson as a homage to Lovecraft’s seminal work.
He manifested on Earth 200,000 years ago, living in obscurity and controlling the growth of sentient life on our planet and countless others scattered across the cosmos. He handpicked the various life forms that would prosper and survive their own evolution, and the ones that would serve only as food.
When humanity began prospering, he started whispering into the minds of a select few; people who exhibited an intense fascination with death and the macabre, to be more specific. In 1827, M’nagalah inspired Edgar Allan Poe. In 1866, he reached out to stimulate the creative energy of Ambrose Bierce.
In 1896, his essence touched the mind of a six-year-old boy from Providence, Rhode Island named Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who would become one of the most acclaimed writers of horror fiction in the history of world literature. Years later, a man called Abraham Monroe used the Necronomicon to invoke M’nagalah’s essence, which took on a physical form and rooted itself in the mines of Perdition, New England.
That is where Swamp Thing has his first encounter with the Cancer God, in Swamp Thing Vol. 1 #8 when he’s warned by a dying old man to not go inside the town and especially its mines. Being the hero that he is, Swampy enters Tunnel 13 and comes face-to-face with the writhing mass of flesh and tentacles that is M’nagalah. In many ways, he’s one of the worst cosmic horrors that Swamp Thing has ever faced.
Being effectively an Elder God, he’s immortal and has a grotesque form that inspires fear and madness in anyone who gazes upon him. Since he doesn’t have a mouth, he uses telepathy to communicate and manipulate the minds of those susceptible to his presence. M’nagalah is like a predatory hive mind that assimilates bio-organic life forms like rats, rabbits, and human beings, to increase its own body mass.
He can also produce a toxin that infects the minds of those exposed to it, making them his thralls and giving them ugly body modifications in the form of boils and warts. He attacks Swamp Thing because he wants to use his body to fulfill his purpose and emerge as the despotic ruler of all creation. Even after being trapped in Tunnel 13 by the Avatar of the Green, he manages to free himself and moves to Ivy Town, and continues his campaign of malevolent global domination against the All-New Atom.
Nebiros
We’ve seen gods, aliens and the cumulative spirit of decay itself make an appearance on this list; about time we saw our first demon. Although he’s going to be remembered forever as the arch-enemy of the Blue Devil, we’re here to remind you that before he was terrorizing film sets and the Justice League, Nebiros[pronounce: neb was summoned to Earth to take care of Swamp Thing, debuting in Swamp Thing Vol. 1 #15.
While he was wounded and searching for Matt Cable in the swamps of Louisiana, the mass of plant matter that thought it was Alec Holland came across a benevolent preacher who offers to heal him as ‘all things on Earth were created by God and were thus recipients of His love. He should’ve known Father Jonathon Bliss was a fraud when he came across his dilapidated old church, but Swampy was too weak to even question him, and the old man’s smile was reassuring at a time when he was going through an existential crisis.
Father Bliss took advantage of Swamp Thing’s humanity and trapped his soul in an orb that was the former prison of Nebiros. Now free and inhabiting Swamp Thing’s immortal body, Nebiros could finally enact his grand scheme of destroying the world that God had created. He would have probably succeeded too if Matt and Abby didn’t open Father Bliss’ eyes to Nebiros’ deception. Bliss had been led to believe that only Armageddon would bring God back to His children, but all that was a lie that Nebiros had fed him.
Now free to do as he pleased, he proceeded to collect the souls of Matt and Abby to empower himself and exact his vengeance. And if it wasn’t for Father Bliss’ change of heart, he would have probably gotten away with it too. Being a demon from Hell, Nebiros is impervious to any “mortal” damage- punches, kicks, stabs, heck bullets won’t work against this guy.
He also possesses superhuman strength, the ability to increase his powers by absorbing souls, and can fire deathly Eldritch blasts from his eyes that can kill you; or worse, fuses your clothing to your body.
Just ask Daniel Cassidy. However, because he is a demon, he is especially susceptible to magic and cosmic powers. Father Bliss banished him to Hell by performing an exorcism on him, and all his future defeats involve magical forces. Though he hasn’t appeared in a Swamp Thing storyline since Nebiros will always be remembered as the guy who actually managed to take over Swampy’s consciousness and did it in his first attempt.
Blight
If the Justice League is a pop band then Justice League Dark is like its gothic offshoot. Where the JLA takes care of physical threats to the world, be they street-level criminals or world-conquering aliens, Justice League Dark specializes in handling supernatural threats.
During the events of New 52’s first crossover event, Forever Evil, while the mortal realm contends with the threat of the Crime Syndicate of America, Swamp Thing and his peers of the occult must face the living embodiment of evil itself. Debuting in Justice League Dark #24, when Chris Esperanza was brought back to life, he did something most of you would probably not have done.
See, death is a profound experience and while Dragon Ball has conditioned us to expect it as a saga-furthering plot device, for Chris, it only brought him deep despair. Lamenting the unfairness of his resurrection, he gave in to his emotional turmoil and unleashed the biblical force of evil upon the world; Swamp Thing’s team called it Blight.
Manifesting itself in Chris’ body, the sentient spirit began to drown the Earth in its own despair, tapping into the minds of every human being from its perch in the collective unconscious and unlocking their inherent evilness. Because Blight is an entity that originates from emotions as opposed to having a separate corporeal form, defeating him is next to impossible.
John Constantine had to divide his team into two groups to take on Blight in the two realms he was currently infecting; the real world and humanity’s collective unconscious. He went so far as to round up the world’s three greatest sinners- Pandora, Phantom Stranger, and The Question- in an attempt to take Blight down. The Trinity of Sin was sent into the collective unconscious to defeat Blight from “within”, with Zauriel joining them later.
Swamp Thing’s team, meanwhile, took on the physical manifestation of Blight, capable of performing pyrokinesis & sorcery, shape-shifting, and being practically invulnerable to anything that wasn’t a manifestation of its attacker’s inner “blights”. What happened next was a cosmic showdown for the ages, featuring Swamp Thing as an anthropomorphic shark of all things!
Eventually, Swampy and his allies were able to rescue Chris Esperanza’s soul from Blight, as he assumed his new role as the Spirit of Redemption and banish him back into the collective unconscious, which is the only way to defeat this immortal being.
He hasn’t been heard from since, but looking at the direction DC’s Infinite Frontier is taking and knowing the inherently conflicted nature of most sentient life, we think it’s only a matter of time before Swamp Thing must contend with Blight’s ethereal snakes once again; and we don’t think he’s gonna be happy hearing that.