Swamp Thing/Doom Patrol
Matthew Cable was a government agent who thought Swamp Thing killed Alec Holland. For years, Swamp Thing believed himself to be Holland, and eventually revealed to Cable that he was "Alec", which led Cable to let him go.
He encountered the Doom Patrol during this time (in the 1977 Showcase series).
Eventually, Cable's mind was damaged, leading to him gaining the ability to alter reality itself. He eventually married Abigail Arcane, a longtime friend to Swamp Thing and niece to Anton Arcane, a ruthless man who wanted Swamp Thing's secrets so he could become immortal. Their marriage eventually deteriorated, leading to Matthew's abuse of his power in the form of obscene sexual acts, such as using his powers to create decaying forms to arouse and please him, all the while straining his marriage. Matthew only seemed to be able to access his power while stressed or intoxicated.
After a fight with Abigail that culminates in her leaving on foot to find the Swamp Thing, Matthew has an attack of conscience and drives after her. Having been drinking heavily, he ends up crashing his car, mortally wounding himself. A huge unnatural fly landing by him said it would revive him, and he agrees allowing it to crawl down his throat. In reality, Anton, who had since died and gone to hell, finds a way out by way of Cable. He possesses the fly and then Cable's body and with it gains Cable's godlike power. Eventually Matthew manages to send Arcane back to hell, but at the cost of the effects of the car-crash catching up with him, and only after Arcane had molested and killed Abby. (The plot point, incidentally, that resulted in DC dropping the Comics Code seal on Swamp Thing for good, adding instead the words "Sophisticated Suspense" across the top) Still possessing enough power to repair one body and not wanting to live, he manages to bring Abby back to life (though her soul would still have to be rescued from Hell by the Swamp Thing, who succeeds in doing so). Apologizing to "Alec", he then fell into the coma he would remain in for the duration of his mortal life.
This life is cut short by a corrupt hospital administration harvesting several of his more expendable organs. Abigail takes mercy on Matt and destroys the machinery, ending his life.
Read more about this topic: Matthew Cable
Famous quotes containing the words swamp and/or doom:
“When I would recreate myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most interminable and, to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter a swamp as a sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength, the marrow, of Nature.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My doom and my strength is to be solitary.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)