Swamp Thing (comic Book) - First Series - Len Wein

Len Wein

The first Swamp Thing series ran for 24 issues, from 1972 to 1976. Len Wein was the writer for the first 13 issues before David Michelinie and Gerry Conway finished up the series. Of particular note, famed horror artist Berni Wrightson drew the first ten issues of the series while Nestor Redondo drew a further thirteen issues, the last issue being drawn by Fred Carillo. Swamp Thing fought against evil as he sought the men who murdered his wife and caused his monstrous transformation, as well as searching for a means to transform back to human form.

Swamp Thing has since fought many villains, most notably the mad Dr. Anton Arcane. Though they only met twice during the first series, Arcane and his obsession with gaining immortality, aided by his nightmarish army of Un-Men and the tragic Patchwork Man (Arcane's brother Gregori Arcane, who after a land mine explosion was rebuilt as a Frankenstein-type creature by his brother), became Swamp Thing's archnemesis, even as Swamp Thing developed a close bond with Arcane's niece Abigail Arcane. Also involved in the conflict was Swamp Thing's close friend turned enemy Matthew Cable, a federal agent who mistakenly believed Swamp Thing responsible for the deaths of Alec and Linda Holland.

Despite Wein's writing the first thirteen issues, only the first ten issues of the original Swamp Thing series had been collected in trade paperbacks or reprint comics, primarily due to the popularity of Wrightson's artwork, stopping rather than concluding the story arc. Wein ended his run as writer by having Swamp Thing reveal his identity to Matt Cable and ultimately avenging the death of his wife by defeating Nathan Ellery. The full Wein 13 issue run was released in hardback by DC in June 2009.