Alec Holland

Alec Holland is a fictional character in comic books published by DC Comics. He is most notably a character in the various Swamp Thing series.

Holland appeared in his first live-action adaptation in the 1982 film Swamp Thing played by Ray Wise as Alec Holland and Dick Durock playing Swamp Thing. Durock returned for the role in the sequel film The Return of Swamp Thing 1989, along with playing Holland in regular form. Durock continued playing the character in the 1990 to 1993 Swamp Thing TV series. Years later, the character was then played by Andy Bean as Alec Holland and Derek Mears playing the Swamp Thing form in the 2019 television series.

Alec Holland first appeared in Swamp Thing #1 (October–November 1972), created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson.

In a secret facility located in the Louisiana bayous, scientist Alec Holland and his wife Linda invent a bio-restorative formula that can solve any nations' food shortage problems. Two thugs working for Nathan Ellery, head of the criminal organization the Conclave, barge into Holland's lab, knock him out, and plant a bomb in the facility. Holland wakes up as the bomb explodes. In flames, he runs into the swamp. His body is drenched in the bio-restorative formula, and this affects the plant life of the swamp, imbuing it with Holland's consciousness and memories. The newly conscious plant life forms a humanoid body and rises up from the bog as Swamp Thing, the latest in a long line of Earth elementals created when the Green is in need of protection.

Swamp Thing originally believes himself to be Alec Holland transformed into a monster. He seeks to regain his human body, but often meets opposition in the form of Anton Arcane and his Un-Men. After finally defeating Arcane, Swamp Thing is set upon by General Sunderland's men in a covert military operation. The resulting attacks blast a hole in Swamp Thing's head and destroys the lives of many of his friends. Sunderland brings Swamp Thing's body back to Sunderland Corp to study and unlock the secret of the bio-restorative formula.

Sunderland hires Floronic Man to study Swamp Thing's body, which he stores in a cryochest. Over the course of his research, Floronic Man deduces that Swamp Thing is a plant that thinks it is Alec Holland; the real Holland died in the explosion. Sunderland and Floronic Man part on bad terms, so the scientist uses Sunderland's automated computer systems to raise the thermostat in Swamp Thing's cryochest. This allows Swamp Thing's body to regenerate, and in his search for Sunderland, he stumbles across Floronic Man's report, which sends him into a mindless rage. He kills Sunderland and sets off for the swamps.

Swamp Thing goes into shock from learning his true origins. He roots himself into the swamp and spends three weeks dreaming; his mind eventually travels into the Green. Floronic Man returns to the swamp and discovers Swamp Thing's connection to the Green, but the experience drives him mad. Consuming parts of Swamp Thing's body, Floronic Man is able to influence plant growth worldwide. Swamp Thing catches up with Floronic Man and convinces the villain that his war against animal life is pointless, reminding him that plant life and animal life need each other to survive.

A budding friendship grows between Swamp Thing and Abby Cable, the niece of Anton Arcane. Her husband Matthew grows resentful of her disinterest in sex and turns to alcohol, further pushing her toward Swamp Thing. She asks for his help when her autistic students at Elysium Lawns are tormented by Kamara the Monkey King. Swamp Thing destroys the demon with the help of Etrigan the Demon. On the same night that the demon attacks, Matthew leaves to help Abby. His alcoholism causes him to crash his car, mortally wounding him. To stay alive, he makes a pact with the spirit of Anton Arcane, who possesses his body.

After reuniting with Abby, Swamp Thing travels to the Parliament of Trees, but is greeted with surprised horror. The Parliament had assumed Swamp Thing dead after he was attacked by Dwight Wicker and the Defense Department Intelligence, and had therefore begun to grow a sprout which would grow into a new elemental once bound with a human spirit. Swamp Thing's return triggers a crisis, as having two elementals active at one time would set the balance of nature awry and cause calamity. The Parliament gave him the choice to either take root in the Parliament, and leave Abby forever, or to kill the Sprout. Swamp Thing refused to do either, whatever the consequences. Swamp Thing takes control of John Constantine's body, displacing Constantine into the astral plane. In Constantine's body, Swamp Thing conceives a child with Abby who will act as the Sprout's host. After being sent back in time by the Claw, Swamp Thing returns to the present day in time to witness the birth of his daughter, Tefé Holland.

Alec Holland returns to life via the Life Entity, while Swamp Thing has become a being of mindless destruction. Holland's last conscious memory was of hurling himself into the swamp to extinguish the flames engulfing him, having no memory of ever being Swamp Thing previously.

The Entity reveals Alec Holland as its champion and a missing, vital component of Swamp Thing itself. Unlike the previous incarnation, a mass of humanoid plant life with all of Holland's absorbed memories, this new, renewed Swamp Thing is generated directly from the body of Holland. The Entity gives Holland all of the powers of the Green that the former had wielded, including the additional elemental governance over fire. Holland defeats the corrupted Swamp Thing and restores the Green to its natural order.

In DC Comics's company-wide reboot The New 52, Alec Holland is brought back to life, but is haunted by the memories of Swamp Thing. Holland tries to put those memories behind him and live life as a carpenter in Louisiana, yet the Green continues to reach out for him. He is visited at work by Superman, who informs him of strange animal deaths across the world. Holland declines further investigating the matter as he explains to Superman his search for a normal life. He tells Superman how he tried returning to his botany work and successfully created a bio-restorative formula, destroyed it after experiencing a vision of the Green overrunning Earth. Later that night, Holland has nightmares of Swamp Thing and awakes to find his room covered in plants. He runs outside, this time to truly destroy the formula which he kept, only to be stopped by Swamp Thing.

Swamp Thing reveals himself to be Calbraith A. H. Rodgers, a World War II pilot who was shot down but transformed by the Green into Swamp Thing. Holland is reluctant to hear his message but allows him to speak. Rodgers tells Holland of the rise of Sethe and the Rot and Holland's importance as the next protector of the Green. Rodgers also confirms that Swamp Thing of Holland's memories was not him and that Holland is destined to be the greatest protector of the Green, a warrior king.

Holland is attacked and impaled by a member of the Rot, a force representing death and decay. As Holland is dying, he asks that the Parliament of Trees use their last bit of power to get the bio-restorative formula from his bag and turn him into Swamp Thing. The Parliament agrees to his plan, and breaks open the bio-restorative formula. Holland's human body is destroyed and replaced with plant matter, as he emerges from the pod as Swamp Thing.

• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in an anti-littering public service announcement that was aired on behalf of Greenpeace and coincided with the release of The Return of Swamp Thing.
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in a self-titled TV series (1990), with Dick Durock reprising the title role from Swamp Thing films, and regular form Alec Holland was played by Lonnie R. Smith Jr, Patrick Neil Quinn and Ray Wise.
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing was rumored to appear in an episode of Constantine, but the show was cancelled before the rumor could be proven or disproven.^[1]
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in a self-titled TV series (2019), portrayed by Andy Bean and Derek Mears respectively.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} This version is a disgraced scientist who manipulated test results to prove himself right. He is hired by businessman Avery Sunderland to investigate a virus plaguing Marais, Louisiana, though Holland believes that Sunderland's research is tied to the virus, and works with Abby Arcane to investigate further. Holland is shot by an unknown assailant and his boat is destroyed by dynamite. He dies from his wounds, but the swamp covers him in vines and transfers his memories to a plant that would later become Swamp Thing.

• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in a self-titled TV series (1991), voiced by Len Carlson.
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing makes a cameo appearance in the Justice League episode "Comfort and Joy".
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in Justice League Action, voiced by Mark Hamill.^[7]
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in Harley Quinn, voiced by Sam Richardson. This version is a calm hipster and former associate of Poison Ivy who sports a man bun and several tiny flowers dotting his body.

• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in a self-titled film, portrayed by Ray Wise and Dick Durock respectively. This version of Holland was turned into Swamp Thing by Anton Arcane during a laboratory accident.
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in The Return of Swamp Thing, portrayed again by Dick Durock. This version of Swamp Thing is Holland's consciousness reconstituted through plant life.^[8]
• Swamp Thing appears in Batman and Harley Quinn, voiced by John DiMaggio.^[9]
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in the DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU) series of films, voiced by Roger Cross:
  • Introduced in Justice League Dark,^[10][11] this version is a member of the titular group who assists them in locating Felix Faust and fighting Destiny. However, he is defeated after Destiny takes Holland's corpse from his body.
  • Swamp Thing appears in Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, wherein he sacrifices himself to help Constantine destroy an Apokoliptian Reaper that Darkseid brought to Earth.
• The Alec Holland incarnation of Swamp Thing appears in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.
• On January 31, 2023, a self-titled Swamp Thing horror film was announced to be in development at DC Studios.^[12] The following day, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that James Mangold was in early talks to direct the film after the releases of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and his upcoming Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.^[13]

• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in a self-titled video game.^[14]
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears in DC Universe Online, voiced by Chilimbwe Washington.
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears as a playable character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, voiced by JB Blanc.
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears as a playable character in Infinite Crisis, voiced by Michael Dorn.
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears as a playable character in Injustice 2, voiced by Fred Tatasciore. In Raiden's single-player ending, Swamp Thing joins the newly formed Justice League Dark.
• Alec Holland / Swamp Thing appears as a playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains via the "Justice League Dark" DLC pack.

Alec Holland appears in The Batman Adventures #16. This version lives with the long-retired Pamela Isley and encounters a plant doppelganger she had created prior to keep Batman from locating her.^[15]