Name: Swamp Thing
Universe: Post-Crisis
Alter Ego: Alec Holland
Occupation: Earth Elemental
Marital Status: Married
Group Affiliation: Parliament of Trees
Base of Operations: Houma, Louisiana
Known Relatives: Abby Arcane Cable Holland (wife), Tefe Holland (daughter), Linda Holland (wife, deceased)
Height: 7 ft.
Weight: 350 lbs.
Hair Color: None
Eye Color: Red
First Appearance: Swamp Thing #56

History:
Alec Holland thought he had found a way to feed the world. Aided by his wife Linda, the idealistic young plant biologist believed he had developed a plant-growth-promoting chemical, a "bio-restorative formula", that would turn arid wastes into fertile gardens. Though the Hollands worked in a secret lab in the Louisiana swamplands and were protected by U.S. government agent Matt Cable, the experiment was sabotaged with a bomb. Drenched in the bio-restorative formula, the flaming, staggering body of Alec Holland plunged into the swamp.

A short while later, Holland rose from his watery grave cloaked in the mossy form of the Swamp Thing. Holland theorized that the bio-restorative formula had acted on his immolated flesh, melding it with the bayou's plant life, granting him a near-invulnerable vegetable body. After avenging his wife's murder, Holland began a search for a method to regain his lost humanity. His travels took him to Europe where he met Abby Arcane, niece of Anton Arcane, a techno-wizard obsessed with cheating death – a goal he hoped to achieve by possessing Swamp Thing's indestructible body.

It was only after several years had passed, after the Swamp Thing had become a legend among the Louisiana Cajuns, that Holland began to glean the truth about himself. The bio-restorative fluid had affected him, but not in the way that he had thought. Instead of being a human being who had been transformed into a plant, the Swamp Thing was a plant imbued with the consciousness of a man who did not know he was dead – a ghost dressed in weeds.

This shocking revelation caused Swamp Thing to withdraw into himself. He made contact with the Green, the globe-spanning network of plant life, the spirit of the Earth. Finally at peace with himself and his past, Swamp Thing learned that he was not only a member of the plant kingdom, but its protector, the reigning Earth elemental. Soon afterwards, he made contact with the Parliament of Trees, an ancient congress of former Earth elementals.

In recent months, Swamp Thing has spent much time with the Parliament of Trees, where he learned that they had manipulated his and Alec Holland's lives to ensure that the time loop that created the Parliament and the Swamp Thing was not broken. Since his return to Louisiana, Swamp Thing has settled back into his role as guardian and protector of the bayou.

In the course of her adventures with the Swamp Thing, Abby Arcane met and eventually married Matt Cable. After Cable became a casualty in Anton Arcane's vendetta against Holland, Abby and the Swamp Thing fell in love, and now consider themselves married. When the Swamp Thing was forced to leave Earth for an extended period, the outer house of the Parliament assumed he was dead and set about creating another Earth elemental, the Sprout. When Swamp Thing returned to Earth, he and Abby decided to incorporate the Sprout's spirit into the body of a human child, their daughter Tefe, who because of her dual heritage is the first human Earth elemental.

Powers:
Swamp Thing is without question one of the most powerfule beings in the DC Universe. As an Earth elemental, Swamp Thing can control all plant life, from the microscopic forms that live in the human digestive tract to the giant Sequoia. He can travel around the world instantaneously by slipping into the Green and building a new body when he arrives at his destination. He can also control multiple bodies. Swamp Thing can even journey beyond the realm of the Green and to the Nether-spheres, Heaven and Hell. Swamp Thing has recently learned that he can travel backward in time, but not forward – though that, too, may be one of his latent abilities.