10 Biggest Comic Book Twists You Never Saw Coming

10. The Truth About The Swamp Thing

There are few origins as tragic as the origin of the Swamp Thing. And as he goes on through his existence, he finds that what he thinks he knows about himself is wrong. He is not a man transformed. He isn’t a man at all. The creature that believed itself to be Alec Holland is quite literally a force of nature.

When scientist Alec was caught in a lab explosion and drenched in his Bio-Restorative Formula that would solve any nation’s food problem, he leaped into the swamp. The formula reacted with the vegetation in the swamp and Holland believed it transformed him into a hulking plant monster. He sought ways to get his human body back and was often opposed by Anton Arcane. After being captured by General Sunderland and experimented on by Jason Woodrue, it was discovered that Swamp Thing wasn’t Alec Holland at all. He was a plant creature with the consciousness and meteorites of Holland.

London magician John Constantine told Swamp Thing that he was the latest in the line of plant elementals and took him to the Parliament of Trees, where all the retired planet elementals reside. Constantine explained that Swamp Thing was an avatar of the Green, the elemental force that connects all plant life in the world and how to travel it around the world and beyond.