Swamp Thing TV Show: 8 Things You Need To Know

A long-standing question among comic readers is who came first: DC's Swamp Thing, or the awkwardly named, Marvel character Man-Thing. The answer - like the two characters - is somewhat weird.

Man-Thing debuted first in May 1971, in the pages of Savage Tales #1, created by Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Stan Lee and artist Gray Morrow. Swamp Thing meanwhile would first appear a month later in House of Secrets #92, by Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson. Both monsters share a nearly identical backstory in their debut, and by sheer dates alone, Marvel would appear to have the upper hand in any litigation about copyright for the character.

One of the more interesting parts about this is that Len Wein was Gerry Conway's roommate at the time, which would even lead to Wein writing the second appearance of Man-Thing.

However, both characters were rip-offs in their own right. Swamp Thing and Man-Thing took their major inspiration from The Heap. The Heap was a character created in 1942 by Hillman's Periodicals. A World War I German ace who had been mystically mixed with the marshland, it was the origin used for Swamp Thing and Man-Thing.

While Marvel and DC have never owned the rights to the Heap, the most common use of the character is in Image Comics' Spawn series, where the Heap has taken some cues from Swamp Thing and embodies the Greenworld, the very spirit and soul of the natural world. It's like the characters were created in the same manner as their origins said.