As Infinite Frontier launches a new era for the DC Universe, Green gains a new champion to serve as his Swamp Thing.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Swamp Thing # 1, by Ram V, Mike Perkins, Mike Spicer and Aditya Bidikar, out now.
While Alec Holland may be the character most associated with serving as the foundation for the Swamp Thing personality and its occasional human host, Infinite Frontier has started off by introducing a new champion from Green, with Holland and his legacy nowhere to be found. Instead, there is a new Swamp Thing defending the DC Universe, called from his home in India to the United States by a hair-raising supernatural mystery.
And while much of the backstory of this new swamp thing is still shrouded in mystery, this is what the opening number of the relaunched Infinite Frontier title has revealed about its new protagonist.
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The new Swamp Thing is an Indian man named Levi Kamei who flies from New Dehli to New York City, suffering visions of his plant-based other half that threatens to grow out of control and endanger all of his fellow travelers. Flashbacks to Levi’s past reveal that his connection to Green may have to do with his family history – at some point, it is implied that Levi’s brother made a dark deal with mystical forces. While the details of this magical transaction are still unknown, Levi’s less scrupulous brother may have performed a dark ritual, forcibly joining his brother with the Green to make him the new Swamp Thing for his own nefarious ends. Levi comes to the United States to leave behind that tragic family past.
The Ram V creative team and Mike Perkins previously explored the Swamp Thing myth in one of the darkest timelines to be glimpsed in Future State. A swamp thing that had lost its connection to humanity had invaded the planet after a mysterious cataclysm consumed the heroes and villains that once populated it. In the absence of this human bond and family, this avatar of the Green created his own plant-based family as living extensions of himself. It was never confirmed if this alternate future Swamp Thing is a Levi completely lost in the Green or a different manifestation of the plant kingdom.
Compared to other identities and avatars that Swamp Thing has been associated with, Levi is more directly compared to Alec Holland and his dynamic to Swamp Thing at the beginning of the New 52 era in 2011. Shortly before the New 52 began, Holland was resurrected by the White Lantern Light at the end of Brighter day to be Green’s living avatar rather than a sentient plant that contained Holland’s memories and personality. Like Levi, the resurrected Holland was haunted by visions of the Swamp Thing as the plants reacted strangely around them. Finally, when Anton Arcane resurfaced to threaten the DCU, Holland gave up to fully become the Swamp Thing once again.
Levi Kamei is a man torn between his tragic past life in India and the strange plant figure he has become. While Holland’s origins as Swamp Thing stemmed from murders and shady deals, Levi’s backstory seems to revolve around family drama and his ties to the occult.
Although Levi is able to keep the pure and overwhelming nature of the Green in check for now, the new Swamp Thing is about to face its first major test against something terrifying that stalks human prey throughout the American Southwest in a showdown. that will surely be remembered. .
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