comicbooks.com Join Free
Home › Alex Olsen
Alex Olsen

Alex Olsen

6 appearances · Bronze Age · 1971–2020 · 1 key issues
Who is Alex Olsen?

Alex Olsen is the original Swamp Thing — a scientist murdered by a jealous colleague and left to die in a Louisiana swamp, whose body merged with the surrounding vegetation to rise again as a monstrous creature of the muck.

Few characters can claim a debut as legendary as Alex Olsen's — introduced in House of Secrets #92 in 1971 by the dream team of Len Wein and Berni Wrightson, his first appearance is one of the most celebrated key issues of the Bronze Age and a cornerstone of DC horror history. Though his catalog footprint is small, the gravity of that debut has kept Alex Olsen in print across nearly five decades, with DC returning to that foundational story through archival editions and classic reprints. He shares his pages with some of DC's heaviest hitters — Swamp Thing, The Flash, Green Lantern, Kid Flash, and the Trickster — which speaks to the enduring significance of the story that introduced him. For collectors and fans who love the atmospheric, gothic side of DC's Bronze Age, Alex Olsen is a name worth knowing.

★ First appearance
House of Secrets #92
Jun 1971

Top series

Covers through the years — 1971–2020

House of Secrets #92 1971
House of Secrets #92
DC Comics Classics Library: Roots of the Swamp Thing #[nn] 2009
DC Comics Classics Library: Roots of the Swamp Thing #[nn]
Justice League Dark #3 2014
Justice League Dark #3
The Flash #750 2020
The Flash #750

Appearances

House of Secrets (1956)
#92
Swamp Thing (1985)
#47
DC Silver Age Classics House of Secrets 92 (1992)
DC Comics Classics Library: Roots of the Swamp Thing (2009)
Justice League Dark (2012)
#3
The Flash (2016)