Swamp Thing #1

Nov 2011 · DC · 2.99 USD

📊 ~54,757 copies sold its debut month

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“Raise Dem Bones”

★ 1st appearance — Alec Holland★ 1st appearance — Linda Holland★ 1st appearance — Swamp Thing★ 1st appearance — Anton Arcane★ 1st appearance — Nathan Ellery

About this Issue

Swamp Thing #1 (2011) is the opening chapter of the fifth volume of Swamp Thing's publication history and one of the most critically embraced debut issues of DC's New 52 initiative, notable for firmly reintegrating the character — long a resident of the Vertigo imprint — into the main DC Universe. Scott Snyder used the issue to introduce a bold narrative premise: Alec Holland exists as a fully resurrected human man who refuses his destiny as the Green's champion, a psychological tension that distinguished this run from every previous incarnation. The issue also introduces the New 52 version of Abigail Arcane and, via an in-story vision, lays the groundwork for the mythology of Sethe and the Rot, the elemental force of decay that would define the entire Snyder run. Paquette's innovative page design — where panel borders themselves warp and organic forms infiltrate the gutters — set a new visual standard for horror storytelling in mainstream superhero comics.

writer Scott Snyder · artist, inker Yanick Paquette · colorist Nathan Fairbairn · letterer John J. Hill · cover Yanick Paquette

ComicBooks.com Value

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Raw (NM) $14

CGC 9.8 · 57 in census $125

CGC 9.6 · 25 in census $80

CGC 9.4 · 13 in census $51*

CGC 9.2 · 4 in census $43*

CGC 9.0 · 4 in census $41*

CGC 8.5 · 1 in census $33*

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CGC 8.0 · 2 in census $20*

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History

The New 52 relaunch was made possible in part by the Flashpoint event, which served as an in-universe mechanism to bring Vertigo-adjacent characters like Swamp Thing back into the regular DC continuity while resetting numbering and history across all titles. DC editorial paired Snyder — then gaining recognition for American Vampire and early Batman work — with Canadian artist Yanick Paquette, who handled both pencils and inks on the debut issue, an unusually demanding double duty that contributed to the book's distinctive, densely detailed visual texture. The series picked up directly from plot threads in Brightest Day, in which Alec Holland had been literally resurrected as a human being, giving Snyder a dramatically unusual starting point: a Swamp Thing book whose protagonist is, at the outset, not the Swamp Thing at all.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published September 7, 2011 by DC Comics as part of the New 52 line-wide relaunch (volume 5 of the Swamp Thing series); on-sale date confirmed by DC's official site.
Written by Scott Snyder (issues #1–18 and Annual #1); interior art, pencils, and inks by Yanick Paquette; colors by Nathan Fairbairn; letters by John J. Hill.
First appearance of the New 52 / Prime Earth incarnation of Alec Holland in his own title (Swamp Thing Vol. 5 #1); Holland does not transform into Swamp Thing until issue #7.
First appearance of the New 52 incarnation of Abigail Arcane in this series, glimpsed at the issue's cliffhanger close — a key character whose connection to the Rot drives the entire first arc.
Superman appears in a notable in-continuity cameo, visiting Holland at his construction job to discuss mysterious animal deaths worldwide — an early signal that this Swamp Thing now inhabits the shared DC Universe rather than a Vertigo-isolated one.
The issue introduces the New 52 framework of elemental cosmic forces — the Green (plant life), the Red (animal life), and the Rot (decay) — with the Rot's avatar Sethe identified as the series' primary antagonist.
Collected in the New York Times Best Selling trade paperback Swamp Thing Vol. 1: Raise Them Bones (issues #1–7, August 2012) and later in the hardcover Swamp Thing by Scott Snyder Deluxe Edition (#0–18 and Annual #1) and the Swamp Thing: The New 52 Omnibus (#0–40 plus annuals and crossover tie-ins).
Snyder's entire run (issues #1–18) later collected alongside the Charles Soule run (issues #19–40) in the comprehensive Swamp Thing: The New 52 Omnibus hardcover.