Bio-Restorative Serum

A plant-growth formula intended to help end world hunger, the Bio-Restorative Serum was created by husband and wife team Alec and Linda Holland. Early results seemed promising, and the US government took an interest. An agent of the DDI relocated the Hollands to a lab in a Louisiana swamp for their protection. Unfortunately, it was already too late: their enemies had tracked them, and Linda was shot dead. Alec was left in his laboratory, splashed by the serum and unable to stop the countdown on the incendiary bomb left with him.

When it exploded, he caught fire and stumbled out into the swamp, apparently dead. But no one had reckoned with the power of the Bio-Restorative Serum. Its effects, combined with fire and the abundant life of the swamp, transformed Holland into the Swamp Thing, a man-like sentient plant entity who soon joined the ranks of DC’s heroes. Holland spent years believing that he had become “a muck-encrusted mockery of a man”, but the truth, when he eventually learned it, would be far stranger. And have surprisingly little to do with the Bio-Restorative Serum.

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Origin: Dark Genesis by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson, from the Swamp Thing comics.