History: (Swamp Thing II #68 (fb, BTS)) - A union activist started causing dissent in a Chicago brewery, so some thugs beat him, set him aflame, and threw him into a vat of fermenting hops. He was reborn as a plant elemental, the Kettle Hole Devil. He served as a conduit between humanity and the Green until the time came for her to leave for the Green and join the Parliament of Trees.

(Swamp Thing II #68, 69, 74 (fb, BTS)) - Swamp Thing traveled to the Green to meet with the Parliament of Trees, and was greeted by Alex Olsen, a previous Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing asked flat out if the Parliament was trying to kill him, and Alex replied that it was time for him to end his earthly existence and join the Parliament. Swamp Thing told him that the love of Abigail Arcane tied him to the world of humans, and Alex was horrified, saying that humans were destroying the Green. Swamp Thing asked if the Parliament was open to debate, and Alex showed him a committee formed to deal with him and the Sprout, Swamp Things chosen successor, consisting of Bog Venus, Kettle Hole Devil, Saint Columba and Ghost Hiding in the Rushes, and told him he was welcome to join. Swamp Things discussion and bonding with the Parliament ended when the Sprout found a new host, Alan Bolland, a schizophrenic sociopath. The harmony of the Green was broken, and Wild Thing was born. With Wild Thing running amok in Metropolis, the committee decided to cut their losses and dissolve Swamp Things mind, and force him into the Parliament. Swamp Thing found it difficult to hang on, and was nearly ready to take his place with them, until thought of Abigail restored his consciousness. He reached out into the other Greens he’d encountered in his space-faring days and landed in the Gray of the moon, unleashing a wave of energy that incinerated the committee and stabbed into the very mind of the Parliament. Swamp Thing removed the Sprout from Wild Thing, refusing to let the new plant elemental be an atrocity, and hid the Sprout on the moon. He placed the minds of the committee inside of Wild Thing, where he hoped they would languish. Swamp Thing vowed never to let the Parliament get the chance to take him again. He left the Green as Alex Olsen begged him to tell him what he’d done with the committee.

(Swamp Thing II #72) - The Parliament discovered the destroyed bodies of Bog Venus, Saint Columba, Ghost Hiding in the Rushes and Kettle Hole Devil, and realized their sacred line of succession had been destroyed by the renegade Swamp Thing. They realized nature was still at war with itself because of two plant elementals walking the world, and continued their machinations to engineer the birth of a new Swamp Thing for Sprout to inhabit.

(Swamp Thing II #74) - The committee members tramped within Wild Thing made their mental presence known, and attacked Abigail Arcane in one of the synchronistic events that the Parliament engineered in a desperate attempt to create a new plant elemental. Swamp Thing destroyed him, releasing the minds of Bog Venus, Saint Columba, Kettle Hole Devil and Ghost Hiding in the Rushes. They initially attacked him, but Swamp Thing brokered a peace by telling them of the Greens on other planets and other galaxies. They left Earth for the stars to pursue their own individuality, and to escape the consequences of the Green’s civil war on Earth.

(Swamp Thing II #80) - The Kettle Hole Devil was drawn on his trek through the universe to a planet whose plant life called out to him. The plants had been molded into a weapon of war by the Dominators, part of a matrix disruptor network aimed at Earth. The Dominators were part of an invasion force targeting Earth, and used the network to seemingly destroy Swamp Thing. Their technology was plant based, and combating a plant elemental would have cost them dearly if not taken unprepared. They recognized the Devil and his fellow galaxy spanning elementals as potential future threats.

Comments: Created by Rick Veitch

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