Strange Stories of the Swamp: Prof & Rex Meet the Boys from the Bog

“Prof” Walter Haley and “Hourman” Rex Tyler were successful scientists and twin tenacious troubleshooters who founded the Challengers of the Unknown and the Minute-Men of America, Walt as Earth-One's Prof and Rex as Earth-Two's Hourman developed chemical concoctions and at times possessed superhuman abilities. Both men encountered our two bog beings, Swamp Thing and Solomon Grundy.

During an adventure, Prof became infected by a space fungus originating from a cancerous alien entity known as M'nagalah that resided in caverns outside the town of Perdition. Only thanks to a timely assist from a then-human Alec Holland was Prof's condition actually diagnosed, although before he could administer a treatment, Holland reverted to his Swamp Thing form. He was on hand later when Prof was cured. Sadly, Alec was not, and was temporarily mentally controlled by the Challenger's arch-enemy Duncan Pramble aka the Multi-Man. That is, until freed of his influence.

Years earlier on a parallel planet, Solomon Grundy returned from his lengthy exile on the Moon back to Earth-Two, landing back in his home of Slaughter Swamp. This swamp was adjacent to Tyler Chemical, which had formerly been known as Bannermain Chemical, named after its founder (and Pramble's equally malevolent counterpart), and the chemical waste from this company may've contributed to causing Slaughter Swamp to spawn Grundy in the first place. Battling the bulky behemoth, Hourman along with Doctor Fate as well as a subdued Green Lantern were able to combine forces and restrain Grundy, placing him in an emerald energy prison globe orbiting the world.

While Swamp Thing’s pseudo-manhood as Alec Holland was brief, Solomon Grundy’s one-time genetic twin Dick Cashmere preserved his humanity. He presumably continued to lead his former life as a wealthy heir and amateur astronomer in Gotham City, unaware of the trouble the other “Dick Cashmere”caused as the Marshland Monster named Grundy. While M'nagalah was buried in a cave in under tons of rock, its corresponding cancerous enclave on Earth-Two Slaughter Swamp was instead cordoned off within an energy barrier when Solomon later returned to Earth.

Strange Stories of the Swamp: Alec and Dick

The tragic tales of the muck monsters Swamp Thing and Solomon Grundy include more than the creatures spawned in bogs. They also include the men whose consciousness gave them drive and purpose in their legendary lives. Consider Alec Holland of Earth-One and Dick Cashmere of Earth-Two, men who came decades after their predecessors, Alex Olson and Cyrus Gold.

While Alec was a biologist seeking the bio-regenerative formula, Dick was an amateur astronomer. While the formula was the catalyst that transformed as dying Holland into Swamp Thing, light-waves transformed a Solomon Grundy into Dick Cashmere!

Alec sought out his brother, Edward, who was himself a chemist who developed the means to reverse the process, allowing Alec to be human once more. This proved temporary, as he learned he was in fact a clone, created by his arch-enemy Anton Arcane, and reverted to Swamp Thing after only a few month in his homosapien form.

Dick sought out his father John, with the intent of slaying him and inheriting the man's fortune. His true identity is revealed in a confrontation with the Green Lantern, at which point this fake-Cashmere morphs back into Solomon Grundy. Freeing the original Dick Cashmere* and entombing Solomon Grundy within the ground, this version of the Marshland Monster ceases to exist while his human template lives on.

A previous Grundy had been reanimated prior to this encounter by the evil Professor, the counterpart of Arcane, using concentrated chlorophyll. That version of Solomon was preceded by the Cyrus Gold original, and a fourth Grundy was spawned from the buried variant pulled back in time by Per Degaton. Likewise, the original Swamp Thing was Alec Olsen, and following Holland's variant there was an artificially produced replica brought to life by Felix Faust... while a Solomon Grundy clone existed for a time, spawned by the Parasite. This Grundy even met Swamp Thing.

* While the Swamp Thing with Alec Holland's memories lived on Earth-One at the same time as the clone Solomon Grundy who was exiled to an alien world, the former Grundy human-template Dick Cashmere resided on Earth-Two simultaneous to the Degaton-temporal variant Solomon Grundy which he exiled to the moon.

Strange Stories of the Swamp: Hawkmen vs Marshland Monsters

In 1947 on Earth-Two and 1976 on Earth-One, the Hawkmen of each world faced Marshland Monsters who had traveled across country. The 1947 malevolent menace was Solomon Grundy, recently brought back to his pseudo-life by a bolt of lighting from his formerly petrified state. The 1976 misunderstood mutant was Swamp Thing, recently restored to a human state yet once more reverting to his vegetative physical form. 

As to how Katar Hol had first been informed of the Swamp Thing's presence in Portland, Oregon, regardless he felt the need to travel there from his Thanagarian spacecraft to engage with and apprehend the bog being. During the course of this tale, Katar as Hawkman was introduced to government agent Sabre, a vengeful sword wielding assassin who had previously tried and failed to capture the creature himself. 

What is known is how Carter Hall came to learn of Solomon Grundy's cross-country rampage, when he along with his Justice Society colleagues realized their fellow member Green Lantern was missing and discovered their meeting headquarters in disarray. Lantern had learned his old foe Grundy was active once more, while Solomon tracked Lantern to his last known location at the Society's HQ. Traveling to a town named Regis, Carter as Hawkman and Grundy briefly battled, with Solomon escaping to wreak havoc on other towns.

During their final confrontation, Katar-Hawkman was knocked unconscious as Swamp Thing retreated from the scene and transformed back to his pseudo-human form of scientist Alec Holland. When the Justice Society together tracked down Solomon Grundy, they overwhelmed their foe while saving Green Lantern, after which the hero exiled Grundy in an emerald globe on the moon's surface.

Strange Stories of the Swamp: Caped Crusaders vs Bayou Behemoths

Soon after Swamp Thing formed around the consciousness of scientist Alec Holland, he grew attached to a pair of humans named Matt Cable and Abigail Arcane. Cable was a government agent in pursuit of the creature, while Abigail was the niece of the bayou being's arch-enemy, Anton Arcane. Both were captured by Nathan Ellery, the founder and financier of the evil Conclave, the organization which sought to steal Holland's bio-regenerative formula. Tracking them to Gotham City, Swamp Thing tried unsuccessfully to disguise himself in a hat and overcoat, leading the Gotham City Police to enlist Batman's aid in tracking him down. Swamp Thing reluctantly overpowered Batman, then freed Matt and Abigail while confronting Ellery. After Nathan seemingly fell to his death, Swamp Thing left Gotham.

Decades earlier, Solomon Grundy was on a cross-country criminal rampage, seeking his arch-enemy Green Lantern for revenge. Lantern's fellow Justice Society members each tracked Grundy to various towns, with Doctor Mid-Nite encountering Solomon in the burg of Carver. The Doctor was unable to subdue Grundy, who overpowered him and escaped. However, Mid-Nite and his fellow teammates eventually joined forces to overwhelm Grundy, with their fallen friend Green Lantern returning the favor for saving his life by exiling Solomon in an emerald globe on the surface of the Moon.

Swamp Thing and the Batman of Earth-One would encounter one another a couple more times, the first of which was when Swampy was captured by a carnival promoter. Soon after freed, Swamp Thing assists Batman in uprooting dangerous experimental spores while evading capture by the government. Still later, Swamp Thing and Batman teamed up on a case to track down the killers of Catwoman's sister Felicia, a woman who resembled Alec's late wife Linda.

Solomon Grundy and Doctor Mid-Nite battled one another once more, when Grundy's green-globe was eventually pulled from the moon back down to Earth-Two. However, this encounter was overshadowed by the appearance of the Anti-Matter Man, a malevolent explorer from the Anti-Matter Universe. Mid-Nite's Justice Society teammate Batman finally met Grundy years later, when he and Superman confronted the creature along with his new master, the Ultra-Humanite.

Grusome Gaggles of Greedy Grundys

Originally born on Earth-Two, due to a strange combination of toxic chemicals mixing with sunlight within Slaughter Swamp, the man once known as Cyrus Gold had his memories placed within a synthetic life known as Solomon Grundy. However, as this process was transpiring, a Grundy was plucked from the future by Per Degaton. 

However, this wasn’t the Cyrus Gold version, nor the chlorophyll-concentrated variant created by the criminal Professor. Instead, this was another Grundy derived from Solomon’s third incarnation, one who was an intelligent yet bestial clone of astronomer Dick Cashmere. This fourth Grundy had been stripped of his Professor and Cashmere enhanced characteristics when Degaton plucked him from 1947, creating this temporal clone of Grundy six years earlier.

The Earth-One Solomon Grundy was spawned by residual chemicals in swamp water brought over by a visiting Grundy to that world, activated by the power crystal of the Parasite. The muck originating from Slaughter Swamp was formed into a replica of Grundy thanks to the catalyst provided by the purple-skinned villain, as the Parasite sought revenge against his arch-foe Superman and saw his the Earth-Two Grundy quickly dispatched Superman until tricked by the hero led to his incarceration on the moon.

This Earth-One Grundy was eventually exiled to a distant world when Superman promised to take somewhere where Solomon could fly like his foe. Like that Grundy, the childlike version which Per Degaton materialized in 1941 was returned to the barren world of the moon six years later, taking the place of his now energized version which journeyed to Earth-Two to assimilate Dick Cashmere!

Dressed to impersonate Solomon Grundy, there were imitators of the original on both Earths. During a masquerade party, a man dressed up as Solomon Grundy... alongside another dressed up as Swamp Thing, were among the quintet of minions mentally controlled by Felix Faust. Seeking rare and precious gemstones owned by wealthy guests of this party, Faust used the five to distract the Super Friends long enough to coerce the partygoers into revealing the location of these valuables. Each had powers mirroring their real life counterparts.

Despite this, these faux-foes of the Earth-One Super Friends were defeated by the combined efforts of a disguised Jimmy Olsen and the Wonder Twins. Once Faust was knocked unconscious, the masked guests returned to normal.

On Earth-Two, during Grundy's third appearance following his liberation from Green Lantern's green globe, Solomon terrorized five different cities across America. When members of the Justice Society arrived to battle their gruesome adversary, one of these Grundy's was himself an impersonator, defeated by Johnny Thunder rather easily. While Thunder’s faux-Grundy was the counterpart of Felix’s faux-Grundy, Faust’s faux-Swamp Thing had a counterpart in the Professor’s green Grundy!

There were several white-skinned synthetic life forms similar to Solomon Grundy, created by the sinister Mister Daro, that Osgood Armsby faced in June of 1938... the same month that Earth-Two's Superman debuted. And decades later, Earth-One's Superman would face several Grundy clones replicated from the original, and destroyed by S.T.A.R. Labs. It was during this latter encounter that one of the Grundys met another creature from the bayou, the Swamp Thing. 

Like Dick Cashmere, Alec Holland was a normal man who had his intellect transposed into a vegetation-encrusted body. When a criminal Conclave sabotaged the laboratory of Holland, the resulting explosion mixed with Alec's bio restorative formula to form the Swamp Thing's body with Holland's intellect.  While Cashmere regained his humanity freed from Grundy’s clutches, Holland’s brief reversion to humanity was reversed when he became Swamp Thing once more!

Shortly after this, a piece of his plant-based arm that had been severed from his body became a mindless duplicate of the Swamp Thing, one which the original Holland version battled until the pseudo-Thing perished. This faux-Swamp Thing mirrored the irradiated pieces of wood imbued with pseudo-life by Solomon Grundy when he battled Doctor Fate and Hourman in the 1960s.

And just like Holland, Cashmere was but the second person to experience this human-swamp transposition, as another Earth-One scientist proceeded Holland in similar research. That man, Alex Olsen, like Cyrus Gold, was the template for swamp creatures that later met the protectors of Gotham City.

So in summary, the correlating counterparts of our swamp creatures are:

- Alex “Swamp Thing” Olsen = Cyrus “Solomon Grundy” Gold

- Alec “Swamp Thing” Holland = John “Solomon Grundy” Cashmere

- Solomon Grundy (Parasite clone) = Solomon Grundy (Degaton clone)

- Solomon Grundy ( Felix Faust impersonator) = Solomon Grundy (Johnny Thunder impersonator)

- Swamp Thing (Felix Faust impersonator) = Solomon Grundy (Professor’s chlorophyll version)

A Blockbuster: The Forgotten Tale of Solomon Grundy... and Other Monsters

Solomon Grundy was a character that only appeared four times in the golden age yet become an infamous legend! However, there is a tale from his past seldom told that adds a new dimension to this malevolent being! For the first time in decades, its presented only here for your enlightenment. And as Slaughter Swamp's most infamous "offspring", Grundy had a connection with his doppleganger the Swamp Thing of a parallel planet.

The often told tale was how Cyrus Gold mutated into Solomon Grundy after soaking for an untold period of time in the radioactive marshland outside Gotham City known as Slaughter Swamp. Like Alec Holland, former doctor turned sentient vegetation known as Swamp Thing, Grundy scared most whom he encountered. However, unlike the good Thing, Grundy was pure evil. After an initial confrontation which his future arch-enemy Green Lantern, which seemingly extinguished the pseudo-spark of life within him, Grundy was revived (and turned green) thanks to a concentrated shot of chlorophyll by a criminal Professor to serve as hired muscle. Instead, Grundy turned on his benefactor and unleashed a nationwide wave of terror unmatched previously. Finally dispatched once more by the Lantern named Alan Scott, rendered in stasis until a bolt of lightning reinvigorated him.

Again traveling across country, this time from the west back to the east to meet the Lantern for a rematch, he faced several members of the Justice Society. Seeming improbably, Grundy appeared in six cities wherein six Socialites battled him at the same time, one of which whom Johnny Thunder battled was a man disguised to look like Solomon. The others exhibited a "faster than light" replication which Grundy would display in his next appearance shortly thereafter, since their individual battles with Hawkman, Doctor Mid-Mite, the Atom, the Flash and Green Lantern occurred simultaneously.

After this third battle, Solomon was imprisoned by the Lantern on the moon, seemingly forever. Decades later, he returned from the moon to plague a new generation of heroes and travel to a parallel universe to spread his evil there! After seeing the Justice Society and their counterparts the Justice League together, Grundy wondered if he had a counterpart as well. And so, using his residual energy he had absorbed from the Green Lanterns whom he had just battled, Grundy journeyed to Earth-One to find his twin (who he already met in Blockbuster) and ended up battling that planet's Superman before returning to his home world. This laid the foundation for several clones of the monster, similar to his several incarnations on his home world throughout the decades.

However, before his return in the 1960's,  Grundy had one final forgotten duel with his power ring protagonist in 1947. Note this truncated series of panels which presented a brand new Grundy to the world! On the left side of the panels, we see young Dick Cashmere, an astronomer separated from his father as a child somehow spying Grundy while the monster was on the moon. Through some techniques not revealed, Grundy seemingly flew back to Earth and then... here is the strange part... BECAME Dick Cashmere (or at least a duplicate of the lad). On the right side we see this fake Dick meet Alan and Doiby Dickles, at which point Alan suspects... due to the  presence of a withered flower on Cashmere's person... that the young man was at the scene of a train disaster earlier. Tracking him down after noticing a picture of Dick Cashmere showing the face of Solomon Grundy, Green Lantern this time entombed him deep within the Earth (to be extracted by Per Degaton to be sent back in time to battle the All-Star Squadron). 

This Grundy reverted back to his childish disposition, the green version and Dick Cashmere versions apparently having been eliminated. This “chronal-clone” Grundy spawned by Degaton existed for a time concurrent to the still-developing Cyrus Gold's Grundy in Slaughter Swamp. Once more, Grundy was sent back to the moon and this time didn't regain the knowledge of anti-gravity and personality/appearance assimilation he had previously obtained.

During his second appearance in the silver age, due to an anomaly he was shifted to Earth-One while a a kindred sinister spirit also from Gotham City of that world who was shifted to Grundy's Earth-Two. And on this occasion, he met a similar man-monster in Mark Desmond aka the Blockbuster, a young chemist who gave himself a super-strength yet with a childlike mind that plagued Batman and Robin repeatedly. Each would travel to the other's world twice more though these two behemoths of Gotham would never meet again. And both menacing mammoths would join the Injustice Society of Earth-Two and the Secret Society of Super-Villains on Earth-One.

On Earth-One, after the original Grundy's battle with Superman, some of his residue was left behind which Solomon had brought with him. And so, this unorthodox chemical composition was activated by the Power Prism of the Parasite to be used against the Man of Steel, although this new Grundy wasn't as malevolent as his "dad", and aided Superman against the villain. As a reward, Superman gave Grundy a cape and brought the man-monster to a world where he too could fly, and on this planet the beast would remain.

And yet, that still wasn't the end of Grundy on Earth-One. Felix Faust changed a normal man into a Grundy and Swamp Thing copies, along with four others who impersonated fearsome foes to face the Super Friends, although he was eventually returned to normal after the conflict. Then, the remaining Slaughter Swamp sludge caused a chain reaction wherein other Grundy clones were spawned simultaneously in Metropolis. Eventually, Swamp Thing himself met one such clone of Grundy's, trying to ascertain if Solomon's biology could transform the Thing back into a human. Instead, the Swamp Thing discovered that each Grundy is a not definable as a life form yet still functions as such. Thanks to S.T.A.R. Laboratories, almost all the Grundys were destroyed.

This paralleled white-skinned minion monster men whom Doctor Occult battled underground years before Grundy first debuted.

However, one remained that made his way to Gotham City, causing havoc there before Batman lured him into a furnace which consumed his inferior body (this case was the parallel to the first Grundy's encounter with Earth-Two's Huntress). Back over on Earth-Two, the original Grundy upon his returning in the middle 1960's to his home world from his decades long lunar exile empowered dozens of wooden objects with the same half life he himself had, and these entities sought to protect him from attacks lodged against him by Doctor Fate, Hourman and Lantern himself.

And so, the original Grundy's battle on Earth-One versus Superman mirrored that of Blockbuster of Earth-One fighting Superman in Earth-Two's Atlantis. The original Grundy based on Cyrus Gold from Earth-Two was the cosmic twin of Alec Olsen who became the first Swamp Thing of Earth-One. The counterpart to the Grundy Green Lantern that Solomon created on Earth-Two was Bizarro Yellow Lantern of Earth-One. The dozen Grundy clones whom Superman and Swamp Thing faced in Metropolis mirrored the Grundy-like foes whom Doctor Occult faced underneath New York City (More Fun Comics #31). The animated vegetation from Earth-Two's Slaughter Swamp mirrored Earth-One's Council of Trees.

The "Grundy" who battled the Super Friends and the "Grundy" who faced Johnny Thunder were dopplegangers, while the "Swamp Thing" that fought alongside him against the Super Friends mirrored the green Grundy spawned by the Professor. And the first Grundy clone on Earth-One which Superman exiled to a another world to become a "caped crusader" was offset by the chronal-clone Grundy that Per Degaton brought back from 1947 to 1941 to battle the Justice Society and the All-Star Squadron, then returned to moon in 1947.

The Cyrus Gold Solomon Grundy incarnation was his world’s version of Alex Olsen’s original Swamp Thing. Finally, the enduring Solomon Grundy throughout the decades, the one who became a human twin of Dick Cashmere, found a counterpart in Alec Holland, the scientist who's mind transferred into vegetation that became what was known as the Swamp Thing.