The Justice League Dark’s mystical healer offers to sever the newest Avatar of the Green from the mantle of Swamp Thing for good, but he refuses.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Swamp Thing #7, on sale now from DC Comics.
Swamp Thing is elemental avatar of the Green charged with protecting the roots of life throughout the universe, taking host within various people throughout the DC Universe’s history. However, one early Justice League Dark member once connected to Holland certainly proves that the possibility exists.
Following Alec Holland’s death, Levi Kamei was chosen to be a new avatar of the Green. Much like Holland before him, Levi is born from tragedy, and it is these haunting memories that lock the entity within him. Having been part of the Prescot Corporation, Levi had journeyed back to his home in Kaziranga, India, as a company representative in order to convince his father, and the council leadership of Kaziranga, to allow Prescot the purchase of land from these tribal people. As revealed in The Swamp Thing #7, by Ram V, Mike Perkins, Mike Spicer and Aditya Bidikar, this deal would provide the people with progress and development, greater education and new roads. Despite the tribe’s rejection, Levi pushes the land deal through, leading to a wave of violence between the indigenous people and those they see as invaders. The bloodshed that follows left Levi wracked with guilt, as his family condemns his actions and actively fights against Prescot’s need for control, leading to the death of his father via gunshot.
These memories chain Levi to the Swamp Thing, but former Justice League Dark member Nightmare Nurse may be able to free him from those supposed chains.
Nightmare Nurse, created back in 2013’s The Phantom Stranger #4 by Dan DiDio, J.M. DeMatteis, Philip Tan, Jason Paz, Ulises Arreola and Travis Lanham, was once a member of the Justice League Dark and served as the team’s mystic healer and occasional troublemaker. During this time, she would serve alongside Alec Holland’s Swamp Thing, beginning in the “Forever Evil: Blight” storyline, in which a disparate group of magicians must fight the titular Blight and find the missing Justice League Dark members.
During this time, Nightmare Nurse, otherwise known as Asa, would save Holland on multiple occasions, perhaps growing a bond of friendship there as teammates. Following the conclusion of the original Justice League Dark series, Asa fell into relative obscurity, only recently returning as part of Amanda Waller’s squad sent to capture Levi for the mysterious Prescot.
Having lured Levi into a trap by making him believe she was his friend Jennifer, Asa forces Levi to confront his harshest memories. Despite her seemingly harmful intentions, Asa reiterates that she is a healer, not a hunter. With magical knives in his heart, Asa offers to relieve Levi of his burdens, healing the wounds left behind by previous mistakes, effectively severing his connection to the Green, and to the pain that lingers in his soul. She remembers her time fighting alongside the Swamp Thing with Justice League Dark, admitting that during that time, they might have even been friends, thus she extends this offer as a courtesy to the relationship they once had. Levi turns this down, however, and when Asa signals to her squadmate Chemo that her plan had failed, Chemo floods the cavern the pair had occupied with chemicals, seemingly dissolving Levi.
However, the powers of Swamp Thing are not easy to contain or destroy, and they form a giant body with which Levi can now attack the chemical beast. Coming issues may tell whether this old ally will once more side with the Swamp Thing, or if she will again fade into relative obscurity.
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