Ferrett, Bruno, and…um, that other guy.

§ August 28th, 2006 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Ferrett, Bruno, and…um, that other guy.

Don’t worry, I’m not hitting you folks with yet another week of nothing but Swamp Thing posts. However, I received an e-mail from one of the readers of this weblog, who asked a question about something that I hadn’t thought about until now. The writer asked about the fate of one of the characters from the very first issue of Swamp Thing from 1972, who is introduced in this panel:

Pictured there are Ferrett (the fella in the green suit), Bruno (who is named later in the scene) on the left with the short-cut hair, and the unnamed long-haired thug on the right. It’s that long-haired chap that we’re concerned with here.

Here’s a better look at him:

Now I’d just figured it wasn’t important who that guy was…he’s just some muscle accompanying Ferrett on their errand for the mysterious “Mister E.” (not to be confused with this Mister E), who is after the Hollands’ secret biorestorative formula.

However, as my reader noted in his e-mail, that unnamed thug is the guy who actually plants the bomb in the Hollands’ laboratory, as seen here:

Most of you longtime Swampy fans are probably extremely familiar with the bomb in question, having seen variations on this next panel in many flashbacks over the character’s thirty-plus-year run:

And, as we all know, the bomb goes off, the flaming body of Alec Holland plunges into the swamp, and Swamp Thinginess promptly ensues.

The conclusion of the first issue involves Swamp Thing’s revenge on the thugs what turned him into a monster…however, only two thugs get their just deserts. Swampy grabs Bruno (whose hair apparently goes grey from fear in that second panel…or it’s a coloring error, one of the two):

And then Swamp Thing gets his mossy mitts on Ferrett:

But that long-haired guy? Nowhere to be seen. The guy who actually planted the bomb that set off this whole chain of events got off scot-free. Even as we encounter the secret boss-man “Mister E.” in subsequent issues, he has other assistants and thugs involved in his nefarious goings-on.

I don’t know…maybe that guy got a job as one of the Riddler’s henchmen, or became a Leif Garrett impersonator, or something. But now I’ve gone from not thinking about this at all to “Hmmmm…I wonder if that plot point will ever get addressed….”

And there’s your hyper-obsessive Swamp Thing post for the week. Enjoy, won’t you?

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