Swamp Thing Vol. 2 Issue 88

• "Survival of the Fittest" – Swamp Thing journeys back to the beginnings of mankind, and the greatest surprise awaits.

NOTE: The letters column includes a letter by group editor Karen Berger explaining writer/artist Rick Veitch's separation from DC Comics. She expands upon the reason why Veitch quit DC in the letters column in Swamp Thing #89. According to Berger, DC Comics publisher and editor-in-chief Jenette Kahn rejected Veitch's original script for this issue, which would have had Swamp Thing arrive in the past during the time of Jesus Christ. It would have revealed how the three wise men were actually assassins and that Jesus was a hedge wizard. The story was rejected out of fear of offending DC's Christian demographic.

NOTE: The golden cup that the Cro-Magnon warrior takes from Rheelai is the Holy Grail of Arthurian and Biblical lore; earliest chronological appearance.

NOTE: The exact era in which this story takes place is unclear, but it reflects the time when Neanderthal man evolved into Cro-Magnon, the oldest modern evolution of man. Scientific excavations suggest that this would have occurred approximately 40,000 years ago.