Origin

When Levi was 16, he moved to the United States to attend Columbia on a biology scholarship. After college, he got a job with The Prescot Company. They used Levi as a spokesperson to sell a land grab in his hometown in India, disappointing his family and leading to community protests. One such protest is met with government suppression, and Levi’s father is shot by police. In response, his mother performed ancient rites to call upon the spirits to empower Levi’s brother, Jacob. These spirits would forsake Jacob and choose Levi instead.

Creation

Levi Kamei debuts in The Swamp Thing (2021) #1 by Ram V and Mike D. Perkins. His debut series was originally greenlit for 10 issues but was extended to 16 thanks to popular demand.

Major Story Arcs

The New Avatar of the Green

After returning to New York City, Levi was plagued by dreams. During these dreams, his mind would leave his body and possess a Swamp Thing body produced by native plant-life in Arizona to confront a villain known as The Pale Wanderer. He confided this in his longtime friend, Dr. Jennifer Reece, but their investigations into his mind pulled both of them into The Green. Separated from his friend, Levi would encounter previous avatars of The Green. Alec Holland informs Levi that he was chosen by The Green to combat a new contagion that is warping it. Poison Ivy helps him anchor the memory of the first avatar to stabilize his powers, and The Floronic Man tries to manipulate Reece to control Levi but fails.

Later, Harper Pilgrim, head of The Prescot Company, reached out to Amanda Waller to put Levi on her radar. She had the Karizanga swamp bombed to draw Levi out and sent Peacemaker in with a small Suicide Squad to capture him. One of the squad members, Nightmare Nurse, did magic surgery on his soul, investigating his memories for the trauma that The Green attached itself to. When she found it, she offered to remove it so The Green would disconnect from him and he would no longer be Swamp Thing. Levi denies the chance, accepting the power of The Green for now.

After fighting off the rest of the Suicide Squad, Levi is confronted by his brother, who has transformed into a monster and embraced his inhuman nature as Hedera. It was he, who was responsible for the contagion; his own hatred poisoning The Green. Levi tried retreating, until a potted plant shared the memory of Reece being kidnapped by Prescot goons. He heads to the lab where they are keeping her, but Hedera is already destroying it. Levi attack his brother to stop the destruction, but when Pilgrim uses the nitrogen failsafe to freeze them, Levi shields and saves his brother, nearly dying in the process.

Parliament of Gears

In the death of his plant-matter body, Levi’s consciousness was pulled into The Green, which was becoming more and more hostile without him. He was saved by some trees that put him into a stasis so that he could piece himself back together. Meanwhile, Reece sought the help of Tefe Holland with navigating The Green and recovering Levi. With their help, Levi remembered what it meant to be human and fought back against The Green’s hostility. This peace would be short-lived.

He felt a disturbance when Jack Hawksmoor was attacked in Detroit. Together they discovered The Factory, a primordial force counterpart for industry. Levi turned to the Parliament of Trees, who informed Levi that while he slept they had gone to war with a new parliament, The Parliament of Gears, which are untempered by love, joy, or the heartbreak of watching things grow and live and die. All but one of the trees rejected Levi, granting his power to his brother instead, a war-time avatar. The one tree who didn’t reject Levi promised him whatever limited power she had until the rest of the parliament realized their mistake.

To help Hedera, The Green calls on intergalactic plant life to come to Earth. This gets the attention of Hal Jordan who teams up with Levi to investigate the invading species. There, Levi combines his silver of The Green’s power with the will of a Green Lantern and composes himself to confront his brother. He convinces his brother of the truth and convinces the tree to release the power to him. This strengthens the hopeful side of The Green against the contagion and allows Levi to confront The Pale Pilgrim, a combination of The Pale Wanderer and Harvard Pilgrim. He was the mastermind behind opening The Factory and installing its own parliament, The Parliament of Gears. He ignored The Pale Pilgrim though to give this new parliament a choice. Just as The Green could choose between Levi and his brother, The Factory had a choice to.

The Factory was presented with Trinity, a sentient being created from radiation leftover from nuclear weapon testing. They chose her innocence over The Pale Pilgrim’s greed. However, greed is too old an idea to die, so Levi buried The Pale Pilgrim under a large tree.

Dark Crisis

Pariah, a mad scientist, accidentally destroyed his home planet, causing the events of Crisis of Infinite Earths. Now, Pariah is back to fix his mistake by tapping into the cosmic force, The Great Darkness. The heroes of Earth have split up into teams to fight the war on all of its fronts. Levi joins a cabal that seeks to learn all they can of the Great Darkness and end it once and for all.

Because he is a creature of the sun and believed to be able to endure the darkness, Levi is chosen for a task force with Superman (Jon Kent) and Raven. They would be sent into the world of magical fire within Alan Scott’s green lantern ring to reconnaissance its connection to the darkness. Unfortunately, once they were there, Levi and Jon started to give into the darkness, lashing out at Raven, who had long mastered it.

To protect them both, Levi merges with Jon so that they can venture further without being poisoned by the darkness’ influence. At the center of it, they found Pariah’s original device, at which point, the fire spat the trio out. They realized the darkness wasn’t corrupting Pariah, but the other way around. They brought this to the heroes rallied by Dick Grayson and continued to fight off the Dark Army.

Powers and Abilities

Elemental Control: As Avatar of The Green, Levi has the potential for complete mastery of all forms of plant life. He is able to communicate with and through all plant life on Earth.

• Chlorkinesis: The ability to commune with plant life and to varying degrees control its growth and form. This includes manifesting bodies made of plant matter for his mind to occupy anywhere on the planet.

• Super Soldier: Levi is granted enhanced strength and endurance as the Avatar of the Green. He can also heal and resurrect thanks to his connection to The Green.