WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Future State: Swamp Thing #2 by Ram V, Mike Perkins, Jun Chung, and Aditya Bidikar, on sale now.
In one of Future State's distant futures, humanity has found itself nearly wiped from existence. In this timeline, humanity's actions against the environment have finally caught up with them. The Green, the supernatural connective force that unites all plant life, has had enough of humanity's reckless disregard for the planet and unleashed Swamp Thing on mankind.
In the aftermath of Swamp Thing destroying human civilization, the guardian of the Green has undoubtedly felt some remorse. As a way to atone for his actions, Swamp Thing has created a new society of plant-based humanoids. He has tasked his creations with a daunting task: finding the last remnants of humanity and ensuring their survival.
The mission of finding and rebuilding human society has not been easy. It has taken, at the very least, a generation for Swamp Thing and his creations to find any trace of them. Because of this, some of Swamp Thing's own creations have started to doubt if the mission is even worth it, as is the case with Indigo. In Indigo's view, Swamp Thing has made it clear that he is more concerned with the fate of humanity, the beings who have caused the planet to fall into such disarray in the first place, than he is with the fate of his own creations. Others though, like Heather, remain steadfast and loyal soldiers, but even they have their limitations.
It becomes clear throughout that Indigo's observations might not be so far from the truth. When the group eventually does find a human, it comes at the cost of one of their own, as the man they do find kills one of their comrades. But instead of exacting revenge for his own fallen "child," Swamp Thing does everything he can to help the man and the colony of humans he left behind. To save the rest of the colony, Swamp Thing and his army of green humanoids accompany the man back to his colony.
There, they discover that none other than Jason Woodrue, aka the Floronic Man, has constructed a device to plunge the world into darkness using the powers of Obsidian. Woodrue plans to use his invention to kill off all plant life on Earth to get back at the Green for rejecting him. Humankind would also face a similar fate. And, what's worse, Woodrue has already activated the machine.
While it's too late to stop what's coming, Swamp Thing is ready to give everything to protect the last remnants of humanity. At this point, though, even his most loyal soldier Heather has had enough. She is furious that Swamp Thing would so cavalierly risk their lives to save the humans, given everything they've done. Swamp Thing has a simple response: he will always choose the lives of humans over his own and even those of his creations because humans carry with them the potential to be more. He then drops the revelation that his creations were never really their own individuals -- they were always just different aspects of himself. They represented his doubt, his ambition, and his innocence. Unlike humans, though, they could never be more than what they were created to be. Therefore, to save humanity, Swamp Thing sacrifices his creations: the literal extensions of his own persona. And even going one step further, Swamp Thing sacrifices his own body as he transforms himself into a giant tree to serve as a shelter for humanity to survive for the generations under darkness to come.
In this way, Swamp Thing proves himself one of the greatest and most human heroes. He does all that he can to atone for his own sins, all while battling his own inner demons and frustrations as personified by the likes of Indigo and Heather. And when it comes down to it, he is willing to sacrifice himself totally and completely to save humanity for generations to come.
In the end, Swamp Thing's Future State adventure shows just how much humanity is responsible for the fate of our planet. The idea of humanity being isolated and facing the wrath of Mother Nature is one that's been made all too familiar by current events. Therefore, Swamp Thing's actions to give humanity a new slate show how, in many ways, he is the hero we need but don't deserve.