Tefé Holland is a fictional character in comic books published by DC Comics. She is the daughter of Alec Holland/the Swamp Thing and Abby Holland.
Tefé was originally a floating spirit called the Sprout, who tried to find a body from a recently deceased person; she was eventually given a body through Abby Holland having a baby, which was conceived through the Swamp Thing possessing John Constantine and having sex with her. Due to Constantine having the demon Nergal's blood in his veins at the time, Tefe is also part demon. She eventually became an Earth elemental like her father, beginning a line of human Earth elementals as a new Swamp Thing, having all of her father's powers, but retaining a human appearance. She no longer has these powers.
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Publication history
The Sprout first appeared in Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #65 (October 1987), created by writer-artist Rick Veitch. Tefé Holland first appeared in Swamp Thing (vol. 2) #90 (December 1989), created by writer Doug Wheeler and artist Pat Broderick, named after the Brazilian city of Tefé, home of the Parliament of Trees.
Tefé is the featured character in the third Swamp Thing series from 2000 to 2001, launching the comics career of series writer Brian K. Vaughan. The series lasted 20 issues, with two tie-in specials featuring Tefé by Vaughan.
Fictional character biography
Believing the Earth elemental known as the Swamp Thing to be dead, the collective consciousness of nature known as the Green created a new protector in the form of a young sprout. When the Green discovered that the creature was still alive, they ordered this now-redundant Sprout executed. A reprieve came in the form of the Hell-bound magician John Constantine. The Swamp Thing inhabited Constantine's body to impregnate his human wife, Abby Holland, with the seed of this Sprout. Cloaked in the flesh and blood of an infant child, this first human elemental was given the name Tefé with the ability to manipulate both vegetation and flesh on an elemental scale.
The Swamp Thing and Abby Holland hoped that their child would be a better elemental, one able to mend the rift between the two worlds. They named her after the river that flows from the Parliament of Trees' grove. But the Parliament, composed of retired Earth elementals, seemed to go crazy. They wanted to convince Tefé that her true mission was to punish humans for crimes against nature. The Swamp Thing did not allow it, but a part of Tefé truly believed her destiny was to destroy the human race. Frightened and confused, she disappeared shortly thereafter. For more than a year, Abby had no idea where she was. Because of this, the Swamp Thing and Abby decided to separate.
After months of living the sort of normal, boring existence that Abby thought that she wanted, she decided to find her daughter and bring her back into her life. Abby spends over a year following leads until she tracks her down to Westlake, Ohio. To her surprise, she finds her husband waiting for her and they get back together. But this was a bad time, for they find that Tefé has fused a group of loggers' hands and feet together and strung them up like big paper dolls until they bled into one another.
At this point, the couple realize that they are going to have to get some outside assistance. They believe the only person who can help them is John Constantine. He tells them Tefé's power is too powerful to simply be destroyed. The power of the Green is too much for any child to handle and she might destroy the world before the power finally destroys her. Constantine decides her powers cannot be removed, but they can be suppressed, at the cost of one human life. John can erase Tefé's memories, but they need to switch her with another little girl and put her in a new world with a new life and a new family that will love her as their own, or Tefé will go right back to her old self. They choose Mary Conway, an already terminally ill girl days away from dying. Constantine temporarily erases Tefé's memories, the Swamp Thing then manipulates Tefé's own flesh-shaping powers to give her Mary's exact appearance. Her body was transformed down to the very last cell.
In other media
Tefé Holland appears in Harley Quinn, voiced by Vico Ortiz. This version works for the Legion of Doom as one of Poison Ivy's mentees, the Natural Disasters.
Tefé Holland makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the Kite Man: Hell Yeah! episode "Grand Reopening, Hell Yeah!".
Reception
Brandon Thomas of Silver Bullet Comic Books felt that Brian K. Vaughan's run had "incredibly strong characterization".