The Fall of Camelot

Disaster / Destruction

Despite the aid of the Demon Etrigan, enlisted by Merlin and bound to the human Jason Blood, King Arthur and his knights finally fall to the insidious forces of Arthur’s half-sister Morgaine le Fey and her son Mordred. Camelot’s brief, shining moment comes to an end… but Arthur is taken away to Avalon, and prophesied to return in Britain’s hour of greatest need. Both Superman and Swamp Thing are briefly present, separately, during Camelot’s final days.

Betrayed by his wife, Guinevere, and his best friend, Sir Lancelot, and challenged by his bastard son, Mordred, Camelot falls to the forces of darkness. Arthur and Camelot are taken to Avalon to await the time of their return. Merlin also leaves this world, supposedly imprisoned in one of the fading gateways to Avalon and the nymph Nimue Inwudu mourns the fall of Camelot. At the advice of the Phantom Stranger, she bewitches and ensnares Merlin to prevent him from further manipulating human history and in his last conscious moments he lashes out with a curse, removing her powers. Also, as a result of Merlin’s failed experiment, subsequent Master Mages adopt a quieter, behind-the-scenes approach to their duties.

A time-traveling Swamp Thing visits Camelot on its last day, and is present for the destruction of both Morgaine Le Fey and Arthur’s castle. In the aftermath, Merlin binds Etrigan to a druid named Jason, who bears the Demon into the present day under the name Jason Blood. Thanks to the power of the Eternity Book, Le Fey also returns in the modern era, to battle the Demon and Wonder Woman.

The corrupt Kon-sten-tyn—an ancestor of modern day’s John Constantine—is one of several squabbling kings who rises to fill the power vacuum on the island, ruling at Dumnonia in Britain’s West Country (later known as Cornwall).