Defense Department Intelligence

The Defense Department Intelligence, or D.D.I., is a fictional government agency fetured in comic books published by DC Comics. They first appeared in Swamp Thing, Volume 1 #1 in November, 1972.

Overview
The is a government law-enforcement agency that works directly for the Department of Defense. They are charged with maintaining and protecting state secrets and have jurisdiction on an international level, so long as they comply with U.N. regulations. The D.D.I. serves as a liasion between government heads of state and civilian contractors including weapons manufacturers, scientific think tanks and consulting firms.

History
Many years ago, D.D.I. agent Matthew Cable was sent to work as a liasion between the U.S. government and two scientists named Alec and Linda Holland, who had been developing a top-secret bio-restorative formula. Their work was being financed by the Mantoson Genomics Corporation, who were operating under the auspices of the.

The D.D.I. set the Hollands up in a small laboratory barn in the bayou of Louisiana. Matt Cable was assigned to oversee their work, but also to protect them from anything that might threaten their progress. Cable reminded them that there were those who would kill the Hollands to steal their work, but there were also just as many who would kill them just to see it destroyed.

Cable's warning soon manifested itself in the form of a criminal cartel known as the Conclave. Led by a man known only as Mister E., they sought to purchase the Bio-restorative formula from them as it represented a threat to Mister E.'s other business interests. When their efforts to purchase the formula peacefully from the Hollands failed, more extreme measures were taken. Mister E. sent his goons to the laboratory and set a bomb, which destroyed the lab and fatally injured Alec Holland. Holland was doused with the flaming chemicals from the formula and ran out into the swamps where he collapsed. The burning chemicals interacted with the local plantlife in a most unexpected way. What rose in Alec Holland's place was a hulking green creature that many have come to know as the Swamp Thing. Soon after, Mister E.'s head enforcere, Maxwell Ferrett, murdered Linda Holland.

Matthew Cable witnessed the Swamp Thing out near the cabin and tried to stop it, but his bullets were ineffective. He believed the Swamp Thing was responsible for the deaths of Alec and Linda Holland and vowed revenge against it.