Plantman
| Plantman | |
|---|---|
Plantman
Stan Woch, Art |
|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Strange Tales vol. 1 #113 (October, 1963) |
| Created by |
Stan Lee Jerry Siegel (co-writers) Dick Ayers (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Samuel Smithers |
| Team affiliations |
Thunderbolts Maggia New Enforcers |
| Notable aliases | Blackheath |
| Abilities |
Plant manipulation Plant-based weaponry |
Plantman is the name of two supervillains in Marvel Comics.
The Samuel Smithers version of Plantman first appeared in Strange Tales vol. 1 #113 and was created by Stan Lee, Jerry Siegel (under the alias of Joe Carter), and Dick Ayers.
The Paul version of Plantman first appeared in Astonishing Ant-Man #7 and was created by Nick Spencer and Ramon Rosanas.
Growing up as a poor London orphan, Samuel Smithers found refuge and work as a lab assistant with a famous botanist who was researching the intelligence of plant life. After the botanist's death, Smithers traveled to the United States, hoping to pick up where his mentor left off — inventing a device capable of communicating with plants. Smithers was laughed out of the scientific community and could only find work as a gardener. However, a freak lightning storm struck Smithers' plant ray-gun allowing it to control and animate plant life. With his "Vege-ray" and a disguise as the Plantman, Smithers wanted revenge on his former employers but was stopped by Human Torch. Plantman does another attempt at revenge, this time on the Human Torch which ended with Plantman ending up arrested. He broke out, however, and traveled to the southwestern United States to grow more plants, this time with his own spliced cells. Here he had partial control, but was also sensitive to the plant's whims. When at one point he thought he had killed Tony Stark, he decided to go directly for world domination, but was foiled by Iron Man.
Count Nefaria broke the Plantman and several others out of prison to serve him as his lieutenants to help bolster his prominence in the Maggia crime family. To this end, the Plantman, the Eel, Unicorn, Porcupine, and Scarecrow captured the X-Men in an extortion attempt, but the mutants turned the tables on their captors. At least the Plantman managed to pilfer technology from the Maggia before his escape. He used this to create a monstrous Leviathan out of animated seaweed to terrorize London. It was stopped by Namor and Triton of the Inhumans, but Plantman managed to escape.
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Wikipedia