DC Comics villain
Comics character
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man
is a fictional character appearing in
American comic books
published by
DC Comics
. He is a foe of the original
Doom Patrol
.
[1]
The character made his first live adaptation on the first season of the
Doom Patrol
television series on
DC Universe
played by
Alec Mapa
. His name is based on the antiquated concept of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms from
Linnaean taxonomy
.
Publication history
[
edit
]
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man first appeared in
The Doom Patrol
#89 (August 1964) and was created by
Arnold Drake
and
Bruno Premiani
.
[2]
Fictional character biography
[
edit
]
Sven Larsen
is a
Swedish
scientist
and a former student of
Dr. Niles Caulder
, but they had a falling out after Larsen accused Caulder of stealing his idea for the anti-decay ray. Larsen gains his superpowers after falling into a vat of
amino acids
. This gave him the right arm and leg of a plant, the left arm and leg of diamonds, and a half-torso of a
Tyrannosaurus
with half of his human head shown to be fused with part of the Tyrannosaurus' neck. He uses his powers to get revenge on Caulder and his Doom Patrol.
[3]
The Doom Patrol defeat Larsen and are able to remove his powers. He later regains them and fights the Doom Patrol again.
[4]
Larsen returns to face the second incarnation of the Doom Patrol in
The Doom Patrol
(vol. 2) #15 (December 1988) and #16 (Winter 1988), in partnership with
General Immortus
. He is defeated after
Celsius
encases him in ice.
In a 2009 interview with
Keith Giffen
about his
Doom Patrol
comic, Giffen reveals that Larsen should be a villain in it.
[5]
In the twelfth issue of the series, Larsen is now a member of the Front Men, a team of super-powered guards working for Mister Somebody Enterprises. His team is working to discredit the Doom Patrol, having been coached in various ways on how to make the heroes look bad for the cameras. Unknown to the Front Men,
Mister Somebody
has rigged their uniforms to deliver fatal blows in ways that make it seem as if the Doom Patrol killed them intentionally.
[6]
In 2011, "
The New 52
" rebooted the DC universe. Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man is re-introduced as part of an experimental security measure that Niles Caulder unleashes on intruders when his underground complex is breached.
[7]
In the "
Watchmen
" sequel "
Doomsday Clock
", Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man is listed as a member of
India
's sanctioned superhero team called the Doomed in light of "The Superman Theory" that started a metahuman arms race. He gained a reputation there where he ate their foes.
[8]
He was with the Doomed when they alongside the Outsiders and the People's Heroes tried to bring Superman in for what happened in Russia.
[9]
Powers and abilities
[
edit
]
The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man can change any part of his body into animal, vegetable, or mineral forms, as well as combining several more at once.
[10]
In most appearances, he possesses extensive knowledge of
biology
.
In other media
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
- Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man appears in the
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
episode "The Last Patrol!", voiced by
Dee Bradley Baker
.
- Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man appears in
Doom Patrol
, portrayed by
Alec Mapa
. This version is a tourist named
Steven Larson
who travels to
Paraguay
in the hopes of receiving magnetic feet from Nazi scientist Heinrich Von Fuchs, only to accidentally remain in Von Fuchs' machine for too long and transform into Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, gaining a separate
Velociraptor
head along with his own in the process. Following this, he becomes a bumbling supervillain known for a disastrous convenience store robbery, a subsequent arrest, and a failed assassination attempt on his life carried out by an admirer of Von Fuchs before becoming the author of a best-selling autobiography called
My Side
.
Miscellaneous
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Rovin, Jeff (1987).
The Encyclopedia of Supervillains
. New York: Facts on File. pp. 5?6.
ISBN
0-8160-1356-X
.
- ^
Wells, John (2015).
American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-64
. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 180.
ISBN
978-1605490458
.
- ^
Morris, Jon (2017).
The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History
. Quirk Books. p. 138.
ISBN
978-1594749322
.
- ^
The Doom Patrol
#95 (May 1965). DC Comics.
- ^
"Giffen New Chief Of 'Doom Patrol'
"
.
ComicBookResources.com
. 7 February 2009
. Retrieved
17 July
2015
.
- ^
The Doom Patrol
(vol. 5) #12 (September 2010)
- ^
The Ravagers
#11. DC Comics.
- ^
Doomsday Clock
#5 (May 2018). DC Comics.
- ^
Doomsday Clock
#12. (December 2019). DC Comics.
- ^
The Doom Patrol
#89 (August 1964)