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The Samuel Smithers incarnation of Plantman first appeared in Strange Tales #113 and was created by Stan Lee, Jerry Siegel (under the alias of Joe Carter), and Dick Ayers.[1]
The Paul incarnation of Plantman first appeared in The Astonishing Ant-Man #7 and was created by Nick Spencer and Ramon Rosanas.
Fictional character biography
Samuel Smithers
Samuel Smithers is an assistant botanist who invented a device capable of communicating with plants. Mocked for his accomplishments, he becomes a criminal after lightning strikes his device and gives it the additional ability to manipulate and animate plants.[2][3][4]
Plantman later comes to serve Count Nefaria and the Maggia, but is defeated by the X-Men.[5] He steals technology from the Maggia and creates a monstrous seaweed Leviathan which is stopped by Namor and Triton.[6]
Plantman has often used plant "simuloids" to create duplicates of himself for mercenary endeavors, raising quick cash to continue his research. One of the first known activities of his simuloids was to join his former allies and the original Viper in a crime wave under the command of the Cowled Commander (only to be stopped by Captain America and the Falcon).[7] Another time, a simuloid kidnapped wealthy businessman Kyle Richmond (Nighthawk) for ransom, but Nighthawk's allies in the Defenders helped rescue him, and Nebulon subdued the simuloid.[8]Spider-Man and the Falcon discovered an exotic plant-breeding nursery where they encountered and defeated the caretaking Plantman-simuloid.[9] Another Plantman-simuloid's scheme to rob a bank was thwarted by two of the Micronauts.[10]
Next with an army of 1,000 plant simulacra, the true Plantman captured the President of the United States by taking over an American military base. He attempted to take over S.H.I.E.L.D. using simuloids. The Avengers rescued the President, despite Plantman's army and contending with a 100-foot (30m) tall Tree-Man and Plantman's escape.[11]Hawkeye and the Orb stumbled upon Plantman's mobile plant-growing factory and he expelled them.[12]
During the Acts of Vengeance storyline, Plantman joined with a group of villains to attack the Fantastic Four.[13] Soon after, he tries a solo attack on the Avengers who are visiting a construction site. He is defeated by the site's employees who fear the battle might destroy their hard work.[14]
During Smithers' subsequent prison sentence in Seagate Federal Penitentiary, he was contacted telepathically by Mentallo, who was being held in a stasis field in the same prison. Mentallo was still capable of using his powers and he used them to orchestrate a break-out of his fellow prisoners, which included the hero Hawkeye (who was serving time for crimes he performed while a member of the Thunderbolts) and Headlok (whom Mentallo had possessed). The criminals, remotely "chained" to one another, escaped as the so-called Chain Gang. The Chain Gang reluctantly agreed to work together to search for a way to survive, deactivate their security manacles, and search for a weapon of great power left behind by the death of the criminal industrialist Justin Hammer. The weapon had come to the attention of Mentallo by Hammer himself before he died, as Hammer awakened Mentallo's powers while he was in the stasis field. Unknown to his associates, Hawkeye was actually working undercover on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ultimately, the Chain Gang was tracked down by Hawkeye's former teammate Songbird, who helped Hawkeye defeat the villains. They discovered that Hammer's legacy was a biological toxin that had been ingested by every single villain who had ever worked for him. Smithers was the carrier. Hawkeye, Songbird, and Smithers began a new search for the trigger that would release Plantman's toxin so that it would not fall into the wrong hands.[volume&issueneeded]
The search ended with Hammer's daughter, Justine, who turned out to be the Crimson Cowl, leader of the Masters of Evil. Hawkeye convinced several members of the Masters of Evil to side with him and Songbird against Crimson Cowl and their former allies, pointing out the dangers of the super-weapon, which would either blackmail or kill them. Hoping to throw off suspicion, Hawkeye made the villains reinvent their costumed identities, thus creating a new team of Thunderbolts, and Smithers joined the group as Blackheath.[volume&issueneeded]
Beginning with his time in prison, Smithers had noticed that his body was in the process of mutating, drawing him closer to the energy field that he manipulated to control plants.[volume&issueneeded] When the Thunderbolts finally confronted the Crimson Cowl, Smithers was captured and experimented upon to reveal the secrets of the bio-toxin. During this procedure, Smithers' spirit connected with the energy field, the so-called Verdant Green, the embodiment of the Earth's biosphere. The Verdant Green pointed out that Smithers could release the toxin, removing humanity from the biosphere and allowing the plants to flourish as in its pre-industrial days. Instead, Smithers chose to release an antidote for the toxin into the atmosphere and appeared to die in the attempt.[15]
The Thunderbolts ultimately defeated the Cowl and her Masters of Evil,[volume&issueneeded] but they were confronted by the Elite Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. who caught up with them and wanted the remains of Blackheath's body.[volume&issueneeded] Finally, Smithers was able to revive himself by sucking the moisture from the villain Hydro-Man, leaving Hydro-Man's body desiccated.[volume&issueneeded] The Thunderbolts were aided against S.H.I.E.L.D. by the arrival of the true Citizen V, who needed the team's immediate help with his agency's ship — the engines of which were made of alien technology that had begun distorting, threatening to suck the Earth into the null space of a white hole. In so doing, the Thunderbolts encountered the original Thunderbolts, who emerged from the void after severing the alien ship's presence from where they had been trapped on Counter-Earth. The two teams of Thunderbolts combined forces to plug the void and shunt the alien ship from Earth, similar to the manner in which Helmut Zemo's team stopped the threat on Counter-Earth.[16]
After much discussion, most of the costumed heroes and villains chose to part ways. Smithers elected to join the Thunderbolts, hoping that their new mission, to rule the world in order to save it, would closely match his own goals of protecting the Verdant Green from humans. He increasingly began to lose touch with his humanity, increasingly motivated by his connection to the Green.[17]
Blackheath joined the Thunderbolts in many acts of questionable heroism under Zemo's leadership, where the ends justified the means. Zemo's ultimate plan involved the creation of "the Liberator," a device that would drain abnormal uses of energy throughout the world and hopefully reduce global threats, eliminate superhuman terrorism, and stabilize the world's status quo. The Thunderbolts succeeded in launching the Liberator, only to be confronted by the Avengers. Feeling betrayed, Moonstone absorbed the powers the Liberator had harnessed, combining them with her already-increased powers of the moonstone. The Thunderbolts and the Avengers teamed up to defeat Moonstone, ultimately removing the alien gems that gave her her powers.[18]
The members of the Thunderbolts agree to go their separate ways, and Smithers agrees to return to prison, hoping to reconnect with his human nature that he felt he was slowly losing.[19]
During the "AXIS" storyline, Plantman appears as a giant plant monster and attacks Los Angeles to retaliate at humans for polluting the world. When a group of Avengers attack, they turn on each other due to the influence of Red Onslaught, a clone of Red Skull with parts of Professor X's brain placed in him. Plantman is defeated by Iron Man.[20]
Paul is a comic book store clerk until he is fired for stealing comics to sell to support his gaming hobby. He later attends Power Broker Inc.'s presentation of the Hench X App, which transforms him into a humanoid plant.[24][25] He later joins Helmut Zemo's "New Masters" alongside Firebrand and Flying Tiger.[26]
Powers and abilities
Both incarnations of Plantman can manipulate plants. The Samuel Smithers incarnation's abilities are derived from technology, while the Paul incarnation possesses them innately.
The Samuel Smithers incarnation of Plantman is served by humanoid planets called Simuloids, one of whom attained sentience and became Terraformer.[27]
Other versions
An alternate universe variant of Samuel Smithers / Plantman from Earth-20051 appears in Marvel Adventures. This version is a scientist who values plants over people.[28][29]
An alternate universe variant of Samuel Smithers from Earth-1610 appears in Ultimate Comics: X-Men #18. This version is a plant-based mutant.[30]
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