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| Real Name: Samuel Smithers | ||||||||
| Also Known As: | ||||||||
| Place Of Birth: London, England | ||||||||
| First Appearance: Strange Tales Vol.1 113 | ||||||||
| Known Associates: | ||||||||
| Group Affiliation: Former associate of the Maggia; Former ally of the Wizard | ||||||||
| Base Of Operations: Mobile | ||||||||
| Grudges: None | ||||||||
| Creators: | ||||||||
| Gallery: Click | ||||||||
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| Plant Ray Gun: Plantman wields several gun-like projectors that emit an energy-field of an as yet unknown nature capable of stimulating the naturally-occurring psionic field of the chlorophyllic process of plant photo-synthesis. Once so stimulated, a plant becomes receptive to the ordered human thoughts of the projector's operator. The Plantman can animate the roots of a plant like prehensile limbs, uproot trees, cause vines to grow at a super-accelerated rate to choke a victim, force plants to shed their leaves, or drain them of their moisture. Depending on their size, plants tend to remain under his influence for up to an hour after stimulation by the ray. | |||||||
| Plant Simulacra: The Plantman has created life-mimicking simulacra of human beings composed of primarily of living wood capable of movement, speech, and a pre-programmed series of complex activities. It is not known how they are constructed, programmed, or motivated. The Plantman has equipped his plant-doubles with various special paraphernalia including poison thorn-shooters and spore-launchers. | |||||||
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| Samuel Smithers was born in London and orphaned at an early age. Some time during adolescence, he left the orphanage and went to work as a lab assistant for a noted London botanist who was exploring the low-order mental activity of plant life. After 10 years, the botanist died after which Smithers emigrated to the United States where he hoped to continue the work he had begun under the London botanist-to invent a device to increase the intelligence of plant life enough so that human beings could communicate with them. Lacking formal education and ridiculed for his ideas, Smithers found work as a gardener in Glenville, Long Island, New York. His employer, Morris Evans, eventually fired him because he was spending more time tinkering with his invention than gardening. Shortly thereafter a bolt of lightning hit his experimental plant ray-gun, somehow charging it with the power to control and animate all plant life. Donning a disguise and calling himself the Plantman, Smithers plotted revenge on Evans for firing him. | ||||
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