See if you can help me out, here. I’m looking to concoct a list of the unusual plant species of the DC Universe. Plants that move, or have exotic effects or toxins or properties.
Surprisingly, I can find little info on Google.
So come on, everyone… strain those brains.
We have plant-based entities like :
Swamp Thing
the Floronic Man
Poison Ivy (sorta)
Black Orchid
MedPhyll, plant Green Lantern
Solomon Grundy
and for unusual plants, so far all I remember are the unusual fungus that infected Superman in a story that crossed over with Swamp Thing, written by Alan Moore - and the flower-thing that Mongul brought for Superman in “For the Man Who Has Everything” - that’s it, for the top of my list.
While we’re on the subject, items with special properties relating to plants include White Kryptonite - which kills any plant life - and Alan Scott’s Power Ring, vulnerable to plant material.
I recommend reading Neil Gaiman’s BLACK ORCHID mini-series, as it makes clear the connection between human/plant hybrids in the DCU – the Hollands (Swamp Thing and his wife), Pamela Isley (Poison Ivy), Phil whasisname (creator of the Black Orchid process) and Dr. Woodrue (Floronic Man) – were all students of his at the same university.
I’d love to, if I can find it. Black Orchid fits in the mystic fringe of the DCU, a community whose titles I’ve been gobbling up in TPB form at breakneck rates. Current;y working on Hellblazer, somewhat hampered by the fact that only the first TPB was number, so I don’t know which order to buy them in.
The Parliament of Trees is a special sentient grove of previous incarnations of the wood elementals that walked the Earth – Swamp Thing’s predecessors, as it were. They exist in South America near the source of the Tefe River.
The alien kryptonian fungus that incapacitated Superman in the Swamp Thing team-up was called Bloodmorel. Likewise the plant/fungus that attached itself t6o Superman making him dream of his heart’s desire was called the Black Mercy. (This will be the subject of an upcoming episode of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED I’m really looking forward to)
Later in Alan Moore’s run, Swamp Thing visited a planet with a highly advanced sentient vegetable civilation at J5 something-something-something. Their plants were mobile, with a strong cultural and religious traditions, but their society seemed to exist in a heirachy of sentience; their Banyam houses were quasi-sentient beings with emotion and limited sensory, yet they had plants that were also treated as household pets, as well as food. Their Green Lantern was a plant who lived in “a cave of deaf metal.” They worshipped a God known as “O” who exists in all things (rings in a plant’s trunk, for example) and some of the plants were avowed carnivores who would not eat the lower vegetables.
Swamp Thing (Alec Holland) can grow special hallucenigenic tubers from his person that allows those who eat them to share his perceptions or consciousness for a short time.
Brother Power the Geek is a failed plant elemental.
Solomon Grundy is the bizarre amalgamation of a human/plant consciousness, having been birthed in a swamp is tied to swamps.
At the conclusion of BLACK ORCHID miniseries, the Black Orchid is attempting to grow versions of herself from seeds made by a fusion between her and Swamp Thing.
Pre-Crisis Krypton had a plant/animal species in an area known as the Crystal Forest – but I can’t remember if this as a naturally occuring Kryptonian phenomenon or the result of some sort of accident.
Tefe Holland, Swamp Thing’s daughter, is the newest incarnation of the wood/earth elementals.
CandidGamera. Thank you for clarifying the latest with Tefe Holland and confirming that Solomon Grundy was a failed plant elemental.
Two other thoughts: I remember a reference to something called, IIRC, hellblossom in that Superman/Black Mercy story, which may be a Kryptonian plant-based narcotic. Also, Batman paid a horticulturalist to breed a new species of rose called “the Krypton” for Superman’s birthday in that same story, but it got squished.
I’m going to shut up for awhile now, in case somebody else wants to help out.
This probably isn’t much help, but I vaguely recall yet another Green Lantern with an unusual plant situation. It was a sort of Twilight-Zonesque story of a villain who was out to steal a power ring (I don’t think it was Sinestro). He found coordinates for the home world of a Lantern, and that the Lantern in question was dormant (maybe–I don’t really remember this). He lands on the planet and looks around, but doesn’t find any sign of sentient life…until he notices an unusual pattern in the equatorial forest. Evidently, the planet itself is sentient, and a Green Lantern. The forest is its power ring.
I’ve no idea what issue the story was in, or even when I read it. It was quite a few years ago. If I had to guess, I’d say it was in the Hal Jordan era, maybe around the time he was in jail.
Ooh…I love a challenge! The only one I can think of right now is the old Doom Patrol villain, the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. I’ll see what I can remember and will post back later if I can come up with anything else.
Captain Carrot (of the Zoo Crew) gets his powers from eating irradiated carrots that wear off in 24 hours – sooner, if he deliberately spends his energy.
Did Silver Age Jimmy Olsen undergo any bizarre plant transformations? What was his Elastic-Lad elixir made from?
Did Changeling have some sort of plant potion that made him green?
Was Congorilla’s elixir made from magic mineral water from Mt. Kilimahjaro or plants on the mountain, or both?
This is probrably a stretch, but I’m too amused by the possibilities to exclude him: Batman villain, Scarface, the wooden gangster dummy.
I think Virus X was a kryptonian plant blight that killed off Earthly plants.
IIRC I head something in a discussion of whether Superman kills or not, that there was a golden or silver age story where Superman (or Supergirl not sure which) killed some aggressive sentinent plant beings with white kryptonite, and thus he was “a killer”. Anyone remember this story?
Not off hand, but the the Golden Age Superman didn’t have the “code” against killing (although I can’t think of a single time when he did kill, unless you count maybe the Anti-Monitor), but the Golden Age Superman didn’t have White K either, so it had to be a Silver Age story.
In the Silver Age, Superman had an…< cough >…odd definition of “alive” (it was consistant though). Does it have a heartbeat? If so, it’s “alive”. So Braniac, a superintelligent self-aware robot (think of Marvel’s “Vision” character) is not alive. Nor would evil plant beings and are thus OK to “destroy” (the word used in place of “kill”). But give it a heartbeat (and in most cases intelligence–Superman wasn’t a vegetarian) and he can’t kill it.
There was one story, very late Silver-Age or, more likely early Bronze ('77 or so)(which, other than the following point was great Superman story) where a killer creature (sort of like a combo small dinosaur/anteater) is spreading a virus that’s got Lois and a bunch of other people near death. Superman is prepared to “destroy” it (since it doesn’t have a heartbeat–it’s in it’s hibernation phase–despite rampaging through whatever mountain town they were in. Apparently it’s OK to “destroy” something that will be alive as long as it doesn’t have a heartbeat now. IE, we know how the Silver-Age Superman voted on the abortion issue) when the villian “wakes up” the creature figuring that Superman will either have to kill the (now alive, by Superman’s definiition) creature, driving him maaaad or he’d stand by and let Lois and the others die and go maaaaaad.
Hey, it may not make much sense, but at least it’s consistant and based on objective data (heartbeat-yes or no?).
