Mole Man
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The Mole Man is a fictional supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in Fantastic Four (Volume 1) #1, and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
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[edit] Fictional Character History
The Mole Man was originally Harvey Rupert Elder, an American scientist and explorer. Elder was socially shunned due to a combination of his abrasive personality and his homely, dwarfish appearance. Furthermore, his fellow explorers ridiculed him for his eccentric, crackpot theories regarding a Hollow Earth. In 1956, while following the group of explorers called the Monster Hunters, he stumbled upon Monster Island, which was at the time a base of the Deviant Warlord Kro. (At the time, Monster Island was located near Japan, although other stories place it in the Bermuda Triangle; some issues of X-Men have portrayed them as two distinct separate locations.)
When Elder fell into a massive cave leading deep into the underground realm of Subterranea, he decided his theories had finally been vindicated. However, he suffered permanent damage to his eyes when he gazed directly upon a highly reflective deposit of diamonds. Partially blind and apparently secluded from the surface world forever, Elder dubbed himself the Mole Man and began exploring his new home. He eventually became the ruler of the branch of Subterraneans now known as the Moloids. He used the Deviant-derived creatures and technology that he found in Subterranea to strike back at the outer world in numerous attempts to rule or humble the world that had rejected him.
The Mole Man conducted attacks on the surface world until he was opposed by the Fantastic Four in their first adventure. The Mole Man apparently destroyed Monster Isle in an atomic blast, although it was seen on several other occasions. The Mole Man's Deviant-bred monstrous mutates, collectively known as the "Mole Man's Monsters", include the three-headed Tricephalous, the horned Megataur, and the flying bird-insect creature known only as "Skreeal". The Mole Man also has a group of superhuman allies called the Outcasts. He has sometimes been allied with Kala, the queen of the Subterranean Netherworlders, and for a time, the two were betrothed to be married. Namor, the Atlantean prince, helped out the Moloids when a conquering force was slaughtering many while using them for slave labor.
Mole Man became involved with the West Coast Avengers when one of his monsters attacked Los Angeles. His Moloids were caught in the middle of a Skrull revenge scheme on the Fantastic Four. A replacement Fantastic Four, consisting of Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, the Hulk and Wolverine were tricked into entering the Mole Man's territory and battling his forces.
[edit] Reformation
Later, he surrendered his desire for conquest and revenge and began assembling a sanctuary for others who had been rejected by the surface world. His two attempts to do so led to the death of most of the visitors to his sanctuaries. Briefly, the Mole Man allowed Adam Warlock's superhero team, the Infinity Watch, to use Monster Island (more specifically, a castle located on its grounds) as a base, on the reasoning that they could help protect him from any meddlers, which they did on several occasions. They proved helpful when the United Nations invaded the island. The Watch, mostly Gamora, drove away the invading force with an absolute minimum of harm. The Avengers assisted with the United Nations, then recognizing the Mole Man's rulership over the island.
Mole Man tended to keep out of the way when the cosmic plans went on. The Watch occupied the Monster Island castle until their dissolution as a team. Following their departure, the Mole Man apparently returned to his solitary, vengeful existence. Aside from occasional fits of hostility, he seems for the most part content to rule his subterranean kingdom, and for the past few years his surface activities have mostly been limited to reacting to threats (real or imagined) to his people.
[edit] Attacking Again
In one incident, he was causing property damage purely to help the Moloids, whose water and food had become polluted. Molly, a member of the group Runaways, made a brief mention of the group having fought Mole Man and his forces. This would be some time after the pollution incident.
He recently appeared in Mighty Avengers having led an attack on New York, claiming retaliation for his underground home, which he says is destroyed. He was humiliated by a female-formed Ultron.
[edit] Powers and Abilities
The Mole Man has no true superhuman abilities. He is an extraordinary genius, with knowledge of technology centuries beyond conventional science. He was able to master alien principles of technology totally foreign to his culture and environment. Due to his poor eyesight, his senses have naturally compensated to the degree that they are, like those of Daredevil, heightened to nearly superhuman levels.
The Mole Man fights with a staff and has developed a fighting style that resembles bōjutsu; despite his small size and relative weakness he is a highly proficient hand-to-hand combatant when armed with his staff. He also commands an army of monsters and Subterraneans that are absolutely loyal to him.
The Mole Man’s eyes are extremely sensitive to light. He is virtually blinded by normal illumination. To counter this, he wears protective glasses that both reduce bright light to levels he can tolerate and increase dim light to levels by which he can see. His sense of hearing and touch are far more sensitive than that of a normal human. Mole Man has a series of similar-looking staves (6 ft long, made of wood or aluminum) which contain weapon(s) and additional features. All staves include a galvanic response meter that is tuned to the Mole Man’s body; this prevents anyone else from activating his staves. Mole Man’s life has made him an expert on subterranean geography, spelunking, understanding Deviant weapons systems, and monster training.
[edit] Other Versions
[edit] Heroes Reborn
The spaceflight which grants the Fantastic Four their powers ends with them crashlanding on Mole Man's monster-inhabited islands. Mole Man ends up capturing Ben and Sue and takes a power source and potential explosive off the group's ship.
Later, there are hints Mole Man's island is connected to the Inhumans' city of Attilian.
[edit] Marvel Zombies
In Marvel Zombies, the Mole Man, along with several other undead villains, first appears to attack Galactus; after Galactus is defeated by several heroes, Mole Man gets into an argument with Colonel America over who gets to eat the injured Galactus, and is subsequently blasted apart by the cosmically powered colonel.
The zombie Mole Man also appears in the prequel to Marvel Zombies, Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, appearing to attack Nova alongside the Wizard.
[edit] Ultimate Mole Man
In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Mole Man was a Baxter Building scientist named Dr. Arthur Molekevic. Nicknamed Mole Man by the students, he was fired due to his experiments in creating life after being warned off. He claimed the files as his own but was told by the governmental officials firing him, which included Sue and John's father, that everything he created was the property of the United States government. He soon disappeared into underground caverns with his Moloids. These caverns contained advanced technology, which Mole Man claimed had been built by an ancient race. Part of the caverns were also under the Baxter Building itself, which provided Mole Man with links into their security system. His ability to spy on the team fostered the delusion that he was a father figure to them. When the Fantastic Four gain their powers, and were transported across the world, Sue, while unconscious, was kidnapped and transported to his caverns. Mole Man sends one of his monsters to destroy New York. The other members of the team manage to destroy it. They follow the hole the monster made and confront Mole Man, eventually rescuing Sue. The Four defeat his forces but the Mole Man escapes. However he returned and kidnapped several Baxter Building students while explaining more details of his life. He was eventually driven off when he left the students behind and went to confront the Fantastic Four, who had arrived to try and rescue them. The students created weaponry from the alien technology and drove off all parties; Mole Man, Fantastic Four and the government, intending to build their own civilization in the ruins of the city. The final panel implies their reactivation of the artificial sun awoke or attracted the monstrosities bio-engineered by the city's original inhabitants, which means the students are likely dead.
Ultimate Mole Man physically resembled the original character. However, he is bulkier, rarely washes and has an unsightly skin condition. The Ultimate Moloids are fungus-based lifeforms engineered by Mole Man himself, though initially simplistic and animalistic, they are far more intelligent in their second appearance, even speaking a language which Mole Man understands.
[edit] Parody
A parody/homage of Mole Man called The Underminer appeared at the very end of The Incredibles. The movie was a Fantastic Four (and overall superhero) pastiche.
The Mole Man is parodied in The Simpsons episode "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder", when Hans Moleman is briefly shown to be the leader of the Mole People, complete with earthquake machine.
The Darkwing Duck character Professor Moliarty is partially based on the Mole Man.
The Shrewmanoid from Monkeyman and O'Brian, created by Arthur Adams, is a direct homage to Mole Man.
The animated series Loonatics Unleashed features a villain named Doctor Dare, who is an arguably faithful homage to Mole Man.
[edit] Mole Man In Popular Culture
William Lyttle of De Beauvoir, East London, is known as "The Mole Man". He has "spent 40 years burrowing under his 20-room house, removing 100 cubic meters of earth with a spade and pulleys. A similar feat has been done by Ben Raymond, of Casula, in 2006." On August 1, 2006, a Mirror news article stated "The Mole Man has been banned from his £1 million home after digging a 60 ft network of tunnels beneath it." [1]
[edit] In Other Media
- Mole Man appeared on The Marvel Superheroes
- Mole Man appeared twice in the 1967 Fantastic Four TV series.
- In the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, Spider-Man encountered a villain Mugs Riley calling himself The Mole Man, but like many other things[2] about this cartoon, it had only a passing relation to Marvel canon and continuity, and this villain shared only a name and modus operandi with the Mole Man of the comics.
- Mole Man appeared in the 1994 Fantastic Four TV series voiced by Gregg Berger.
- A sewer-dwelling character named "the Jeweller" duly similar to the Mole Man appeared in the unreleased 1994 Fantastic Four film produced by Roger Corman.
- Mole Man appears in the 2005 Fantastic Four video game voiced by Barry Dennen. In the game, he sent out his creatures to battle the Four rather than fight himself, in the same way as Puppet Master sent his puppets. After his Monstroid (closely resembling Giganto from his first comics appearance) is destroyed, he escapes, and swears revenge the Fantastic Four.
- Mole Man appears in the 2006 Fantastic Four animated series, voiced by Paul Dobson. He is introduced in the episode "De-Mole-Ition", which uses the basic plot of Fantastic Four #1, adding elements from later stories.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Pettifor, Tom. "Mole Man in a Hole", The Daily Mirror, 1 August 2006.
- ^ Examples of inconsistencies with Marvel Comics canon: non-costumed Mysterio, a technologically-based Magneto, a mystic-wannabe Green Goblin, Spider-Man absorbing a bomb blast with his body
