Mole Man
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- For the Simpsons character, see Hans Moleman.
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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, Elder believed that 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 blinded 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 would eventually use 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.
Later, he surrendered his desire for conquest and revenge, and began to assemble 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 as a base, on the reasoning that they could help protect him from any meddlers, which they did on several occasions. The Watch lived in a 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.
The Mole Man is not the most dangerous or evil supervillain the Fantastic Four has faced; in fact, he is most famous for being merely the first villain they faced. With the technology at his disposal, if he really wanted to take over the world, he might succeed. However, that would require having to deal with people and do work, so there is little likelihood of him ever making good on his threats of global domination. However, the Mole Man is responsible for massive amounts of property damage due to his periodically sending giant monsters to destroy the Baxter Building and numerous other landmarks of the surface world.
[edit] Powers and abilities
The Mole Man has no true superhuman abilities, although he seems to have aged very little since the 1950s. 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 bojutsu; 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] 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, and disappeared into underground caverns with his Moloids. These caverns contained advanced technology, which Mole Man claimed had been built by an ancient race. When the Fantastic Four gained their powers, and were transported across the world, Sue found herself trapped in his caverns, as he prepared to send his creatures to invade New York. He was defeated by the reunited Four, but disappeared. However he returned and kidnapped several Baxter Building students while explaining more details of his life.
Ultimate Mole Man physically resembled the original character. However, he is bulkier and with an unsightly skin condition.
[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.
[edit] Different Mole Men
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 metres 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 in the 1967 Fantastic Four TV series.
- In the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, he 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 Gigantus from his first comics appearance) is destroyed, he escapes, and swears revenge the Fantastic Four.
- Mole Man is set to appear in the 2006 Fantastic Four animated series, voiced by Paul Dobson.
[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
