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Mole Man aka Harvey Elder | Male
Real Name: Harvey Rupert Elder
Current Alias: Mole Man
Identity: Secret
Alignment: Bad
Affiliation: Ruler of the Moloids; Consort to Kala; Former leader of the Outcasts; Former ally of the Red Ghost
Relatives: Kala (Consort)
Universe: Earth-616
Base Of Operations: Subterranea; Formerly Monster Isle
Gender: Male
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: 185 lbs (84 kg)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Grey
Unusual Features: The Mole Man is short in stature, overweight, and extremely nearsighted. His posture is very poor, and his unusually large nose gives him a grotesque, almost mole-like appearance.
Citizenship: American
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Ruler of Subterranea; Former Nuclear Engineer
First appearance: Fantastic Four #1 (November, 1961)
Radar Sense: The Mole Man possesses heightened senses that have developed naturally to compensate for his poor vision. Primary among these is his "Radar Sense", which may be similar to Daredevil's, although it is not as acute. The Mole Man's brain has several regions which are able to consciously sense that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that his brain constatnly generates. The signals emanate from the "sending regions", bounce off objects around him, and return to the "recieving regions" of both hemispheres. In this way, he synthesizes a very close analoque of third-dimensional human sigh, which supplements his own weak natural vision. Indeed, the combination of the Mole Man's sight and his radar sense makes his awareness of what is around him somewhat superior to the average human's. He can use his radar sense to detect the presence of objects behind him, or in total blackness.
Scientific Genius: The Mole Man is a scientific genius, who has mastered the principles underlying the Deviant technology that he discovered in Subterranea and has even made radical improvements upon much of it.
Fighting Skill: The Mole Man has developed a means of fighting with using his staffs that resembles the martial art of kendo.
Equipment: Visor The Mole Man wears a protective visor that reduces the intenstiy of normal lighting to comfortable levels.
WeaknessesAbnormal Sensitivity (Light): Although the Mole Man has adequate vision in dark places, he is blinded by normal light.
Very little is known about the origin of the Mole Man. According to the Mole Man himself, his bizarre physical appearance had caused him to be shunned and ridiculed since childhood. Believing that total loneliness would be better than the cruelty shown to him by other people, the Mole Man decided to exile himself from humanity. He began searching for the legendary land at the center of the Earth.
Finally, when he was about to abandon hope, his skiff washed ashore on a deserted island, which he named Monster Isle, located within the Bermuda Triangle. There the Mole Man discovered a cavern leading deep underground. His enthusiastic shouts triggered an avalanche, which he survived, but at the cost of most of his eyesight.
Nevertheless, the Mole Man made himself ruler of a wide empire in the underground realm he called Subterranea (Subterranea does not actually lie at the center of the Earth, but instead consists of a seemingly planet wide network of caverns lying miles beneath Earth's surface.) In this underground world he discovered a race of semi-humanoid creatures called subterraneans. The Mole Man controls the race known as the Moloids, which are distinguished from other Subterranean races by their pale yellow skin color. The Mole Man also found and mastered highly advanced technological devices which had been created and abandoned by the race of Deviants. Furthermore, the Mole Man discovered and learned to control a large number of non-humanoid monsters, which either may be descendants of beings created through genetic manipulation by the Deviants, or may be uncivilized, in some cases nearly mindless, highly mutated Deviants themselves. The Mole Man also developed a natural "radar sense" that enabled him to sense things in the subterranean darkness.
The Mole Man first intended to take his revenge on the surface world's population by destroying Earth's power plants and unleashing his monsters. He was thwarted by the Fantastic Four on their first mission after gaining their superhuman powers.[1] The Mole Man next attempted to trigger a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, intending to rule what remained of Earth's population with ray devices, and then have his Subterranean armies conquer the planet. The Fantastic Four foiled both of these schemes.
Apart from attempting to conquer the surface world, the Mole Man has also tried to repeatedly make himself sole master of Subterranea. His greatest rival has been Tyrannus, another man from the surface world. Both the Hulk and the X-Men served as pawns in the wars between the Mole Man and Tyrannus. Eventually, the Mole Man captured Tyrannus and used drugs to turn him into a mindless slave.
The Mole Man formed an alliance with Kala, queen of the Netherworlders, descendants of surface Atlanteans who now live underground. The Mole Man fell in love with the beautiful Kala, and together they conspired to destroy the surface world's civilizations with magma from deep underground. However, Kala betrayed the Mole Man by releasing Tyrannus from his control, and the two new allies made the Mole Man their prisoner. Tyrannus, intending to rule alone, turned against Kala, but soon was nearly killed in an explosion. Kala and the heartbroken Mole Man parted, each to rule his or her own kingdom.
The Mole Man's lust for vengeance on the surface world eventually receded. He gathered many physically deformed or ugly people from the surface world who had been spurned as he had, and created a peaceful utopia for them in his underground kingdom. He endowed some of them, known as the Outcasts, with superhuman powers.
The Mole Man's forces clashed with Kala's on the surface world, and during the battle, Kala lost her protection against the air's effects and swiftly became an elderly woman. Still in love with her, the Mole Man offered the distraught queen companionship, and she accepted. It is not known whether Kala is still living with the Mole Man.
Recently, underground drilling that was part of billionaire Alden Maas's Project Worldcore unleashed magma in the Mole Man's realm, killing many of the people and Subterraneans living there. Believing his dreams of utopia ruined, the Mole Man has once again become a dangerously embittered man.
Recently the Mole Man left his Moloid followers to explore the inner caves. Chaos ensued when Tyranoids took over the Moloids and formed an army to defend themselves from the Lava Men. The Mole Man was himself kidnapped by the Lava Men.
First appearance: Ultimate Fantastic Four #2 (March, 2004)
Same Powers as Above
HistoryDr. Arthur Molekevic was employed at the Baxter Building as both a research scientist and a passionate teacher to the geniuses who studied there; however his unpleasant personal appearance alienated the students (some of whom referred to him as the "Moley Moley Mole Man" behind his back), and his continual refusal to follow the facility's research guidelines alienated his superiors. When the government found his work on creating humanoid mold creatures, they sent General Ross to the Baxter Building to fire Molekevic, with the approval of Molekevic's supervisor, Dr. Franklin Storm (father of Susan and Johnny Storm).
In the subsequent 5 years, Molekevic went through various professional and personal changes, studying philosophy, religion, and ancient cultures as well as continuing his own work in biotechnologies. He located the underground remains of a culture which he believed to be the lost continent of Atlantis. In one of these chambers, 1.4 miles beneath Manhattan, he monitored the Baxter Building's research while creating his own servile race of mold men, dubbed "ani-men." Using DNA scraped from weaponry found in the ruins, he also created a giant-sized serpentoid monster which served him.
When Reed Richards' N-Zone teleporter was tested in the Nevada desert, Molekevic covertly observed the test and the subsequent accident. He sent his ani-men after the five people who were teleported/transformed by the experiment, but he was unable to locate Van Damme, and of the other four only succeeded in reaching Susan Storm before the military could. Fascinated by the experiment's results and wanting to free the transformed others from government control, Molekevic sent his "monster" into New York to retrieve Reed, Ben and Johnny from the Baxter Building. The threesome defeated the beast, and followed it to Molekevic's headquarters. When the trio arrived, Molekevic returned Sue to them and began discussing how they could aid each other in pursuing further scientific research.
Traumatized by their recent changes, the foursome refused to listen to Molekevic, who realized he once again faced minds closed to their own potential. Disgusted with their blindness, he ordered his ani-men to do as they wished with the four; however the strength of the transformed Grimm was much greater than anyone realized, and in the subsequent fight, much of the ancient chamber was destroyed. Molekevic was last seen plummeting into a deep chasm, his dreams again destroyed by the world's inability to share his vision.
First Appearance: Mutant X #9 (June, 1999)
Same Powers as Above
HistoryWhen the Goblin Queen laid siege to New York City, Harvey, alongside his lover Callisto, provided a safe route of evacuation for tens of thousands of humans and mutants out of the city. When Ben Grimm was thrown out of a building by Reed Richards, his excessive bulk led him to the Morlock/Moleoid tunnels, where he helped organize the evacuations, and began planning a rebellion.