plant-61250-pg1pan1-fullishplant-61250-pg4-pan2-face-vaporsThe PLANT
(Reality-61250)

Real Name: Unrevealed (if any)

Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Reality-61250) extraterrestrial race (unidentified)

Occupation: Destroyer of all other forms of life

Group Membership: None known

Affiliations: None known

Enemies: Chuck Dawson, Martians, life in general

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Plant Creature, Plant-Thing

Base of Operations: Floating in space somewhere near Earth-61250

First Appearance: Strange Tales I#91/1 "The Sacrifice!" (December, 1961)

Powers/Abilities: Sentient and able to move across solid ground, the Plant seemed to be composed of a wood-like substance, with branch like arms, hands and fingers and a vine-like tail.

    It can release numerous vapors for a variety of effects.

    These vapors can hold a person in an electric field and transport them across distances; slay any living being on contact; form a protective field to smother missile explosions and/or block disintegrating rays.plant-61250-pg2-pan7-vapors-engulf

    There did not appear to be any limit to the volume of vapors it could product.plant-61250-pg4-pan6-vapors-missiles

    It did not appear to need carbon dioxide or any other form of gas, nor heat, fluid or any form of sustenance. It did not appear to age, able to survive for an undetermined time period on a world otherwise bereft of life and for centuries in the nearly absolute zero vacuum of space. It did not appear to

    It can project its thoughts telepathically with other forms of life. However, it either could not sense the thoughts of others or it had to consciously focus to do so (and was arrogant enough to not consider that someone seemed helpless against it might be conspiring to destroy it).

    The Plant's deepest instinct was to destroy all other living matter, even other plants, etc.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 8' high, with a length of tail extending perhaps another 10-20')
Weight: Unrevealed (as its composition is unrevealed, as well as whether it his hollow, and if so, how thick is its outer surface)
Eyes: None
Hair: None

History:
(Strange Tales I#91 (fb) - BTS) - Under unrevealed circumstances, an intelligent alien plant with great powers floated through space for centuries.

(Strange Tales I#91 (fb)) - Eventually arriving on Mars and driven by instinct to destroy all living things, arrived on Mars. When curious Martians approached it, the Plant unleashed a poisonous vapor that slew at least one of them. One of the surviving Martians rushed back to the city to spread the alarm, but the Plant mockingly told him to warn his people as it mattered not: It's deepest instinct was to destroy all living matter and nothing could stand before it. 

    Warned, the Martians armed themselves, and as the Plant approached them, they fired on it, but it created a mist the smothered the explosions of their shells; even disintegrating rays could not penetrate its protective mist.

    When the Plant entered the city, it emitted its most deadly vapor. One touch of it meant doom for any living creature.

    Realizing that they had no chance against the plant-thing, the residents ordered the evacuation of the city.plant-61250-pg3-pan6-fullish-face

(Strange Tales I#91 (fb) - BTS) - The Plant attacked one city after the other until finally the Martian population decided to flee their planet, and those still living departed in spaceships, narrowing escaping death themselves.

    In the years that followed, the Plant continued to destroy all living matter on Mars until it was otherwise a dead world. It then waited until another being might arrive who could transport it to a new world

(Strange Tales I#91 - BTS) - In 1971, Earth astronaut Colonel Chuck Dawson landed on Mars.

(Strange Tales I#91) - Sensing Dawson, the Plant released a mist that followed him as he tried to avoid it and swiftly engulfed him, holding him with some electrical force. The mist pulled him to a certain point, after which the ground below Dawson gave way, and he floated down into the underground cavern in which the Plant dwelled. Speaking telepathically, the Plant revealed what it had done to Mars and it intended for Dawson to transport it to his native world where it could find and destroy new victims.

    Refusing to take it to Earth, Chuck turned and tried to flee, but the Plant caught him with a field of vapors. After warning Dawson that it could destroy him then and there, the Plant convinced him to take it aboard his ship to Earth.

    After taking off in his ship, Dawson imagined the Earth suffering the same fate as Mars (which paralleled Reality-34983; see comments). Realizing there was only one way to save Earth, Dawson told the Plant that there was something wrong with the fuel line and that he needed to go check on it.

(Strange Tales I#91 - BTS) - Igniting the fuel tank with his lighter, Dawson caused an explosion that destroyed the ship, slew Dawson and tore the Plant into pieces.

     On Earth, with no knowledge of the true situation, Dawson was decried as incompetent and blamed for destroying an expensive rocket.plant-61250-pg7-pan8

(Strange Tales I#91) - Remnants of the plant creature persisted, floating aimlessly in space.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

    It is unrevealed whether the Plant was a member of some race that was exiled from his planet, or perhaps a plant that was mutated under unrevealed means to develop intelligence and abilities.

    Other images of the Plant are shown in the Martians-61250 profile.

    The Plant had more humanoid features on its face on the cover of Strange Tales I#91. This image is included here, but it was not included in the profile because it was not representative of the character as it appeared in-story.

    Thanks to Loki for helping fill out a number of other sentient plants and races, terrestrial and otherwise...

Earth-34983 An alien plant creature reached Earth and laid waste to it, as it did to Mars many years ago. This possible future was imagined by Chuck Dawson-61250. Strange Tales #91 (1961)

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Plant should be distinguished from:


plant-61250-coverimages: (without ads)
 Strange Tales I#91 cover (Plant on ship with Dawson, with a more humanoid face) ----------------------------->
    #91/1, pg. 1, panel 1 (Plant in profile);
       pg. 2, panel 7 (vapors engulfing Dawson);
       pg. 3, panel 6 (full-ish, showing true face);
       pg. 4, panel 2 (face releasing vapors);
          panel 6 (vapors smothering missile explosions);
       pg. 7, panel 8 (remnants floating in space)
      
Appearances:
 Strange Tales I#91/1 "The Sacrifice!" (December, 1961) - Stan Lee (writer, editor), Jack Kirby (art)

First posted: 03/29/2025
Last updated: 04/13/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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