Who's This? A vegetable villain.
The facts: Jason Woodrue, the "Plant Master", was a mad scientist type from a botanical dimension introduced by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane in The Atom #1 (June-July 1962). He would return to plague the Atom and the Justice League over the years, but wouldn't become the Floronic Man - a being actually made of vegetable matter - until a Green Lantern back-up published in The Flash #245-246 (see below). In this guise, he fights a few different superheroes and joins the Secret Society of Super-Villains, and is later included in Alan Moore's early issues of Saga of the Swamp Thing, Neal Gaiman in his Black Orchid mini. Things take a turn during 1988's Millennium event when the Guardians of the Universe select him to serve as one of the New Guardians. "Floro" only reverts to villainy again when the rest of the team is killed. And from there, battles with Batman, Alan Scott, Swamp Thing, all sorts. Post-Infinite Crisis, he's responsible for Pamela Isley becoming Poison Ivy. When last seen, he was involved with the Parliament of Trees.
How you could have heard of him: Those Swamp Thing comics are still in print, and that's probably where most people know Woodrue from. Or perhaps his brief appearance in the Batman & Robin film, for the sadists in the bunch.
Example story: Flash #246 (January 1977) "Fury of the Floronic Man!" by Denny O'Neil, Dick Dillin and Terry Austin
Previously, on "Green Lantern is just a back-up these days, oh the indignity!"... Jason Woodrue, the so-called Plant Master, drank a potion that made him go from Fauna to Flora, gifting him with MENTAL control over plant life, which is sure to be a time saver. I do question whether Woodrue should be ordering trees to snap off their own limbs though. Guardian of the Green, he ain't!
But like the big clear-cutting corporation, he does have a reseeding policy, and like those corporations, he doesn't really care if they REALLY regrow the same ecosystem.
Yeah, that'll fit the Pacific Northwest. That big cactus shoots one (read: ONE) needle at Hal Jordan's neck... and gives him the trip of a lifetime. Are we talking mescaline here? I think we are. Denny keeps his captions shut on the matter though.
Woodrue muses about planting Green Lantern six feet underground, which is some nice thematic word play. But first, to steal his ring. Floro covers him in hardened sap and slips the ring off Hal's finger. No human on Earth could do this, but a plant? Doesn't seem to be a problem. But Woodrue is a little too cocky. He puts the ring on a twig, a twig accessible to Itty! And Itty has enough willpower to melt the sap off a man. And Hal has enough willpower to ice Floro up!
Hm. Do you think Woodrue was better off BEFORE the transformation? Yeah, I think he might have been. On looks alone...
Who's Next? A human-looking bug.
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