Floronic Man

Jason Woodrue, mainly known as Floronic Man, is a DC comic book villain and an enemy to both Batman and Poison Ivy, as well as Swamp Thing and The Atom.

History
Jason first appears in The Atom #1 (Jun-Jul 1962). Woodrue is an exile from an interdimensional world inhabited by dryads. Calling himself the Plant Master, Woodrue uses his advanced botanical knowledge to control plant growth in an attempt to take over the world. He is defeated by the superheroic Atom. Plant Master returns to face the Atom and the Justice League.

In Flash vol. 2 #245 (November 1976), Woodrue uses an experimental forumula to transform his body into a plant/human hybrid, with his skin resembling bark and his hair turning into leaves. Now calling himself the Floronic Man, he is defeated by the Green Lantern. The Floronic Man later becomes a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains.

In Alan Moore's relaunch of the Swamp Thing in Saga of the Swamp Thing #21 (February 1984), Woodrue is hired by General Sunderland to discover how scientist Alec Holland had been turned into the Swamp Thing. Woodrue discovers that the creature, instead of being a mutated version of Holland, is instead an intelligent mass of plant life that had fed on Holland's dead body. The Floronic Man tries to warn Sunderland that the Swamp Thing is not dead, but the General refuses to listen and announces his intent to terminate Woodrue's employment. Subsequently, the Floronic Man traps Sunderland in his office with a dethawed and enraged Swamp Thing, who kills the General.

In Saga of the Swamp Thing #22 (March 1984), the Floronic Man uses the Swamp Thing's body to contact the Green, which is composed of the life force of all plants on Earth. The experience drives the Floronic Man insane, and he sets out to destroy all nonplant life on Earth. Woodrue is confronted by a revived Swamp Thing, who reveals to the Green that plants cannot survive without animals. The Green abandons the Floronic Man, who is then taken into custody by the Justice League.

The 1988 Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean miniseries Black Orchid recasts Dr. Jason Woodrue as a University professor who taught Botany to Philip Sylvian, Alec & Linda Holland, and Pamela Isley. The character Philip Sylvian, apparently unaware of Woodrue's transformation, refers to him as a "poor old guy" and states: "Last I heard he was in Arkham Insane Asylum..."

The Floronic Man was briefly a hero, after the events of Millennium lead to him to become a member of the New Guardians. In this new role Woodrue takes on the name Floro. After the death of most of his teammates, he reverts to his original status as a villain.

Poison Ivy discovers the Floronic Man has sprung her from ArkhamFloro returns in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #56 (November 1996. After breaking Poison Ivy out of Arkham with his two henchwomen Holly and Eva, Floro explains his past to Batman and Poison Ivy, telling the story of how he prevented a plot of Swamp Thing's, only to get decapitated. After scientists manage to keep his head alive, the first thing he comes in contact with is marijuana. Regenerating a plant body, he begins his quest to flood the streets of Gotham City with his advanced and cheap pot. Floronic Man takes some of Poison Ivy's DNA in an attempt to create a "child". Poison Ivy, in exchange, gets a trunk full of dope money, and is free to walk away. Deciding she doesn't want Floronic Man running the world, she frees the Batman. After a short battle, Batman notices that Floro is standing in a puddle, and uses an electrical cable to electrocute the villain, then decapitates him once again.

The character has since appeared in various other comics and storylines. He assists Starman, Alan Scott, Batman and others in trying to save a friendly, peaceful version of Solomon Grundy. In a recent issue of Batman, he is killed after assassins shoot him repeatedly with bullets, although this is in direct contrast to his most famous appearance (in The Saga of the Swamp Thing #21) in which he points out that "you can't kill a vegetable by shooting it through the head." He is one of the many villains who was mind-wiped by the JLA, but has since recovered those memories.

During the Infinite Crisis, Floronic Man reappears as a member of Alexander Luthor, Jr.'s Secret Society of Super Villains and takes part in the Battle of Metropolis.

Batman & Robin


""Well, I can respect your opinion. Sadly, I'm not good at rejection. I'm afraid you'll have to die.""

- ―Jason Woodrue to Pamela Isley.

Dr. Jason Woodrue was a minor antagonist in Batman & Robin, played by John Glover.

A corrupt (and mad) scientist, who worked for and was formerly funded by Wayne Enterprises. After the company cut its financial backing, Woodrue moved to a remote South American lab. He used plant toxins to create Venom, a super-serum that significantly enhanced a human subject's physical proportions. His experiment was codenamed 'Project Gilgamesh' (an apparent reference to the same tests that created the comic 'Bane') and the first successful test subject was a diminutive, scrawny convict named Antonio Diego, who was serving a life sentence for serial murder. Diego was subsequently turned into a hulking monstrosity that Woodrue named "Bane". The scientist planned on selling similar "Super Soldiers" to members of the "Un-United Nations."

Dr. Pamela Isley, who worked for Woodrue, discovered his horrific experiments, and Woodrue offered her to join him. But she was appalled by his inhumane actions, and threatened to report him (as implied by her words of “When I get through, you won’t be able to get a job teaching high school chemistry”) as well as calling him a "psycho". Woodrue (who said he was “not good at rejection”) assaulted Isley and shoved her into a lab table, causing her to fall onto the floor, and then have a shelf filled with plant chemicals pushed onto her.

Believing her to be dead, Woodrue was shown to be talking on the phone with a member of the “Un-United Nations” (who he was about to sell Bane to after they were impressed by his experiment). But just then, Pamela Isley arose (having been transformed into Poison Ivy by the chemicals and Venom).

After he was immediately enamored by her newfound beauty, she explained, “The animal-plant toxins had a rather... unique effect on me. They replaced my blood with aloe, my skin with chlorophyll... and filled... my lips” before stopping to give Woodrue a kiss. When she broke the kiss and finished “with venom”, Woodrue realized what she meant, but was too late in wanting to ask her. Ivy then added “Oh, and Jason, one other thing. I probably should’ve mentioned this earlier. I’m... poison” before pushing a dying Woodrue down.

Finally, she began to incinerate his lab before appropriating Bane as a bodyguard. Woodrue’s corpse was soon burnt after the building fire.

Whether he somehow came back to life and became what he is in other Batman media is unknown.

Swamp Thing the Animated Series
Jason Woodrue is mentioned several times in Swamp the Animated Series. He is a scientific rival to Anton Arcane and is able to expand human life artificially.

Batman and Harley Quinn
Jason Woodrue, AKA The Floronic Man, is one of the two main antagonists turned true main antagonist of the 2017 DC animated film, Batman and Harley Quinn. He teamed up with Poison Ivy to destroy all of humanity by transforming all life on Earth into plants. He is also revealed by Batman to be Dryad/tree spirit from another dimension.

He was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.

Floronic Man and Poison Ivy attack Star Labs, at the beginning of the movie, where Floronic Man was fighting guards while Poison Ivy was seen working on a computer, researching a scientist named Alec Holland (Swamp Thing). After Ivy got the information, she and Floronic Man flee from Star Labs.

They later retreated to their lab at Slaughter Swamp, Bludhaven. They have the scientist, Harold Goldbloom (who is hypnotized by Ivy), to help them find the exact swamp chemicals Alec Hollond made to mix their chemical concoction with and unleash it upon the world, turning everyone into a plant. Just then, Batman and Nightwing appeared before them with the aid of Harley Quinn, who they needed to have information about Poison Ivy from as she was her former friend. During their fight, Harold began to regain consciousness from Poison Ivy's control, forcing Floronic Man to impale him in the chest with a thorn in order to keep him quiet. Their lab was then set on fire. Floronic grabbed as much of their research as he could. Poison Ivy became worried about leaving Harley behind to die, but Floronic Man tells her to leave Harley to her fate as she betrayed her.

Floronic Man and Poison Ivy head to a local swamp in Louisiana. After Floronic Man broke into battle with Batman and NIghtwing again, he sees Ivy with Harley Quinn, now angered after she betrayed him. Poison Ivy helps the heroes fight Floronic Man but was no match for him. Floronic Man continued on with his plan, as he was about to unleash his chemicals into a swamp leading to the Gulf of Mexico. Just then, Swamp Thing appeared out of the swamp before Floronic Man, who became shocked from seeing him. Swamp Thing notes that humanity has tried to harm plant life and that using his concoction could harm it. Floronic Man tells Swamp Thing he's sorry for it.

However, Swamp Thing then tells him that he will not interfere, and let him proceed with his action, before disappearing back into the swamp. Floronic Man laughed maniacally soon after, and resorted back to his plan. Unfortunately, he was caught on fire by Batman, as he was seen running through the swamp, screaming in pain as flames were seen burning his body.

As Jason Woodrue
In his original form, Jason Woodrue had advanced knowledge of the botanical science, which he used to accelerate plant growth. He was also gifted in Venom and its uses, causing the diminutive and skinny convict Antonio Diego to be turned into a hulking monster.

As Floronic Man
After becoming the Floronic Man, Woodrue gains the ability to mentally control plant life.