Dr. Sven Larsen, also known as Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, is a supervillain from DC Comics, most commonly serving as a foe of Batman and the Doom Patrol.
Biography
Dr. Sven Larsen was a Swedish scientist and the student of Niles Caulder, Sven and Niles had a falling out when Sven accused Niles of stealing the plans for an anti-decay ray. After falling into a vat of amino acids from one of his own experiments, Sven turned into Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man with the power to turn into any animal, including dinosaurs, vegetables, including trees and growing vines, and mineral, including diamond. He used said powers to take revenge on the Doom Patrol, but the Doom Patrol won, took away his powers and sent him to jail. Somehow, Sven's powers returned and he attacked the Doom Patrol time and time again. More than once he was defeated by his anti-decay ray. He was then broken out of jail by General Immortus and together they took on the new Doom Patrol and was defeated when Celsius encased him in a block of ice.
Sven was not seen for many years afterward. When the original Doom Patrol reunited and relocated tooling Island, Sven was cornered by police in a diner, creating a hostage situation. Originally not wanting to create a dangerous situation, he was goaded into it by pushy police. In the end, he let the hostages go before transforming and killing the police. After this, Thayer Jost sent a limousine for him. After meeting with Jost, Sven was welcomed into Jost's corporate team, the Front Men. His first mission was to assassinate former Doom Patrol member Beast Boy, foster son of Elasti-Girl and Mento. Ultimately, after arriving at titans Tower in San Francisco, he was told to fall back to Jost Enterprises. The Doom Patrol had infiltrated it to retrieve the captured Elasti-Girl. In the ensuing brawl, Sven cut Elasti-Girl down the middle, revealing that she was no longer human, but sentient protoplasm instead. Like the rest of the Front Men, Sven retreated in the end, making the Doom Patrol look as if they attacked without provocation.
In other media
Television
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "The Last Patrol!" He is among the Doom Patrol villains (alongside Brain, Monsieur Mallah, Mutant Master, and Arsenal) assembled by General Zahlto target the Doom Patrol. He attacks the carnival that Negative Man works at with the carnival barker asking about him and wondering who his agent is. Batman and the other Doom Patrol members arrive, and Negative Man helps them fend off Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. He later appears on General Zahl's ship with the other villains and ends up defeated by Batman.
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man makes an appearance in the third episode of Doom Patrol played by Alec Mapa. This version is a tourist in Paraguay named Steven Larson who travels to Fuchtopia in hopes to be given superpowers - "magnetic feet", specifically - via a machine built by Strumbanhfuhrer Von Fuchs. His transformation into Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man is shown at the end of the episode when he accidentally stays in the machine too long. This particular version has a human head and a separate dinosaur head, rather than the combined head of the comic version.
Powers and Abilities
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man can change any part of his body into the form of any animal, vegetable or mineral, including combining several at once. In most of his appearances, his arms, legs and the left side of his face take on various forms, leaving his torso and the right side of his face normal.
.jpg "Steven Larson (Titans TV Series).jpg (43 KB)")
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