Mole Man appeared in the 1961 comic book called Fantastic Four.
Harvey Elder was born circa 1910. A bizarre physical appearance and poor eyesight caused him to be shunned and ridiculed since childhood. However much of his past life is at this time unrecorded until his adulthood. The earliest supposed record of Harvey Elder dates back to his childhood. According to his grandmother, Harvey was normally introverted but really enjoyed Christmas and Santa Claus. Because department store Santas shunned him, his grandfather Robert often dressed up as Santa which brought a little bit of joy in Harvey's otherwise miserable life. As an adult, he became a scientist. Ridiculed by his peers, Harvey was pitied by a woman named Lorna. Elder fell in love with the woman but could not bring himself to tell her how he truly felt about her. Unable to take the taunting any more, Elder quit his job and started down the long road that would change his life forever.
By 1956, having heard legends regarding a land at the center of the Earth, Elder began traveling around the world to find it. Seeking to further his avenues of investigation he attempted to join a New York City Explorer's Club owned by Stanley Hathaway. Unknown to Harvey, the organization that was the public front of a group known as the Monster Hunters. Unfortunately for Harvey, Hathaway told him that the legends were nothing more than the work of a crackpot and Elder was ejected from the building. Harvey vowed that he Hathaway would one day regret rejecting him from his exclusive club. Elder then managed to sneak inside the building and listened in on a conversation between the Monster Hunters until he was discovered by the Wakandan huntress known as Zawadi. Wanting their organization kept secret the mystic Anthony Druid used his powers to make Harvey forget about what he heard and compelled him to find the Explorers Club beneath his notice. Falling completely under Druid's spell Elder left without further issue.
Elder went to the Red Carpet Lounge where he unsuccessfully tried to pick up a woman. When seeing TV reports of a monster named Gorgilla on the rampage in the city, Harvey suddenly remembered what he overheard at the Explorers Club. He then witnessed the Monster Hunters take down Gorgilla at the Statue of Liberty. Believing that they were stealing all of his glory Harvey vowed to get revenge against the group. Elder secretly followed the Monster Hunters to the secret government facility where they operated. There he smuggled himself aboard a plane which the heroes were taking to Midnight Mountain located on an island in the Pacific. Harvey was eventually discovered by Gorgilla and knocked out by Zawadi and left tied to a chair while the Monster Hunters dealt with an air attack and rough landing. When the Monster Hunters' leader, the Eternal Makkari, was captured by the Deviant known as Kro, who was the one responsible for unleashing various monsters all over Earth, the Monster Hunters went after him to Monster Island taking Harvey along with them. Elder broke free and attempted to attack Zawadi and Dr. Druid. But Zawadi detected his presence and took a swipe at him shaving off Harvey's mustache. Having had enough of Elder's interference Druid forced him out of the plane in a parachute. By the time Harvey swam to shore the Monster Hunters had defeated Kro and rescued Makkari and left. Having lost his glasses in the water Elder stumbled around blindly until he fell into a pit where he was blinded by Valley of Diamonds.
Harvey has told a variation of this tale omitting his clash with the Monster Hunters stating that he found Monster Island alone when his ship was wrecked at sea and he has washed ashore on Monster Island. As Elder is driven by his anger to the surface world, his drive to be recognized as a brilliant man, and his desire to be pitied due to his harsh life -- despite the possibility that he may have been the creator of at least some of his misery -- it is not surprising that he omitted certain facts regarding how he found Monster Island in order to seem more menacing to his foes.
Nevertheless, now calling himself the Mole Man, Harvey 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 subterranean. The Mole Man controlled the race known as the Moloids, which were 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 have been descendants of beings created through genetic manipulation by the Deviants or may have been uncivilized, in some cases nearly mindless, highly mutated Deviants themselves.
While living in the tunnels he developed a radar sense as well as longevity that kept him youthful for decades. During his early years in Subterranea, the Mole Man encountered a group of Deviants that were still living within the vast underground domain who was ill. Using his medical skills honed from being a scientist he treated them. The Mole Man soon fell in love with the Deviant woman known as Kyzerra. When Kyzerra became pregnant and gave birth to their son later dubbed the Mole Monster, Harvey abandoned her according to Deviant customs. The Mole Monster eventually grew to adulthood and began to rule his own part of Subterranean however he and his father had the understanding to give each other wide berth.
Powers and Abilities[]
- 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 constantly generates. The signals emanating from the "sending regions," bounce off objects around him, and return to the "receiving regions" of both hemispheres. In this way, he synthesizes a very close analogue of third-dimensional human sight, 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.
- Super-Genius Intelligence: 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.
Arsenal[]
- Visor: The Mole Man wears a protective visor that reduces the intensity of normal lighting to comfortable levels.
- Staves: His stave appears to be an aid to the visually impaired Elder. However, he is quite skilled in their use as a weapon. On occasion, he has used a stave that launches a concussive blast. He has also used “Zero - Point Energy” staves that increase the center of gravity of anyone, making people heavier the more they struggle. A mental force field, like the Invisible Woman’s, nullifies this effect.
Weakness[]
- Light Sensitivity: Although the Mole Man has adequate vision in dark places, he is blinded by normal light.