Anton Arcane

* Comics
* 1982
* 1989
* 1990
* 1991

**Anton Arcane** is a fictional character and villain in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. He first appeared in *Swamp Thing* #1 (November 1972), and was created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson.

## Television

### Live Action

In the 1990 live action series, Anton Arcane was a criminal scientist obsessed with the study of genetics. He was responsible for abducting dozens of individuals and performing grotesque experiments on them, using recombinant DNA to combine animal characteristics with human beings. These experiments gave rise to a sub-race of mutants such as Falco and Toad Boy. Anton Arcane attempted to steal a bio-restorative formula from a contemporary named Doctor Alec Holland. This incident resulted in Holland being transformed into the elemental creature known as the Swamp Thing. The ever-charismatic Doctor Arcane developed an interest in a local Louisiana woman named Tressa Kipp. For the most part, Arcane's flirtations with Miss Kipp was part of a larger scheme to swindle her family out of the land that their home was built upon. Arcane was able to perform most of his experiments without fear of detection. This is due in no small part to his accomplice, Sheriff Andrews, a corrupt police officer who covered up news of the various missing persons reports that would otherwise circulate throughout the community. Invariably, Arcane's machinations would always earn the ire of the Swamp Thing who waged a consistent crusade against Arcane at every available opportunity. Another thorn in Arcane's side was Tressa Kipp's nine-year-old son, Jim. When Jim discovered Arcane's laboratory, he had the boy captured and shipped off to a work camp in South America. He had Sheriff Andrews fake Jim Kipp's death so his disappearance would not arouse suspicion.

### Animation

In the *Swamp Thing* animated series, Doctor Anton Arcane was an evil scientist who wanted Doctor Alec Holland's plant growth formula for himself and, when he was refused, had his goons destroy the lab. However, the accident caused Holland to transform into the man-plant mutant known as Swamp Thing. Now Arcane seeks to find and use Swamp Thing for his experiments; to that end, he uses the Geno-fluid of his transducer chamber to turn himself and his Un-Men into monstrous creatures -- he himself becoming an arachnid monster.

## Comics

Anton Arcane was born to Josip and Anaïs Arcane. At a young age, Arcane showed signs of depravity and hostility, causing his younger siblings Aniela and Gregori to fear him. Particularly, Arcane had sexually abused Aniela secretly from their parents. Anton developed a deep interest in biological science and enrolled in Hamburg School of Medicine until he was expelled for unethical surgical experiments, sadism, drug addiction, necrophilia, moral turpitude, depravity, debasement, decadence and attempting to re-animate dead flesh. Following his expulsion, Arcane enlisted in the German military during World War I and became a field doctor at the Western Front, where he dementedly experimented on the mortally wounded.

Arcane was found by his mother, who pleaded for him to see a strange man whose wounds had grown stitched to plant material. Interested, Anton travelled to the estate of Hans von Hammer, where the pilot was treated and discovered to be the time-lost Swamp Thing, who easily recognized Anton as his future arch-nemesis.

Anton studied the creature and believed that the restorative properties of the Swamp Thing were the key to true immortality. Mixing science with sorcery, he embarked upon a bizarre black magic ritual to glean the secrets of the Swamp Thing's powers by torturing the creature with the aid of an occult artifact known as the Claw of Aelkhünd. Arcane's actions were discovered by Anaïs, who disavowed him as an evil man. Furious, Arcane tried to make his mother a blood-sacrifice, only to be shot down by Hans von Hammer. Despite his near-fatal injuries, Arcane survived his wounds.

Arcane later resumed his military career and eventually served alongside Adolf Hitler for three years. It was then that Arcane convinced Hitler of his destiny to rule the world - not out of any loyalty to the man, but rather from a desire to start a second land-war in Europe. Arcane had begun creating an army of deformed man-creatures he called Un-Men, but when the first World War ended, corpses were not as readily available. With Hitler in control, he knew the body count would be staggering. Several years later, Hitler turned his attention to the creation of the Nazi Party, in which Arcane served, but only to further his work.

By the near-end of the war in Europe, Arcane had practically attained immortality and had holed up in an abattoir, creating his Un-Men, and amassing a cache of occult artifacts. When his facility was destroyed by Allied bombers, Arcane re-encountered the Swamp Thing, but was prepared for it, using the Claw of Aelkhünd. The object caused the Swamp Thing to disappear, and Arcane later vowed to hunt the elemental down and learn the secret of his immortality ― a vow that would take the next several decades to fulfill.

### Family Reunion

Arcane later returned to his place of birth, where he continued his experiments and widely feared by the local villagers. He grew infatuated to a woman named Anise, who although married to his brother Gregori. Jealous and angered, Arcane considered this a betrayal and punished Gregori for marrying the woman he loved by convincing villagers to burn Anise at the stake as a witch. In spite of his misgiving towards Gregori, whom he was not aware of Anton's malice, Arcane financially supported him and his niece Abigail. When the government wanted to take custody of Abigail due to Gregori's business trips make him an unfit father, Arcane offered to help his brother secure a lawyer. After Gregori returned to the country, tragically he stepped on a landmine near Anton's castle left over from World War II and was terribly injured. Arcane utilized his surgical skills in repairing his brother's body by grafting various rotting and ill-fitting body parts onto his basic human shell. Gregori awakened to find that Anton had made him into a misshapen monster: a Patchwork Man. Furious, Gregori thrashed in fury until Anton sedated him and locked him away in a dungeon, where he remained for years.

### Obsession and Immortality

Despite his immortality, Anton Arcane's body became too old and feeble, and no longer a suitable vessel to carry him through eternity. In response to this, Arcane began conducting experiments to make a new body, but the results were deemed as failures. Still bearing a grudge over the Swamp Thing, Anton Arcane realized that the Earth elemental would be a suitable host. Observing from an ancient mystic mirror from his castle in Transylvania, Arcane witnessed Alec Holland's transformation into the Swamp Thing and dispatched his Un-Men in capturing him. After capturing the Earth elemental, Arcane tricked him by offering the chance to become Alec Holland again in exchange for Swamp Thing's body. However, Swamp Thing discovered Arcane's sinister hidden agenda, and in the ensuing battle, Arcane was thrown out of a window to his apparent death.

Miraculously, Arcane managed to hold onto life, though his injuries were such that he had to have some of his Un-Men transplant his brain into a misshapen Un-Man body. In this form, he attacked the Swamp Thing several more times before truly dying; his soul then went to Hell. His soul later escaped from Hell, where it took over the body of Matthew Cable, who was married to Abigail Arcane. Arcane combined his own magic with Cable's inherent psychic powers to battle the Swamp Thing, but he was exorcised directly to Hell.

### Demonhood

Arcane next appeared as a demon, having been promoted to this status by the Lords of Hell in recognition of his evil. When Swamp Thing and Abigail's daughter Tefé was captured and brought to Hell, Arcane attempted to use her powers to create a window to reach Earth, but in his greed he allowed her to escape.

He later repented his evil ways, and his spirit returned to Earth, where he became an ally of the Swamp Thing.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Magic**
	+ **Necromancy**

### Abilities

* **Genius Level Intellect**
* **Medicine**

## Trivia

* As a demon, Anton Arcane is 12 ft. tall and weighs 2,000 lbs.

## In other media

*Main article: Anton Arcane in other media*