SPROUT

Real Name: Sprout

Identity/Class: Extra-dimensional (Earth-900651) hybrid human-Cotati

Occupation: student

Affiliations: Silver Surfer (ally), Billy (friend)

Enemies: Kree, Mangog, Supreme Intelligence

Known Relatives: Mantis (mother), the Elder Cotati (inhabiting the reanimated form of the Swordsman (father))

Aliases: Arthur Raymond Celestine, "The Great Terror," the Celestial Messiah

Base of Operations: Willimantic, Connecticut, Earth-900651

First Appearance: Marvel Fanfare I#51 (June, 1990)
    see comments

Powers/Abilities: Sprout can transform all or part of his body into a tree-like form. He can grow in size, anchor his roots deep in the Earth, wrap his strong, and woody limbs (which are as strong as iron) around others. In that form he has an uncertain degree of superhuman strength and durability. He can also communicate with vegetation, even across great distances (eventually he would be expected to do so over even galactic distances). As he was still young when first seen, his powers would be expected to grow significantly as he aged.

    Sprout is by nature green in color, though he can change colors at will and typically adopts the hue of a mixed Asian-Frenchman.

History:
BTS - Like Quoi, his counterpart on Earth-616, Sprout is the son of the Celestial Madonna, Mantis, and the Elder Cotati, an alien plant-race, who reanimated the corpse of the Swordsman (Jacques DuQuesne) in order to mate with her and thus father the Celestial Messiah. The two left Earth, became one with the stars and the void, and with each other.

(Marvel Fanfare I#51 (fb) - BTS) - After the Cotati's essence had "taken root" in her, Mantis returned to Earth. Wanting her child to grow free and strong, she came to the USA. Wanting normalcy, she went to a suburb in Connecticut, where she adopted the name "Mandy Celestine." Soon after, she gave birth to Sprout, who was known publicly as Arthur Raymond Celestine. Knowledge of the existence of the legendary Celestial Messiah spread its way through the cosmos, and some powers sought to destroy him.
    While Mantis tried to train Sprout in his great destiny, he was more interested in becoming a professional football player.

    On two separate occasions, "those who serve evil" tried and failed to end Sprout's life, but they were foiled by Mantis.

(Marvel Fanfare I#51)- The Kree targeted Sprout. A pair of warriors piloted a ship to Earth, but they ended up intercepting the Silver Surfer, who destroyed their ship, causing them to crash on Earth. The Surfer was injured as well, but upon recovering he tracked the pair to Connecticut and defeated them, after which he encountered Mantis, who introduced him to Sprout and explained the situation.

    The Supreme Intelligence then sent an energy beam to earth which located Mangog (then the size of an insect after losing the hatred source that empowered him @ Thor I#250), and returned him to his giant size and power in exchange for agreeing to serve him. Mangog traced Sprout to Connecticut, where Mantis tried and failed to stop him (motherhood had cost her some of her sharp edge). Sprout then tapped into his powers and assumed a tree-like form to restrain Mangog. However, the virtually unstoppable Mangog tore free, causing Sprout great pain, though he refused to let go. The Surfer then engaged Mangog and soon saw that even his own power was not enough to stop the monster. Instead, he offered no resistance, allowing Mangog to attack him. Mangog attempted to devour the Surfer and claim his power cosmic, but as the Surfer had no malice in his soul, the Mangog's anger was forced outward, destroying it.

    Sprout agreed to pay more attention in future training lessons, and wished his dad had been there to meet the Surfer. Meanwhile, Mantis and the Surfer made goo-goo eyes at each other.

Comments: Created by Steve Englehart and John Buscema.

The story in Marvel Fanfare I#51 represents the original story that had been intended for the first issue of the third Silver Surfer series. That series was originally lined up to be a 12 issue limited series, but somewhere along the line it was decided to go with an ongoing series instead. The direction of the series changed markedly, and the first issue instead was penciled by Marshall Rogers and featured Norrin finally escaping Earth. Englehart obviously used Mantis in the ongoing series, but her son was not actively seen or involved.
    In my opinion, the direction they went in is much better than the initial series, if this "pilot" is any indication. Englehart's work on the Silver Surfer is some of his best. Quoi is a pretty cool character, while Sprout is much goofier.
  Also, Al Milgrom mentioned that there was also an original, unpublished version of X-Factor. I'd love to read that some time.

CLARIFICATIONS:
He is the alternate dimensional counterpart of:

He has no known connection to:

 

Appearances:
Marvel Fanfare I#51 (June, 1990) - Stege Englehart (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Jack Abel (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)

Last updated: 10/26/03

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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