Otto Von Furth was a mine worker in East Berlin, Germany until an unexpected cave-in trapped him and four fellow miners for seven days. During those days, Otto's co-workers died, leaving him as the only survivor. He and his fellow miners had been mining for radioactive radium and ended up exposed to it and when rescued, he was rushed to the hospital. Otto is later kidnapped by ex-Nazi General Zahl, who mutated him into a blob-like state. His body changed into an unstable protoplasm. He is brought into the Brotherhood of Evil where he took the name Plasmus. He and the Brotherhood of Evil fight the Teen Titans on different occasions. He enjoys these fights, but regrets not being the one to finally kill General Zahl. Later, Plasmus ends up as one of the many metabeings corrupted and brainwashed by a cult-leader. The rest of the Brotherhood of Evil reform into the Society of Sin. He is later recruited into Lex Luthor's Suicide Squad where he apparently dies fighting Imperiex. Plasmus accepts an invitation to join the Secret Society of Super Villains in the Countdown to Infinite Crisis series Villains United. Plasmus is featured in Infinite Crisis as part of a small group of villains that bombs the city ofBlüdhaven. The creature known as Chemo is dropped from an aircraft and detonates, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. During the One Year Later crossover, Plasmus rejoins the Brotherhood of Evil. He is also seen in Salvation Run. He is used by Lex Luthor as a power source for a teleportation device, and is killed when it self-destructs. Plasmus appears in Blue Beetle #1 from The New 52. He is one of the villains looking for the scarab with Phobia and Warp for the Brotherhood of Evil.
Powers and abilities
With his radioactive and chemically-converted body, Plasmus' touch can bring a fiery death onto his opponents, reverting them to a protoplasmic state. The touch has no cure and no normal human has withstood it. Plasmus can also loosen his cells so that bullets cannot hurt him. He is also able to gather his body if it is scattered while in its less cohesive state. In a certain sense, he is almost identical to the tragic Preston Payne, the third Clayface. Both can, as noted above, melt people into protoplasmic jelly and have a great deal of control of their gelatinous bodies.
In other media
Television
Plasmus appears in the Teen Titansanimated series with his vocal effects provided by Dee Bradley Baker. He is depicted as a large magenta sludge monster, lacking his comic-book counterpart's protoplasmic melting powers. He is actually human, but he only reverts to that form when unconscious, much like the fifth Clayface, Cassius "Clay" Payne. From the brief scene when he spoke, the human side of Plasmus fears his alternate nature and loses all control when it emerges. In this form, he can detach varying quantities of himself which can act independently, and often take the form of crab-like creatures. The design of Plasmus' human form is based on series producerDavid Slack. Because Plasmus' human form is barely clothed, Slack jokingly stated "I don't know how much it looks like me and I'm certainly not letting these guys see me in my underwear." In the first episode, "Divide and Conquer", he was kept unconscious in a stasis chamber of the prison until Cinderblock stole it so he could be used for Slade's purposes. He has since been not much more than a nuisance for the Titans. In the episode "Transformation", the mixing of his temporarily disrupted body structure with raw sewage transformed him by giving him multiple green eyes and making him more powerful, now able to spit acid. Later, he is recruited by Terra and Slade and ordered to distract Cyborg and Beast Boy. In "Aftershock ", he was fused with Cinderblock and Overload into an even worse creature known as Ternion. After the Titans defeated him, the three were diffused and became separate again. Plasmus again appeared to menace the Titans on their last day on Earth, in the episode "The End Part 1", where he was defeated single-handedly by Raven. He then made a cameo, along with his fellow minions, as an ally of the Brotherhood of Evil. After that, he is seen in the episode "Calling All Titans", in a whale-like form being mounted by Trident. In the episode "Titans Together", he is responsible for Tramm's capture as he unexpectedly appears alongside Trident to shove Tramm into a rock. He was knocked unconscious during his final fight with the Titans, reverting him to his human form and flash-frozen along with the rest of the Brotherhood. As of Season Four, Plasmus, along with Cinderblock, has the most appearances out of all Slade's other minions.
Plasmus appears in the Teen Titans Go! episode "You're Fired!". He appears in the same multi-eyed appearance from the previous series. He is attacking a planet when the Titans arrive, which is destroyed due to Beast Boy's indecisiveness. Plasmus is later seen fighting the other Titans in the city as Beast Boy sabotages the efforts of his replacement, Jayna of the Wonder Twins.
Plasmus appears in ', voiced by Yuri Lowenthal. After his sister Ana was transformed into a lava-like monster named "Plasma'''" by Dr. Simon Ecks and was subsequently accidentally killed by Black Lightning when her heart gave out during the fight with the Justice League, Otto Von Furth underwent similar experimentation and transformation, becoming Plasmus. Under the control of Count Vertigo, Plasmus fights members of the Outsiders. After being freed from Baron Bedlam's control, Plasmus is killed by a concerned citizen believing him to be a monster.
Miscellaneous
Plasmus appears in the comic companion to Justice League Unlimited.
