Home Base Comics

ARSENIC

ELEMENTAL DOSSIER / CODENAME: ARSENIC

Number: 33
Real Name: Arsenio Barbossa Mikkos
Aliases: Arse, Arse-hole, Colonel Mikkos, Colonel Arsenic
Sex: Not Since the 80s
Age: 42
From: Piraeus, Greece

Mask: Gasmask

The main character of Home Base Comics, Arsenic is a mad scientist who works out of a lab known as the "Evil Lair of Evil," hidden beneath the depths of Coney Island, New York. He constantly wears a gasmask, obscuring his face and hiding his true identity to the world. He started a reign of terror upon New York City, using his original lab in the suburbs as his base of operations to assault NYC with his freeze ray. While wielding this weapon, he isn't picky about who he uses it on, equally likely to freeze someone for asking "What's up with that gasmask?" as he is for someone breaking into his lab at night. But when Arsenic got too ambitious and tried to freeze the whole city at once, his plans backfired and literally blew up in his face.

Arsenic has desires for world domination, and so far has thwarted every hero that has attempted to get in his way (although he always finds a way to make his own plans fail miserably). But Arsenic's quest for rule has more obstacles than just a series of heroes sent by the mayor of New York to stop him. Even his own lab assistant, Old Lace, has no idea that Arsenic is merely one player in part of a global criminal organization known as "Home Base" that has an ultimate purpose of world conquest. Arsenic has allied with this strong force, but truly wishes power for himself only. Therefore Arsenic attempts to keep one step ahead of both the heroes of New York and his own villainous allies to assure that in the end he alone stands ruler of Earth.

Arsenic has a great degree of brilliance, and an over-inflated ego to back it up. Despite his self confident demeanor, underneath Arsenic is a natural-born loser. He spends the majority of his time sexually harassing Old Lace even though she has no interest in him, and continually has to raise her salary just to keep her around.

To the general public, not much is known about Arsenic's secretive past or where he gets funding for his experiments. However, through a series of flashbacks, it was revealed that Arsenic was once known as Arsenio Mikkos. The world considers Mikkos dead, and so does Arsenic. He does not regard the life he once lived to be his own, but instead thinks of himself now as only "Arsenic."

First Appearance: Issue 1 (May 6, 2006)... duh.

Misc: The Arsenic character stands on his own, but is (of course) not without its own influences. "Colonel Arsenic" was a villain on an old episode of Wild Wild West and the name was very cool. I took "Arsenic" and made a new character with it (new being a relative term, since a power-hungry mad scientist is hardly a brand spanking new concept). An early plotline I had him attempting was to freeze the city utilizing the power of the "Ice Princess" diamond, which is stolen straight from a character named "Mikkos" on General Hospital in 1981. Later I also stole the name and merged it with the name of the Wild Wild West character when I decided that the mysterious villain should be given a name and backstory. He wears a gasmask simply because I wanted his identity to be a mystery, and a gasmask was the coolest mask I could think of.

Holy Evil's Rendering of Arsenic:

Biography of Arsenio Mikkos

Why does Arsenio Mikkos get his own bio when he is the same character as Arsenic? Simple, as I said above... despite being the same person in flesh, they are ostensibly two different people.

First introduced in "Over the Deep End," the unnamed Mikkos was a fugitive being smuggled away from Greece by his brother. It was revealed that he had committed treason, and tried to assassinate the president of Greece. In "Rise of the Colonels," this backstory was explained, revealing that Mikkos was a Colonel in the Hellenic Army.

Prior to that, he had been educated in New York but quickly came back after knocking a girl up. Arsenio then served in the military, and his father used his wealth and influence to get him quickly promoted to the rank of Colonel at the mere age of 28. He was brilliant, but arrogant and not respected by his men, which quickly led to his own men mocking him as "Colonel Arsenic" behind his back - indicating that he was a poison to morale.

Hungry for power, Mikkos joined in a conspiracy with a small group of other Colonels linked to the 17 November Terrorist Organization. They plotted to kill the President during a 1992 coup within the context of a military parade. But Mikkos's own regiment betrayed him and the coup failed. All conspirators were quickly killed in the battle or caught and executed for treason, save Mikkos - who managed to escape. After laying low for a while, Mikkos turned to his brother to smuggle him out. But somehow the military learned of the attempt, and Arsenio's brother was forced to toss the container that he was hiding in overboard, into the depths of the sea.

But Mikkos did not drown here. A mysterious entity known as "Home Base" was watching and saved him from the ocean, offering him a place in their organization for world domination. When he accepted, the person that was Arsenio Mikkos died, and a new man - Arsenic - was born.