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| Anaïs Arcane | |
| Aliases: | Anais Arcane |
| Continuity: | DC Universe |
| Notability: | Minor character |
| Gender: | Female |
| Race: | Human |
| Location: | Transylvania, Romania |
| Relatives: | Josip Arcane (husband); Anton Arcane (son); Gregori Arcane (son); Aniela Arcane (daughter); See Swamp Thing family for extended family tree. |
| Status: | Deceased |
| First: | Swamp Thing, Vol. #83 |
Anaïs Arcane is a fictional comic book character featured in titles published by DC Comics. She is part of the mainstream DC Universe that existed following the 1985-1986 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths and is part of the Swamp Thing family of comic book titles. She made a single appearance in Swamp Thing, Volume 2 #83 in February, 1989.
Biography[]
Anaïs Arcane was a Romanian woman and grandmother of Abigail Arcane. During World War I, she and along with her children, Aniela and Gregori, were forced to sought shelter to the Barony of her distant cousin Hans von Hammer, also known as the Enemy Ace, after Romania was invaded by Austrian forces.
On her first encounter with her cousin, von Hammer shot down two Allied planes from the ground. Anaïs and von Hammer then investigated the wreckage of one of the downed planes, in which they find one French pilot healed from plant matter due to being possessed by the time traveling Swamp Thing. Although startled by the Swamp Thing's half-man, half-plant visage, Anaïs and von Hammer ultimately decided to bring the wounded pilot into the Baron’s castle for treatment. Anaïs later went to seeing her eldest son Anton, who was acting as a medical officer on the Western Front, to be brought back to the castle to examine the pilot; however, she was unaware of her son's demented persona, and that his only interest in studying the pilot is so that he can further his own grotesque experiments. After having a disturbing dream portending Anton's evil nature, Anaïs discovered Anton's sinister nature during an occult ritual involving the Claw of Aelkhünd to glean the secrets of the Swamp Thing's powers. Anton flew into a rage when his mother interfered in the ritual, and grabs her by the throat and preparing to kill her as part of a blood sacrifice. Fortunately, Baron von Hammer saved Anaïs and blasted Anton in the chest with a rifle, apparently killing him. After freeing the Swamp Thing, the creature finally managed to talk to Anaïs and absolves her of any fault in her son's evil deeds. The Swamp Thing then exposed himself to the Claw of Aelkhünd one more time, allowing him to continue his journey through the Timestream. Von Hammer then decided that the Claw should be hidden there along with the pilot's body, and the room bricked shut. When Anaïs and von Hammer went to deal with Anton, they find his body missing.
Anaïs and her children would later on move to her uncle's estate in Krakow, where she would received a missive indicating that her husband Josip has been killed in action.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Anaïs Arcane was created by writer Rick Veitch and artist Tom Mandrake.