Mantis Man

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"Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news. Bad news is we're postponing those tests indefinitely. Good news is we've got a much better test for you: fighting an army of mantis men! Pick up a rifle and follow the yellow line. You'll know when the test starts."

―Cave Johnson

 

One of the first series of tests performed by Aperture Science Innovators, along with testing of the Aperture Science Portable Quantum Tunneling Device and Repulsion Gel, were tests of the effects of praying mantis DNA on the human body. The large number of resulting human-mantis hybrids (referred to by Cave Johnson as "mantis men") were themselves the subject of testing; namely, how long it would take to kill an army of them using rifles. Somewhat inhumanely, the mantis men were apparently required to kill each other during the test, thereby ridding Aperture of most, if not all, of them and preventing the problem of cleanup or compensation.

Trivia

• The initial DNA-injection test took place in roughly 1952. However, the existence of DNA as we know it was not conclusively proven until late 1953, by Francis Crick and James Watson.
• In Portal 2: The Official Guide from Future Press, Erik Wolpaw was asked about the fate of the Mantis Men; he replied that the answer "would be too big of a spoiler [for Portal 3]," but suggested that some of them may still live in the facility.
• One of the possible alternate universes visited during the Perpetual Testing Initiative is of a universe in which the experiment was performed in reverse: An Aperture Science run by Mantises attempted to create "Man Mantises", leading to a similar situation within their own Enrichment Center.

List of appearances

• Portal 2 (First appearance) (Mentioned only)

References