It is said that most Sparks inevitably feel some primal urge to Create a Man, and dabble in Things Man Was Not Meant to know. Heterodynes have not been immune to this—even the Heterodyne Boys built Punch and Judy. Vlad "The Blasphemous" Heterodyne took this obsession further than most.
His most memorable achievement was the creation of the Jägerbräu[2][3], the Dynewater-based potion that transforms comparatively ordinary men into the inhumanly strong, fast, durable, and courageous warrior-constructs we all know and love as Jägermonsters. (One of the stalwart fellows who underwent this procedure eventually took on the name Axel Higgs.) Judging from the way that people talk about the Jägers, this must have happened a long time ago, because the Jägers have become as much an icon of the Heterodynes as the trilobite.
Around 2006 the Foglios let loose into the wild a sketch which indicated that Vlad was a madman who practiced what he preached—and clearly preached a particularly radical form of applied biology. Note the octopus tentacle for an arm and the snail-like trail emerging underneath his robe. It’s always good to see a scientist who believes in transcending the rigid social divide between Spark and Construct, by any means necessary.
an early version?
All that said, when in 2020 ol' Vlad finally appeared ✣ in a flashback in the actual comic, he is depicted as being normal(ish) enough physically. Whether this is a case of the Foglios changing their minds, or the self-improvements came later in life remains to be seen.