Eradicator
61 years ago - The Eradicator Matrix is designed by the Kryptonian extremist scientist Kem-L as a safeguard for Kryptonian cultural purity.
56 years ago - The Eradicator Matrix corrupts a Kryptonian hyperspacial teleporter, displacing the Kryptonian colony planets, Bgztl & Daxam, into the Phantom Zone. The disaster leads the high Kryptonian counsel to recall all Kryptonians to Krypton, despite Jor-el's warnings that this will overstress and destroy the planet.
35 years ago - The Eradicator uploads itself into Jor-el's hyperspace pod to escape the destruction of Krypton, but is locked out of the pod's higher functions by Jor-el's datacore.
19 years ago - The Eradicator is reactivated when Kal-el reactivates Jor-el's datacore.
15 years ago - The Eradicator is able to communicate with Kal-el, and assists him in creating a Fortress of Solitude in the north pole using Kryptonian crystaline technology.
11 years ago - The Eradicator rewrites Krypto's DNA into an animal of Kryptonian origin. Kal-el realizes the extent of its intention to restructure Earth into Krypton. He undergoes an old Kryptonian rite of passage to earn the name of El so he can override the Eradicator. Krypto is restored, although he now has Kryptonian abilities.
8 years ago - The Eradicator rewrites Kal-el's personality to remove his humanity, but it is defeated with Karen Starr's help & placed into secured memory.
5 years ago - The Eradicator is released from secured memory when Kal-el dies. Recovering his body and placing it in a Kryptonian Rejuvenation Chamber, it creates its own synthetic body that can store but not absorb Yellow Sunlight. It begins to fill in for Kal-el in Metropolis, battling a Doomsday empowered Rudy Jones, leaving his husk on the moon. It helps Kal-el defeat Hank Henshaw & Mongul, and is returned to the Fortress of Solitude computers, it's body placed in a Solar Silo.
1 year ago - The Eradicator is deployed in the fight against Mageddon.
As I understand it, there was a time when comic fans believed there was a plan to completely replace DC's Big Three with new characters. Given what we know now, that was never actually the case (not the least because these three characters didn't actually overlap at all), but I do kind of appreciate the idea that, once upon a time, our big three might have been Artemis, Azbat, and this guy.
Of the four characters introduced for the Reign of the Supermen storyline, I do think that the Last Son of Krypton, as we knew him then, probably got the worst deal. He was a really cool execution of the Superman premise and required the least work to fit into the Superman mythology.. I would have liked to see him play a larger role going forward.
Of the four characters introduced for the Reign of the Supermen storyline, I do think that the Last Son of Krypton, as we knew him then, probably got the worst deal. He was a really cool execution of the Superman premise and required the least work to fit into the Superman mythology.. I would have liked to see him play a larger role going forward.
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The Eradicator's Comic HistoryThe Eradicator actually has a pretty prolific history in the late 80s and early 90s, the post-crisis years of Superman's re-imagined history. It starts out as an object, an ancient Kryptonian weapon/artifact he encounters during his long travels off planet. It was created by a Kryptonian scientist and Clark's ancestor, Kem-L, part of an ongoing war in Krypton's history. A handheld object, it helped a lot of the worldbuilding, as the new writers were essentially shaping the world of Superman and Krypton from scratch, and were often struggling with how to convey all that information to Clark with no surviving Kryptonians to provide it. It would continually feature in many stories as a very meaningful MacGuffin, representing all the memories and technology of Krypton, as well as a certain amount of sinister intent. This is actually where we get the post-crisis Fortress of Solitude.
The big evolution of the Eradicator is into "Krypton Man"... at first a costume worn by Clark when the Eradicator suppressed his humanity, making him abandon both his role as Clark AND Superman, leaving him as just Kal-el. Eventually, Clark overcame the Eradicator's influence and threw the physical object of the Eradicator into the sun. Its essence survived, however, and created a humanoid body for itself (refusing to take the name Krypton Man), threatening to rebuild the entire planet as a New Krypton. Clark, of course, defeated him, with his body dissapating... which is the status quo as we go into the Reign of Supermen. |
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Just to quickly review, the Reign of Supermen is the story that follows the Death of Superman. Four new characters appear, one in each ongoing Superman series: The Man of Steel, the Man of Tomorrow, The Metropolis Kid, and The Last Son of Krypton. Of the four, the Last Son of Krypton started with an energy being in the Fortress of Solitude being collected by the robots there, and that energy being going into Superman's Tomb, looking at the body... and then in the next panel it's no longer the energy body, but what appears to be Superman's body, standing over the presumably empty casket, although his body is conveniently blocking our view. He seems confused, but that's understandable if you were recently dead. He can't absorb Yellow Sunlight anymore, so he has to be refueled back in the Fortress, but as he ceremonially puts on the cape over his black and blue costume and goes out into Metropolis, he's clearly a completely realized, updated take on the Superman concept. The other three Supermen were a completely different guy wearing armor, a clone, and an obviously evil cyborg... So from that perspective, this was the one that seemed like he might actually be THE Superman, just being redesigned.
This Superman is way more violent, actually killing people and often being treated as the most obviously false pretended by characters in-world (which really only fuels the idea that they're wrong and this IS Superman). As the story goes on, the Cyborg Superman reveals that he's actually evil (gasp) when he destroys Coast City. The Last Son of Krypton Superman is framed for it. All signs continue to point to this being the guy... but when he's defeated by the Cyborg, and returns to the Fortress, where we discover that he's actually the Eradicator! |
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We discover that the Superman robots in the Fortress are all designed to follow instructions from The Eradicator... he made them after all. They collected his energy, and when we saw that, we were led to believe they were somehow collecting an essence of Clark so he could return to his body. Also... this wasn't Clark's body. It was a replica the Eradicator built with his transmutation powers, but it was flawed and couldn't absorb energy... so he actually TOOK SUPERMAN'S BODY and put it into a chamber in the Fortress, bombarding it with solar energy, not to try to revive him, but so that he could process the yellow sunlight to refuel the Eradicator. Wild.
This, of course, leads to the actual return of the actual Superman. During their final battle with the Cyborg Superman, the Eradicator actually sacrifices himself to restore Superman's powers, leaving him a burned-out husk. This doesn't stick, of course... within a few issues of Clark coming back, we see the Eradicator's body merging with a Star Labs Xenobiologist and inoperable Cancer-haver David Connor just in time for him to join the Outsiders. This new take on the character was literally a different person using the Eradicator's body and powers. He continues to appear in other stories from this point forward, but over time, he loses any consistency, basically becoming whatever the story needs him to be. At this point, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what his role is. |
Our Eradicator StoryThroughout the pre-Death of Superman stories, the Eradicator has a very specific function in Superman's story. It's part of the elaborate worldbuilding for the much colder and emotionless post-crisis Krypton, with a millennia of civil wars fought over things like clone rights... It's complex. This is all really interesting, but it's not exactly the version of Krypton we want to adapt. KemL, the inventor of the Eradicator, is not an ancient cult leader but rather a more recent rogue scientist with toxic ideas about Kryptonian genetic purity. We are also making no bones about it... He's a bad guy. He uses the Eradicator to instigate a massive disaster that leaves all Kryptonians stranded on their planet, leading to its eventual demise.
From there, we adhere to the comic canon pretty faithfully. By making him part of the original creation of the Fortress of Solitude, we can use its influence to sort of stand in in stories where the recorded voice of Jor-el is sometimes presented as less than altruistic; that can be the Eradicator's influence. His goal of rebuilding Earth into a New Krypton is a great explanation for Krypto getting his powers. |
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Of course, all of this is really just setup for the real show and the thing that makes the Eradicator such an important part of Superman's story. The Eradicator Superman is just so cool. I know that in real time, the whole Reign of Superman story was only about four months, and even within that story, his role is basically just to be a red herring and is pretty quickly beaten by the Cyborg Superman to show how dangerous he is, but this is still such a cool characterization and design. How can we keep this going even after we discover what he really is?
We keep his role within that story pretty much completely intact. He is still created in the Fortress, takes Superman's body, and takes on his role in the city, a much more violent and less compassionate version of Superman. I love that he has the limitation of not being able to absorb Yellow Sunlight on his own, which keeps him tethered to the Fortress. We keep the whole idea that he assists in the final battle with Hank Henshaw... but from that point, rather than try to spin him off into a new character, we just put him back where we found him. Returning him to the Fortress computer means he can continue to be the devil on Clark's shoulder, speaking from within the computer. We'll now know he at least has some sense of the importance of Clark's mission, so his advice IS useful, but of course, we know he can't actually be fully trusted. Which is why its such a big deal when they choose to unleash him, giving him access to his body and launching it from its solar silo (love that). When the Eradicator shows up, it's a BIG deal, it mean the situation is truly dire. |
The Eradicator's FutureOf course, we've really only done that "unleashing" of the Eradicator once in our timeline, deploying him during the battle of Mageddon. I don't think the Eradicator has any particular agenda that makes him feel like he needs to escape the computer; while he might now consider himself an ally of Kal-el's, he's always going to push for any action that leans toward restoring Krypton, even if it means sacrificing Earth or its inhabitants, so he's never going to be a reliable ally. At least any time soon.
But of course that could change, right? As we leave the timeline, Clark is only just about to become a father, but that's going to define so much of what comes next in his story. As Jon grows up, he's going to want to learn so much about Krypton, and really, the Eradicator is the best possible source of that information. I can imagine some really interesting stories in which Clark and Jon venture into the holographic memories of their home world with the Eradicator as their guide, and Clark has to carefully navigate some of the ideas the Eradicator would probably like to impart to his son... Also, I'm sure there will be plenty of times when they'll face a threat dangerous enough to require that the Last Son of Krypton is again fighting by their side. |
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