Eben Took

Origin 

In 1871, Tannarak made his way to Smallville, Kansas which is about the same time Nate Kent and Albert Valentine became sheriff and deputy of Smallville. Tannarak saw an opportunity to build himself an army with the help of the recently distraught town surgeon. Ebenezer Took did all he could to save his newly born son but his surgical skills were not enough. Tannarak interrupts the Tooks during their moment of grief and offers them the chance to resurrect their son. Ebenezer accepts Tannarak’s proposal but Took’s efforts to resurrect his son with dark ceremonies turned out to be disastrous. Tannarak comforted Took by explaining to him that pain can be overcome by the strength of familial numbers rather than the bonds between one another.  

Took fell for Tannarak’s silver tongue and agreed to build a clan that was mainly composed of the Took family who have long been dead. As for Ebenezer, Tannarak gave Took a goblet of his blood and Took became Tannarak’s dark acolyte.  When the body of a missing boy turns up with Ancient Atlantean runes carved into his skin, both Kent and Valentine take on the case immediately, Kent theorizes the possibility of a purported occultist that has come into town and Valentine doesn’t disagree except for one thing: their culprit isn’t an outsider. Valentine analyzed the body thoroughly and found stitching which resembled Took’s pattern. Kent decides to lead a posse to the Took farm.  

The mob killed several members of the Took family (both living and dead) and Valentine burnt the Took estate to ground. At the same time, Kent finds Ebenezer Took inside a broken wheat silo along with Tannarak. They were performing a ritual on a stone tablet but before they could complete it, Kent reacted quickly by throwing a lit lantern at them. The silo goes up in flames but Kent did not stay long enough to see if Took and Tannarak died in the fire. Took and Tannarak did indeed survive the mob’s fiery retribution. Tannarak told Took to remain underground and continue his experimentations on the human body through necromancy until the dark mage returned. 

In time, the Luthors purchased the Took estate but when Lex Luthor left Smallville, he gave up the deed to his niece’s family. Eventually the Phantom Stranger comes to Smallville to warn  to Superboy of the impending doom that is beneath Smallville. The Phantom Stranger takes possession of old man Lynch when he confronts Conner and Simon Valentine. At first, Conner doesn’t believe the Phantom Stranger but Valentine confirms the Stranger’s warning. Simon tells Conner about that night they stopped Poison Ivy. It turns out, Simon stumbled across a stone with strange markings on it but before he could analyze it any further, he was scared off by a group of bizarre looking farmers. 

Creation

Although Eben Took originally appeared in the last page of Superboy #2, his whereabouts were unknown until issue #8 where his origin was revealed.