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Appearing as a new enemy upon Earth 2, Solomon Grundy is the avatar of the Grey who seeks to kill the avatar of the Green. He spreads rot about the world and attacks the capitol of the United States to gather the avatar’s attention, but he was first confronted by Hawkgirl and the Flash. Alec enters into the fight, but then the Atom appears, squashing Grundy.
From Tragic Beginnings to a Horrific End…Or So We Think..
As a child, Cyrus Gold lived a life of misery and hopelessness. His father, Gold Sr., had moved to Gotham City before Cyrus was born to gain fame and fortune, changing his last name to “Gold” as a sign of things to come. However, this dream of a powerful future very soon diminished, leaving the Gold family in ruin. The elder Gold was reduced to working on the docks on the city, being forced to work in horrible, unregulated working conditions. To add insult to injury, he was regularly mugged by his boss, who forced him to hand over all the gold he had, leaving the Gold family with nothing but crumbs. Hatred filled his heart, and the elder Gold began to use his family as a way to vent off the hate he felt towards his superiors. He regularly beat his wife, Cyrus’ mother, and would abuse his son. The cruelest form of torture he implemented on the young boy was to bury him alive on his birthday; every year the boy would be buried alive in a grave, a way of teaching him that he was less than the dirt that covered him. For years the young Cyrus Gold was maltreated, coming to a head when his mother packed her belongings, kissed him goodbye and abandoned him, caring more about herself than what the monster she married might do to her son. Not long after that, Cyrus sneaked down to the docks to watch his father work. A crate hovered above his father, its weight breaking the chains and rope holding it in place. With a sickening crunch, the crate fell on top of Cyrus Gold’s father, killing him instantly. The man who ran the pier merely scoffed at the incident, kicking the broken body of the older Gold into the waters below the pier.
Now Cyrus Gold, young and helpless, was all alone. Forced to survive on nothing. It was then that he swore to himself to make his own riches and power. He wouldn’t die a pauper like his father did.
Growing up, Cyrus was beaten up by many people and treated with as much hate as his father had given him in his youth. One day, bleeding in a slump after an encounter with a gang of savage bullies and thieves in an area known as Dugan’s Alley, a girl named Pearl, whom Cyrus was close to, found him and prayed for his safety. But the curmudgeon Gold brushed her aside; he had no time or place for a God, let alone believe in the existence of one.
Bleeding, in pain, and near the end of his ropes, a mysterious stranger went up to him and offered Cyrus the deal of a lifetime; he could become rich and powerful….if only he serve him until the day he died. Cyrus Gold shook the stranger’s hand, sealing his fate forever just for the mere chance of gaining the riches his father slaved for for so long.
Cyrus Gold soon became wealthy and powerful, by ways not very honest. He killed the men who abused him and his family when he was young, stealing their riches and becoming a veritable mobster. In an act of rage and wrath, he tracked down his long-departed mother and stabbed her to death. He then dumped her body in the waters of Slaughter Swamp, where many victims would end up as time went on, culminating with the death of Cyrus Gold himself. During this period, Cyrus wed the girl Pearl (although there are clues that suggested that Gold killed her previous husband to be with her) and the two had a little boy and little girl. Initially a happy family, Cyrus became as brash as his father, staying out late, drinking and being verbally abusive, oftentimes in front of the children. After a while of anger and abuse in the marriage, in a fit of rage, Cyrus Gold drowned Pearl.
But Cyrus’ sins would come back to haunt him. A mob formed and chased him into the swamps, ready to avenge their broken families with his slaughter. Gold didn’t want to die by their hands and subsequently stabbed himself through the heart, sinking into the cursed waters of Slaughter Swamp, the very place where he laid to rest a lifetime of victims and killers.
But Cyrus was not yet finished with life.
The deal he had made for life long servitude was shattered, and so was the little humanity he had left. The swamp, filled with unknown acids and chemicals, bonded to the preserving corpse of Cyrus Gold, fusing his body through time with wood, stone and anything else that was unlucky enough to fall into the morbid soup. 50 years after his death, something happened…..something….evil….
In the dead of night, a moaning was heard. The waters rippled and parted as a hideously decayed white hand reached out. That night, from the remains of a selfish and evil man, came a hulking behemoth….one who could never remember himself. Stumbling through the marshes on newly reborn legs, the zombified creature found two criminals hiding in his swamp…his home…his mother….
In a inhuman rage, it slowly and methodically killed the trespassers, then squeezed its huge frame in their clothing as best as it could. Snarling, the beast walked to a derelict homeless shelter, where, his curiosity piking, he managed to speak a few words to the vagrants staying there. He was asked about who he was and where he came from. The newly reborn monster didn’t remember…in fact, he didn’t remember anything from his past human life. But there was one thing he did remember….he was born on a Monday.
The vagrants laughed a bit, and told him that his birthday reminded them of a famous poem. The life and death of a certain Solomon Grundy.
Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday.
That was the end of
Solomon Grundy.
The monster took a fancy to the name and adopted it as his own. No longer was he Cyrus Gold, the mere human. Now he was an unstoppable monster….one with a hunger for death, chaos and occasional mutilated corpse. His name now was….Solomon Grundy.
For years since the day he walked out of the rotting waters of Slaughter Swamp, Solomon Grundy has plagued both heroes and villains alike, sometimes in a vendetta. Other times simply because he feels threatened or wants to be left to his own devices. Initially the arch-enemy of the first Green Lantern Alan Scott, Grundy has since been an enemy of all parts of the DC Universe, most famously with the Dynamic Duo (Batman and Robin) and has even traded blows with the Green Arrow. For a while, Grundy was able to overpower the might of Alan Scott, simply due to the heavy amount of wood pulp and fiber that has molded into his body over the decades of being submerged in the waters of Slaughter Swamp. He has also immense super strength that seems to grow with each resurrection and evolution of his character.
While often working alone, Grundy has sometimes been bribed or convinced to join gangs of other super-villains who need extra muscle and has several times been recruited to join the Injustice Society. His last group before the New 52 universal reboot was the Black Lanterns, with the Black Lantern Corps having resurrected his husk of a body to be used against forces on Earth.
Differing Personalities
A side effect of his resurrections is that each time he is reborn, he has a different personality than before. An early Grundy of the modern era lived in the sewers of Gotham and shared a Thanksgiving turkey with Batman during a crime spree. He later befriends a newly disfigured Harvey Dent.
Late in the career of the team Infinity Inc., Grundy befriended Jade, daughter of the original Green Lantern. In the end, he was manipulated by the illusionist Marcie Cooper Harlequin, who tricked Grundy into killing Skyman by pressing an unconscious Mr. Bones’ hand against him- Mr. Bones’ touch is deadly. When he found out Cooper had deceived him, he beat her severely.
After another fight with Alan Scott that left him petrified into wood, Grundy came into conflict with Batman again, killing a descendant of one of the killers of Cyrus Gold. Not too long after this, Jade contacted Jack Knight to help Grundy, who was in the sewers of Opal City. Grundy had been resurrected once again, this time as a lanky, child-like creature. Jack and his father Ted took Grundy, now called Solly, in. Unfortunately, the Solly persona is short lived- when a mad bomber called Dr. Pip beings bombing Opal, Solly sacrifices himself to save Jack from being crushed by a falling building.
Jack, alongside Alan Scott, Batman and the Floronic Man dive into Solly’s mind to attempt to save him, only to run afoul of an infinite number of differing Grundies and the original Cyrus Gold persona. Solly is lost for good during this. Later, when Ollie Queen was scouring the country for artifacts of his life, he runs afoul of Grundy in the Arrowcave.This version of Grundy was significantly more violent than past incarnations, and is killed when Ollie strangles him with a bowstring.
During the Infinite Crisis, Grundy appears twice. When the Secret Society sieges the House of Secrets that the Secret Six was held up up in, Grundy is one of the members besieging. However, when Ragdoll shows him his scarred face, Grundy teams up with Ragdoll, saying Ragdoll is “A monster like me.” During the Battle of Metropolis, Grundy is shown fighting the Blood Pack when all are incinerated by Superboy-Prime’s heat vision.
Grundy was resurrected this time as an intelligent being that was “…sick and tired of dying.” He contacted Professor Ivo and hired him to make an Amazo android to house his conscience, made of parts of the Red Tornado and using the Tantu Totem. The Red Tornado didn’t take kindly to this, and killed the intelligent Grundy with F5 force winds, tearing him asunder.
Grundy was once again resurrected following this. This time, he was captured and sent to the planet Salvation and sided with Joker, where he was killed by Parademons.
From Darkest Grave, to Blackest Night
Sometime after his previous death, a strange thing began to happen in the swamp that sprouted the monstrous Solomon Grundy. But instead of a monstrous zombie, what came out of the murky waters was a lanky, frightened man. Cyrus Gold lived again. Stumbling, incoherent, Cyrus grabbed a fish and tore it apart, hunger griping him after decades of being trapped inside the hull of a monstrous creature. Opening his eyes, he scanned the horizon and was shocked at how different Gotham City was from when he was alive….but he knew it wasn’t different at all. Despite the glamor it now had, it still had a decayed stench to it…..the smell of death and hopelessness. Breaking into a house fringing the great swamp, he callously killed the owner and drank some milk, getting spooked over a ringing telephone and the TV. Still craving sustenance, he stole some clothing and wandered into the streets of Gotham, desperate to keep himself as a human, vowing to stay alive…and to keep the creature inside him from bursting out.
In a flash of weakness, his past came hurtling back to him, and Cyrus reacted. A woman, trying to help the homeless at a nearby shelter, tried to reach out to the newly re-animated with kind words. She tried to tell him that through God’s words anybody can find help in this world. The vicious Gold snapped at her and attacked, screaming that there is no such thing as God. As he beats her senseless, police arrive and warned him, trying to get him to stop. Frightened by the lights, he attacked an officer, his thoughts a mile a minute. In fear that the light would mean death, and that death would mean being trapped forever in the body of Solomon Grundy. One of the officers shot the raving Cyrus Gold and, bleeding and dazed, he leaped out into oncoming traffic. A truck then hit the desperate man, spreading his re-animated remains all over the street.
Cyrus Gold was dead again. His remains wrapped in several body bags, he was listed off as being unknown and unnamed, his mangled remains put aside to be later dealt with. Slowly, minute by minute, the clock ticked away….closing in on midnight. A janitor, preparing for his late shift, came into the autopsy room, readying himself a mug of coffee and liquor, humming a pleasant tune. Too bad it was the last song he’d ever sing. Deep inside the body bags, the dead Cyrus Gold’s body began to pale, the torn limbs re-assembling. The bags tore apart….and glowing eyes opened. The janitor turned to see a massive white figure, eyes flaring red and chipped teeth gnashing. Snarling, the beast grabbed the worker and rammed his head through a wall, murmuring to himself…”Solomon Grundy….Born on a Monday…”
Solomon Grundy was back, and ready for action. For a full week, the monster destroyed everything in his path, demolishing cars, breaking into the Gotham Zoo and even chowing down in the Gotham City cemetery on the bodies of those on the opposite side of life. On the last day, Solomon Grundy was hiding out in the sewers, lying on the cold concrete. A voice called him from the shadows, and, with eyes heavy with supernatural sleep, he turned. Killer Croc, enraged at Grundy’s intrusion to his home, tried to kill the zombie, but Grundy quickly overpowered the reptile, punching him through the sewer roof and spilling him out on the lawn of a graveyard. Enraged, Grundy then grabbed Croc’s jaws and tore them apart, leaving the attacker gargling and writhing in pain on the rocky ground. The clock hit mid-night, and, in a daze, Grundy reverted back into his human form…..right in front of his own gravestone. The Phantom Stranger, who had been spying on Gold, went to him, telling Cyrus that he had a chance to break his curse forever….if he could find out who was responsible for his death and forgive him. This was because an evil force was headed to Earth, and it would be best if Solomon Grundy wasn’t around to take part in it.
Initially Gold was angry and suspicious, running from both the Phantom Stranger and original green lantern Alan Scott (during this time he accidentally hurt a young man by bumping him into a gravestone) before being trapped in a pit. Alan Scott was angry at both of them; the Stranger for making him help Gold and for Gold because of his crimes as Solomon Grundy. Bitter about helping his long time enemy, Alan Scott chained up Gold and flew him to the swamp where he was killed in, all the while Cyrus demanding to know when the lantern was going to kill him.
The Green Lantern landed in the pool that had spawned Grundy and left his at the water’s edge, trying to locate the weapon of his enemy’s demise. Scott was engulfed in the evil of the lake and the ring’s power failed….leaving Cyrus vulnerable and exposed. As a demonic voice mocked him, several alligators cruising the waters close to Cyrus Gold turned, their sharp teeth bared and glistening. With a sickening crunch, Cyrus was pulled apart and swallowed whole, lunch for the ruling reptiles.
Come Monday, the gators where snoozing on the beach, digesting their human meal. Suddenly, the reptiles began to twitch and squirm in extreme pain. A rotten hand shot through the belly of one of the beasts, crawling towards a re-assembling body. The headless body then pulled its head out of the gut of another gator, attaching it back onto its shoulders. Solomon Grundy was alive again, but even he was soon about to feel the force of death. The demon Etrigan, working alongside the mysterious stranger that had first convinced Cyrus Gold to make a contract on his soul, attacked Solomon Grundy, mercilessly slicing him with claws and fire. His reason? To make Cyrus Gold/Solomon Grundy fail in his quest for redemption and serve all eternity in he chains of Hell. In the battle, Grundy managed to beat back the demon by crushing his with a massive log, only to have the incessant voice of Cyrus Gold yell at him to stop, angering the giant even more. Etrigan, laughing, grabbed Grundy by the collar of his torn coat and flew him to the Gotham City bridge….just when there was hundreds of commuters driving past over the choppy waters of Gotham Bay.
On the bridge, Etrigan blasted the zombie with hellfire, burning his body severely. The two, grappled in battle and flames, plummeted into the waters, tearing apart the bridge and causing some vehicles to fall. Luckily, Alan Scott, who the Phantom Stranger had managed to help escape the darkness of Slaughter Swamp, flew to the bridge and, using his ring, grabbed the falling passengers and vehicles, saving everybody from the treacherous fall. Meanwhile, under the waves, Etrigan attempted to tear out his enemy’s heart…only to find that Grundy didn’t really have a heart. Just a mass of vines and tree pulp. The zombie garbled a laugh and punched through the demon, only to be nailed with a direct hit from a blast of hellfire, cooking him thoroughly into a blackened charcoal crisp. Etrigan then attempted to pull Grundy’s head off, to take as his trophy. Alan Scott descended into the waters and trapped the demon in his light, allowing the dying Grundy to float off away from danger. Etrigan, furious at loosing his prize, dissipated and retreated for a future fight, leaving the Green Lantern to panic and fret over where his charge was. Unbeknownst to him, Grundy had washed up on shore, slowly reverting back into his human form…
Cyrus Gold awoke and and stumbled to a junk yard. There, he attacked the workers with a knife before coming to his senses. Upon closer look….he realized that the knife was the very own that had been plunged into his heart! Feeling the screams and pain of his victims, he ran outside, desperate to get away. And most importantly…stay alive. But fate is a cruel, cruel thing. While running underneath a compactor, the heavy magnet swung and fell, smashing Cyrus into a pulp. As his blood leaked onto the ground, his broken bones began to reset themselves. Nearby, a LexCorp transport truck had stopped for a break. Solomon Grundy grabbed the two technicians from behind and crushed their skulls, before attacking the car’s engine in an attempt to shut off the radio. As he turned, the car exploded…and an abruptly awakened Bizarro stumbled out, his red eyes adjusting to the bright light that had evaded him for so long.
Bizarro was curious about the huge figure towering in front of him. Grabbing Solomon Grundy’s arm, he scanned him with his sight, wondering why the zombie was built like a tree. He then remember the trees he drew while in captivity and how he liked their beauty. Smiling as warmly as a desiccated Superman clone can smile, he hugged Grundy. This intrusion of space enraged Grundy and he punched Bizarro into an overpass. Bizarro pulled himself out and flew back into Grundy, pushing him high into the air. The zombie then punched Bizarro’s head, making lose his flight balance. The two then fell into an electrical transformer, shocking both until they where cooked through.
Bizarro liked Grundy, despite the fight, so he asked him for his name. Grundy, not understanding Bizarro’s strange backwards speech, launched himself at him. The both fought in the air until they crashed through a seemingly abandoned Gotham penthouse that was chocked full of various plants and vines. Landing on the tile ground, a flower plot landed on Bizarro’s head and he and Grundy started laughing, forgetting quickly their fight. Bizarro then found a hot dog cart and brought it up to the building, where he and Grundy had hot dogs. As the sun began to climb, the zombie started spasming. Teetering, he retracted, reverting back into an unconscious Cyrus Gold. Bizarro, confused as to what happened, flew off in search of his new friend. Meanwhile, vines stretched over Gold, covering him in a thick blanket of leaves.
In turned out that the penthouse belonged to Poison Ivy…and she was blistering angry about the intrusion of her home by a lowly human male. Wanting him to suffer, she thought of feeding Gold to her Venus Fly Trap, but he was too scrawny to really fill up her precious “baby”. Instead, she kissed him. Her lips had a toxin that forced people she touched to follow her demands. Giving the possessed Cyrus Gold a bomb in a bag, he was ordered to go to a chemical factory and to drop off the bag, destroying the plant and the toxic chemicals they produced. As Cyrus turned to leave, his inner monster didn’t like being bossed around. Taking over his mind, Solomon Grundy, still trapped in his human form, attacked Poison Ivy, whom he had always thought was his friend. Attacking her, he was held back by her plants. However, the evil that powered Grundy quickly rotted and killed all the plants. Grabbing Poison Ivy, he then kissed her, infecting her with his evil. His influence was too great and she collapsed in shock. Grundy, still operating Gold, carried Ivy to the stairwell and left her there, saving her from the explosion of the bomb that had been left behind.
Meanwhile, while Cyrus Gold ventured into the sewers, Alan Scott heard the news about the explosion. Recharging his ring and kissing his beloved Molly, he left to pick up the trail of the monster. Cyrus Gold lamented about himself in the murky sewer waters, the screams of Grundy reciting his never ending poem driving him nuts. A nearby homeless person, frightened by his seeming insanity, clubbed gold in the back of the head with a bat. Gold grabbed the attacker and drowned them, only to be drowned himself when the room he was in suddenly flooded with water from the streets.
Shortly afterwards, Grundy killed a dog and was eating it in the street when a car almost barreled into him. Tearing off the roof of the small car, he almost killed the drivers when he saw the Green Lantern’s light following overhead. Snarling in hate, he followed it all the way back to Alan Scott’s house. He then proceeded to smash into the house, attacking Scott’s wife Molly in his drive to destroy the green light. Molly shoots at Grundy, hitting him in the chest. This only infuriates the zombie more and he bats her away. The green lantern tries to scare away the attacker by engulfing itself and Grundy in its power. But the zombie wasn’t easily fooled. Using his immense super strength, Solomon Grundy managed to crush the lantern, exploding the house. Alan Scott, with the little remaining power in his ring, managed to arrive in time to save Molly and place a containment shield around Grundy…only to fall soon after. The power of the ring was gone…and so was the shield holding back the undead monster.
Meanwhile, high above the Earth, Professor Ivo wanted payback on Solomon Grundy. He then launched a space orb….one that slowly floated towards Slaughter Swamp as it waited for his enemy to appear.
Solomon Grundy managed to escape the wreckage, but he didn’t have much time left. His body was mangled, his head split almost in half and one of his eyes bleeding red toxic blood. Moaning, he glimpsed through a fence and saw the swamp, Cyrus’ curse…but Grundy’s home. The zombie broke through the fence and swam back to the swamp, where he then latched onto the vines and began to heal. However, the sun broke through during his process and, screaming in pain, the injured Grundy reverted back into a bleeding Cyrus Gold. Gold, surprised at being back in the swamp pulled from the depth the knife that killed him, making him remember the pain all over again. Trying to remember who killed him, Gold looked up into a pair of red eyes.
The last thing he saw was the cyborg Amazo scorching him and the swamp to ruin with high functioning lasers. Alan Scott, unable to know fully what was occurring, concentrated in collecting back the green light into a new lantern.
Grundy erupted from the waves of his home, enraged that something would dare attack him AND his swamp. Amazo sliced Grundy apart, but before he could finish him off, the zombie’s arm jumped and tore off Amazo’s head, infecting the robot with his dark energy. Amazo rebuilt its head, but mutated into an Amazo-Grundy, which then attacked Solomon Grundy, who was less than thrilled with a robot that he felt was mocking him.
Trapping him in his arms, Professor Ivo spoke through Grundy, reminding him of when they worked together to build the (then) hyper-intelligent Solomon Grundy a body to live forever. Grundy tore out of Amazo’s arms, only to be hit with an explosive and vaporized.
Meanwhile, Bizarro, still saddened at the loss of his friend, was ambushed by SHADE agents, who trapped him under an electrical wire. Alan Scott at the same time succeeded in re-assembling his Green Lantern. And just in time too, because he heard the explosion at Slaughter Swamp.
The Amazo-“Grundy” lurked, waiting for his counterpart to re-animate. Suddenly, vines in the swamp grabbed him from below, dragging him to a watery grave.Tracking the fight, SHADE agents then sent teams out; one to catch the guaranteed re-animated Cyrus Gold. The other to arrest Professor Ivo.
During this turmoil, the Phantom Stranger looked to divine intervention to assist his quest. Going to Valhalla Cemetery, the graveyard of heroes, he contacted the Spectre for assistance. Meanwhile, Cyrus Gold emerged, desperate to remember the events to his death. AS the swamp moved around him, he tried to run, only to encounter the apparition of Solomon Grundy. A dart hit him and he passed out…into Frankenstein’s waiting arms.
The SHADE agents placed Gold in a helicopter and attempted to fly him back to headquarters. The madman awoke though and killed the crew in his paranoia, then tried to jump to safety….only to land in the jagged spike of a dead tree. Spearing him, Frankenstein and team could only watch as Solomon Grundy emerged, tearing himself out of the tree and crushing it like twigs in his grip. As Grundy attacked the SHADE agents, Alan Scott prepared to return to the swamp to set things right. Etrigan and his “boss”, the mysterious stranger that plagued Gold, saw this and the demon knight vanished to intercept the lantern and drive him away from his goal.
Back at the swamp, Grundy attacked the officers against him, pulling them out with a log and attempting to smash a few, only to be shot at by the Bride of Frankenstein. Enraged, Grundy grabbed her, only to be shot through the head by Frankenstein. As the stitched up “cousin” to the swamp monster prepared to finish the job, Bizarro arrived, ready to help his zombie friend. Alan Scott arrived as well and contained the mutated Kryptonian clone, only to be attacked by a re-assembled Grundy. As he tried to break though the Green Lantern’s shield, Frankenstein rammed his Sword of Michael through the remnants of his heart, impaling him. The power of the sword ignited the zombie, engulfing him in holy flame. When the light died down, Solomon Grundy tried to stand, whimpering and bleeding, begging for help. Bizarro broke free from Scott and tended to his friend, who gasped his last and disintegrated into dust, leaving behind his friend to mourn.
The SHADE agents gathered their dead and wounded and left, while Bizarro floated away in his grief. The Phantom Stranger and Alan Scott remained behind to wait for Cyrus Gold to re-animate. Gold re-animated, but in an alternate plane of existence, hidden from the Stranger and Green Lantern. There, he was smacked around by Solomon Grundy, who viciously tied to make his human half remember the events of his death. All the while implicating Gold. As Gold was remembering, Etrigan arrived to brutally torture the human even more, burning his head off, healing it, tearing his arms apart and attempting to chew his head in his giant mouth….all the while just to pass the time until the last light rose and trapped Solomon Grundy and Cyrus Gold together…forever.
Alan Scott managed to break the veil separating him from Cyrus and he blinded Etrigan, trapping him in his green light. Etrigan thought his mission was a success…until the Green Lantern told him that his prey was now free to make his own choice. Cyrus, in his last moments, remembered that it was he himself who killed himself and negated his deal with demons, cursing himself forever. But he didn’t forgive himself, and in his stupid stubbornness, was dragged into Hell.
Alan Scott was visibly upset, knowing his monstrous enemy was never going to stop, even when trapped in Hell. But unable to do anything, the Green Lantern and Phantom Stranger left the toxic evil Slaughter Swamp.
Monday night….a dark light arrived, searching for a vessel. Landing in the waters of the swamp, it found Grundy’s body and resurrected it as a slave. The husk of Solomon Grundy was now an unthinking Black Lantern, and he would attack his old friends and enemies in the name of death…before Bizarro, to save himself from Grundy’s wrath, was forced to shove him into the sun, vaporizing Grundy and his black lantern ring.
Post-Flashpoint: Earth-2
Origins
Solomon Grundy was a simple man in 1898 living in the Slaughter Swamp with his child and wife, Pinney. Due to the low harvest, Pinney had to sleep with Boss Henry to try and bring in a profit for her family.However, it became too much and Solomon had to watch as she stabbed herself in the throat. After pulling Pinney’s body out of the water, Solomon killed Boss Henry and everybody he worked with. After that, he stabbed himself in the stomach and fell into the swamp which is were he established his connection to the Grey.
The Gathering
Solomon Grundy’s awakening was heralded by the Green choosing Alan Scott as it’s champion. Before he fully arose he caused widespread decay across the world even decaying building like the Washington Monument, the White House and the United States Capitol to draw Alan Scott’s attention, so he could kill him.
Grundy then went on rampage killing hundreds of people while he was looking for Alan. His power reached so far that his effect’s were seen Poland while in he was in North America which caused Jay Garrick and Hawkgirl to look for the source of the decay. Alan Scott due to his connection to Earth felt Grundy effect’s and was able to home in on his location.
Jay Garrick and Hawkgirl finally arrived at Grundy’s location, as he was about to be attacked by Jay Garrick, Grundy was able to swat him away causing him to fly into a wall. Meanwhile, Hawkgirl shot Grundy in the head with her cross-bow which destroyed portion of his skull, however, Grundy was able to regenerate the wound right before there eyes. Hawkgirl told Jay Garrick to help people get away from Grundy, she then went to face him shooting him in the head and chest respectively, this however as all attempt before did not faze him and regenerate and catch Hawkgirl.However, before he could do something substantial, Grundy finally felt Alan Scott’s presence close to him. Before, Grundy could approach Scott, he was punched with so much force by Scott that his upper body split in half. Thinking he’d defeated Grundy, Alan Scott turned around to talk to Hawkgirl. however, Grundy healed from his injury and attacked Alan Scott.
As Grundy was battling Alan Scott, Al Pratt jumped from a plane on Grundy crushing his body instantly. Al Pratt then thinking he’d killed Grundy fought the other hero who’d come to stop Grundy. However, Grundy was not out of the battle and reformed over Al’s body with hiss lower body comprised of decayed vines to restrain Al and punched him in the jaw to allow him to cover Al’s body with vines. However, before he could kill Al Pratt, he was slammed into by Alan Scott disrupting the connection he had over over Al Pratt. As he was battling Alan Scott, Hawkgirl and Jay found out that Al had shrunk to his normal form to escape death from Grundy. Alan knowing he had no way to defeat Grundy on his own decided to abandon his body and bond with the internal matrix of the Earth wherein the Gray resides, leaving the rest of the Wonders to hold off Grundy until he returned.
As Alan Scott was being seduced by The Grey with the promise of returning Sam, his dead lover,Solomon Grundy defeated the rest of the Wonders. Alan Scott however, was able to prevail at the Grey’s attempt to stop him and returned to his body.Grundy was then flown into upper orbit by Alan, as he’d figured out a way to stop him. However, due to his connection to Earth and him being in space, Scott’s power began to weaken. Before he finally ran out of power, he was able to blast and exile Grundy to the moon where the Grey couldn’t be a threat anymore.
Powers
Solomon Grundy is arguable one of the strongest villains in the DC Universe, if not one of the heaviest hitters regardless of evil or good intentions. He is also incredibly invulnerable, able to take massive amounts of damage with little injury. When injuries do occur, his body rapidly in a matter of seconds heals up the wounds, sometimes enabling himself to re-attach severed limbs right after they are hacked off. He can also continue fighting for days straight, making him incredible resilient in addition to his huge strength.
Because he is artificially animated, Solomon Grundy isn’t affected by disease and ailments like standard humans. He doesn’t need to eat, breath, sleep or drink, although occasionally he has fallen asleep in the sewers and attempted to feed on intruding humans to the swamps he calls home. Most likely this is a side effect of his re-animation that, over time and when near to transforming into Cyrus Gold, his body, in preparation, begins to systematically shut down in preparedness for the transformation, rendering him lethargic. The hunger is similar to movie zombies, but isn’t as intense, suggesting that to fuel his body he needs to intake living flesh to sustain his own semblance of life. But unlike Romero zombies, he isn’t biased and will eat anything from rodents to even attempting to eat Killer Croc during a territorial squabble.
Solomon Grundy, despite being undead, can and has died multitudes of times. However, with each death, he re-animates soon after, acquiring even more strength than before and sometimes a personality with average to high intelligence (although this is incredibly rare). Grundy for a time was able to control plant and wood energy due to the amounts of tree product that had formed inside his decayed body. This proved useful in defeating Alan Scott the Green Lantern several times before eventually losing this ability.
In the recent Brightest Day/Blackest Night cross-over event, Grundy was given a Black Lantern ring. Alongside his super strength and invulnerability, he was given access to the ring’s dark capabilities.
Related Characters
The Grundymen of Limbo Town appear similar to Grundy. Given that their origins involve the Cauldron of Rebirth, which was later found in Slaughter Swamp, this could point towards the Cauldron being involved in Grundy’s origin.
Recently, a non-powered human gang called the Grundies have surfaced in Gotham City. They were first seen robbing an electronics store, only to be stopped by Manhunter. They seem to dress identically to Solomon Grundy, though any true relation between the two are unknown.
Alternate Versions
Pre-Crisis, Earth-One had its own Solomon Grundy distinct from the more familiar Earth-Two Grundy. The story first began in Superman #301 and continued in Superman #319. This version was created by the Parasite, who used a special crystal called the Power Prism to metabolically enhance the growth of cells the Earth-Two Grundy left on Earth-One during a previous crossover. The cells grow into a much more feral Grundy, who attacks Superman. Superman is able to defeat Grundy when he takes him to a planet with lowered gravity that is almost uninhabited. Superman appeases Grundy by giving him his cape, which Grundy wears and pretends to be Superman as he leaps through the air, thanks to the lowered gravity. This version of Grundy menaced Superman several more times.
Later, during a team-up between Superman and Swamp Thing, multiple Grundies are spawned. Superman is able to destroy the clones using a special compound devised by STAR Labs to render them inert. Swamp Thing attempted to ask Superman not too, as he felt Grundy met the definition of life, but could not, due to his difficulty speaking.
When the Joker warped reality using Mr. Mxyzptlk’s powers, Warden Grundy is the warden of Arkham Asylum, in which Superman is kept prisoner. His officer is Officer Day.
Earth-One’s Grundy appeared on final time, in Gotham City leading a gang. Batman kills the monster by luring it into a blast furnace, and then burning it to death.
On the Anti-Matter Earth, there is a heroic version of Grundy named Sir Solomon Grundy. Rather than being reborn in a swamp, Sir Solomon was blasted out of the White Cliffs of Dover. He is a member of the Quizmaster‘s Justice Underground until Ultraman renders him inert.
In the Reverse Flash altered world of Flashpoint, Solomon Grundy was a member of Lt. Matthew Shrieve‘s second Creature Commandos, formed to spring the first Creature Commandos from stasis after being replaced by GI Robot. The new commandos went rogue, killing Shrieve’s family.
In the story Justice, a more violent version of Grundy appears. This version is a tall, gaunt zombie riddled with bullet holes and wears a torn mechanic’s outfit, rather than the standard black suit. He appears as a member of the Legion of Doom, being controlled by Brainiac‘s mind controlling worms. When the worms are destroyed, Grundy regains control of himself and punches through one of the walls of the city he is in, causing it to flood. This version of Grundy is based on the character The Juggernaut from the film Thirteen Ghosts.
As previously mentioned, Grundy appears in post-Flashpoint Earth 2. Here he is an avatar of the Grey -Earth 2’s version of the Rot, akin to Alan Scott’s Green Lantern version of the Green- and controls forces of decay. Here he wears a seemingly “Hellraiser” influenced leather costume and his appearance is much more similar to a stereotypical, emaciated zombie, rather than a hulking giant. He also displays a much greater intellect than the typical Grundy depiction.
Appearances in Other Media
Super Friends
Grundy appears as a consistent character throughout the “Challenge of the Super Friends” season of Super Friends as a member of the “Legion of Doom“. This version speaks with a distinct Southern accent. The Solomon Grundy seen on the show can be arguably stated as being one of the smarter re-incarnations of the zombie villain, with the ability to calculate and create plans and strategies, although at the habit of repeating his name similarly to Marvel’s The Hulk.
He is well known for an advert for Cartoon Network that aired in the 90s, wherein he yelled “Solomon Grundy wants pants too!” at Brainiac’s request for a decent pair of pants.
DCAU
In the Justice League Unlimited episode “The Terror Beyond”, Grundy is forced to team up with Dr. Fate, Hawkgirl and Aquaman to fight an ancient Thanagarian demon named Ichthultu. Grundy attacks Ichthultu, thinking the demon is in possession of his soul. He is fatally poisoned by it, but Grundy’s efforts allow Hawkgirl to kill the demon. Grundy is buried with a tombstone that reads “Solomon Grundy: Born on a Monday.”
The team in this episode is based on Marvel’s Defenders, with Grundy filling in for the Hulk, Aquaman for Namor, Dr. Fate for Dr. Strange and Hawkgirl for both the Valkyrie and Nighthawk. Grundy calls Hawkgirl “Bird-Nose” through out the episode, which was Hulk’s nickname for Nighthawk. Grundy was later resurrected in the episode “Wake the Dead”, where he is resurrected by a group of kids who accidentally bind him with a demon. In the end, Hawkgirl is forced to kill Grundy to put him out of his misery.
The Batman
Another version of Grundy appears in the Batman episode “Grundy’s Night”. In this version, Grundy was created by the working class citizens of Gotham to wreck havoc on the rich landowners who polluted the land. According to legend, Grundy rises from the dead on Halloween night to kill the descendants of the landowners. In the end of the episode, Grundy is revealed to be Clayface, although something is shown rising from the swamp whilst a moan is heard.
Batman: Brave and the Bold
A different version of Grundy is seen throughout this series as an antagonist of Batman. In the episode “Night of the Huntress!”, he is fought by Batman and the Black Canary. In “The Color of Revenge!” he appears robbing a bank in Bludhaven, while he is shown in “Chill of the Night!” bidding on a weapon at an auction held by Joe Chill.
This version is still a zombie, but is also a crime lord. His mouth is sewn shut, so he communicates through grunts and growls, though one of his henchmen understands him.
He also appears in ” Night of the Batmen” where he, Bane, Blockbuster, and Killer Croc try to steal ” Lady Liberty” but are beaten by Captain Marvel dressed like Batman.
Smallville
Solomon Grundy is seen sitting around a circular table with established Smallville villains Roulette and Metallo, with Captain Cold, Black Manta, and Dark Archer are also members.
Batman: Arkham City
Solomon Grundy appeared in the 2011 video game Batman: Arkham City. When Batman confronts The Penguin over a group of kidnapped police officers taken hostage in the Iceberg Lounge in the now cornered off section of Gotham City known as Arkham City. The Penguin drops Batman through an ice sculpture and into a sub basement, where an enraged Grundy awaits. While battling Batman, this Grundy, seemingly through experimentation on him indicated by severe stitching on his body, is able to generate small electric charges as well as use ball and chains as melee weapons. It is shown in tie-in comics that The Penguin had used the chained up Grundy as a way of disposing enemies; effectively feeding the zombie officers and threats as a way of gaining compliance with the others.
It is later revealed that Solomon Grundy’s human form was thrown into a Lazarus Pool, where, in combination with a freak electrical storm, helped re-animate the monster as well as possibly giving him his powers. The villain Ra’s Al Ghul eventually discovers him in a circus side show and takes him away for torture and experiments, in which the monster is killed systematically and re-animated in order to learn about the Lazarus chemical Grundy had absorbed in his initial re-animation.
It is unknown if Grundy has truly “died”, despite Batman defeating him by punching out his heart. Since his body isn’t found on the return to Penguin’s Lounge, it is possible he re-animated and escaped, although confirmation of this has not been discovered.
DC Universe Online
Solomon Grundy appears in DC Universe Online, in Gotham City where he acts as bounty for the hero players. He shows an avid hatred for people, and yet also a certain fondness for Poison Ivy, going so far as saying he “loves Ivy” despite claiming to hate her as well.
Injustice: Gods Among Us – Solomon Grundy appears as one of the playable fighters in the game voiced by Fred Tatasciore. Solomon Grundy is seen early on fighting Cyborg on the JL Watchtower alongside Lex Luthor, Catwoman, and Bane. Grundy is defeated off screen and presumably arrested. Once the heroes travel to the alternate Earth another version of Grundy is seen where is is a member of Superman‘s Regime. He attacks Green Arrow at Wayne Manor and is defeated by him. When Grundy tries to get back up Hal Jordan fights Grundy outside the Manor and sends him into orbit. In his arcade ending Grundy escapes the chaos of Superman’s failing Regime and retreats to his swamp where he gains access to both “The Red” and “The Grey”. With this power Grundy remakes the world as he sees fit and ends up ruling a dead planet.
Solomon Grundy appears in CW TV show “Arrow” Season 2.