The Eradicator

The Eradicator

On that fateful day when Superman died at the hands of the nigh-invulnerable monster Doomsday, the world lost more than its greatest champion. Superman’s absence created a power vacuum which the criminal underworld was all too eager to take advantage of. From the ashes of Superman’s fall, four champions emerged to protect the world in his stead. One such champion was the Eradicator. He thought himself to be the actual Superman. However, his unknown past stretched far beyond the scope of Superman’s death. This article’s intent is to explore that past.

Upon Superman’s death, the robots of the Fortress of Solitude conspired to bring an energy being from the Fortress’ data banks to the real world. Lost, confused, the being believed itself to be the reincarnated Superman. Troubled at the way the world turned out in his absence, he kidnapped his physical “corpse,” adopted a new costume and enforced a more cruel and barbaric justice on the criminal underworld. It’s only when the evil Cyborg Superman (another contender) betrays and nearly destroys him that the awful truth is revealed. He is not Superman. He’s the Eradicator.

But just who is the Eradicator? Read on.

The Eradicator is a highly-advanced artificial intelligence. Although it traded hands multiple times in the two hundred thousand years of its life, it eventually crosses paths with Superman. Programmed to preserve Kryptonian culture, the Eradicator sees Superman tainted by the Earth. It attempts to rectify this by brainwashing Superman into the perfect Kryptonian. When that doesn’t work, the Eradicator tries to destroy the Earth in order to re-create it in Krypton’s image. Ultimately the Eradicator was finally destroyed in the Fortress of Solitude (itself another of the Eradicator’s attempts to preserve Kryptonian culture).

But in the universe of comic books, no one really dies. Hell, supervillains aren’t considered “super” until they rise from the grave once or twice. The Eradicator is no different.

It turns out that the Eradicator’s physical body was constructed from the materials from Superman’s coffin, and as such cannot absorb the solar radiation that gives the Man of Steel his powers. So instead the Eradicator plugs Superman into a Regeneration Matrix and turns him into a solar battery from which he can replenish his powers. For a while this works . . . until Superman comes back from the dead.

Confronted with the loss of his only sustainable source of energy, the Eradicator is forced to break his own delusions. More than the sum of his programming, the Eradicator joins in the fight against the Cyborg Superman. It even sacrifices itself to restore Superman’s powers . . . and to atone for the atrocities he’s committed in the Man of Steel’s name.

The Eradicator’s a fanatical relic trying desperately to justify the validation of a planet that no longer existed. But that changed when he assumed Superman’s identity. Defending people instead of destroying them, seeing life more precious than function, the Eradicator grew beyond something that a simple artificial intelligence. It grew into a hero that came to love Earth so much that he sacrificed himself without hesitation to atone for his past atrocities. And while this isn’t the end of the Eradicator’s story (remember, no one really dies in comic books), this is when the Eradicator became the best version of himself . . . as he continues to be even now.