Solomon Grundy
Unknown

Powers

Limitation

Talents

None

Contacts

None

History

In the late 19th century, a mobster named Cyrus Gold was murdered and his body disposed of in Slaughter Swamp, near Gotham City. Fifty years later, the corpse was reanimated as a huge shambling figure (composed partly of the swamp matter that had accumulated around the body over the decades) with almost no memory of its past life. Gold murdered two escaped criminals who were hiding out in the marsh and stole their clothes. He showed up in a hobo camp and, when asked about his name, one of the few things he could recall was that he was "born on a Monday". One of the men at the camp mentioned the nursery rhyme character Solomon Grundy, and Gold adapted the moniker.

Strong, vicious, and nearly mindless, Solomon Grundy fell into a life of crime—or, perhaps returned to one according to his scattered residual memories—attracting the attention of the Green Lantern, Alan Scott. Grundy proved to be a difficult opponent, unkillable (since he was already dead) and with an inherent resistance to Scott's powers (which could not affect wood, a substance of which Grundy's reassembled body was now largely composed). Their first fight ended when Grundy was hurled under a train. Their second battle with Grundy involved Green Lantern and his fellow members of the Justice Society of America tracking him across the country, on this occasion he was buried. A subsequent battle between the two ended up with Lantern depositing Grundy back on the moon in 1947.

At this point, he was pulled back to 1941 by the time-travelling criminal Per Degaton, who had enlisted the aid of several supervillians to capture the Justice Society of America during December 7, 1941(the attack on Pearl Harbor). The All-Star Squadron came to their rescue, and Grundy was then thrust back to the moon where he remained for over two decades.

Grundy eventually mastered the use of stored up emerald energy he had absorbed over the years from his several battles with his arch-foe, and returned to Earth to battle Lantern, Hourman and Doctor Fate. At this point, he had temporary mastery over all wooden objects, however he subsequently lost this power over time.

He was briefly a member of the Injustice Gang of the World. In the interim, he had battled the combined might of both the Justice Society, and later their counterparts the Justice League, nearly to a standstill, when he developed an affection for a lost alien child. Soon after, Grundy crossed over from his Slaughter Swamp prison on Earth-2 to Earth-1 where he encountered that Earth's Superman (see more details below).

Grundy went on to afflict Green Lantern and his teammates, including the Huntress who was the first female for whom he developed an affection. After Solomon Grundy was rescued from a glacier by Alan Scott's daughter, Jade, Grundy became loyal to her and, for a while, was an ally of Infinity Inc. Eventually, this affectionate relationship turned to tragedy as the villainous Marcie Cooper a.k.a. Harlequin of the Dummy's Injustice Unlimited, used her illusion powers to disguise herself as Jade. Harlequin manipulated Grundy to attack the members of Infinity Inc., one by one. She convinced him to press the unconscious Mister Bones's bare hand against Skyman; since Bones's skin constantly exudes a cyanide-based compound, this quickly led to Skyman's death. This was the beginning of the end for Infinity Inc., and for Grundy's quasi-heroic career.