Validus
| Validus | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | (Pre-Zero Hour) Adventure Comics #352 (January, 1967) (Post-Zero Hour) Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 4) #78 |
| Created by |
Jim Shooter Mort Weisinger |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | (Pre-Zero Hour) Garridan Ranzz (Post-Zero Hour) None |
| Team affiliations |
Fatal Five Legion of Super-Villains |
| Abilities | Superhuman strength and durability, Energy projection, Telepathy immunity |
Validus is a fictional DC Comics supervillain, an enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes and a member of The Fatal Five.
In the latter half of the 30th century, an entity known as the Sun-Eater threatened to consume Earth's sun, thus destroying the solar system. Desperate to stop the Sun-Eater's efforts, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes recruited the aid of the Fatal Five. They discovered that Validus was among their ranks, but had no idea of his true parental heritage. The Fatal Five reluctantly agreed to help the Legion, and the Sun-Eater's efforts were averted. Validus remained a loyal member of the Fatal Five, always ready to do Tharok's bidding. During one memorable altercation with the Legion, Validus killed Lyle Norg, the original Invisible Kid.
It was later revealed that Validus' origin supposedly stemmed from a diabolical plot by a powerful Legion foe. As revenge for his defeat in "The Great Darkness Saga", Darkseid kidnapped one of the identical twin children of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl at birth. He then sent the newborn back in time, cursed with a monstrous body and near-mindlessness (that made him easily controlled by the likes of the Emerald Empress) with the idea that either the parent or the child would kill the other.
Years later, Validus fell under Darkseid's influence yet again. He manipulated Validus against Lightning Lad, placing him in a situation where the Legionnaire would be forced to kill him to save the life of his other son, Graym. Thanks to the efforts of Saturn Girl however, the plot was averted and both parents discovered that Validus was their child. Soon after, Validus reverted to his normal, human condition. His parents soon renamed him Garridan.
During the "Five Years Later" era chronicled in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4), it was revealed that Darkseid's tampering with Garridan's body chemistry had spawned a new virus which Brainiac 5 dubbed "The Validus Plague". Only natives of Winath and Titan (the homeworlds of Garridan's parents) were susceptible to the disease, but for them it was fatal. As a result, Garridan was forced to wear a containment suit, allowing him mobility yet keeping him in perpetual medical quarantine. His replacement in the reformed Fatal Five was a similar enigmatic behemoth named "Mordecai" by Leland McCauley IV.
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Wikipedia