Despite graciously accepting the device from Lois Lane, John Corben, aka "Metallo" ultimately rejected the gifted Red Kryptonite Cybertronic Self-Sustaining Heart, concluding it was incompatible with his body.
Founded by Winslow Schott, aka "The Toyman", to hunt down and assassinate costumed superheroes, the Marionette Ventures failed to complete any of its objectives and ultimately folded.
During his time on the short-lived team, the mercenary John Corben, aka Metallo, was provided with a brand-new Self-Sustaining Heart powered by Green Kryptonite and assigned to assassinate Supergirl.
Unlike the previous model that the Kandorians had fitted him with, this device could absorb the radiation emitted from the irradiated mineral, utilising it as both a battery and an offensive weapon.
First discovered by Val-El during his numerous illegal travels across the universe, the Kryptonian scientist took a sample of Black Mercy back to his home planet of Krypton for further research.
There, he displayed this sapling in his Fortress of Solitude, experimenting on the plant until his incarceration in the Phantom Zone.
It would remain there until General Dru Zod instigated a coup, taking over Krypton and declaring himself its ruler. He would confiscate the plant, going on to use it for his own machinations.
An unstable species of parasitic flora discovered by Val-El while illegally travelling and exploring space, the Black Mercy was a powerful and dangerous organism.
When affixed to a host, burying its roots into their brain and nervous system, they can create hallucinations so vivid that the victim believes the alternate reality they witness is the real thing. The only way to overcome the effects of the plant is to actively reject the hallucination, something that very few people had the strength and willpower to achieve.
In the unlikelihood of being removed from the host, the parasitic organism left a residual - non-lethal - virus in their system that required the application of Hantha root for complete recovery.
Stolen from El's Fortress of Solitude by the ruling general, after organising a military coup d'état, he used samplings of the Black Mercy to overpower and sedate his disapproving mother, Sagitari commander Lyta-Zod. Placing her in a medically induced coma, he kept her a secret from the rest of Krypton, deploying a clone to perform her regular duties and ensure the continuation of his authoritarian governance.
Months later, wishing to weaponize the invincible killing machine, Doomsday, Zod ordered his chief scientist, Lis-Ser, to extract the plant's naturally produced toxins and inject them into his bloodstream. Successfully seizing control of the rampaging beast, he soon turned him loose on The Rebel forces located on the nearby moon of Wegthor, wiping out the majority of their troopers in a full-on assault on their headquarters.
Ser considered the half-life of the toxin to be "limitless," with Zod reasoning that anyone exposed to a pure dosage could be under its influence permanently if not treated. Even a being as strong as Doomsday, "the mythical beast of the Outlands," fell under its influence, with little resistance, at least enough to keep him in a susceptible and suggestive state.
However, this inadvertently led to Dru's downfall after the Black Mercy, damaged by the repeated toxin extraction, began to lose its hold over Lyta. Escaping from her six-month-long psychedelic dreamscape prison, she believed that it was the only way to detain her son without using lethal force. Fearing he would only escape the Phantom Zone and wreak havoc on the universe if they sent him there, both his parents, Seg-El and Lyta, ensnared Zod with the vines, promising that they would keep him in a comatose state for as long as necessary to one day rehabilitate their lost child.
A rundown and shabby Italian Bistro located in Gotham City, Ramendelli's Bistro was the scene of a violent showdown between The Huntress and a masked shooter.
Saving the life of his young hostage, who reminded Helena of herself when she was a child, she brutally beat the criminal unconscious, forcing Batman to intervene and hold her back before she could deliver the killing blow.
A rare genetic mutation found on the planet Krypton 1000 cycles before the life of Seg-El, the Vara gene allowed for the host to survive in harsh environments/against harmful pathogens & viruses.
Believing it to be the best chance to end the conflict and bring peace to the wartorn Krypton, Wedna-El and Van-Zod began looking for test subjects to create the perfect supersoldier; weaponising the gene to make someone invulnerable to harm. Screening hundreds of potential candidates, they eventually settled on Dax-Baron, a young Sagitari fighting in the Kandorian/Argo City civil war.
Forcing Baron to endure unimaginable anguish, El and Zod would kill the soldier countless times, only to bring him back for more lethal and creative methods of death, till at last he was permanently altered into an unstoppable hulking mindless behemoth, driven by anger, rage and pain.
Years later, Baron would earn the moniker, Doomsday.
