DC’s Answer To The Hulk Finally Achieves His Godlike Full Potential

Warning: contains spoilers for Green Lantern Dark #1!Solomon Grundy, DC’s answer to the Hulk, has finally unlocked his terrifying, god-like potential. For nearly 80 years, Solomon Grundy has shambled across the DC Universe, reborn after each death. Grundy has been a thorn in the side of Batman as well as Green Lantern. In Green Lantern Dark #1, a variant of Solomon Grundy rises, one that puts a horrific spin on his powers and gimmick.

Green Lantern Dark #1 was written by Tate Brombal and drawn by Werther Dell’ Edera. Set on Earth-9, home of DC’s Tangent heroes, the book’s opening pages tell how a great darkness attacked their world. The heroes of Earth-9 fell before the evil, leading to an invasion by monsters, including a new version of Solomon Grundy. This shocking variant possesses the ability to reanimate dead corpses, using them as soldiers. Grundy’s zombies then spread the infection. These zombies can also talk, and disturbingly, often repeat their last words.

Solomon Grundy Gives An Even More Supernatural Spin on Hulk​

The DC Universe Has Seen Many Versions of Solomon Grundy

No matter what Earth he is on, Solomon Grundy is a terrifying opponent. Created by noted science fiction author Alfred Bester, Grundy was once a normal human. Left to die in Slaughter Swamp, outside of Gotham City, he was reanimated decades later. As a result of the resurrection process, Grundy retains no memories of his past life, and embarks on a murderous rampage. It was later revealed in James Robinson and Tony Harris’ Starman that when Grundy dies, he is reborn with a new persona. In Starman, Grundy was childlike, but returned to evil after being killed.

Robinson and Harris’ innovation allowed future creators to run wild with Solomon Grundy, leading to a variety of portrayals. In the opening arc of Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes’ Justice League of America, a more intelligent and scheming Solomon Grundy engineered the kidnapping of Red Tornado. Grundy planned to use the android’s technology in a bid for immortality. This plan failed, and Grundy returned to a brutish and violent form. In recent years, some creators have “softened” Solomon Grundy, refashioning him into a misunderstood anti-hero. Other creators have tied his origin to Swamp Things’ Parliament of Trees.

DC’s Solomon Grundy is The Most Terrifying Version of Them All

This Solomon Grundy Tortures His Victims With a “Living Death”

These varying interpretations of Solomon Grundy collide in the pages of Green Lantern Dark #1. The Grundy Brombal and Dell’Edera have unleashed on Tangent Earth recalls the slow and lumbering zombie that terrorized Green Lantern in the Golden Age. This Grundy variant only displays a rudimentary form of intelligence, but it is not needed here. The issue also does not dwell on Grundy’s origin, leaving it unclear if he has any ties to Swamp Thing or other Earth elementals, but his powers are most certainly supernatural in nature.

And it is these powers that make this Solomon Grundy variant more than just DC’s answer to the Hulk. The Grundy of Earth-9 turns his victims into flesh-eating zombies, who then become subservient to his will. Grundy has his victims trapped in a state of living death, their minds fixated on their last moments alive. The Earth-9 Grundy strips people of their humanity, a feat that outpaces his Earth-0 counterpart. Hopefully, this variant of Solomon Grundy never makes it into the larger DC multiverse, or else the consequences could be dire.

Green Lantern Dark #1 is on sale now from DC Comics!