Name: Solomon Grundy
Alter Ego: Cyrus Gold
Origin: There are varying accounts on how this zombie super villain came to be. A commonly told story is that Cyrus Gold (after suffering severe misfortune and abuse in his youth) grew up to become a wealthy yet ruthless man who killed people and took their money, essentially a gangster. Eventually an angry mob got together to punish Gold for his cruelties, chasing him towards Slaughter Swamp outside of Gotham City where he committed suicide (not wanting to die by their hands) and fell into the murky water. Decades later, the magic of the swamp resurrected him as a part man/part plant creature.

n

Another story is that in 1895, amoral millionaire merchant Cyrus Gold had an affair with a prostitute named Rachel. Rachel attempted to extort money from Gold but, during their meeting in Slaughter Swamp outside of Gotham City, Gold refused to play ball so Rachel’s pimp killed him and buried the body. Over the next 50 years, Gold’s corpse merged with the vegetation of the swamp and mystically came back to life in 1944 as an undead being of immense power and limited intelligence (and no memory of his past). Another tale states that the magical Parliament of Trees attempted to create an elemental champion of nature (as they would later successfully do with the hero Swamp Thing) and that Grundy would’ve been said champion but a flaw in the process (Grundy, unlike Swamp Thing, didn’t die in a fire) resulted in Grundy becoming an incomplete Plant Elemental. Still another account (this one coming from the mysterious Seven Unknown Men of Slaughter Swamp) states that Cyrus Gold was a pedophile (or merely falsely accused of being one) who was lynched by an angry mob. Curiously, the same person telling this story punished a member of his group named Zor by dressing him up as Cyrus for the mob to find. At any rate, the story remains basically the same: shady Cyrus Gold is killed when his sins come back to haunt him, buried in Slaughter Swamp, is resurrected decades later as a monstrous super powered zombie, and runs amok as a villain. Originally an enemy of Earth’s first Green Lantern (Alan Scott), he would go on to face Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, the Justice Society of America and the Justice League of America. He has joined the Secret Society of Super Villains, the Injustice Society, and the Injustice League.
Powers/Abilities: Solomon Grundy’s primary power is immense superhuman strength that has varied over time (from being able to be knocked out by a normal human like Batman to being a considerable challenge for Superman). He is also highly invulnerable to harm and able to regenerate from damage at an accelerated rate (even being able to reattach severed limbs). An undead being, Grundy no longer needs food, drink, air, or sleep and is immune to sickness and aging (though he CAN still fall asleep and eat). If Grundy is “killed” he will always be resurrected (often stronger than before and with a different personality and level of intellect). Grundy has immense stamina and his limbs can move independently of his body. At one point, he could absorb and manipulate certain forms of energy though this ability has seemingly been lost. Due to the large amounts of wood and plant matter incorporated into Grundy’s form, he is largely immune to the effects of Alan Scott’s power ring.
Random Trivia: Solomon Grundy got his name shortly after his first resurrection. He wandered into a homeless shelter and mentioned vaguely remembering that he’d been born on a Monday when asked who he was and where he was from. This reminded the vagrants of an old nursery rhyme about the life and death of one Solomon Grundy. The zombie liked the name and began using it. According to one account, Cyrus Gold came from very humble and tragic beginnings: his father had moved to Gotham City to become rich and famous (even changing his name to Gold as a sign of good luck) but his plans were foiled and the family lived in poverty. Getting a low paying manual labor job, the elder Gold continuously abused young Cyrus and his mother (who abandoned Cyrus to run away and save herself). In fact, on each of Cyrus’s birthdays, his father would bury him alive in a grave (to teach the boy he was lower than dirt). After his father died in a work accident, Curus continued to be bullied and abused. One day he made a deal with a mysterious man (possibly a demon such as Neron or Lucifer) who promised to make young Cyrus rich and powerful in exchange for a lifetime of servitude. Cyrus shook the man’s hand and in time did become wealthy though becoming increasingly malevolent. He killed people, took their money, abused his wife in front of their children (it’s implied he may have killed his wife’s first husband), ultimately drowned her to death, tracked down and killed his mother, etc. Instead of blood, Solomon bleeds tree sap.