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Javaman

(63,107 posts)
Fri Aug 26, 2022, 06:59 AM Aug 2022

The origin of Super Villians: Conduit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conduit_(character)

Publication history
Conduit first appeared in Superman: The Man of Steel #0 and was created by Dan Jurgens and Louise Simonson. In the 1995 story arc "Death of Clark Kent" spanning four Superman titles, Conduit tried to murder everyone important to Kent.[2]

Fictional character biography
On the night Kenny's mother gave birth to him, a powerful snowstorm made the roads icy and slick. On the way to the hospital, the car Mr. Braverman was driving skidded on ice. Moments later, Kenny was born in the car and infant Kal-El's starship passed over the Braverman's car. Kenny suffered a high level of radiation poisoning due to Kryptonite exposure from the Kryptonian ship and during his childhood, his health failed from time to time, but he always managed to recover. Kenny even became a remarkable athlete at Smallville High School, but he always came in second place to Clark Kent.[3]

In order to learn how to manage the changes his body went through, Kenny volunteered to be thoroughly examined by the CIA.[4] Afterward, they recruited him to do a covert operation in France, but Clark ultimately thwarted Kenny's efforts. Thus, Kenny grew to despise Clark.[5]

Once he developed inherent superpowers due to the events of his birth, Kenny focused them through a special high-tech suit. He also wears metal gauntlets on each arm that can emit beams of Kryptonite radiation. Kenny then tried to kill Clark and Lois Lane. While he failed to kill them, he ended up dueling Superman.[6]

When Conduit discovered Superman was secretly Clark, he began to stalk Clark, sending Clark notes saying "I KNOW" and planting bombs intended to kill Clark's friends and co-workers. Kenny concluded that when they had competed as children, Clark had possessed all of the powers he possesses as Superman, and thus had cheated, refusing to believe Clark's insistence that his powers only fully developed when he was an adult. Seeing no other option, Superman attempted to forsake his identity as Clark Kent and go into hiding, but Kenny eventually tracked him down and knocked him unconscious.[7]

Kenny then proceeded to place Clark in a fake Smallville set twenty years in the past, filled with android versions of its citizens programmed to hate Superman and regard Kenny as a hero.[8] Several of them attacked Superman, including imitations of Clark's parents Jonathan and Martha Kent. Conduit also added an android of Lois to the mix, although this one was the same age as the real Lois due to her not being part of the childhood Kenny was trying to duplicate. While Superman dealt with that, Conduit waited for him at a duplication of the Smallville High School football stadium, where the two agreed to fight one-on-one without their powers, making it "just Clark and Kenny".[9]

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