Daxam

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Within the DC Universe, the planet Daxam is home to a race called the Daxamites, who possess a genome similar to Kryptonians. When exposed to the light of a yellow sun, Daxamites manifest powers and abilities similar to those of Superman, including great strength, damage resistance, great speed, flight, enhanced senses and heat and X-ray vision. Their own sun is red, so while on their homeworld, they do not have their superpowers. They are fatally sensitive to lead, which affects them as kryptonite affects Kryptonians. They are an intensely xenophobic race, and are fearful of alien invaders. Daxam's inhabitants tend to stay on their homeworld, but some have ventured into the galaxy.

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[edit] History

The Daxamites were originally Kryptonians who left their homeworld in order to explore the Universe. The Eradicator, programmed to preserve all Kryptonian culture, altered the birthing matirces ("artificial wombs") the explorers took with them so that the newborns would be fatally vulnerable to lead. Thus, if they persisted in their anti-Kryptonian wanderlust, they would all die from it. (Later, The Eradicator altered the DNA of all remaining Kryptonian lifeforms so that they would instantly die upon leaving the planet.)

Daxamites took part in an invasion of Earth masterminded by the Dominators. During the invasion however, the Daxamite forces discovered that they gained tremendous powers, of a set and scale comparable to Kryptonians, in a yellow sun environment. However, while engaging Superman, the superhero convinced his opponents, who were succumbing to lead poisoning, that their allies were wrong to invade Earth and Lar Gand's father sent a message before his death to their government to intervene on Earth's behalf. They were successful in this intervention when the Dominators, unaware of the Daxamite physical reaction to Earth's environment, dismissed the small force of primarily troop transports. Thus, they were caught completely off guard when the Daxamites deployed in space an extremely formidable force of hundreds of soldiers who had gained powers and quickly defeated the enemy. They also fought against the galactic destroyer known as Imperiex.

[edit] Lar Gand

Main article: Lar Gand

The galaxy's most famous Daxamite is Lar Gand, known in the 20th century as Valor and in the 31st as M'onel. After the invasion, it was found that the Dominators had been experimenting on humans and still held a significant number of them captive. Lar Gand helped save the humans the Dominators were experimenting on and took these victims to uninhabited planets, in effect seeding the worlds which would eventually become Legion member worlds. He was later sent to the Phantom Zone for 1,000 years as a protection against dying from lead poisoning. His sudden disappearance troubled many he had helped, and they started a religion around him. He would later be rescued from the Zone by Brainiac 5 and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

[edit] Great Darkness Saga

During the Great Darkness Saga, Darkseid learned of Daxam from Mon-el and proceeded to mind-control its entire populace, and then moved the planet to a yellow sun, creating an army of several billion beings each roughly equal in power to Superman. He then commanded them to sculpt the entire planet's surface in his likeness, effectively destroying Daxam's civilization. This army was then unleashed upon the galaxy as an almost unstoppable force. After the Great Darkness Saga, the planet had to be terraformed into being habitable again, and the Daxamites returned there.

[edit] Five Years Later

In the V4 Legion storyline, Glorith, fearing that the Dominators might gain control of Daxam, destroyed the planet and all its inhabitants to prevent this.

[edit] Post-Zero Hour

Following the Zero Hour reboot of Legion continuity, 31st century Daxam was reinvented as a closed-off and insular society, home to a racist political group called the White Triangle.

[edit] Appearance in other media

Freedom Fighters from Daxam appear in Justice League Adventures #3.