Sun-Eater

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A Sun-Eater is a fictional, artificially created living weapon in the DC Comics universe. It has played an important role in various storylines.

[edit] History

A Sun-Eater is a living nebula with the ability to drain whole stars of all their energy; this snuffs out the star and causes its solar system to freeze (and all living beings in it to die.) The Sun-Eaters were created by the alien Controllers as a way to destroy entire worlds that they judged to be too "evil." Each Sun-Eater is kept in a dormant state until needed, watched over by a Controller.

The Sun-Eater first appeared in Adventure Comics #352 (Jan. 1967), in a story that took place in the 30th century, the setting of the Legion of Superheroes, by writer Jim Shooter. Its keeper had gone insane and had released it on the Milky Way galaxy unprovoked. To stop the star-sized creature, the Legion actually recruited some of the worst criminals in the Galaxy to help them (these would stay together to form the Fatal Five afterwards.) But in the end, only one way to stop it was found: an "Anti-Energy" bomb would have to be detonated inside its core. Only Superboy was invulnerable enough to deliver the bomb inside, but he was weakened by radiation inside the Sun-Eater (from the red suns it had already consumed.) New Legion member Ferro Lad, who possesses the power to turn into living iron, could resist going inside the Sun-Eater but not the bomb's explosion. Heroically, he stole the bomb and delivered it anyway, killing himself but destroying the Sun-Eater, thereby saving the galaxy (Adventure Comics #353)

During a period when Superman was sent bouncing back and forth through time following a confrontation between Booster Gold and a renegade member of the Linear Men, he aided the Legion in confronting another Sun-Eater. Although Legion member Wildfire tried to plant another bomb in the heart of the Sun-Eater, the plan failed when he was detected and the Sun-Eater's internal defences forced him to retreat. While Superman and the other Legion members occupied the Sun-Eater's attention, Wildfire travelled to the heart of the Sun-Eater and abandoned his containment suit- he was naturally a being of pure energy-, leaving Shrinking Violet to reconfigure his suit's internal workings to turn it into a weapon. The Sun-Eater was subsequently destroyed, with Superman throwing Violet to safety at the last minute, although the resulting explosion sent him hurtling through time once again.

Another Sun-Eater appeared in DC Comics Presents #43, in a story set in the 20th century. The space villain Mongul kills a Controller and unleashes his Sun-Eater to destroy Earth in revenge for his defeats by Superman. The Legion travels through time to the present to help Superman save the world. While Superman fought Mongul, Wildfire apparently sacrificed himself by exploding his anti-energy body inside the Sun-Eater's core, but he managed to re-form.

After the Zero Hour event, history was changed so that the events chronicled in earlier stories had never occurred. In the new Legion continuity, the Sun-Eater was a myth, invented by the President of the United Planets to unite the member worlds against an external threat, thereby increasing her power base. This plan was exposed by the Legion.

The Sun-Eater's first post-Zero Hour appearance was now in the Final Night miniseries (1997) (set in the present day, rather than the Legion's future). A rogue Sun-Eater destroys several planets, eventually reaching our Solar System and snuffing out the Sun. The heroes of Earth are powerless to stop it, until Parallax sacrifices his powers and life to destroy it and reignite the Sun.

In 2005's The Return of Donna Troy miniseries, it was discovered that a planet called Minosyss hosted a Sun-Eater factory hidden deep inside. One of its Sun-Eaters was used to kill Hyperion and Thia, two of the Titans of Myth.

At the end of the Infinite Crisis miniseries (2006-2007) a "junior" red Sun-Eater is provided by Donna Troy, to be used by the Green Lantern Corps to imprison Superboy-Prime.

In the non-continuity title All-Star Superman, a baby Sun Eater is part of the intergalactic zoo in Superman's Fortress of Solitude. It is fed on miniature suns, created by Superman with a cosmic anvil from New Olympus.

In the series 52, Lobo, Starfire, Adam Strange, and a member of the Green Lantern Corps named Ekron defeat Lady Styx by pushing her into a group of Sun-Eaters. Animal Man is later able to tap the powers of the Sun Eaters, acquiring "migration maps", the ability to survive in space, and other traits.

[edit] Other Media

In the two part Legion of Super-Heroes animated episode "Sundown", a Sun Eater is released from a weapon holdings platform by a renegade Controller. Brainiac 5 explains the Sun Eaters were created during an interstellar war called the "Great Crisis". The Legion teams with the Fatal Five to create a weapon that can destroy it. When the weapon fails to detonate due to a faulty connection, Ferro Lad sacrifices himself to act as a conductor. In the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft there is a high quality weapon known as 'The Sun Eater' which was claimed to have been forged inside the heart of a dying star.