He began by tampering with the oscillator of the Venture space craft, which would be located directly beneath Lena. However, after she couldn't make it due to an important business meeting, subsequently missing the explosion of the craft, Corben had to use an alternate plan to kill her. He took a Heavy Tactical Unmanned Air Vehicle from Baker, using it to target Lena's helicopter, while planting additional drones throughout National City to shoot random civilians; Superman and Supergirl ultimately destroyed all of them, saving Lena. The following day, he planted explosives beneath a plaque at Luthor's ceremony to rename her company. They detonated, along with others planted in the Luthor Corp building.
Publication Information
- Supergirl : John Corben
- Version : Supergirl
- Alter Ego : Metallo
- Multiverse : Earth Thirty-Eight
- Type :
- Formerly Assassin-for-hire
- Formerly Member of Intergang
- Formerly Agent of Cadmus
- Relative :
- Affiliation : Project Cadmus
- Gender : Male
- Origin : Earth Thirty-Eight
- Season : Supergirl
- First Appeareance : Supergirl Season 2 Episod 1 : The Adventures of Supergirl
- Last Appeareance :
- Number of Appeareance :
- Potrayer : Frederick Schmidt
- Main View : Full Episod
Corben, dressed as a police officer, attempted to approach Lena directly but was intercepted by Alex Danvers. After a brief fight, he took her hostage, threatening to shoot her if Supergirl intervened. He was promptly shot from behind by Lena Luthor, dropping Alex. Sometime later, John found himself connected to medical equipment inside Project Cadmus. A woman approached him, offering to let him live, to which he agreed, and he was injected with something, causing his veins to glow and his eyes to cloud over. The woman dubbed him "Metallo".
As Lillian Luthor's trial was impending, Metallo managed to get a new Kryptonite heart from Hank Henshaw and used it to free both himself and Lillian Luthor, he drew Supergirl back to keep her from stopping them. Later, after Lena was arrested for being a suspect in aiding in their escape, Metallo was sent by Lillian to break her out of prison too, in doing so he was confronted by Guardian, which he managed to quickly subdue. Metallo brought Lena to Lillian, who later took them both to a vault created by Lex in which Henshaw was waiting them.
Abilities
- Cyborg physiology : Through an operation performed by Cadmus doctors, John became a cyborg and the cyborg physiology grants him special powers and abilities.
- Enhanced strength : As a cyborg, John's strength was apparently able to match that of a Kryptonian, however, it should be noted that Superman and Supergirl were weakened by his green energy beam of Kryptonite at the time, in their rematch, Kara who now had an anti-kryptonite suit and at full strength, was able to overpower John easily.
- Enhanced durability : As a cyborg, Corben can take much more damage than a normal human; he took physical blows from Supergirl and Alex (in a Kryptonite-powered exosuit) remaining relatively unfazed. An analysis done in the Fortress of Solitude by Superman revealed that Corben's cybernetic endoskeleton is made of Promethium, the strongest metal known to man.
- Enhanced stamina : As a cyborg, John's natural stamina levels have been increased considerably, allowing him to fight and remain active for long periods of time without becoming fatigued.
- Kryptonite beam : John was able to fire a green energy beam of Kryptonite radiation. A sustained blast has shown to cause extreme pain to Supergirl. This blast is shown to be able to harm human as well.
- Expert assassin : Working as an assassin-for-hire, Corben was an expert at his profession, having been hired by terrorists and businessman alike.
- Expert hand-to-hand combatant : Corben had been shown to be able to defeat D.E.O. agent Alex Danvers. He was also able to best James Olsen who is a capable fighter.
- Heat vision : Kara's heat vision was strong enough to burn off the skin of Metallo's right hand, causing the metallic interior of it to be exposed.
- Kryptonite power source : Without a piece of Krptonite being in his heart, Metallo's powers do not work.
- Synthetic Kryptonite : While this new Synthetic Kryptonite in Metallo's heart is the source of his power, it is the source of his downfall. The new Kryptonite's decaying properties in a modified human will slowly kill him as time passes by. However, the more Corben uses the Kryptonite beam, the faster it will decay, making his body more and more unstable. This will go on for some time until eventually, he explodes.
- Main Article : John Corben (Smallville)
