Did Superman ever go head to head against Solomon Grundy in the comics?

[Batman 80]

If he did, does anyone know if it was a good fight?

[Batman 80]

Somebody must know if these two have fought before.

[The Guard]

Ya know...I don't think they have...I can't think of any...

[darknexus]

i have an old 80's comic where super man beats solomon grundy like a dog

[Batman 80]

LOL! Really? I thought Grundy would at least give him a challenge.

[Failure]

I dont think I've ever heard of Solomon Grundy before hearing that he was gonna be in JLA. I was wondering, how strong is he? and does he have any other powers besides super strength?

[Batman 80]

I heard about Solomon Grundy before the JL cartoon because I remember seeing him when I was younger and watching Superfriends. I never knew his origin until now though. As for powers, besides superstrength I think he also has an insane amount of durability.

[Squall]

What's Solomon Grundy's backstory? Where is he from? I don't know anything about him. Is he a zombie or an alien or something like that? (I've heard both theories.) If he's a zombie, how did he get like that?

Someone help me out here. I've been wondering about Solomon Grundy's backstory for a long time, and I really want to know...

[Naraht]

Originally posted by squall
What's Solomon Grundy's backstory? Where is he from? I don't know anything about him. Is he a zombie or an alien or something like that? (I've heard both theories.) If he's a zombie, how did he get like that?

Someone help me out here. I've been wondering about Solomon Grundy's backstory for a long time, and I really want to know...

I do know he was in the comics...I think I saw him in a Batman title...

He's none to bright, and I think he might be undead...

[CoryB]

I may be a little incorrect, but here's what I know:

- He is from the Golden Age. He was a foe of the original Green Lantern and the JSA.

- Someone fell into a swamp and died in the late 1800s. His body was preserved, and changed into a swamp creature (kind of like the Swamp Thing). He came to "life" on a Monday, and was named Solomon Grundy because of the old nursery rhyme "Solomon Grundy, Born on Monday".

- He's recently been in Starman, where it was revelaed that there a series of Grundys. When one dies, he is reborn, but with a different personality. The one in Starman was a good guy. The newest one isn't.

- He was responsible for killing Skyman from Infinity, Inc. Skyman was the golden age character The Star-Spangled Kid.

- He was recently in the JSA title, during the Joker: Last Laugh storyline.

Hope that helps...

[DarkLantern]

In the Pre-Crisis DC, Grundy fought the JLA and JSA during two of their annual meetings, and Superman was involved in the second one (JLA# 91-92) Because of his inhuman nature (and the fact that his body has quite a bit of wood in it’s makeup), Grundy was immune to the Golden Age GL’s ring. But Alan Scott and Hal Jordan combined their rings’ power to create a shield that contained Grundy in the Earth-2 swamp where they fought.

Grundy managed to escape in Superman #301 (1976). Grundy he realized that there were two Green Lanterns, so maybe there were two Solomon Grundys, and somehow managed to cross dimensions to Earth-1 to try and find his counterpart, which led to a battle with Superman. During the battle, it was reveled that something in the Earth-2 swamp enabled Grundy to traverse worlds, and that swamp was actually travelling with him, flooding Metropolis in the process. Supes ends the battle by masquerading as another Solomon Grundy, flying the real Grundy up to the moon, and leaving him there. Like Supes, I felt sorry for the guy.

The swamp stuff that Grundy brought with him drained into the Metropolis sewer system and spawned another Solomon Grundy that fought Superman in issue #319 or 320 (I don’t have that issue). So technically, the Earth-1 Grundy was a Superman foe (and the Crash Test Dummies were correct in saying Supes didn’t make any money fighting him).

Superman later fought an army of Grundys in an issue of DC Comics Presents that featured the Swamp Thing, who was using Grundy in an experiment in hopes of finding a way to revert to normal (this was way before the Alan Moore stories).

I’m not sure how the Earth-2 Grundy got from the moon back to his home dimension, where he battled the Huntress in a series of Wonder Woman back-up stories as well as Infinity Inc. in isuse 3 of their magazine. It was in that issue he developed a hatred for Jade, when he realized she was Green Lantern’s daughter.

That hatred changed to blind devotion later in the series, when Jade tried (and failed) to save Grundy from a glacier during a Crisis crossover (Inf Inc#23). Grundy did survive, and when he resurfaced in a later issue, he now had a love for Jade and would do anything she told him to do (or not to do, which was probably most often the case). The villainous Harlequin (a successor to the Golden Age quasi-villainess) took advantage of Grundy’s “puppy-love” by masquerading as Jade and commanding Grundy to kill Skyman and attack Infinity Inc. during the last storyline of the series. Grundy was confused by his manipulation and took off for parts unknown.

I assume Grundy appeared next in Starman (which, sadly, I have not read), and Cory B.’s account suggests that Grundy did die in the Crisis, and it was his rebirth, not Jade’s attempt to save him, that really led to his “good guy” personality. Is that correct?

Dark Lantern