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Quote1 They raped my mind! They stole my dreams! They took my childhood and shredded it before my eyes! Quote2
Sodam Yat src

Diro Yat was the father of the Green Lantern Sodam Yat.

Diro, like many Daxamites, is extremely xenophobic, believing alien influence of any kind would only pollute Daxam's "purity." As such, he never approved of his son's, Sodam's, interest in the stars and the vast universe beyond their home planet - going so far as to break the lenses for Sodam's telescopes. He was determined to keep Sodam's mind focused on Daxam and its people, and one day have him follow in his footsteps as a senator. One day however, he and his wife eventually discovered that Sodam had been sheltering a stranded alien named Tessog in a cave out in the woods. Diro and his wife had Tessog killed and erased all traces of him having ever existed from the cave where he and Sodam had been teaching each-other using drawings scratched on the cave walls, and had their own son knocked out and put through a brainwashing program that would instill the same irrational hate for anything alien or different that they and most Daxamites felt was the normal and healthy attitude to have on the subject.

However, unknown to Diro, Sodam broke free from his mental conditioning upon seeing his old friend Tessog stuffed and mounted in a museum (Tessog's face had been altered and his body positioned in such a fashion that he resembled the Daxamite vision of a stereotypical "evil alien monster," hefting a big heavy rock as if to smash the skull of a dummy of a horrified Daxamite "victim"). Sodam pretended to be the son his parents wanted him to be so that he could continue working on restoring Tessog's old spaceship in the hopes of one day escaping Daxam forever (but luckily a Green Lantern Ring found him and gave him an easier means of escape).[1] Diro would not see or hear from his son again until Mongul invaded and conquered Daxam, then summoned the Sinestro Corps to the planet with the intention of seizing leadership of the corps in Sinestro's absence and using them to begin his new campaign of terror against the rest of the universe, dispatching them to hunt down and enslave any remaining free Daxamites to serve as his work force.[2]

Diro would send his wife off in Tessog's old ship to hopefully find Sodam and bring him back to help them in their darkest hour; although he was surprised at seeing Sodam which later suggests that he hadn't expected his wife to succeed and probably just wanted to "spare" her the horror of dying by alien hands. He along with many of his people later took refuge in a cave by some cliffs while hiding from a Sinestro Corps hunting party led by Arkillo. Diro, believing all was lost, chose to lead his people to commit suicide by throwing themselves over the cliffs rather than live under Sinestro Corps control, or even actually putting up a fight. Fortunately, Sodam and Arisia Rrab arrived in time to defeating the hunting party and stopping the Daxamites from killing themselves, but sadly some had already jumped under Diro's guidance. Upon seeing his son, Diro foolishly believed that they would be able to "mend the fences" later when all was said and done while completely underestimating how much Sodam truly hated him for murdering Tessog and taking away his childhood, in which his son went so far as to carry him upside down and hang him over the cliffs long enough to see all the Daxamites he had led to their untimely deaths out of cowardice.[3]

Diro became one of the many Daxamites who received superpowers when Sodam Yat used the Ion power to turn Daxam's red sun yellow, seemingly sacrificing himself in the process. When the Daxamites began panicking in response to all the strange new powers they had acquired, and Arisia went about the process of calming them down and helping them through it, Diro was quite vocal in his dislike for Arisia, believing that thanks to his son's sacrifice the Daxamites had the power to retake their planet and seek revenge against Mongul and the Sinestro Corps without her help. Fortunately, despite Diro's bigotry and anger Arisia managed to convince the Daxamites that the only way to defeat the Sinestro Corps was to master their powers and work together as an underground resistance corps, as opposed to charging headfirst into battle fueled by anger and hate alone.

Under Arisia's leadership the Daxamites drove off Mongul and the Sinestro Corps and retook Daxam. Diro then began supervising the disposal of the bodies of the Sinestro Corps soldiers they had killed, shocking and repulsing Arisia when she caught him ordering a man to toss a still living Sinestro Corpsman into a burning pile of corpses. Diro then made it painfully clear that despite all that Arisia had done for him and his people, despite his son's words concerning how the Green Lanterns fought to protect all the people of the universe and his ultimate sacrifice, he still viewed all alien life as a blight to Daxam and wanted Arisia off his planet immediately while pretty confident that now that they had powers they wouldn't need anyone's assistance ever again. Arisia then bid farewell to the racist senator with a power ring-empowered punch to the face powerful enough to make his nose and lips bleed.

After Sodam was purged out of Daxam's red sun by Krona and causing many Daxamites fatalities from losing their powers, Diro led the rest of Daxam society in a hunt for his own son in order to throw him back into the sun and regaining their powers; however, Sodam escaped with several followers to another planet.[4]

Powers

(Formerly)

  • Daxamite Physiology: In a solar system with a "yellow" sun, the average Daxamite possesses powers similar to those of a Kryptonian:
    • Solar Energy Absorption: Under optimal conditions, this is the main source of their super powers as they are contingent upon exposure to solar radiation from a yellow sun star system. Their biological make up includes a number of organs which lack analogues in humans and whose functions are unknown. It is believed that between one or more of these and their bio-cellular matrix, "yellow" solar energy is stored for later use. This allows for the use of these powers to fade when yellow solar radiation is not available instead of immediate failure.
    • Heat Vision: Daxamites can, as a conscious act, fire beams of intense heat at a target by looking at it. Typically, the power is seen as two beams of red light emanating from the eyes. These beams can be made invisible, allowing the power to be undetectable. The maximum temperature of their heat vision is said to be around that of a nuclear detonation. They can also consciously determine the area affected, down to the microscopic level.
    • Super-Hearing: Daxamite hearing is sensitive enough to hear any sound at any volume or pitch. With skill, practice, and concentration, they can block out ambient sounds to focus on a specific source or frequency. As such, they can identify a person by their heartbeat, or pick out a single voice in an entire city.
    • Enhanced Vision: Daxamite vision processes the entire electromagnetic spectrum as well as allowing vast control over selective perception and focus.
      This umbrella ability includes the following:
      • Electromagnetic Spectrum Vision: Daxamite can see well into most of the electromagnetic spectrum. They can see and identify radio and television signals as well as all other broadcast or transmitted frequencies. Using this ability, they can avoid detection by radar or satellite monitoring methods. This also allows them to see the aura generated by living thing.
      • Telescopic Vision: This is the ability to see something at a great distance, without violating the laws of physics. Though limited, the exact extent of the ability is undetermined. In function, it is similar to the zoom lens on a camera.
      • X-Ray Vision: This is the ability to see through any volume of matter except lead. Daxamites can see things behind a solid, opaque object as if it were not there. They can focus this ability to "peel back" layers of an object, allowing hidden image or inner workings to be observed. The exact type of energy perceived—such as x-rays, cosmic rays, or some other energy invisible to normal humans—is unclear. This ability perceives an ambient energy source though, it does not involve the eye projecting a concentrated, possibly toxic, beam to be reflected back from objects.
      • Microscopic Vision: This is the ability to see extremely small objects and images down to the atomic level.
      • Infrared Vision: Daxamites can see with better acuity in darkness, and to a degree in total darkness.
    • Flight: Daxamites are able to manipulate graviton particles, in an unknown and apparently unconscious manner, to defy the forces of gravity. Under one Earth gravity, they are capable of speeds of multi-Mach speeds in Earth's atmosphere. Their control of their flight is very precise and they can perform aerobatic feats such as hovering, flying backwards and even lifting great weights while flying.
    • Invulnerability: The bodies of Daxamites are nigh-invulnerable to extreme energy forces. In addition, their immune systems protects them from toxins and diseases. The most common explanations for this rely on the presences of a super-dense molecular structure, a supercharged bio-electric aura which acts as an invisible force field, or a combination of the two. A byproduct of the aura is that items close to the skin share their invulnerability. Using clothing as an example, loose fitting fabric would tend to shred or burn in adverse conditions, but skin tight outfits would not.
    • Superhuman Stamina: Daxamites have the ability to maintain continuous strenuous physical action for an indefinite period of time. In theory they have unlimited stamina as their enhanced nourishment is produced from the yellow solar energy their cells process, which also provides the majority of the power for their superhuman abilities. However, their base physical structures do need to process food stuffs and they have a psychological need to eat and drink just as Earth humans do. They also require sleep on occasion so that they can dream. They can also hold their breath for an indefinite period of time.
    • Superhuman Strength: A Daxamite develops enhanced physical strength after absorbing a sufficient amount of yellow solar radiation. This radiation interacts with the greater than human density, resilience and biological efficiency of their musculature to trigger superhuman levels. While the exact magnitude of their strength is unknown, it is generally accepted that it is sufficient to lift 100,000 tons or more. The specific range is unknown as a their strength, like their other powers, may fluctuate over time. Their strength is also more an act of conscious will on energy fields than actual physical strength. It is this act of conscious will that enables them to perform physical feats that are beyond the mere application force, such as moving a mountain top without said rock crumbling under its own mass. At full power, their normal strength levels are well into the multi-megaton range.
    • Superhuman Speed: Daxamites are able to move at incredible speeds by sheer force of will. They can match most other speedsters in super-fast movements, reactions, and processes. They can use this power to disarm opponents without heightened reflexes, catch bullets or shrapnel or cross vast distances in seconds.
      This also confers:
    • Super-Breath: Daxamites are able to create hurricane force winds by exhaling air from their lungs. They can chill the air as it leaves their lungs to freeze targets in a variation sometimes called "freeze" or "arctic breath". They can also reverse the process and pull large volumes of air or vapor into their lungs.
    • Longevity: Daxamites can live longer than regular humans, remaining at their prime as long as they was under the exposure of the "yellow" sun.

Abilities

Leadership

Weaknesses

  • Lead: Unlike Kryptonians, whose super-powers are driven from them by the radioactive remnants of their home world, a Daxamite's major weakness is his vulnerability to common element lead.
  • Xenophobia: Like most other Daxamites Diro Yat is extremely bigoted against all other forms of sentient life.

Related

Footnotes


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