The Eradicator was a device created by Superman's mother Lara Lor-Van to store the consciousnesses of the people of Krypton.
History
Lara intended for the Eradicator to be used to preserve Krypton's history, but her ex-husband Zeta-Rho plotted to pervert its original purpose and use it to recreate Krypton on another world. When he learned Lara and her new husband Jor-El planned to send their child Kal-El to safety on Earth, he sent his own son Tal-Rho to Earth as well to await the arrival of the Eradicator. He also gave Tal a Sunstone crystal programmed with his own memories and personality to "guide" Tal on Earth.
Zeta-Rho's original plan was for Tal to absorb and become the Eradicator, which would have erased Tal's consciousness, and then use the power of the Eradicator to convert the people of Earth into Kryptonians en masse. Tal was initially willing to go along with this plan until Superman revealed himself to the world. Tal-Rho realised that Superman was a member of the House of El and quickly deduced that he was his brother, who he had not known was alive. He developed an alternative plan to transform individual humans into hosts for the stored Kryptonian consciousnesses, complete with superpowers, using the Eradicator and X-Kryptonite.
Tal-Rho managed to convert a number of the people of Smallville, Kansas into Kryptonians and invited Superman to join his plans for a New Krypton but Superman refused. At the same time, the United States Army managed to find the chamber Tal-Rho used for his transformations, as well as the Eradicator. Lana Lang volunteered to be a host for Lara's consciousness stored in the Eradicator and Lara modified to Eradicator to reverse Tal's process, but to use it effectively Kal-El would need to discharge all his solar energy into it in a single burst.
Superman lured Tal-Rho and his army into chasing him into the upper atmosphere and tricked them into channeling their heat vision into the Eradicator. At the last second, Tal realized what Superman was doing and ordered them to stop, but it was too late. Superman sent all his stored solar energy into the Eradicator in a single solar flare, creating a blast wave that restored all the converted townspeople back to normal. However, this left Superman vulnerable and Tal overpowered him and stole the Eradicator back.
To prevent Tal-Rho harming his family, Kal-El agreed to join him and allowed the Zeta-Rho hologram to transfer General Zod's mind from the Eradicator into him. Zod took control of Superman's body but John Henry Irons was able to help Superman break free of his control.
Faced with fighting Superman and Irons and realising his own plans had failed, Tal decided that his father's way was the only way. He took the Eradicator into space and seemingly destroyed it with his heat vision, but in fact absorbed it as Zeta had intended, becoming the Eradicator.
See Also
- Appearances of Eradicator (Arrowverse: Superman & Lois)
- Item Gallery: Eradicator (Arrowverse: Superman & Lois)
- Images featuring Eradicator (Arrowverse: Superman & Lois)