You said the magic word, my boy-- Chance! I know that life makes quick-minded kids like you eat dirt... Unless they jump at the chance I give them! How would you two like to be important-- and rich? 
- — Michael J. Coram src
Michael J. Coram is an enigmatic mastermind of unknown origins, described as a "human monster" and "(not) a man at all." Operating as a supposed benefactor of the slums of Metropolis, he was stopped by Superman.
History
Though his origins were shrouded in mystery, his M.O. was clear: Coram scouts out the squalid slums of Metropolis and took lower-class children who demonstrated intellectual potential under his wing, aiming to corrupt them morally and use their intelligence as an asset to his future criminal enterprises.[1]
Coram approached many impoverished ghetto kids from Metropolis over a span of several years, making them the one-time offer to be wealthy and distinguished and live a better life, on the condition that they unquestioningly serve him in the future. Coram financed the higher educational pursuits of many of these disadvantaged individuals, not out of philanthropy but as an investment in the development of their naturally gifted minds for him to exploit at a later date. Coram grouped the many charges he supervised and financially supported over the years into an organization called the Think-Tankers and had them infiltrate prestigious institutions as a cover for their real activities. Among Coram's most productive underlings was Dr. Tommy Woodrow, a scientist employed at S.T.A.R. Labs. Because Coram's crime operations involving a weather-controller and an illusion-caster were both wrecked by Superman, Coram realized that eliminating Superman would have to be made a priority. One such attempt by Coram's Think-Tankers involved drawing Superman out into the open with an armored tank-like vehicle and deploying an assassin in high-tech armor with red-sun flares known as The Defender. Superman made short work of the Defender, causing Coram to call another meeting of the Think-Tankers to brainstorm a surefire anti-Superman gimmick. Woodrow came up with the idea of a beam that would diminish Superman's reasoning ability and cause him to experience simulated hallucinations. Once the machine was operational, Coram and Woodrow used it to make Superman perceive his parents Jor-El and Lara chiding him for allegedly abandoning his true Kryptonian heritage by adopting Earth-like ways. Superman soon perceived that this was an enemy's outside attack on his mind to drive him from the face of the planet, but the Man of Steel went through the motions regardless to draw Coram out of hiding. In his eagerness, Coram demanded airtime from Morgan Edge on WGBS-TV to announce his imminent global takeover with his hidden arsenal of futuristic weapons, but Superman intercepted Coram and forced both Woodrow and him to turn themselves in and confess to their wrongdoing.[1]
At a later date, with his larger organization evidently nowhere to be seen, Coram plotted out a new anti-Superman scheme with Woodrow, this time threatening the Man of Steel's very life. The two gradually bombarded Superman with red-sun radiations at a rate too incremental for the Last Son of Krypton to detect and calculated that this would eventually leave Superman vulnerable, although continuing to possess all his other powers, for a 10-minute period during which a contraption would use a series of special lenses to focus ultraviolet light into a pinpoint laser and destroy Superman's brain. Until then, Coram and Woodrow kept Superman too busy to notice as he was being de-powered by engineering anti-gravity zones to appear throughout Metropolis, demanding Superman's immediate intervention to avoid loss of life, public disturbance, and property damage. Coram's scheme may very well have worked if it were not for the outstanding determination of an ordinary streetsweeper, Sam Stern, who overheard Coram discussing the plot due to a fluke with his hearing aid and threw himself into an anti-gravity zone with a Superman costume on to grab Superman's attention and warn him of the treacherous forces at work. Superman used the information to fake his death and weed out Coram and Woodrow from the rest of the horrified crowd with his super-hearing (as only they would be snickering at the moment of Superman's apparent death). Coram and Woodrow were presumably returned to prison.[2]
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Related
- 2 Appearances of Michael J. Coram (Earth-One)
- 1 Images featuring Michael J. Coram (Earth-One)
- 1 Quotations by or about Michael J. Coram (Earth-One)
- Character Gallery: Michael J. Coram (Earth-One)
Footnotes
  This character has been primarily an enemy of Superman in any of his various incarnations, or members of the Superman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Superman Villains category." |