The Zone Child was the darkest horror living in the Phantom Zone.
History
Origin
General Zod warned Kal-El that when next he escaped from the Phantom Zone he would bring with him a horror which lurked within his prison dimension to unleash it upon the Earth.[1]
Brightest Day
After the fallout of Blackest Night and the Earth/New Krypton War, the Phantom Entity would lay the foundation of its eventual escape into the New Earth dimension in order to silence the negative emotions which hurt it.[2] Said creature, who came to be called the Zone Child, was born and raised within its colloquial realm.
An empath by nature, it felt and learned by reading the psychological engrams of its environment, when various civilizations from the core reality began dumping their malcontents into it's plane of existence.[3] Their warped mindsets hurt it horribly, and so the effigy preyed upon them whenever it could. After the recent influx of returning prisoners such as Zod and his followers, it sent out probes of its own quintessence into the primary reality which Lex Luthor had mistakenly coined as Black Lantern energy spheres in which the Zone God sought to use as a foothold into his world. To silence all of the dark and repulsive thought processes of other entities who persecuted it.[4]
While Luthor was on the cusp of discovering the secret to untold power greater than any Power Ring that he initially strove to require, he was approached by Mr. Mind.[5] Who was in truth, goaded though psionic contact by the Zone Child, explained he was sent to spur him to find the source of his Phantom Zone energies. To invert their nature, letting the creature into the primary dimension.
In the last minute before it set about to destroy his universe, Lex used a combination of Brainiac nanotech meshed with the Kryptonian technology comprising his Lois bot in order to convert himself into pure thought based energy. The former surmising the Kryptonian's long having established a means of controlling the Phantom Zone unique physics, looking to use their knowledge in order to subsume the Zone Child's power as his own.[4] Having succeeded in the endeavour, Luthor would seek to use his newfound omnipotence in order to destroy superman; body, mind and soul through a trip between every last traumatic moment in the history of his life. Failing this after finding out Clark's true Identity, his attempt to eviscerate his long standing foe was preempted by the lingering presence of the cosmic consciousness he was host to.
Having altered its own abilities so that Lex couldn't use it for murderous, malevolent purposes. The evil genius inevitably, desperately attempted to use its power to destroy his hated enemy, only for it to drain away in the attempt. Leaving him powerless to the point wherein he succumbed to one of his own zone spheres, fading from existence all together.[6] Unbeknownst to everyone at the time, a remnant of the Zone Child had survived Lex's claiming its ultimate might. It flew off into space for parts unknown.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Related
- 3 Appearances of Zone Child (New Earth)
- 1 Images featuring Zone Child (New Earth)
- Quotations by or about Zone Child (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Zone Child (New Earth)
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." |