Who the Clix? Validus

Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.

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Appearances in Heroclix: Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Giants
First Appearance: Adventure Comics #352
Team Affiliations: Legion of Super-Villains, Fatal Five
Powers and Abilities: Super strength; Mental energy bolts; God level resistance to damage; Flight; Telepathic Immunity
Created by: Jim Shooter

Validus was created as the result of a plan by Darkseid for revenge against the Legion. The dark New God kidnapped one of the idential twin children of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl at birth. He then sent the child back in time after being transformed into a monstrous form and made more simple minded, so that he can be controlled. Darkseid's goal was that Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl would kill their child, unaware he was theirs, or that Validus would kill his parents.

The then grown Validus first encountered the Legion in the latter half of the 30th century. A powerful being known as the Sun-Eater threatened to devour the Earth's sun, which would result in the destruction of the entire solar system. Because of the Sun-Eater's incredible power, Superboy and the Legion felt forced to recruit the Fatal Five, of which Validus was a member. The Five reluctantly helped the Legion defeat the Sun-Eater. Validus, along with the other members of the Fatal Five, clashed with the Legion many times after that. During one incident, Validus killed Lyle Norg, the original Invisible Kid.

Later, Validus once again fell under Darkseid's sway. Darkseid managed to pit Validus against his father, Lightning, forcing the Legionnaire to kill Validus in order to save his other son, Graym. Saturn Girl's intervention stopped the plot and led to both Legionnaries discovering that Validus was their son. Soon after, Validus revered to his original human body and was returned to his family. He was re-named by his parents as Garridan.

After Validus' return to humanity, it was revealed that Darkseid's transformations had spawned a virus that only effected natives of Winath and Titan (the home worlds of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl). Unfortunatley, this disease was extremely fatal. As a solution, Garridan was given a containment suit that kept him able to move freely but kept him in perpetual medical quarantine.

As the timeline is constantly changing, it is unknown whether the Validus we may see is still Garridan, still created by Darkseid, or some other strange creature.