John Corben (Earth 1) - Smallville Extended Universe

**John Corben** (also known as **Metallo**) was a journalist who worked for the Daily Planet. He came to replace a missing-in-action Clark Kent and held a personal grudge against the Red-Blue Blur, who he blamed for his sister's death.

After a horrific accident, he was experimented on by Zod's Kandorian army, which involved rebuilding parts of his body with cybernetics and replacing his heart with a piece of green meteor rock. After kidnapping Lois and trying to destroy the Blur, he was defeated by Clark and deactivated.

Months later, he was re-activated by Tess Mercer's scientists who attempted to give him an internal upgrade that could turn off his emotions, making him a mindless machine, but he escaped. After a hectic chase from Tess' science team and helping Clark out of the influence of Zod and red kryptonite, he received a red kryptonite heart from Lois and went underground until things were safe again. The Red Kryptonite heart ultimately didn't work out and John proceeded to become a hired gun for people like Toyman and gunrunners in Congo. He gained a new kryptonite heart that absorbs meteor rocks, which made him even more powerful than before.

## History

### Early Life

John Corben was a reporter who lived with his sister Becca before she moved to Metropolis. He was sent to cover a mission in Afghanistan and from there he kept in touch with his sister through video messages and reminded her to be careful because she was alone in the city. During this time, a truck carrying prisoners had a mishap and was rescued by the Blur but amid the commotion, a murderer managed to escape and ended up killing Becca.

John was shattered by this news and returned from his trip to buy the building in which his sister lived. He blamed the Blur for what happened and since then he has been determined to expose him to the Earth.

### Year Nine

John Corben was brought into the Daily Planet as a replacement for Clark Kent who was on indefinite family leave and went to the site of the recent monorail crash to investigate a story. He snuck inside to find Lois Lane looking for clues on the ninja who attacked her. Lois at first presumed he was a detective and tried to leave but Corben played along and questioned her. When a real cop saw the two, Corben kissed Lois and the cop presumed they were just passing civilians and told them to leave. Lois then smiled and stamped on Corben's foot.

Corben later went to his desk opposite Lois' and began squeaking his chair and Lois thought it was Clark but saw Corben and still thought he was a detective but Corben revealed himself as a field reporter to replace Clark. Lois says that Clark will be back but Corben says he is on indefinite leave and shakes Lois' hand before leaving.

One night Corben was covering a story that involved the Blur and after talking with Lois and discussing his plans to expose the Blur for what he really is, he was run over by a truck. His bloodied body was found by Zod and his soldiers, who used him to try an experiment to regain their powers. Using stolen technology from LuthorCorp, they rebuilt Corben's body and transformed him into a cyborg with a kryptonite heart. He was abandoned in the building where the surgery took place and after waking was confused and afraid by what had happened to him. He was transported to the Metropolis General and attended to by Dr. Hamilton who informed him that the implants were what had kept him alive. In a fit of psychosis, John gets up scared, discovered that he now had super strength, and escapes leaving an orderly in a coma. His adrenaline level started to rise clouding his mind making it think that what happened was a gift to kill the Blur for what he had done to his sister.

He attempted to track the Blur using the Daily Planet archives and there he meets Lois, who gives him her key to the Planet's archives room. Realizing that Corben is the man who ran wild at the hospital earlier in the day before fleeing, Lois goes to a phone booth and speaks to the Blur. However, John realizes that Lois had contact with the Blur and decides to kidnap her to find out what she knew. He takes her to the basement of the building in which he lived and after Lois' refusal to collaborate with him, he sent her flying through a wall. Clark appears at that time and tells John that he regretted what had happened to his sister. Corben refused to accept the apologies, and then Clark set off an electromagnetic pulse grenade and momentarily disabled the cyborg. Corben restarted instantly and prepared to kill Lois.

Unable to approach the cyborg because of the radioactivity of the kryptonite, Clark heated a lead plate and slammed it into Corben's chest. Realizing the weakness of the Blur, Corben tried to expose his kryptonite heart by ripping the lead plate from his chest, but in the attempt, the meteorite rock stuck to the plate, leaving Corben without power and shutting him down.

At a later point, Tess Mercer received an update on Corben, who had apparently been "repaired." However, the operations have left him more machine than man, also leaving no vital signs. Later, when Tess visited Winslow Schott, a mad criminal genius who used to work for Lex, she gave him John's kryptonite heart for him to tinker with in an attempt to see if he could help reboot John's systems.

Later, when it was revealed that Kandorians were experimenting on humans, Clark asked a doctor if there were any human experiments that survived. The response he got was a bit gruesome, being they were never found. The only one was John Corben.

Later still, it was revealed that Tess' scientists were able to correct the adrenal flaw in the kryptonite heart, thereby returning Corben to sanity. Seeing him as a potential weapon if the Kryptonians ever turned hostile, they implanted a control chip into the back of his neck that would turn him in to a mindless drone.

Lois infiltrated the base where experiments were being done on red kryptonite just as they were bringing Corben back online. When she was discovered, the scuffle set of an explosion from the red kryptonite, throwing her through the base and down an elevator shaft, only to be caught by the reactivated Corben. Waking up the next morning not remembering how she got home, Lois later found him in the Talon basement. While understandably skeptical after their last encounter, Corben assured her he was now sane and he had saved her the previous night. He explained to her about Tess' experiments and the control chip but also that his artificial heart was nearly out of energy and unless he replenished it soon with more meteor rock, it would deactivate and effectively kill him.

Taking him to one of Chloe's weapon stashes, Corben was able to recharge the kryptonite heart with liquid meteor rock. He then encountered Clark (who was under the influence of red kryptonite) but before anything could happen, Zod blew the truck up with his heat vision. He survived and Lois found him nearby unharmed, having been blown from the wreckage.

Deciding it was best to get him somewhere safe, Lois was prepared to take him over to the Badlands and out of Tess' reach to a doctor she trusted. Before they could get on the bus, one of Tess' people slipped the control chip onto the port of his neck, instantly taking over his mind. He then returned to the lab, where Tess and Chloe prepared him to stop the Red K infected Clark, who had taken Zod to the Fortress. Chloe, still not trusting Tess deactivated the monitoring system so Tess wouldn't learn the location of the Fortress.

Arriving at the Fortress, he was confronted by Zod and Clark. While he had the advantage due to the kryptonite heart, his lack of free will made it difficult for him to effectively battle the two when they split up. The control chip was knocked loose by debris and his mind restored when Clark used his heat vision to bring down part of the Fortress roof on the cyborg intending to crush him.

Coming back to his senses, Corben went straight for Clark again, only to be frozen solid by a combination of his and Zod's super breath. This was short-lived when they noticed the heart began to beat at a faster rate and Corben proceeded to smash his way out of the ice with ease. Being so close to him, they were helpless against the aura of the kryptonite heart and Corben proceeded to kick Zod into one of the fortress walls.

Turning his attention back to Clark, he pulled out a krytonite shard he had been given by Chloe, saying he didn't blame Clark for attacking him in the past but someone who cared about Clark sent him to help. Grinning madly, Clark said he didn't need saving, as Corben knelt down next to him saying from experience that sometimes people don't know when they need saving before stabbing Clark with the shard, freeing him from the Red K.

Now back in the right state of mind, Clark leapt backwards carefully, observing the cyborg. Corben picked up the removed control chip so no one could control him again and waved off Clark's suspicion of him by saying Clark could thank him another time. He pulled out the Key to the Fortress and placed it in the console, disappearing in a flash of light.

After the hectic day, John secretly met Lois on the streets of Metropolis. She gave him a new kryptonite heart, this one being powered by red kryptonite instead of green. Corben said that he was going to go underground until it was safe again and wanted Lois to come with him. Lois told him that there was someone else in her life (Clark) and that he was the one. John expressed that the guy should know how lucky he is to have a girl like Lois. After saying their goodbyes, Corben left.

The Red Kryptonite heart ultimately didn't take to John Corben's biology or liking. He tried to adapt and get a normal job but that as well didn't work out so he decided to become a hired gun instead.

### Year Ten

John, now going under the name of "Metallo," accepted a job under Toyman's Marionette Ventures, a league of super-villains. During their meeting, each member was assigned to target one member from the Justice League. Metallo's target was Clark's Kryptonian cousin: Supergirl. In the process of the deal, Winslow supplied John with a new Kryptonite heart which in turn could absorb meteor rock with no problem at all. However the job didn't work out the way Schott wanted it to, something that John was secretly glad of.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Green kryptonite heart**: Corben's heart was replaced with a kryptonite-like power source. His heart emits massive amounts of kryptonite radiation making him almost unbeatable to Kryptonians. Both Zod and Clark had to fight Corben from a distance using only ranged powers, as both would have been severely weakened by his presence. Toyman upgraded John's kryptonite heart to also absorb meteor rocks with no problem.
* **Invulnerability**: Through the kryptonite heart his overall endurance was enhanced. His durability threshold was also increased to an extreme degree, though the what exact extent remained somewhat vague. He showed no pain when Clark stuck a heated lead plate to his chest, and was able to survive being blown up by Zod, survive having part of the fortress roof be dropped on him and being frozen by Clark and Zod's super breath.
* **Super Strength**: Through the kryptonite heart, his overall bodily strength was increased to a higher capacity. John's strength, solely because of his Kryptonite-heart, seems to be on par with Kryptonians', as he was able to pick up Clark and throw him and kick Zod straight into a wall in the Fortress. He was also able to smash his way through a block of ice containing him.
* **Super Speed**: Corben was able to kidnap Lois seconds before the Blur arrived.
* **Super Stamina**: Increased because of bionic enhancements.
* **Matter Absorption**: Thanks to Winslow Schott, John received an upgraded John's kryptonite heart to also absorb meteor rocks with no problem which he later used to unknowingly absorb the Kryptonite fueled nanites that made up Lana Lang's kryptonite nanite infused power suit which later allowed him to be able to assimilate volumes of metal into his body in order to maintain a desired physical size which included the decommissioned war technology that was in the area. His only limitation was the quantity of mechanical mass available to him.