One of the overarching themes of adult swim’s My Adventures with Superman is that certain characters are fixated on the possibility of Superman going rogue. They don’t see the kind-hearted, altruistic hero who has dedicated himself to protecting Earth out of love for the planet and its inhabitants. All they see is an alien with god-like strength, while Metropolis has nothing that can stop Superman if he ever turns on humanity.
This is the story businessman Lex Luthor has been telling since season 1, yet he goes on to create something that’s far more threatening. That thing is the Eradicator, and it might be the one most dangerous antagonist the show has introduced.
Who Is the Eradicator?
The Eradicator is the latest LexCorp project created to destroy Superman, introduced in season 3 episode 8 “It’s Reigning (Super)Men.” Also known by the codename Project: Eradicator, he’s actually a clone made from Superman’s own living tissue, then engineered to self-repair and self-evolve over time. To keep it under his thumb, Lex had part of his own brain matter surgically implanted into the Eradicator’s head, hoping that would let him control it.
That plan didn’t work the way Lex had intended. Superman and Lois Lane’s daughter from the future, Lara Kent-Lane breaks into LexCorp trying to kill Lex in order to prevent a dystopian world ruled by his Eradicators. Panicking, Lex releases the Eradicator before the control mechanism is ready to link his brain with his creation.
Even if the mechanism was ready, while it was still sitting in an incubation pod, the Eradicator was already resisting Lex’s attempts to connect with its mind. If you look closely at Lex’s computer in “It’s Reigning (Super)Men,” you’ll see that Lex tried to establish a mental link 13 times, and even attempted to shut down the project 5 times.
The Eradicator even figured out how to communicate with his “father” via the computer’s code:
“Disab_FaThEr?_le_Uplink,_Why?
_Secur_Too_LaTe_ity,_You_do_not_CONtRoL_me,_OVERrr!
_YoU_arE_WEAK_FAILURE_DUE:_I_aM_iN_ConTRoL
_nOW_SYSTEM_OVERLOAD…__|”
Yeah… From the moment of its inception, the Eradicator was already rebelling against his master.
Is the Eradicator Stronger Than Superman?
It’s very possible simply because it has powers the average Kryptonians featured on this show doesn’t seem to have.
Not only does he have the typical Kryptonian super strength, durability and eventually flight once it reaches its final form, the Eradicator adapts to whatever damage it takes and evolves around it. He can grow extra pairs of arms mid-battle. When Lara attacked the Eradicator with her heat vision, he immediately developed his own laser beams that were powerful enough to outclass a natural-born Kryptonian.
On top of his ability to self-evolve, his advanced intelligence allows him to be several steps ahead of the House of El. In the sewers under Metropolis, he learned to mimic the voices of Lois and Clark to lure Kara and Jonathan into an ambush. During a fight against Lara, Jonathan, and Kara, it blinded Kara with his heat vision, then went after Lara and Jonathan knowing she’d instinctively sacrifice herself to protect them.
Even Amanda Waller, who isn’t easily rattled, was disturbed by the Eradicator’s capabilities along with Lex’s recklessness. She shuts LexCorp down and even arrests Lex over his latest invention, which tells you how much of a threat the Eradicator is.
What Happens to the Eradicator?
At the end of “It’s Reigning (Super)Men,” the Eradicator grabs Jonathan’s time travel watch and goes into the timestream. He returns in the next episode “Vae Victis” where he’s a much slimmer, smooth-voiced sadist compared to the hulking brute who could barely speak.
Jonathan immediately goes for the kill by slicing the Eradicator in half. But remember that he can regenerate. Worse, he demonstrates the ability to convert his bisected halves into completely different Eradicators: his new evolved form and a duplicate who resembles his original brutish appearance.
He delivers a gruesome beatdown on Kara, Lara, Jonathan and Amanda Waller’s soldiers. It’s bad enough that Amanda retreats to save the few men she has left. Thankfully, Superman arrives with his powers restored to turn things around but even he gets knocked around like a ragdoll at first.
Despite all the destruction he brings, the show finds a way to show the Eradicator in a somewhat sympathetic light. During his fight with Superman in the season 3 finale “The Return,” the Eradicator explains he has no wants or desires outside of his objective of destroying the Superfamily. He is completely devoted to being the embodiment of Lex Luthor’s fear of the unknown.
“My father fears that which he cannot control,” the Eradicator tells Superman. “I am that fear. And I cannot rest until you have been eradicated!”
This reasoning isn’t good enough for Superman. He pummels the evolution out of the Eradicator, leaving him a broken mess all while chastising the clone for being incapable of living his own life. After he pounds the Eradicator into a crater, Superman tells his enemy it’s time to stop fighting and holds out his hand in friendship. Instead, the Eradicator wills himself to disintegrate while muttering that he’d rather die instead.
The Hypocrisy at the Center of This Mess
Lex’s argument against Superman is that he’s too powerful for his own good. He believes the Kryptonian is “one bad day” away from going bad with no way to hold him accountable or to protect humanity. Fair enough, and one could argue he makes some good points. So what does Lex do about it? He clones that same alien’s DNA and creates something even more powerful without the restraint and empathy that defines Superman’s character. Then has the nerve to call it the key for humanity to reassert their dominance.
Did I mention that the Eradicator is coming right off the heels of Hank Henshaw/Cyborg Superman going off the deep end? Lex rebuilt Hank into a cyborg that could mimic Superman’s abilities after he nearly died during Brainiac’s invasion of Earth back in season 2. While Hank shared Lex’s xenophobia towards Superman, his resentment over his forced transformation plus his growing instability made him a threat to the very people he was supposed to protect. And yet, the only lesson Lex learns is that the next thing he builds to replace Superman needs to be under his control. Make it make sense.
It doesn’t, and everyone living in Metropolis are the ones who have to pay the price. Even Jimmy Olsen calls Lex out for being comfortable with letting Superman and Supergirl clean up his messes despite his hatred of aliens. All because Lex couldn’t stand the idea of Superman being the most powerful being on the planet.
My Adventures with Superman airs every Saturday at midnight ET/ 9:00 p.m. PT on adult swim (Cartoon Network). You can also stream the series on HBO Max.
