Eclipso () is a supervillain in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Haney and Lee Elias, the character first appeared in House of Secrets #61 (August 1963). The character bears notable similarities to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Eclipso is a powerful magical entity often portrayed as a primordial manifestation of divine wrath, believed to be linked to the wrath of God. Regarded as the Archenemy of the Spectre, Eclipso is considered an Angel of Vengeance. Following his removal from his original position, Eclipso is sometimes associated with the Lords of Chaos as their agent. In the New 52 continuity onward, it is revealed that Eclipso occasionally reincarnates into different lives. One such incarnation is Kaala, also known as the Lord of House Onyx, hailing from Gemworld. Throughout Eclipso's history, Eclipso is frequently depicted as an adversary of the Justice League, its affiliated teams, and Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. Eclipso is also able to possess others, causing distinctive blue facial markings resembling an "eclipse."
Eclipso appeared as the main antagonist of the second season of The CW television show Stargirl, portrayed as an adult by Nick E. Tarabay and Jason Davis and as a young boy by Milo Stein.
Publication history Eclipso first appeared in House of Secrets #61 (August 1963) and was created by Bob Haney and Lee Elias.
Fictional character biography Originally, Eclipso was written as a generic villain who would routinely enact an elaborate plot to fulfill his hedonistic motivations. However, the 1992 Darkness Within miniseries modified Eclipso to be an evil and megalomaniacal entity. Eclipso's character laments the power he once had as a spirit of divine vengeance. Eclipso would frequently seek to possess beings of incredible power like Superman, Lar Gand, and Captain Marvel to achieve his ends.
Bruce Gordon Eclipso's early comics debut is tied to his first modern host, Bruce Gordon (named after Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon as an inside joke), a scientist specializing in solar energy. While in the jungle to view a solar eclipse, Gordon is attacked by a tribal sorcerer named Mophir. Before plunging to his death off a cliff, Mophir wounded Gordon with a black diamond, causing him to transform into Eclipso whenever an eclipse occurred. A blue-gray or purple circle covered the rightmost two-thirds of his face, resembling a partial eclipse. Gordon experienced many Jekyll-and-Hyde transformations and misadventures in The House of Secrets. During this period, Eclipso was portrayed as a conventional villain, possessing super strength, partial invulnerability, and eye blasts. Eclipso's transformations were later altered so that any type of natural eclipse, lunar or solar, would cause Eclipso and Gordon to split from one another, while an "artificial eclipse"—an object blocking out a light source—would merely transform Gordon to Eclipso. Any bright flash of light would banish Eclipso back into Gordon's body or reverse the change.
Eclipso: The Darkness Within
In the early 1990s, DC retconned Eclipso in a company-wide crossover built around the miniseries Eclipso: The Darkness Within. Eclipso was revealed not simply to be Bruce Gordon's dark half, but a vengeful demon who had possessed Gordon. Eclipso's soul had originally been bound inside a giant black diamond called the "Heart of Darkness" in Africa. A treasure hunter found it in the late 19th century and brought it to London in 1891, where he had a jeweler cut it into 1,000 shards. This weakened the binding spell, allowing Eclipso to possess anyone who became angry while in contact with one of the shards. He was no longer limited to possessing Gordon during an eclipse, but pretended otherwise so that Gordon would not know the truth about the black diamonds.
Over the next 100 years, Eclipso gathered the diamond shards with the intention of destroying them all, freeing his true power. When Lar Gand discovered Eclipso's palace on the moon and wandered inside, it inspired Eclipso to possess all of Earth's heroes and use them towards his ultimate goal, the conquest of Earth and revenge against God for imprisoning him. Eclipso claimed he had spent the last several years "posing as a B-level villain" to remain undetected by Earth's heroes and had limited himself to targeting Gordon for the purpose of quashing Gordon's research into solar science. If Gordon had achieved his goal of making solar energy the planet's primary energy source, any solar-powered device could be used as a weapon against Eclipso.
In the climax of the story, several of Earth's heroes are possessed by Eclipso and transported to the moon during an eclipse. Eclipso absorbs these heroes into his body, gaining their powers. Gordon leads a group of heroes armed with solar weapons to the moon in an attempt to defeat Eclipso once and for all. The absorbed heroes are freed after Will Payton destroys Eclipso's moon base by detonating his own solar-powered body. Eclipso's diamond shards remain on Earth.
Eclipso series Following the crossover event, Eclipso appeared in a solo series. He conquered the South American country of Parador by possessing one person at a time. The United States sent an investigation team consisting of Cave Carson, Bruce Gordon, and Gordon's fiancé Mona Bennet. Carson's legs are broken and he is left at the border.
Gordon and Bennet were taken on a tour and shown various atrocities, such as piles of children's corpses. They escaped with the assistance of the Creeper and formed a group of heroes dubbed the Shadow Fighters. This group was led by Amanda Waller, formerly of the Suicide Squad. In issue #13 of the series, Eclipso confronts the group, killing Wildcat, Doctor Mid-Nite, Commander Steel, Manhunter, and Major Victory.
Elipso attacks the survivors with a Parador missile, which they evade using Nightshade's teleportation ability. During the escape, Bennet's father is snatched from their vehicle, but survives. The survivors arrive in the United Nations building, just in time to foil another plot of Eclipso by landing their vehicle on his intended victim.
Eclipso is finally defeated when the Phantom Stranger gathered all 1,000 black diamond shards and fused them into the Heart of Darkness, imprisoning Eclipso again. His physical body, the adult child of Bennet and Gordon, evaporates in front of his parents.
The Spectre (vol. 3) In the series The Spectre (vol. 3), it is revealed that the Spectre was not the first embodiment of the wrath of God, but was Eclipso's replacement. Series writer John Ostrander chose to portray this as a distinction between the Spectre's pursuit of "vengeance" and Eclipso's pursuit of "revenge". In a Biblical context, Eclipso was responsible for Noah's Flood, while the Spectre was the Angel of Death who killed the first-born Egyptian children.
The Spectre destroys the Heart of Darkness, along with the remains of Eclipso's palace on the moon, burning them to ash and casting the ashes into outer space.
Alex Montez
Eclipso returns after several years' absence in the "Princes of Darkness" storyline in JSA as an ally of the other villains Mordru and Obsidian. Alexander Montez, cousin of Wildcat, vows revenge on Eclipso for her death. To this end, he gathers the 1,000 black diamonds, liquefies them and injects them into himself; all save one, which he keeps to evoke Eclipso. Exactly how Eclipso's diamonds had returned was unknown. Montez covers his body in tribal tattoos he claims he had learned about on Diablo Island. With these tattoos, Montez can summon all the powers of Eclipso by triggering the diamond with his anger, while remaining in control of himself and keeping Eclipso trapped within. As the new Eclipso, he joins the short-lived team of loose-cannon heroes assembled by Black Adam, which was the subject of the subsequent storyline "Black Reign".
During Adam's reign in Kahndaq, Alex becomes romantically involved with his teammate Soseh Mykros, also known as Nemesis. During the battle, one of Alex's binding glyphs (which keeps Eclipso in control) is broken via a shoulder wound. Eclipso soon kills Nemesis. Alex commits suicide to prevent Eclipso from controlling him further.
"Lightning Strikes Twice" Despite the loss of the other black diamonds, Eclipso tries to possess Superman by antagonizing him through many deaths.Action Comics #826 (June 2005) He eventually possesses Superman by upsetting him via his possession of Lois Lane.The Adventures of Superman #639 (June 2005) At this point, the wizard Shazam steps in by sending Captain Marvel to fight the possessed Superman. Thanks to Superman's weakness to magic, Captain Marvel is able to do a significant amount of damage to Eclipso.Superman (vol. 2) #216 (June 2005)
Shazam removes Eclipso from Superman by calling upon the hostless Spectre to do it. The Spectre forces Eclipso back into a lone black diamond. The Spectre then warns Shazam that he has made an enemy of Eclipso and that the currently-hostless Spectre will no longer be able to defend him, as he lacks the coherence necessary to effectively recall anything beyond his 'mission'. At the end of this series, the black diamond appears in Jean Loring's cell in Arkham Asylum.
Jean Loring In the Day of Vengeance miniseries, Jean Loring discovers the last black diamond in her prison cell, becomes the new Eclipso, and tricks the Spectre into attacking magic-based heroes as her revenge against Shazam. After fending off multiple attacks upon herself, Loring is teleported into orbit around the Sun.
In Infinite Crisis, Alexander Luthor Jr. sends Superboy-Prime to recover the black diamond and. It is revealed that Psycho-Pirate delivered the diamond it to Loring on Luthor's orders and manipulated Eclipso into manipulating the Spectre. This was all done in the interest of breaking down magic into raw magical energy, which Luthor could use for his own ends.
The Spectre, desiring revenge on Eclipso for his manipulations of him during Infinite Crisis, but rendered incapable of taking it owing to his present lack of a host, orders Dibny to punish Eclipso in return for his wife's life. Dibny, realizing that this meant punishing Jean Loring, his wife's murderer, and temporarily granted the power of the Spectre, takes Eclipso back to the point at which she murdered his wife Sue. He restores Loring's sanity, forcing her to relive her murder of Sue Dibny.
Her sanity restored and Eclipso purged out of her, Loring tearfully begs for forgiveness, screaming that she was not acting rationally when she murdered Sue. Dibny, affected by her pleas, his sense of compassion, and his own feelings on watching his wife's death, refuses to complete his pact with the Spectre, returning Eclipso to her orbit around the Sun.
Loring later appears in Blue Beetle (vol. 7) #16, searching for a new host. Having come to the conclusion that her hosts' corrupted souls are the cause of her failures, she tries to possess a baby with great magical potential and a pure, uncorrupted soul. She is foiled in this attempt by Blue Beetle and Traci Thirteen. She even manages to take control of Blue Beetle and grants him his "supreme desire of power", intending to use Blue Beetle to kill the defenders of the baby. To her mortification, this means Blue Beetle's wish, to become a dentist to provide for his family, is fulfilled, which does not benefit her.Blue Beetle (vol. 7) #16 (August 2007)
Eclipso is seen in Countdown to Final Crisis #38 watching Mary Marvel and plotting to make Mary into her minion. Increasing her anger and suspicions around the other magical beings around her, she manipulates Mary and offers herself as a friend and confidante. After attempting to make her Darkseid's concubine, however, Mary rebels and attempts to kill her.