Parasites’ Power Plays

Maxwell Raymond Jensen and Heinrich Melch were the recipients of tremendous power thrust upon them through exposure to extraterrestrial radioactive elements. These substances transformed them into living atomic furnaces, burning through as much energy as they could absorb. As the Parasite and Atoman, these sinister supervillains required devices that would enable them to control these awesome abilities.

In order to maintain and harness this awesome energy, they were in possession of the Power Prism and Power Regulator. While the Parasite developed his Power Prism with the help of the stolen intellect he purloined scientists, Atoman was bequeathed his Power Regulator (or Control Device) from his mentor. That man was Dr. Teufel, a Nazi scientist bent on seeking vengeance against the man he believed was Germany’s greatest foe, the Superman of Earth-Two. And undoubtedly, the prime intellect from whom Parasite obtained the blueprints for his Power Prosm was Teufel’s counterpart on, the alien adversary known as Amalak. And  indeed, Amalak had a seething hatred towards all surviving Kryptonians in his universe, especially the Superman of Earth-One.

The synthetic prism of power enabled the Parasite the ability to drain energies and vitality from individual from afar, while his innate power required him to make physical contact with his prey to enable this energy-drain. Although in its test phase, the prism inadvertently empowered other random individuals, such as Superman’s young friend Jonathan Ross, this defect was later corrected. Parasite used the prism to animate some toxic muck from Earth-Two’s Slaughter Swamp which its famous resident, Solomon Grundy, brought with him to Earth-One on one occasion. This created an Earth-One version of Grundy, similar to how decades earlier the villain Per Degaton used his temporal crystal which empowered his Time Machine to spawn a temporal clone of Solomon in 1941.

Despite this technology which potentially could’ve tipped the balance of power towards Parasite and Atoman, it was the quick wit and strategy of the Men of Steel who always came out on top during their battles with the Supermen.