John Corben

From Smallville Wiki

John Corben
Family	Rebecca Corben (sister, deceased)
Occupation	Reporter (Daily Planet)
Powers and Abilities	Super strength and emission of green kryptonite radiation
Played By	Brian Austin Green
Status	Systems offline (Metallo)
Appeared In	Savior, Metallo

John Corben is a journalist who works 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 blames for his sister's death.

Contents 1 Early Life 2 Season Nine 3 In the Comics 4 Notes 5 External Links

[edit] 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 blames the Blur for what happened and since then he has been determined to expose him to the world.

[edit] Season 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 is transported to the Metropolis General and is attended by Dr. Hamilton who informed him that the implants were what had kept him alive. In a fit of psychosis, John gets up scared, and discovered that he now had super strength, and escapes leaving an orderly in a coma. His adrenaline level starts rising and cloud his mind making it think that what happened was a gift to kill the Blur for what he had done to his sister.

He attempts 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. Realising 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's 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 refuses to accept the apologies, and then Clark sets off an electromagnetic pulse grenade and momentarily disables the cyborg. Corben restarts instantly and prepares to kill Lois. Unable to approach the cyborg because of the radioactivity of the Kryptonite, Clark heats a lead plate and slams 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 sticks to the plate, leaving Corben without power and shutting him down.

At a later point, Tess Mercer receives an update on Corben, who has apparently been "repaired". However, the operations have left him more machine than man, also leaving no vital signs.

[edit] In the Comics

In the Silver Age version of Metallo, John Corben was originally a journalist (and secretly a thief and murderer) who had just committed what he thought was the perfect murder. While fleeing from the scene of the crime, Corben suffered a near-fatal accident that mangled his body beyond repair. However, elderly scientist Professor Vale happened to come upon Corben, and used his scientific skill to transfer Corben's brain into a robotic body covered by a fleshlike artificial skin. However, Corben discovered that his power source, a capsule of uranium, would only last a day, but was told by Vale that kryptonite would provide him an indefinite power supply.

After obtaining a job with the Daily Planet, Corben briefly tried to romance Lois Lane, while deciding that he'd use his powers to eliminate Superman, the one person who might expose his criminal deeds. After setting a kryptonite death-trap for Superman, Corben stole what he thought was another sample of kryptonite from a museum as a new power supply, not knowing it was in reality a fake prop; this mistake caused him to die. Superman eventually escaped from the kryptonite trap.

Other versions of Metallo (namely the modern age version) have him become superpowered by a kryptonite heart.

[edit] Notes

• This marks the third live-action appearance of Metallo aka John Corben. His first live-action appearance was in 1988 – May 17, 1992's Superboy television series, played by Michael Calla (though Metallo's counterpart on Superboy was Roger Corben, John's brother) and the second was 1993's Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, played by Scott Valentine.
• Brian Austin Green role as the cyborg Metallo is an ironic contrast to his Cyborg-fighting role of Derek Reese on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
• Given the fact that it was Luthorcorp technology that made Corben a cyborg, it is highly likely that the technology used on him was the same used on Victor Stone.
• John Corben/Metallo's Kryptonite heart in the episode Metallo, resembles Tony Stark/Iron Man's miniature Arc Reactor. Both are power sources that power's their hosts hearts. The Kryptonite powers Corben's heart, while the miniature Arc Reactor powers Stark's heart. However Corben is the villain while Stark is the hero Corben was also made before Stark.

[edit] External Links

• Metallo on Wikipedia
• Metallo on Wikia DC Animated Universe
• Metallo on DC datebase
• http://www.kryptonsite.com/smallvillespoilers.htm