Terra-Man

History

Back in the year 1888, notorious outlaw Jess Manning was wanted for robbing stagecoaches. Manning was a widower with a 10-year old son, Toby. Wounded in a gunfight, Jess decided to let Toby try his first solo hold up whilst he recovered from his wound. Toby took to his task naturally - stopping a stage and forcing the man riding shotgun to hand over a strongbox full of Golden coins.

It just so happened at this time that an alien being called the Collector arrived on Earth seeking fuel for his spaceship. What he was after was common shale, which he found in abundance in the Cripple Creek area. When the Collector spotted Jess and Toby looking at their loot, he decided to steal it for himself. Jess fired and hit the alien in the shoulder. Enraged, the Collector fired a solar ray which fatally wounded Jess. Using a mental link, the alien learned of Jess' plans to raise young Toby as an outlaw. An outlaw himself, the Collector decided to carry out Jess' plan for his son.

The Collector used a hypnotic grid to wipe out Toby's memory of how his father died, then adopted the boy and took him into space. But the mind-link had worked both ways, and before Jess died, he placed a bullet in the ground and surrounded it with a sketch of the spaceship's shape.

The Collector placed an Oxygenator-thermostat in Toby's body, enabling him to breathe comfortably in any atmosphere as well as in space. The Collector schooled the boy in the use of various sophisticated weapons, which Toby eventually adapted to resemble objects he recalled from his childhood in the old west, like the energy lasso he used to capture an Arguvian space steed - a kind of winged horse - which he named Nova and rode through space.

For some time, Toby - now called Terra-Man because he came from Earth, or Terra - robbed for the Collector, but as he grew older, the memory of the figure drawn by his father took on more meaning. Eventually, Terra-Man bushwhacked the Collector and avenged his father.

Traveling through space at ultra light speed had the effect of slowing down time for Toby, so that, after nearly a century, he was still a young man. He returned to Earth, where he had his first encounter with Superman who defeated him and sent him to prison.

Nova, however, remained free and helped his master escape. Since then, Terra-Man has had several battles with the Man of Steel - and has lost them all. Terra-Man also encountered the Blue Devil, but fared no better.

Death

During 52, Terra-Man gets into a fight with Power Girl. They end up fighting over Kandaq. Black Adam shows up, and tells Power Girl to leave. When Black Adam opens one of his embassies, he announces his policy. That is, meta-human criminals should be executed. He illustrates the point by tearing Terra-Man in half.

Terra-Man has been identified as one of the deceased entombed below the Hall of Justice.