He may be a simple minded fellow, but Solomon Grundy has a complicated story. Sometimes portrayed as a villain and sometimes an antihero he was introduced as a villain of Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern. Since that initial pairing he has shown up in various DC titles as an enemy of Superman and Batman. Grundy made his first appearance in All-American Comics #61 (October 1944). Created by Alfred Bester, Solomon Grundy is one of the earliest, if not the first, zombie in comic books.

Grundy’s story starts in the 1800s when he was the rich merchant Cyrus Gold, who was murdered and thrown in Slaughter Swamp near Gotham City. After 50 years his body was reanimated and incorporated with swamp matter that had settled on the body for decades. With no memory of his past, the disoriented walking corpse killed two escaped criminals that had been hiding in the swamp and took their clothes.

He stumbled into a transient camp and was immediately perplexed when they asked his name. All he remembered was that he was born on a Monday prompting one of the men to recite the nursery rhyme for Solomon Grundy. Having forgotten his name, Gold dubbed himself Solomon Grundy.

The very strong and basically mindless Grundy began a life of crime, that put him on Green Lantern’s radar. Since he is basically unkillable, Grundy became a formidable opponent. Despite the usually awesome abilities of Green Lantern’s ring, it failed to stop Grundy since he was partly made of wood, a substance that is resistant to Scott’s power. During the fight Grundy thought he killed Green Lantern after Scott emitted a green flash. In his mindless state Grundy killed more people hoping to see the bright flash again. Green Lantern found Grundy and threw him under a train ending their first fight.

Grundy was saved by Professor, a criminal scientist who injected him with concentrated chlorophyll. He was then trapped in a green plasma bubble but a freak weather event released him from this prison. Grundy traveled across the country to the Justice Society of America’s headquarters. When members of the JSA arrived for a meeting they found the area wrecked and Green Lantern missing. They began tracking Grundy by heading to various cities where potential sightings had been shared over the radio. Green Lantern and Doiby Dickles used a radio-like device calibrated to Grundy’s mental wavelengths to find him.

When Grundy and Green Lantern came face to face, Grundy threw a tree at Green Lantern and in turn Green Lantern used his power ring to fight back. Both men were tossed over the edge of a waterfall. Green Lantern was too weak to continue fighting and Grundy almost drowned him until Hawkman arrived, striking Grundy with his mace, while Mid-Night revived Green Lantern. After neutralizing Grundy, Green Lantern dropped him on the moon.