Crucible:Solarion
Solarion
[edit] | |
| Real Name | Zeke Garber |
|---|---|
| Identity | Public |
| Affiliation | Independent mercenary and supervillain |
| Base of Operations | Formerly variable |
| Status | Deceased |
| First Appearance | THE GAUNTLET #45 |
| Creator | Jeff Messina |
“People like me build the future. People like them just take credit for it.”
— Solarion
Solarion was the armored supervillain identity of Zeke Garber, a former technician at the Nova Institute who transformed stolen experimental technology into one of the most formidable battlesuits of the modern era. Originally dismissed as a minor thief and underachieving employee, Garber evolved into a dangerous independent superhuman threat whose intelligence, determination, and tactical ruthlessness allowed him to stand against heroes such as the Gauntlet and Viceroy.
His career ended not in a cosmic battle or apocalyptic showdown, but during a routine robbery when he was shot and killed by an overzealous police officer.
To many heroes, that ending always felt wrong.
Early Life
[edit]Zeke Garber worked as a low-level technician for the Nova Institute, maintaining and assisting with advanced cybernetic and energy systems far beyond the understanding of most conventional scientists. Though intelligent and technically gifted, Garber lacked formal academic prestige and found himself perpetually overlooked by researchers and administrators he considered arrogant and complacent.
He grew increasingly resentful of a system where brilliant ideas belonged to institutions rather than the people who built them.
Garber watched genius receive applause.
Technicians received maintenance schedules.
Theft Of The Solar Suit
[edit]While working around advanced cybernetic prototypes, Garber secretly began stealing components associated with an experimental solar-powered combat armor system. Initially, he intended only to tinker with the technology privately, convinced he could improve designs that more celebrated scientists barely understood.
He was correct.
Over months of obsessive experimentation and self-education, Garber assembled a functional battlesuit controlled directly through neural impulses and powered through advanced solar-energy systems.
Realizing both the suit’s immense value and the opportunities it offered, Garber disappeared from the Nova Institute and entered the superhuman underworld under the identity Solarion.
What authorities initially assumed would become another short-lived armored criminal instead developed into a major long-term threat.
Criminal Career
[edit]Unlike many impulsive armored villains, Solarion approached crime strategically. Though he began with robberies and mercenary work, Garber gradually built a reputation as an independent operator capable of battling powerful superheroes directly.
His armor’s versatility, combined with his relentless determination and growing technical expertise, made him increasingly dangerous over time.
Solarion repeatedly clashed with heroes such as the Gauntlet and Viceroy, surviving encounters that would have ended the careers of lesser villains.
Part of his effectiveness came from the fact that Garber never stopped learning.
Every defeat became research.
Every damaged system became an opportunity for improvement.
Technology
[edit]Solarion’s battlesuit represented one of the most advanced independent armor systems of its era.
The armor incorporated:
- Solar-powered energy systems
- Neural interface controls
- Plasma weaponry
- Heat and radiation shielding
- Reinforced combat armor
- Advanced targeting systems
- Flight capability
- Defensive countermeasure systems
Garber continually modified and upgraded the suit personally, often introducing innovations that surprised even Nova Institute analysts familiar with the original prototype concepts.
The armor was especially resistant to:
- Heat
- Radiation
- Light-based attacks
- Energy overloads
By the later years of his career, Solarion’s suit had evolved far beyond the original stolen design.
Skills
[edit]Though initially underestimated as merely a technician, Garber became a highly capable engineer and cybernetic specialist through obsessive independent study.
His expertise included:
- Cybernetics
- Battlesuit engineering
- Energy systems
- Weapons integration
- Tactical systems design
- Field repairs and modifications
Solarion’s greatest strength may have been adaptability. He compensated for formal educational gaps through relentless experimentation and practical ingenuity.
He learned because he had to.
Personality
[edit]Zeke Garber was intelligent, stubborn, ambitious, and deeply resentful of institutional elitism. Much of his villainy stemmed from bitterness toward systems that ignored or underestimated him, particularly within the scientific community.
Unlike nihilistic criminals, however, Garber genuinely took pride in his work. He viewed himself less as a thug than as a self-made technological pioneer proving his worth through force.
He wanted recognition almost as much as wealth.
Possibly more.
Though capable of violence, Solarion rarely displayed sadism. His crimes tended to be pragmatic, professional, and driven by ego rather than cruelty.
At times, some heroes even suspected that under different circumstances, Garber might have become a legitimate innovator rather than a criminal.
Death
[edit]Solarion’s death shocked both heroes and villains because of its sheer banality.
While fleeing the scene of what should have been a relatively routine robbery, Garber was shot and killed by a police officer whose panic and aggression escalated the confrontation catastrophically.
There was no dramatic final battle.
No heroic sacrifice.
Just a dead man in damaged armor lying in the street.
The incident sparked considerable controversy afterward, particularly given Solarion’s surrender attempts according to some witnesses.
Legacy
[edit]Following Garber’s death, elements of Solarion’s technology were eventually adopted and repurposed by Kasimir Zolner, ensuring that parts of his work survived him.
Among armored villains, Solarion remains remembered as one of the great self-made technologists of the modern era — not a billionaire industrialist or government scientist, but a working technician who stole the future because nobody intended to hand it to him.
He built himself into a supervillain one component at a time.
Then the world killed him during a robbery that barely mattered.