Reactron
Reactron
- Real name: Benjamin Krullen
- Occupation: Former Soldier, now Professional Criminal
- Known Relatives: None
- Group Affiliation: The Council
- Base of Operations: Mobile
- Height: 5'11"
- Weight: 200 lbs.
- Eyes: Blue
- Hair: Black
A former sergeant in the US Army, Ben Krullen drifted from job to job only to be lured in to an alliance with the criminal group known as the Council. Its scientists transformed him into a human reactor and he did many tasks for his new employers, battling the second incarnation of the Doom Patrol and later Supergirl in the process.
The Doom Patrol first encounters Reactron in Arizona. Little is known of this battle, until he returns to battle the Doom Patrol and Supergirl in Chicago on the campus of Lake Shore University. Negative Woman fights him in the sky while Linda Danvers was on the ground and unable to change into Supergirl. Reactron speeds up the decay of Negative Woman’s Negative Energy, causing it to retreat. Celsius coats him with ice to bring him down, while Robotman attacks him. Reactron however bombards Robotman’s brain with radiation until Negative Woman can get her teammate free. Reactron then escapes in a warp.
Later that day, Reactron strikes again at an LSU lab. Supergirl battles Reactron by herself, but is soon joined in her struggle with the atomic-powered villain by Negative Woman and Tempest. During the battle, Supergirl leaves during to get a supply of lead to contain Reactron’s energy. When Supergirl returns and places the lead sheeting over Reactron, , she placed the lead over Reactron, Tempest informs her that Reactron‘s energy eats thru lead and will cause an explosive reaction. With that, Supergirl grabs Reactron and flies off into the sky. The blast concussion stuns Supergirl and Negative Woman catches her when the team arrives. As the Girl of Steel recovers, Tempest tells her that he had known Reactron before either had gotten their powers, back in Vietnam. Reactron was Sgt. Benjamin Krullen, the man who had massacred a civilian village and whose actions had originally triggered Joshua Clay's powers and his desertion from the Army. Tempest later discovered that Krullen had been one of the soldiers who had been a test subject for the atom bomb tests in the fifties, and the radiation he absorbed had altered his body chemistry. Krullen met the Council after coming home from Vietnam. Studying him, they discover that his body gives off radiation, and supply him with a protective suit to enhance this ability and control it.
After a few moments, the team and the Maid of Might realize that the campus reactor is going into meltdown. Supergirl flies down beneath the secret lab to find Reactron in the heart of the reactor. Grabbing him again, she flies high into the sky in an attempt to get rid of the villain. Reactron blasts the super-heroine, but she creates a wind vortex to catapult him higher, and he then overloads and explodes. Since then, no proof of Reactron’s actual demise has been found (DNAS No. 8, Jun 1983: "Stand-ins for Supergirl"; DNAS No. 9, July 1983: "Re-Enter: Reactron").
Powers and Abilities
Reactron is a human nuclear reactor, able to produce vast amounts of atomic radiation that he can direct with the control rods on his wrists and chest. His muscular frame can make him a formidable fighter; with his nuclear power, he is virtually unbeatable.
