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"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday! Christened on Tuesday! Married on Wednesday!"
—Solomon Grundy
"This poster has got to be over 100 years old. How can it be the same guy? And even if it was, how did Penguin get him?
I don't know but I'm sure it is. It's even got a name.
So-lo-mon Grundy? Stupidest name I've ever heard.
That's the thing you can hear in the Museum. You know, "Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday?"
You may be right!"
—Penguin thugs talking about Grundy

Over a century ago, murderer Cyrus Gold sought to escape justice by hiding in Slaughter Swamp, where he met a fate worse than death. Mysterious forces doomed the now immortal Solomon Grundy to an endless cycle of death and rebirth.

Batman has encountered him twice in his crime-fighting career, during the events of the Blackgate Riots and during Arkham City. In later years, he became one of Penguin's secret weapons and a way to fatally punish minions.

Incident Reports[]

Pre-Arkham Incident[]

Cyrus Gold was a murderer who sought refuge in Slaughter Swamp. He was somehow killed and he was then found by Ra's al Ghul, who used him to experiment on, in order to perfect his Lazarus Pit. Gold ended up in a cruel cycle of being killed and then brought back to life. After being murdered so many times, Gold forgot who he was and what he did, and only remembered an old nursery rhyme about Solomon Grundy, after which he named himself.

Arkham Origins Blackgate Incident[]

Under Blackgate Prison, Batman found a locked door with Solomon Grundy behind it. Grundy escaped, ran toward Batman, and forced the Dark Knight to slow him down by activating nearby fuse boxes with his Explosive Gel Launcher. Batman ended the fight by knocking Grundy into the door, which caused it to break open.

Before Arkham City Incident[]

Solomon Grundy once went on a rampage in Wonder City, before being killed again by the Wonder City Guardians. Grundy was then brought to a place where the Iceberg Lounge was built. He remained there until Penguin found him when he bought the nightclub. Grundy remained imprisoned underneath the Lounge until Bane, disguised as a street thug, infiltrated The Iceberg Lounge and demanded Penguin give him TITAN he had stored away. However, Penguin unleashed Grundy who had inhuman strength and almost killed Bane, forcing Bane to retreat. Penguin was also implied to have had any of his men who displeased him executed by being dropped into Grundy's holding area and presumably beaten to death by the monster. When Lester Kurtz, the alias of Bruce Wayne, witnessed this and asked about it, Penguin simply told him to pray he never found out.

Arkham City Lockdown Incident[]

Grundy encountered Batman underneath the Gotham City Sewers and started chasing the Dark Knight. However, Batman overpowered and defeated him.

Arkham City Incident[]

Grundy was trapped under the Iceberg Lounge and was used by the Penguin as an emergency against Batman. It was also revealed that between his resurrection and his imprisonment under the Lounge, Grundy was captured and experimented on by scientists in Ra's al Ghul's Wonder City, presumably to perfect the Lazarus chemicals that powered the lost city. When Batman confronted Penguin, the latter detonated the floor underneath the detective. Penguin woke up the giant zombie with his generator, and forced him to fight Batman. Batman destroyed the generators that powered Grundy with his Explosive Gel. In the process, his undead body was even more damaged and rotten. Batman managed to defeat him by exposing his ribcage and destroyed his heart. After Batman returned to the Iceberg Lounge, Grundy's body was never seen. However, since Batman destroyed Grundy's heart, it was safe to assume that he died yet again.

After Arkham City Incident[]

It could be assumed that Grundy was still at the bottom of the Iceberg Lounge after Protocol 10.

Before Arkham Knight Incident[]

Though Grundy himself never appeared in the Prequel Comics, 7 clones of him, named after the days of the week did. The clones worked alongside Calendar Man to help kill Batman.

Arkham Knight Incident[]

While Grundy never appeared in the story, he could be seen in the poster for a movie. Somebody also built a shrine that played Grundy's creepy nursery rhyme in a loop on a gramophone along with a wanted poster of him from the GCPD. It's unknown who built the shrine. The shrine was also one of the Riddler's riddles. Scanning it unlocked a Gotham City Story which revealed that Grundy was captured and ensnared within a Wayne Tech container. An overworked morgue attendant noticed a sound coming from the container and found Grundy. It is implied that Grundy killed him.

Aside from this, Grundy was also mentioned by Penguin when meeting with the sole surviving member of a squad of his crime organization in a disastrous meeting, where he compared the man's grievous injuries to him having undergone ten rounds against the undead monster.

Personality[]

Grundy was initially a violent, primitive beast with little capacity for thought or foreknowledge and would act on any feral instinct that came into his mind. The repeated experimentation of the Lazarus Pit on Grundy by Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins seems to have all but destroyed his sanity and he is barbaric to the point of sheer animalism, where he can barely speak in full sentences, merely choppy ones. Now, he is basically Penguin's pet who also acts as his enforcer, killing any henchman that Cobblepot sends his way but is obviously not by any means loyal to him. Grundy's own savage impulse was what caused his defeat while fighting Batman, as he accidentally destroyed the very thing that was keeping him alive (or technically undead).

Gameplay[]

Grundy was fought in three stages. All three stages required blowing up the output generators of the machine that fed him electricity, by using the Explosive Gel. During the first stage, Grundy attacked by trying to smash Batman into the ground or by swinging his shackles around in circles. During the second stage, he would also throw the balls at the end of his chains at Batman as if they were meteor hammers and released maggots from his body as well. During the final stage, Grundy was attached to the electric generator to remain alive and attacked by smashing the ball into the ground to release expanding electric pulses and released electrified maggots from his body. After destroying all three generators in each stage, Batman performed a beatdown on Grundy and a special move that took out his heart.

Psychological Profile[]

Solomon Grundy[]

Real Name: Cyrus Gold

GCPD Profile[]

Cyrus Gold

Batman's Database Profile[]

Grundy, rampaging undead zombie, started on crimes that may have been too much for him since he came back in Slaughter Swamp. Although, Grundy's rampage was put at risk in danger that time with more which the undead that he knew that he was born on a Monday. Grundy always gathered strength to his rampages in which he never died.

Dr. Hugo Strange[]

Cyrus Gold A.K.A. Solomon Grundy

Attributes[]

  • Exposure to a variant of the Lazarus Formula:
    • Immortality: Grundy could not age at all as he was an Undead Creature. Destruction of vital organs could kill him off for good.
    • Healing factor: Grundy could heal from any physiological damage done to him quickly as well as "heal" from death.
    • Superhuman Strength: Grundy was strong enough to rip metallic structures as well as carry more than a couple of tons.
    • Electricity Absorption: Grundy could absorb electricity instantly and store it up within himself. He could use up the electricity in order to accelerate his tremendous regenerative capabilities, enhance his stamina, adrenaline, & strength as well as grant him electrically-infused attacks & strikes.

Game Over Lines[]

  • "Grundy must hurt the Bat!"
  • "Grundy will kill you!"

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • For a time, Ra's al Ghul experimented on Grundy in his medical lab, and used the Lazarus Pit to continuously revive him each time he was killed in the experiments.
  • It was never revealed how Grundy got under the floor of the Iceberg Lounge. Penguin mentioned that he had simply found Grundy there: "I found him down there when I bought this place. Comes in handy!". It was also unknown what happened to Grundy after his confrontation with Batman. The undercover police officers ended up rebuilding the floor after Batman had saved them and left, so Grundy may still have been down there.
  • Solomon Grundy's only line throughout the game, when he was first activated by the Penguin, was: "Solomon Grundy. Born on a Monday. Christened on Tuesday. Married on Wednesday." which are the first verses to the English nursery rhyme that acted as his namesake. However, during Grundy's game over screens, he said different lines.
  • When Detective Mode was used on Grundy, his condition was set as "Unknown". Considering that he's undead, Batman's actions were most likely a temporary setback.
  • If you shot Grundy with the REC Gadget, he would temporarily regain health, and turn blue. Penguin also would question why you did that, since it's obvious that electricity would heal Grundy.
  • Solomon Grundy was one of the few characters to not have a profile in Batman: Arkham Asylum along with Nora Fries, Deadshot, Deathstroke, Bird, Lucius Fox, Professor Pyg, Man-Bat, Electrocutioner, Shiva, Vicki Vale, Copperhead and Anarky.
  • In Arkham Origins Blackgate, when he encountered Grundy, Batman calmly said his name, and it suggested that he had knowledge of Grundy's existence before that.
  • In the original comics, Grundy was once the archenemy of the Golden Age Green Lantern (and one-time Gothamite hero), Alan Scott. If that character had an Arkhamverse existence, that could explain Batman's prior knowledge of him.
  • On another Earth, Cyrus Gold was to have provided the template for an Earth Elemental as he died, but since his death lacked fire, he did not become a being like Swamp Thing. If that applied here, then it could explain Ra's interest in using Grundy's body for his experiments.
  • As seen by a poster in Panessa Studios, there was a movie made based on Grundy's life.

Dc comics logo Solomon Grundy on the DC Comics Wiki

External Links[]

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