A member of the
Fatal Five.
Having defeated the villain Darkseid, the Legion of Super-Heroes
was cursed by the villain. The curse took the form of Darkseid
stealing one of the two twins born to Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl.
Taking the newborn back in time, Darkseid transformed the child
into the monster Validus, hoping that one day the Legion would
kill the monster.
Validus is a giant possessing super-strength greater than Superboy.
His mind produces an effect called mental lightning, a combination
of his parent's powers that effects the victim on both a mental and
physical level. When imprisoned, Validus must be encased in thick
quantities of inertron, the strongest known element to prevent his escape.
Validus is not evil, but rather child-like, lashing out in anger or
frustration.
Validus joined four other villains to aid the Legion of Super-Heroes to
defeat a Sun-eater that had entered Earth's solar system. These
five villains became known as the Fatal Five and worked together after
the Sun-eater was defeated. Validus was controlled by Tharok
through scientific means, and it was during this time that Validus
killed Invisible Kid I.
Eventually, Darkseid took Validus's twin brother Graym and produced a
situation where Validus looked as if he was going to kill Graym. Lightning
Lad and Saturn Girl came upon the scene and Lighting Lad was prepared
to kill Validus, but Saturn Girl acheived a rapport with her transformed son.
Darkseid returned Validus to his original form after that, in honor of
the bravery of Saturn Girl.