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Sam Tanner was one of several men forced by Peter Silverstone to become Blackrock.

Samuel Tanner was the President of the United Broadcasting Company. Convinced that his network was second in the ratings because his chief competitor, Galaxy Broadcasting, had so many exclusive stories concerning Superman, Tanner ordered his chief research scientist, Dr. Peter Silverstone, to create a superhero for UBC to exploit. Silverstone created a costume and called this new superhero Blackrock. However, Silverstone chose Tanner as the wearer of the Blackrock supersuit, in which Tanner was hypnotized by Silverstone without his knowledge into becoming his own superhero. Tanner fiercely competed against Superman while remaining ignorant that his "heroic" acts only place people in danger. Ultimately, Superman discovered Tanner's identity and defeated him. Tanner returned to normal with no knowledge of his alter-ego.[1][2]

Although the idea of Blackrock as a UBC-loyal public superhero was a dud, Tanner never abandoned his obsession with couping Galaxy in the ratings, not content with merely drawing three of WGBS's on-air personalities, including gossip reporter Lola Barnett, to work at his station. Tanner only increased his demands on Silverstone, driving Silverstone to brainwash Tanner's own nephew Les Vegas to become a new Blackrock.[3] Eventually, Tanner put Silverstone's employment on the line and threatened to blacklist him from the broadcasting business if he didn't think up a surefire way to get Superman to sign an exclusive contract with UBC in a week's time. Silverstone created a third Blackrock, this time nothing more than a construct of ionized particles wearing the costume, and mesmerized Superman into signing the contract. Tanner planned to make Superman appear on Lola Barnett's talk show and reveal his secret identity to the nation, as an inducement to make advertisers pay $1,000,000 per minute of commercial time during the live airing of the program. Using the intermittent periods of self-awareness while free of Blackrock's control, Superman realized that Silverstone was the culprit for his inexplicable mental lapses and the strange events attributed to him during those periods. Superman then destroyed the Blackrock construct and managed to disrupt the transmission of WUBC during the period he was slated to reveal his secret identity with the help of Wonder Woman. Superman then confronted Tanner in his office and forced him to nullify their contract under the threat of pressing charges against him.[4][5]


Abilities

Other Characteristics


Weapons

  • Powerstone (Formerly)


Related

External Links

Footnotes


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