Who's This? A total eclipse of the heart.
The facts: Bruce Gordon (named after Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon as an inside joke) was a solar energy scientist watching an eclipse in the jungle when he's wounded by a black diamond wielded by a witch doctor, so when a solar eclipse manifested, he would turn into the villainous Eclipso until he was banished by bright light... Look, he's a Bob Haney creation, okay? Lee Elias provided the design and the character(s) first appeared in House of Secrets #61 (August 1963). This take on Jekyll and Hyde ran in HoS for 20 issues. In 1992, it was revealed he was a God of Vengeance and returned as the Big Bad of that summer's crossover event, Eclipso: The Darkness Within, which led to him having his own series for a year and a half where he took over a country and killed a bunch of heroes. In the Spectre series, he was retconned to be God's original manifestation of Wrath. now divorced from Bruce Gordon, he possesses different people until he finally ends up in Jean Loring, the Atom's ex-wife. Then back to Bruce to fight the JLA in the 2010s. Several series make use of him in the New52, including JLDark and Sword and Sorcery, but mostly, Team 7.
How you could have heard of him: DC Rebirth's Justice League vs. Suicide Squad had Maxwell Lord free Eclipso once again. Dark Crisis of course references The Darkness Within as part of the Great Darkness' attacks on reality. The Justice League animated series did a two-part episode featuring Eclipso, and Stargirl fans will recognize the character as one of the series' Big Bads.
Example story: House of Secrets #66 (May-June 1964) "The Two Faces of Doom!" by Bob Haney and Alex Toth
Six issue into the strip and already it seems Haney doesn't bother with setting up an eclipse or even Bruce Gordon, but wait... it's just a recording of Eclipso's villainy.
In these early stories, Bruce Bann--I mean, Gordon is actively trying to get rid of the monster inside him. His plan, this time around, hinges on an ultra-violet ray gun. Gordon is convinced that lack of Vitamin E is what's making Eclipso evil (but this is also a man who moved to Solar City based on the name). He'll soon be able to test it, because in the DC Universe, eclipses occur every couple months (I'm going by publishing schedule, but of course, with comics' time distortion, there's an eclipse every few hours). In unrelated news, a meteor strikes outside of town and releases a giant glowing worm that embarks on a path of destruction. As the local action scientist, Bruce investigates the crash site, but just then...
Yep, one of those eclipses that sneak up on you. Even when you're specifically an astrophysicist. What I wasn't expecting was that there was a terrifying transitional phase to the transformation:
So Mona starts shooting at Eclipso with invisible UV rays, but will it destroy Eclipso, or just give him a tan? Turns out, I wrong. It's not a transitional phase, he just needs to retrieve his costume, hidden where human hands can't get at it, in an atomic pile. But Gordon WASN'T wrong that UV rays could make Eclipso "good". When Mona and the Professor find Eclipso moments later, Gordon is in control.
So "Eclipso" is in a position to act as a superhero, fighting the worm (which the script insists on calling an "amoeba") with black diamond beams, but don't forget his other eye!
One side dark, one side bright and noisy. The creature vanishes, destroyed by the energy mix. He then moves to the meteor, to make sure it's no threat, and suddenly Eclipso also has the worm's destructive repelling powers. And wouldn't you know it? It was all a trick. He's still evil, mouah-ha-ha!
He embarks on a crime spree, stealing isotopes and optical equipment, for what purpose isn't explained, but I guess to make something that will sustain his abilities in bright sunlight. Whatever the case may be, the Prof uses lead sheathing to cut him off from his new power (the same way his black light had cut the worm off from its power source) and he becomes vulnerable to Mona's thrown light bomb.
Just enough time to run to the atomic pile and hide his costume again before Gordon takes control and vows to one day rid himself of Eclipso, which is more or less the bumper on every Eclipso story.
These early tales read strangely in the context of what Eclipso would become from the 90s forward. What was he playing at, exactly? But one should remember the Crisis sits between the Silver Age and The Darkness Within, allowing for these chronicles to be wrong...
Who's Next? The guy who made the Flash.
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