Jones now had the ability to absorb the life energy of other people, leaving behind smoldering skeletons.

He opened it and was exposed to strange radiation that changed his body into the bald, green-skinned villain. He made Rudy think that a waste container might have held something valuable. Unknown to anyone at the scene, the Lord of Apokolips, Darkseid, remembered the Pre-Crisis Parasite and manipulated Jones to become the modern version. Originally a menial slacker, Rudolph 'Rudy' Jones was transformed into the Parasite while working as a janitor at a PittsburghS.T.A.R. On another occasion, Parasite devised the means to transfer the powers of the hero Air Wave to the young hero's adversary Casey Jones temporarily.

Gaining sizable intellect from his multiple encounters with Superman, Parasite devised the means to reanimate dormant plant remains left behind from the Earth-Two supervillain Solomon Grundy, creating a newer and stronger version of the creature to plague his adversary. Despite this, he had knowledge of his foe's alter ego and often used this to attack Clark Kent. The Parasite made a number of reappearances before the Crisis, yet he never successfully found a means to permanently defeat Superman. Despite these abilities, the Parasite became depressed because he could no longer embrace his wife and children. On one occasion, while attempting to absorb a greater portion of his adversary's powers than previously, his body disintegrated for a period of time due to the pressure in his cells. Touching Superman would instantly absorb a sizable fraction of his superhuman powers (it was established early on that he is not capable of acquiring the whole of Superman's powers). Any time he touched someone, he could absorb their physical and mental properties. Wrongly believing that the company payrolls were hidden in storage containers, Jensen opened one and was bombarded with energies from biohazard materials (which was actually waste collected by Superman when he traveled into outer space), which transformed him into a purple skinned, parasitic entity, and thus he became the Parasite. Raymond Maxwell Jensen was a lowlife who got a job as a plant worker for a research center.

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