Van McNulty was a minor supporting character in the third season of Smallville. Originally a student at Smallville High School, he developed an intense hatred of kryptonite-enhanced individuals after the death of his father and became obsessed with exterminating them. He is portrayed by Jesse Metcalfe.
History[]
Van first appeared in the episode "Extinction". Prior to his first appearance, his father - an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps - had been murdered by the shapeshifting metahuman Tina Greer (who was impersonating Whitney Fordman at the time). After learning that his father's killer had been altered by exposure to the meteor rocks scattered throughout Smallville, Van developed an intense hatred of them, considering them freaks of nature that had no right to exist. Unable to take revenge against Tina since she died shortly after killing his father, Van began a one-man campaign of extermination against all metahumans in Smallville. He hacked into Chloe Sullivan's computer files and found a list of individuals suspected to have been altered by the meteor rocks. His first victim was Leonard Wallace, a mechanic with a stretching ability, in the fall of 2003. He left a meteor rock with the word "freak" scratched in the side near the body.
Van continued hunting "meteor freaks" when he subsequently shot and killed his friend Jake Pollen, a student with amphibious abilities in the pool at Smallville High, saving Lana Lang in the process. Next he tried to kill Lex Luthor, who was in Chloe's database because he had survived so many near death experiences. Van failed to kill Lex when Clark Kent intervened, Clark catching the bullet and subsequently getting Lex to safety, but he learned that Clark was bulletproof but allergic to meteor rocks when Clark tackled Van as he tried to escape and was exposed to the meteor rocks in his backpack.
Now aware of Clark's weakness, Van created meteor rock bullets and shot Clark, but Clark's parents were able to extract the bullet. With the roads out of Smallville all blocked, Van asked Lana for help escaping the police, reasoning that she'd understand how dangerous the "freaks" were after all her experiences with them. When Lana expressed disapproval for his shooting of Lex and grief for his shooting of Clark, stating that Clark was more human that Van would ever be, Van labeled her a "freak-lover" and abducted her. Using a police radio, knowing that Van monitored police channels, Clark invited Van to a showdown where he had seen the picture of Van's father.
Van met Clark at the school, Clark having the seen the picture in Van's locker, taking Lana along to prove to her that Clark was a freak. He emptied an entire clip of meteor rock bullets into Clark, but he was unaffected. Van and Lana were both stunned, but Lana took advantage of the opportunity and subdued Van with a couple of well-placed kicks. Clark revealed that he was wearing a lead plate to protect himself from the bullets. Van was sent to Belle Reve Sanitarium for his crimes.
Death[]
In the episode "Asylum", Van met Ian Randall and Eric Summers and teamed up with them to escape Belle Reve take Clark down. Van got a piece of meteor rock smuggled in. After he explained its uses, Ian split in-two while Van was weightlifting. Both Ians then murder Van by ganging up on him while he was using a benchpress, crushing his neck with the very weight that he is using. Ian then quipped, "Well you should know better than to trust a meteor freak."