Superman Villains: A retrospective

The Core Media Forum
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As I did research for this post, I found out that there was actually a Superman villain called “Metalo” (with one “l”) back in the 40’s. However, he’s unrelated to the better known one (he was just a guy in a power armor) and thus I’m not covering him here, other than mention that possibly the later one was named after him (name trademarks are SERIOUS business in comics. Ask the four completely different Captain Marvels.)

Anyway, the first true Metallo first appeared in 1959. He was John Corben, a (crooked) journalist who had just committed a murder when he had a car accident. He was rescued by a kindly scientist named Prof. Vale who, wouldn’t you know it, was an expert in robotics, so he saved his life by transforming him into a cyborg.

The robotic body required uranium “pills” to work; however, it spent them in just a day (!); the only permanent alternative, as you might guess, was kryptonite. The scientist who created him then dies of a heart attack, scared by an avalanche! (Hey, as far as Silver Age stories go, this is a perfectly valid set of coincidences, OK?) :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Corben then decides to get some kryptonite. He joins the Daily Planet, and even hit on Lois Lane! (The fact he looked like Superman with a mustache probably helped.) He obtains some kryptonite but then decided to use it for a trap to kill Superman, instead of powering his body, since he had heard there was more at a local museum. Except the one in the museum turned out to be a FAKE, and he died when his body ran out of power. OK, even by Silver Age standards, THAT was dumb. :stuck_out_tongue:

It wasn’t until the 1970’s that a new Metallo was introduced. This one was Roger Corben, brother of John. He wanted revenge for his brother’s death (never mind it was his own stupid fault) and a villainous organization (it may have been SKULL, they were very active in the Superman comics of the time, but I don’t know for sure) gave him the chance by transforming him into a new Metallo, transplanting his head into a robot body with a kryptonite power source.

331px-Metallo_998.jpg331×599

(Note: he’s wearing a lead-lined mask.)

This Metallo was superstrong, and had buttons on his wrist that allowed him to open his chest plate to expose Superman to the K-radiation. Still, the fact his whole head was still human made it easy to knock him out with a well-placed batarang or similar things. Talk about design flaws. :stuck_out_tongue: Still, he was active as a villain for a while.

Metallo was one of the first Superman villains reinvented for the '86 reboot. He was back to being John Corben, except now he was a professional killer, not a journalist. Again, his body was wrecked in a car crash, and he was rescued by Prof. Vale- except now, Vale, who had found and stolen the rocket that had brought Superman to Earth and was convinced the hero was part of a planned alien invasion, was obsessed with creating a means to destroy him, so the Metallo body was already made, he just needed a convenient brain to implant, and Corben just happened to supply it. Corben thanked him by snapped his neck. (Oh btw, the kryptonite Vale used was a chunk that had attached itself to the starship as Krypton exploded; for a while, it was the only kryptonite on Earth. As you can see, this origin was better thought-out.)

Corben soon runs into Superman, and their battle ends up both exposing Superman to kryptonite (for the first time for this version of the character) and partially destroying Corben’s outer human disguise, revealing his robotic body in a not-too-subtle Terminator rip-off:

Ironically, Superman was saved by Lex Luthor who wanted to get this mysterious new substance for himself (and probably would not stand for someone else killing his nemesis.) He captured Metallo, ripped off his “heart” with his own hands, then had him thrown away. It was from this k-chunk that he made the ring that he would wear for years. Metallo, however, survived on alternate power sources, and remained active as a villain (now looking completely robotic) minus the Kryptonite (he fought other heroes). Eventually, like a LOT of other DC villains did, he struck a deal with the demon Neron (in the “Underworld Unleashed” crossover) to gain new powers in exchange for his soul. He gained the ability to absorb machines into his body, thus allowing him to gain new weaponry or even grow to giant size. (Of course, he’s damned to Hell if he ever dies. Maybe like Luthor (who traded his soul for a cure to the kryptonite poisoning he gave himself with the ring) he doesn’t really believe he has a soul to lose. They’re wrong. :wink: ) Recently, Metallo seems to have lost his new powers and gone back to being a kryptonite-powered cyborg, but I don’t know the specific details.

The most popular version of Metallo is likely the one from Superman: The Animated Series. Again, he was John Corben, a criminal who was dying from a rare disease. Luthor convinced him he could save him in return for being turned into the kryptonite-powered Metallo to kill Superman. However Corben was shocked to find that while he looked human, he had no sense of touch anymore, so he felt no pleasure. This made him turn against Luthor as well. He would later join the Legion of D- I mean The Society in the Justice League series.

The problem with Metallo is that he’s a one-trick pony: with Kryptonite he’s a danger to Superman, without it he’s not. He’s also nothing special without it- just another evil cyborg who looks too much like The Terminator. (Btw, don’t you think Superman should’ve prepared a lead-lined armor suit to deal with all these kryptonite-using villains? Far as I know, he never did.)

Next: In-keeping with the Kryptonite theme, we meet: The Kryptonite Man!

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This just keeps getting better and better.

Really, Metallo appears to be just as lame as he sounds. Like you said, his only advantage is that he’s powered by kryptonite. At least the Kryptonite Man is more or less RADIATES the stuff; Superman can’t get near him at all.

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Speaking of terminator, did you ever read the Superman Vs. Terminator series, Wil?

No, I’m not making this up. THey had Superman fight Terminators. Not really sure why.

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I’ve actually READ that comic. It’s not as bad as it sounds.

Re: Metallo’s name, the Animated series actually had a decent explanation for it; It’s the material that his robotic body is made out of. Also, Superman DID have a lead-lined suit for just these occasions. He also used it when fighting Mala and Jax-Ur, so that he could safely use kryptonite to incapacitate them.

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Speaking of terminator, did you ever read the Superman Vs. Terminator series, Wil?

No, I’m not making this up. THey had Superman fight Terminators. Not really sure why.

Money, dear boy, money! :wink: They actually made several crossovers between comic book and movie characters in the 90’s: Superman versus Aliens, Batman versus Predator, etc. Most of the ones I saw were better than I expected, in fact. I somehow missed Superman/Terminator, however. Any information would be welcome.

Also, Superman DID have a lead-lined suit for just these occasions. He also used it when fighting Mala and Jax-Ur, so that he could safely use kryptonite to incapacitate them.

Ah, good to know. As I said, I need to to catch up on Superman: TAS. In the comics however, I don’t think he had a specific anti-K suit (unless you count the Super-Mobile. Yes, Superman had a vehicle. For all of two stories, I think. Remind me to tell you about that someday.)

Ok, back to the retrospective:

The thing about the Kryptonite Man is that, well, there has been more than one. Unlike Brainiac or Toyman, who were different versions of the same character, the only thing in common all the K-Men had is that their kryptonite-based powers. Let’s look at them and see if we can figure out why.

The first Kryptonite Man was actually- the “Kryptonite Kid”. He was an enemy of Superboy (back when he was Superman as a boy) who was… an outer space juvenile delinquent. Seriously. He was a teenage alien criminal who one day, accidentally flew his spaceship through a cloud of green kryptonite particles in space. This turned him (and his dog) green, and gave them their powers.

…Wait, DOG? Yes, he had an alien bulldog for a pet. Presumably, as an enemy for Krypto, Superboy’s dog. After all, Krypto was a member of the Legion of Super Pets, a team of alien, superpowered dogs. (And you thought that was just something they came up with for the kid-oriented Krypto animated series? No such luck. :stuck_out_tongue: ) Hey, the fact there are so many human-like alien races in the DC Universe is itself pretty absurd, so why not dogs? Note this was strictly Silver Age stuff.)

Also, that has to be one of the worst costumes any Superman villain ever wore. :frowning:

Anyway, the K-Kid decided that, since his powers (which not only included radiating kryptonite radiation, but turning things he touched into kryptonite) were only good against Superboy, he should become his enemy. That’s it, that was his motivation: to harass Superboy just for the rep. Of course, our hero found a way to defeat and arrest Kk (and his little dog, too) and deliver him to interstellar authorities.

KK bothered Superboy a few times and then faded into obscurity until the 70’s, when he returned as part of a group of Superman enemies gathered by an alien named Mr. Xavier to try to kill the hero. By now he called himself Kryptonite Man, but was otherwise the same. Don’t know what happened to his dog.

This Kryptonite Man is best remembered for having killed Krypto (and being in turn killed by him) on the “Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?” “final” Superman story I mentioned above, though as I said that story was never considered canonical.

I understand there was a second, unrelated Kryptonite Man in a separate Silver Age story. (Note: though technically the Silver Age ended when DC Comics modernized in the 70’s, there were still plenty of stories typical of the era in the Superman comics up until the '86 reboot.) This kryptonite Man was a member of a race that lived in ancient Krypton, but, fearing a natural disaster, went to hide underground, while their King waited in a mountain (in suspended animation) for the time their world would be safe for his kind again. Except, Krypton blew up first, and the whole mountain was thrown into space, turned into a giant kryptonite chunk. The radiation changed the sleeping alien, who was found by an alien race called “The Seeders”. K-Man 2 stole a ship from them to go find the last kryptonians, since it blamed them for the destruction of Krypton. After a battle with Superman though, it instead turns on The seeders (who chased it down) to save Earth from them, and dies heroically. Now, THIS is a much more interesting character than the first K-Man. Sadly, I have never seen this story myself, or even found a picture of K-Man 2 to post here. (Any help with that would be appreciated.)

After the Crisis reboot, a new Kryptonite man was introduced, but this one was a clone of Superman (made by those renegade Project Cadmus scientists who also created the bizarros, I believe) who had Kryptonite added to his making. Basically it was a Superman who radiated K-rays. (You’d think he would kill himself?) Sadly, I missed what happened with him, nor could I find a picture of him either.

It was a long time after that before they finally brought back the K-Man in the comics. (Though I know there was a “Kryptonite Kid” in the Superboy live action TV show -not Smallville, the one from the 80’s- but that was an Earth punk accidentally given powers by kryptonite, including bolts of electricity (?) ) In the series “Superman/Batman” Supergirl was introduced (after they finally got rid of that stupid “Superman is the only Kryptonian” rule) along with a huge Kryptonite meteor that had tagged along her spaceship. The atomic superhero Captain Atom destroyed it (since Superman obviously could not) but something weird happened, and somehow part of the meteor’s radiation gained sentience and went around possessing people (even Batman!) as it tried to find and kill Superman because… umm… that’s what Kryptonite does? :stuck_out_tongue: (Actually, it’s possible the radiation may have been part of Major Force, an enemy of Captain Atom with similar powers whom Atom had previously absorbed. I don’t know that for sure, though.)

Recently, yet another K-Man was introduced: this one is a scientist named Russell Abernathy, who was making experiments on Kryptonite to use as possible power source. Naturally, this being comics, the experiment blows up on his face, gives him powers, and drives him crazy. Far as I know he’s still the current K-Man. His costume is obviously based in the original’s… and is barely an improvement.

Kryptonite Man is pretty obscure; mention him and most people will think of Metallo, if anybody. That’s probably because, as you’ve seen, DC apparently cannot make up its mind on who (or what ) he should be.

Next- The Purple People Eater: The Parasite!

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I almost thought for a moment you switched this whole thing around by having Skrulls as an enemy, but it was Kryptonite Man after all… his ability to turn things into kryptonite just might have been the reason everyone and their aunt had a piece of the rock back in the silver age. carry on

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Here you go, Wil. Every episode of Superman: TAS, to be viewed at your leisure. Enjoy.

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his ability to turn things into kryptonite just might have been the reason everyone and their aunt had a piece of the rock back in the silver age
You know, that makes a lot of sense. Though most Kryptonite was shown as being in meteor form. (How’d those things get to Earth when Krypton has to have been many light-years away? My theory: Superman’s rocket opened a hyperspace portal to Earth’s solar system- and it never closed, allowing the occasional kryptonite chunk to pass through.)

GG: Thank you, I will enjoy them. :slight_smile:

OK now, with The Parasite we’re entering the 60’s era of Superman comics (he debuted in 1966- the year I was born!) We’re still in the Silver Age, though the stories were getting better.

The original version of the character was one Raymond Maxwell Jensen, some loser who worked at a research laboratory. Having somehow gotten the idea that the labs were moving the payroll hidden inside the toxic waste containers, he opened one- and was bombarded with radiation that turned him into a hairless, purple skinned being with the ability to temporarily steal the powers of anybody he touched! (And before anybody says, “Hey, that’s Rogue’s gimmick!” Parasite debuted nearly two decades before the X-men character did, OK?)

Anyway, Jensen then goes around draining people of their “life energy” and when Superman tries to stop him, he finds out that Parasite can steal his super-powers as well! Unfortunately for the new villain, he tried to absorb too much of Superman’s energy, and ended up exploding! (Remember, this was the Silver Age Superman, the one who could reshape planets the way some people trim their hedges. It would’ve surprised me if Parasite could have fully drained him!)

However, it turned out that Parasite also had the (very convenient) ability to pull all his cells back together (ala Jenova from from FF7) and eventually reformed (in other words, he was too cool a villain to leave dead.) He continued plaguing Superman, though he could never fully drain him, only steal part of his powers temporarily. At one point (probably using stolen intelligence from some scientist) The Parasite created a “power-prism” device that could be used to store the extra energy he absorbed from Superman; he hoped to use it to fully depower the hero, but it fell in someone else’s hands, and several random people ended up (temporarily) gifted with part of Superman’s powers. Hilarity (and action!) ensued. :wink:

The Pre-Crisis Parasite’s most notable adventure was probably when he teamed up with Dr. Doom to battle Superman and Spider-man (in the second published team-up between the two heroes.) This story was not canonical for either Marvel or DC, though.

(Note: Luthor and Dr. Octopus were the villains in the first Supes/Spidey team-up.)

After the Crisis, The Parasite was reintroduced- as an enemy of Firestorm, The Nuclear Man? And they made him green instead, too! His name was also changed to Rudy Jones; I have no idea of the reasons for any of these changes. His origin was the same, though now it was heavily hinted that Darkseid had caused the accident that mutated him. Though he was a Firestorm foe for a while, he eventually ends up fighting Superman anyway.

(Sorry, couldn’t find a picture of him.)

With the darkening comics suffered in the 90’s, apparently someone decided that The Parasite wasn’t menacing enough, so… they had an accident mutate him into a more monstrous version:

At least he was purple again. :stuck_out_tongue:

He also ended up permanently absorbing some criminal scientist’s mind, which from then on became his “partner” in crime, with Parasite being shown as an idiot and the scientist as the real “boss.”

This version of the parasite was also involved in what has to be the most controversial Superman storyline ever (not counting the child murder mentioned above): after permanently absorbing some shapeshifter’s power, and accidentally learning from Lois Lane’s mind that she was married to Superman, he replaced her just to emotionally hurt Superman! (Fortunately, “Lois” kicked Superman off the apartment, there was no sex involved. :thud: ) Note however that this was kept secret from the fans for months, to us it seemed like Lois was being written waaay out of character… and even dated Lex Luthor!! Eventually however, not only did Superman figure out the truth, but Parasite ended up accidentally saving Superman’s life (who was suffering from Kryptonite poisoning at the time) when he tried to drain Superman’s powers. This also killed him, thus conveniently avoiding having to deal with the villain knowing Supes’ secrets.

Meanwhile, in the Animated Series, The Rudy Jones Parasite also appeared, except now he was Purple to begin with, and rather than being stupid enough to open a toxic waste canister, he had some chemicals spilled on him during a robbery. Otherwise he’s pretty much like the original villain (no leech-mouth, thankfully) and later ends up joining the Secret Society of Super-Villains in the Justice League animated series.

I hear that the Parasite in the comics has returned alive and is back to being “normal” but I don’t know any of the details.

Parasite is one of my favorite Superman villains; he’s original and fearsome, if a little too powerful. I think he makes a better foe for the Justice League than just Superman alone; it’s especially fun to see him drain multiple heroes at once and use their powers. The lamprey-mouthed version was just awful in every way, and the idea of replacing Lois with him was both disgusting and moronic.

Next: The one guy who never lost a fight with Superman: Vartox!

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Nice work so far, Wil. This really makes for a good read.
I should watch some of those TAS episodes. It’s been a few years (since there’s mostly shit on TV nowadays).

Honestly, I think people really don’t remember Superman’s villains since they weren’t all that interesting to begin with.

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I remember an episode of a REALLY old Superman cartoon that had the Parasite. As in, it was a regular guy who had the powers of the Parasite. The show itself was so bad, I guess they couldn’t afford any purple. Anyway, the same thing happens as in his origin: gets powers, tries to drain Superman, drains too much, and blows up.

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I missed this because of um… prior engagements but there was also a heroic version of the Toyman. A Japanese inventor kid who is nearly killed by the original toyman.

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Gallo: You’re correct, that was an episode of the Superman cartoon that Filmation made in the 60’s. Not the best version ever made, but it was my first Superman cartoon, and thus likely responsible for my being a superhero fan. :wink: As for why Parasite looked normal there, I think it was because they thought he looked too scary for kids. Though having him blow up was disturbing enough IMHO.

Khalbrae: You’re right, that was in the Superman/Batman comic. He was probably a “holdover” character (in comics, if you don’t use a name in several years you lose the trademark to it; as a result, sometimes new characters are given old names just to keep the company from losing them.)

OK, with Vartox, we’re definitely entering into the section of villains created in the 70’s. Well, Vartox wasn’t actually a villain- he was a superhero from another planet. But he ended fighting Superman so many times (mostly because he had a really short temper) that I count him as an enemy for this list’s purposes. Besides I wanted an excuse to talk about him. :wink:

Vartox was (supposedly) based on actor Sean Connery, specifically his character in the Science Fiction movie “Zardoz” (note how it sounds similar.) Let’s take a look at them and compare:

Here’s Vartox:

And here’s Connery in Zardoz:

(…Anybody else get the sudden impulse to start singing, “Macho, Macho Man?” :smiley: )

Anyway: Yeah, I see the resemblance. One reason I mention this, is that I can’t help but feel that Vartox was a “pet character” of his creator, writer Cary Bates. He only appeared in a few Superman stories, yet he was as powerful as Superman, if not more (seriously, he could do anything Supes could and more) and (far as I know) their fights were always draws, and in one case, he actually won! On the other hand, he was also a very tragic character: he just kept having bad things happen to him. Though that can also be part of being a “Mary Sue” character: you’re miserable so everyone feels sorry for you. But, I’ll let you decide for yourselves.

Vartox was the champion of Valeron, one of those alien planets in the DC Universe with perfectly human inhabitants that have never been adequately explained. It was located in the Sombrero galaxy (and yes, there IS such a galaxy in real life.) The origin of his “hyper powers” is unknown to me (and he just kept pulling out new ones out of his ass); I do know he’s been active as a hero from when Superman was only a baby (yet another Mary Sue clue.)

His tragic side was apparent from his very first adventure: he found his wife dead! It turned out she was somehow “linked” to a woman on Earth, and when she died -killed in a store robbery- Vartox’s wife died too. Vartox wanted to bring the robber to Valeron for trial, but his powers allowed him to foresee that this would lead to a fight with Superman in which Lois Lane would get killed! So instead, he tricked the criminal into coming with him willingly by telling him he represented alien criminals who were “interested in his talents.” This worked, and Vartox took him to Valeron, were he was given sixty years- literally! He was aged six decades, making him a feeble old man. Note: there was no actual battle here with Superman, only a vision, thought Superman did meet Vartox when he went to Valeron to bring the criminal back to Earth.

His second tragedy wasn’t that big, but it still bothered him: he started losing his powers. He discovered that the only way to recover them was to absorb the disease that another obscure Superman foe, Karb-Brak, was suffering from. Karb was an alien who came to Earth to recover from a disease that made him “allergic” to other superbeings, and caused him to go on rampages. After a few battles with Superman, the hero agreed to simply stay away from Karb.

But to absorb the alien toxins, Vartox had to trigger another rampage. This made him feel SO guilty, that he went in denial, even going so far as to hypnotize Karb into believing it was Superman who had been responsible! This led into his first true fight with Superman. In the end however, everything worked OK for everybody, since not only Vartox got his powers back but Karb-Brak was cured in the process!

But that was nothing compared to what happened next: Valeron EXPLODED!! Yes, just like Krypton, killing everybody except Vartox! Grieving, the hero went to Earth, where Superman arranged for him to live under the identity of “Vern O’ Valeron” working as chief of security of the GBS building (where the Daily Planet was now located.) “Vern” even ended up dating- Lana Lang, who had finally given up on romancing Superman! (No, she didn’t know about his being Vartox.) Things soon turned desperate when Vartox realized it had been HIM who destroyed Valeron, when he accidentally brought some element he’d encountered in space to his planet- it made oxygen molecules explode! Worse, HE HAD BROUGHT IT TO EARTH AS WELL!

…Or so he told Superman, who, however, couldn’t see anything wrong in the air with his supervision. This causes another fight between them, which Vartox actually won! As it turns out, the reason the air inside Superman’s Fortress of Solitude was OK was because of some “radioactive” remains of Valeron that Vartox brought to Earth to analyze- ironically, they were the antidote to the explosive reaction! The heroes gathered more of the “valeronite” and used it to save Earth. Afterwards Vartox decided to leave Earth (to find a planet that needed him as a hero) though at least he was fair enough to tell Lana the truth before leaving.

By his next appearance, he had found one: Tynola, a planet that seemed to suffer almost-constant disasters. He invited Superman over to see his new world… but it turned out he really wanted him to help investigate what was going on. It turns out that the Tynolans worshipped a “space god” and were planning on sacrificing Vartox to it! The “disasters” where all caused by the Tynolans to lure Vartox there. The “god” (basically a huge mouth) almost drains Vartox’s life force until Superman interceded. This causes it to leave Tynola permanently. Vartox then actually decided to stay in Tynola, in order to teach the now “godless” aliens how to have a decent civilization of their own.

In the last Vartox Pre-Crisis story, he was still in Tynola. He wanted to continue dating Lana, but the atmosphere of Tynola was poisonous to humans. However, a way to help her breathe there is found, and she joins him there… only to be turned to stone by an accidental ricochet of his powers! He also started seeing visions of his first girlfriend (not his late wife) who had turned out to be a criminal so he had to arrest her (his first tragedy) and he started thinking he was going mad. Except it turns out she wasn’t dead; she had stolen a part of Vartox’s powers and had survived the destruction of Valeron. Now she wanted to make him suffer; it was she who had arranged Lana’s “accident”. In the end however, she found she still loved him too much, and saved Lana by taking the “stone” effect upon herself. This left Vartox without either of them as Lana could no longer breathe in Tynola either. (See? The guy never gets a break.)

After the Crisis, Vartox was reintroduced as some alien criminal (I’m not sure about it) and his powers were toned way down ( I think he only has Superstrength now.) He also has a more decent costume:

I hear rumors that soon he’ll be reintroduced in a version more faithful to the original. We’ll see. Hopefully he won’t be overpowered anymore- or so tragic.

NEXT: The Non-Asiatic Yellow Menace: MONGUL!

…Ma-cho, Ma-cho Maaan! ♪ :stuck_out_tongue:

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Still the best animated Superman feature ever (In my humble opinion.)

The Mechanical Monsters. It was this close Mabatsekker’s origin didn’t have robots in it.
I did have this interesting spark of redesigning those “monsters” as a kid to new and improved versions with missiles, gatling lasers, etc… Glad I turned out to be a hero instead, eh? >_>;

Keep 'em coming Wil. Perhaps this nigh-daily pace will excercise your writing to it’s peak and then we’ll see even more quality fiction again?

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Oh dear god… Zardos… ZARDOSSSSSSSS!!!

I can’t believe they went a based a character in Superman after that film. Not that I have seen that stunning “special-effect” filled film, but my mates used to go on about it quite a bit. Mostly on just how shokcing the thing was.
But yeah can really see the similarities between the two characters. Although I think we all could have done without that pic of Sean Connery Wil:eek:… I don’t think anyway wanted to see that.

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Are you kidding me. I want that pic as my new avatar. From Zardoz with love!

So does anybody have access to a photoshop-like program? I want to get as much of that picture into my avatar without it becoming too pixilated (and I’m pretty sure both MSPaint and Word aren’t up to the task).

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Gimp?

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This work for ya, Killmore?

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Maybe he wants a png version with transparent background for blending in better with tutti frutti :wink:

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Mabat: Those Fleischer Superman cartoons still hold up very well even today; even with the limited FX they had back then, the combination of pacing, music, shading, etc. make them worth watching.

Keep 'em coming Wil. Perhaps this nigh-daily pace will excercise your writing to it’s peak and then we’ll see even more quality fiction again?
That’s the idea, actually. :slight_smile: But writing original material is much harder than this; here all I have to do is write down all I remember about a character, then adorn it with googled-up images. Still, I plan to follow this retrospective with new stories (here’s hoping!)

Although I think we all could have done without that pic of Sean Connery Wil
Actually, I did that intentionally. I was afraid this was getting a little repetitive so I threw in that to surprise the audience. :smiley: Don’t worry, there won’t be any more male stripper pictures here.

OK, our next villain is from the early 80’s, and can perhaps be thought of as the first truly mean Superman enemy: He actually kicked Supes’ ass more than once! (Unlike Vartox, though, Superman eventually did beat him decisively.) He was also menacing in a smart, ruthless way that no other Superman villain so far had been. The reason for this might be… because he was based on- Darkseid!!

Well, sort of. There’s a story behind that. In the 70’s, comic book writer/artist Jim Starlin created the villain Thanos, who was, at the very least, influenced by DC’s Darkseid. The similarities are so obvious than when they did the “Amalgam” comics crossover (with DC and Marvel characters merged together) Thanos and Darkseid were combined into “Thanoseid”. To be fair though, Thanos is a great character on his own.

(Note: The above is a piece of fanart; far as I know Thanos and Darkseid have never met… though it would rock if they did! :slight_smile: )

Years after having killed Thanos off (he would come back to life later, of course) Starlin came over to DC Comics and wrote a trilogy of stories for “DC Comics Presents” (a team-up title starring Superman ala Batman’s Brave and The Bold) and he created Mongul to be the villain. Anybody familiar with Starlin’s work (which I actually was not at the time) can tell Mongul was based on Thanos. Why not just use Darkseid instead? Well, maybe it was because the New Gods characters were not very popular at the time (up to that point, only their creator, Jack Kirby, had done them well.) Or maybe he just wanted to do something closer to his version of a “space tyrant.”

In any case, Mongul’s origin was not very clear. He was the tyrannical ruler of an alien race. However, a religious figure called “The Archimandrite” brought about a rebellion against him. Mongul swore he would one day return to re-conquer them. (Ironically, The Archimandrite ended up being a worse ruler then Mongul was.) How Mongul got so freakin’ strong was never explained. Was everybody in his planet stronger than Superman??

Anyway, in his first appearance, Mongul kidnapped three of Superman’s closest friends and demanded that the hero steal a “key” in the possession of the Martian race for him. The key could be used to active “Warworld”, a Death Star-type ancient superweapon. In a real “WTF?” moment, Superman actually fought with Martian Manhunter instead of working with him to rescue his friends and stop Mongul! J’onn ends up saving Superman’s friends anyway, but Mongul escaped with the key.

In the following issue, also written and drawn by Starlin, Superman and Supergirl go to stop Warworld, only to find its weapons too much even for them (!) However they figure out that Mongul will fry his brain trying to control Warworld for too long, and win by dragging the fight as long as they could. Mongul escaped, though Supergirl was lost in the machine’s explosion.

(The third part of the story, again by Starlin, didn’t feature Mongul; instead, it has Superman going to the afterlife to rescue Supergirl -she wasn’t dead, just lost- only to get his ass handed to him by the magical hero, The Spectre. But hey, Spectre is effectively second only to God in the DC Universe, plus Supes is a sucker for magic. Anyway, all he had to do was ask and Spectre got Supergirl back for him. The whole point of the trilogy seemed to be that Superman was too full of himself and needed to be brought down a peg, something I definitely didn’t agree with. It was interesting, anyway.)

Most of the other Pre-Crisis Mongul appearances were also in the DC Comics Presents series. His next appearance had him conquering the galaxy where the hero Starman (the third one; DC has a lot of Starmen) lived. This served as both a conclusion to the Starman series (which had been cancelled) and also allowed Starlin to revisit his days writing Marvel’s version of Captain Marvel, whom the space-based Starman had a similarity to, and who was Thanos’ first major foe. (Oh, and Thanos gave Supes the beating of his life here! He only ran when confronted by the two heroes.)

His next appearance was also in DCP, in a story co-starring the Legion of Superheroes. Mongul unleashed the Sun-Eater, an old foe of the Legion, to destroy Earth in revenge for his defeats at Superman’s hands. The Legion comes from the future to stop it, while Superman holds Mongul back and, (Finally!) knocks him out in hand-to-hand combat. It wouldn’t do to have Superman always lose to a villain (also, this story was not by Starlin, I think.)

But Mongul’s most famous appearance was in the story “For the Man who has Everything” from a Superman Annual. You may have seen it on TV, as it was adapted as an episode of Justice League. Mongul arranges Superman to get an alien plant as a “gift”, but the plant attaches to him and traps him in a dream world where Krypton never exploded. Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin try to fight Mongul (but are no match for him); fortunately, Superman’s subconscious mind twists the dream into a nightmare in order to get him to wake up. And when he does, and realizes his ideal life, including his wife and children, had never been real, well…

Yow. Never piss Superman off!

The story ends with the “Black Mercy” attached to Mongul instead, trapping HIM in his “perfect life” (the cartoon doesn’t show it, but he dreamed he killed all the heroes and conquered the universe.)

That was the last Pre-Crisis Mongul story; the big DC reboot came in 1985, making Mongul the last of the (good) Silver Age Superman foes.

Mongul was reintroduced after the Crisis, but his power level was much smaller- he could still fight Superman, though note that Superman could no longer do things like move planets anymore either. Mongul also already had access to Warworld, which he used to form a space empire, whose people he kept entertained via gladiatorial games. Superman (who was wandering through space after leaving Earth over his guilt for killing the Phantom Zone villiains, as mentioned above) was captured to take part in them. But he not only won, he ended up ousting Mongul as the ruler! Superman allowed the former champion, an alien warrior called Draaga, to rule it in his place, and went back to Earth, after he recovered from his “breakdown” (which had been in part caused by the telepathic Brainiac). This storyline was also adapted for the Justice League series.

In the comics, Mongul was killed off by the demon lord Neron (same guy who restored Luthor and Metallo) after he refused to make a deal with him. I guess they needed to kill some big villain in order to establish how “badass” Neron is. (He’s pretty dumb if you ask me.) The Mongul currently appearing in the comics is the original’s son, who just happens to be identical to his father. Oh, and he had a sister, Mongal. I swear I’m not making that up. Mongul II killed her off, though you can still see both of them in an episode of the Brave and the Bold cartoon.

Mongul may be my favorite Superman villain; he had the intellect of Brainiac and the power of Bizarro. However, given his few appearances outside the comics, he’s relatively obscure. Plus, Darkseid already fills the niche he had (ironically enough.)

Next: The Little Evil Alien Computer That Could: THE ERADICATOR!

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There’s something I always loved about “For the Man Who Has Everything.” You have a supervillain, Mongul, who can match or surpass Superman in just about everything. You also have Wonder Woman, who is able to survive a beating from one of Superman’s strongest enemies. And then you have Batman, who’s physically inferior, but can still be a mental match for just about anyone. But who wins the day? Who finally defeats the warlord once and for all?

Jason Todd, the Robin nobody liked.

This is still educational AND entertaining.