Superman Villains: A retrospective

[Wilfredo_Martinez]

d: Right again. I forgot to mention that fact, but it was a nice touch. (I also forgot that it was the Todd Robin who beat Mongul… honestly, he wasn’t that bad. They only made him a loser retroactively. Oh, and FTMWHE is no longer in continuity, that I know, so I guess that robs him of his victory… )

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The Eradicator was (in my opinion) the first interesting new menace created after The Crisis in the Superman books. Its history is pretty unusual, though.

One thing you need to know, is that after the Crisis reboot, Krypton was changed radically. During the Silver Age, it was very similar to the way it was presented in the Superman movies (sans the “crystalline” technology) but after the Crisis, it became a technology-obsessed, logic-over-emotions type planet, ala Star Trek’s Vulcan. The Eradicator was a weapon created for the purpose of, well, “eradicating” any dissenters to this way of thinking.

(…Or maybe not? The Eradicator miniseries apparently later retconned this origin to say that in fact, it had been created by a dying alien race that sought refuge on Krypton, but who where killed off by xenophobic Kryptonians. The “eradicator” had actually been a computer that held the aliens’ historical records, but was reprogrammed by one of Superman’s ancestors. Why was this done? Was it to make it fit into the stupid “no kryptonians other than Superman” rule they had for a while? I don’t know. With all the flip-flops DC’s continuity has done since then, I’m not even sure if the miniseries is still canonical.)

In any case, The Eradicator, in its original form, was a small metallic device shaped like and egg with fins (very similar to the design of the post-crisis version of the starship that brough Superman to Earth, seen in the cover below.) I believe that was intentional.

Long ago, The Eradicator was used against The Cleric, an alien priest who had come to Krypton to preach. However, despite its great powers, the device failed. This might have been because of the Cleric’s own powers, or perhaps the semi-sentient weapon chose to go with The Cleric? In any case, The Cleric decided to leave Krypton along with those Kryptonians who elected to follow him… only for all of them to die when they were in space! (It turns out the technocracy had secretly altered all Kryptonians’ genes so that they could not survive away from the planet, possibly using the Eradicator’s own powers over matter. Note that Superman survived because his father, Jor-El, found this genetic “defect” and eliminated it from his unborn son.) Blaming himself for the accidental massacre, The Cleric set his spaceship down on an asteroid and waited to die.

And waited, and waited… for thousands of years! It turned out that The Eradicator had “linked” itself to The Cleric, preventing him from dying, probably figuring it needed someone to help it get around and accomplish its mission of preserving Kryptonian culture.

As it turns out, that asteroid eventually became part of Mongul’s space empire. When Superman was captured by them, The Eradicator felt the presence of a living Kryptonian, and eventually linked itself to him. This helped repair the mental damage Superman had been suffering from, but it also caused The Cleric to finally die. Superman took The Eradicator with him when he went back to Earth.

However, he eventually decided the device was too dangerous, and ended up tossing it into Antarctica. Oh, great idea, Supes. Throw a matter-rearranging computer where it had plenty of room and material to play with instead of, say The Sun. You can probably guess what happened next.

The Eradicator created a whole Kryptonian citadel (this was very likely inspired by the crystal-created Fortress of Solitude from the Superman movies, though with a different design.) Superman accepted this as his new base of operations. However, The Eradicator was set in “recreating” Krypton, so it began to influence Superman, making him more cold and calculating, until his family managed to snap him out of it.

(That’s Superman, in full “Krypton Man” mode, about to kill Draaga (from Mongul’s origin story) on the Moon. Umm, no, I don’t remember why the Statue of Liberty was on The Moon.)

It was THEN Superman thought about tossing the Eradicator into the Sun.
Not that it did any good, anyway: by then, the device had “evolved” so far that it could continue to exist in an “energy form”. It came back to “eradicate” Superman for his refusal to accept his “legacy” and to turn the Earth into another Krypton!

With help from Professor Hamilton (a scientist who helped Superman many times- before he too turned into a villain, that is) Superman diffused The Eradicator’s energies, and that seemed to be the end of it.

And then Superman died.

Not killed by anything The Eradicator did, but by the alien monster, Doomsday (more on him later.) This was of course the famous “Death of Superman” saga from the 90’s. As many of you know, shortly after his “death”, several Superman wannabes showed up: A cyborg (who had Superman’s DNA, but no memories of how he came back to life), a teenage clone (The new Superboy), a power-armor equipped hero who just wanted to carry on Superman’s legacy (Steel) and a mysterious, ethereal being who some though might be Superman’s vengeful ghost!

As you can probably guess (I did it right away ) the “ghost” was really The Eradicator, having reintegrated itself, but in an incomplete form, so that it thought it was actually Superman! The confused being actually went and recovered Superman’s “corpse” (he was actually in suspended animation) from his grave in Metropolis and put it in a machine inside the Fortress that began healing it… but at the same time, he started draining it of its energies to power himself. As a result, when Superman finally awakened, he had lost his powers!

To make things worse, the “cyborg Superman” turned out to be Hank Henshaw, a minor Superman villain with the ability to “possess” machines who had found and taken over Superman’s rocket and used to create his duplicate body, all a part of a plan to trick the people of Metropolis while he worked with Mongul for the purpose of turning The Earth into another Warworld!

The villains actually managed to destroy Coast City (hometown of Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern) before anybody could stop them. Jordan then joined forces with Superboy, Steel, the just-revived Superman and the (now aware of himself) Eradicator to stop them. Mongul was defeated and (apparently, not really) killed by Green Lantern, while Cyborg-Superman tried to kill the real Supes with a Kryptonite ray-machine. Eradicator, in a surprisingly heroic move, interposed himself, and the beam went right through him and into Superman- which restored his powers!! CoughDeusExMachinaCough!! Anyway, Henshew is destroyed too, and The Eradicator ended up in a coma.

Its body was taken to S.T.A.R. labs, which is another place where superheroes get scientific help in the DC Universe, where a scientist named David Connor studied it (why not keep it in the Fortress? Beats me.) As you can guess, Eradicator eventually revives and physically merged with Connor (again, not sure why.) The combined being decides to become a superhero named- The Eradicator, which, if you ask me, isn’t very heroic-sounding.

It was then the Eradicator miniseries I mentioned above came out. In it, Connor/Eradicator discovers a phantom-zone-like dimension where the remains of the device’s true creators had been hidden by their Kryptonian murderers. Also in there was Faora, NOT the villainess mentioned above (though obviously based on her) but rather another AI entity created by Kem-El (Superman’s ancestor). This one was truly evil, and it escaped and managed to kill Connor’s wife before he stopped it.

The Eradicator was a member of The Outsiders, who are sort of the team where all the DC heroes without their own series end up in, for a while. I hear he was eventually put in a coma again (during the events of “Infinite Crisis”) and has since returned to its “Krypton Man” evil persona (no idea what happened to Connor.)

As far as I know, The Eradicator was never adapted for the animated DC series, though it is worth pointing out that the “evil sentient computer from Krypton” shtick Brainiac was given in the Superman cartoon sounds a LOT like the Eradicator’s; maybe they just combined the two characters into one.

(You know, I have half a mind to write a Superman/Dr. Who crossover just to have The Eradicator merge with a Dalek and go around shouting, “ERADICATE! ERADICATE!!” )

Next: Hell Hath No Fury Like A Superwoman Scorned: MAXIMA!

[Wilfredo_Martinez]

Maxima is definitely my favorite of the “modern” (post-Crisis) Superman’s foes. And that has [STRIKE]nothing[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]a little[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]somewhat[/STRIKE] OK, a lot do with the fact she’s smokin’ hot. But seriously, she’s an interesting character.

Maxima is the ruler of Almerac, yet ANOTHER planet in the DC universe whose inhabitants look exactly like Earth humans (As far as I know, no good explanation for this has been provided. Considering that by now both Star Trek and Stargate have provided explanations for their humanoid races, you’d think the comics would do too.)

(See what I meant? )

(Oh, and the weirdo behind her is Sazu, her handmaiden, there to remind Maxima of her royal duties. And get yelled at.)

Anyway, Almerac actually had its own space empire, and their royal family actively pursued mating with other species in order to gain better abilities; Maxima herself is nearly as strong as Superman and has telekinesis and telepathy to boot. In fact it was part of Maxima’s duties to find a worthy mate that would add to the gene pool. When Superman became “famous” in space (after first defeating Mongul) she decided he’d make a good mate and went to Earth to ask him to be her consort.

As you can imagine, not only Superman was not interested (he was already dating Lois Lane) but he didn’t like the idea of fathering despots. Maxima didn’t take it well. And this being comics, that of course meant a super-fight. She ended up going back to her planet, angry and with a lot of unresolved sexual tension (she might deny it, but she had the hots for Supes.)

However, it turned out that Almerac was destroyed- by Warworld, which was now under the control of Brainiac! (The green skin, goatee version.) Maxima was forced to ally with Brainiac in order to have the rest of her empire spared. But as you can guess, she turned on him at the first opportunity, which came when Brainiac took Warworld to Earth’s solar system to destroy it; Superman (and a lot of other heroes) joined forces to counterattack. Warworld was destroyed and Brainiac (I think) ended up in a coma. Maxima then decided to hang around Earth for a while, and actually ended up joining the Justice League! (Supposedly looking for a potential mate, but really still stalking Superman.)

However, she didn’t have much of a chance to seduce him, as shortly thereafter, Doomsday showed up. Maxima was in fact among the members of the League that tried to help fight it, but even she was helpless, and she witnessed Superman’s heroic sacrifice, dying to take the monster down. (If she didn’t want him before, I bet she did now!) This helped to mellow her bratty character (a little). She also switched to a purplish, less stripper-iffic costume.

(Why, yes, most of us do. And no, it does not cause blindness. )

Around this time, Ultraa, an alien warrior and former candidate for mate who had failed a test but was still obsessed with Maxima, came to Earth and ended up battling the League out of jealousy. That didn’t help Maxima appreciate him any more. They’re enemies now.

(Note: Ultraa is actually a Pre-Crisis character; he was the first superhero of Earth-Prime, a parallel Earth that (until then) had no superheroes- in other words, it was supposed to be the real world!! However, after meeting the (temporarily lost between universes) Justice League, Ultraa chose to leave Earth Prime for Earth-One (the League’s home) since he decided his world was not ready for heroes yet. Of course, being very naive, he ended up causing trouble for the League anyway. Ultraa was actually pretty cool, and I’m sorry that his Post-Crisis version is so lame.)

Maxima stayed in the League for a while. When the League fractured in three teams (so each could have its own comic, natch) Maxima joined the one led by Captain Atom, probably because she was attracted to him (his militaristic leanings may had made him an even better consort than Supes) but he wasn’t interested, either. She then flirted with Amazing-Man (an African-American hero with the power to become whatever he touched) another League member, but that went nowhere either. When the three Leagues were disbanded to form a single one (read: two of the titles were cancelled) Maxima chose to return to space. (Note: by then, Superman had come back from the dead.)

Around this time, a crossover called “Armageddon 2001” happened. In it, a time-traveling superhero named Waverider came to the present in order to find which superhero was going to become Monarch, a villain who conquered the world. He had the ability to see possible futures, and secretly checked out several heroes’. And in one of the futures he saw, Superman DID marry Maxima!! But only after Lois died during pregnancy with Superman’s baby (the baby died too.) Maxima found herself actually falling in love with the grieving hero. It was actually a pretty touching story; too bad it never happened beyond Waverider’s vision.

Tragedy struck Maxima yet again when her empire was devastated by Imperiex, a being who was pretty much a rip-off of Marvel’s Galactus, the planet-eater. Maxima led the survivors away from him, and helped Superman and other heroes battle Imperiex and his forces in yet another big crossover titled “Our Worlds At War”. Sadly, Maxima was killed off during it. Of course, since then other characters killed in that crossover (including Aquaman and Wonder Woman’s mother) have come back from the dead, so I hope they bring Maxima back one of these days too.

Meanwhile, in the animated Superman series, Maxima was adapted as well. They changed her looks, probably to reduce the amount of cheescake in it:

Otherwise, it was a similar story, with Maxima coming to Earth, asking Superman to be her mate and being refused. However, here she knocked him out and dragged him to her planet anyway. Fortunately for Supes, Maxima found herself facing a coup, and Superman helped her to retain her throne, but not without pointing out that, if she earned her people’s love rather than rule through intimidation, such things would not happen. She then allowed him to go back to Earth. It’s probably this version of the character that the public knows best.

I hear Maxima also appeared in the Smallville tv series, but I don’t watch it so I wouldn’t know.

Besides the ahemobvious reasons, I like Maxima for many other things: her powers, her costume (the green one), her background, and even her personality (at least when played against characters who would not stand for her attitude, like Superman.) The fact she also mellowed after seeing true heroism in action made her more likable, too. Besides, Superman has very few good female villains. He could use a few more. (Maxima beats Faora any day.)

Next: The Monster Who Killed Superman: DOOMSDAY!

[Khalbrae]

About the Fleischer Cartoons, you can download them all for free because they lapsed into the public domain long ago (the cartoons themselves, but not the characters in them, copyright law is weird).

[Killmore]

@Ultratech87

This work for ya, Killmore?

That’s pretty good there but it’s too big for the allotted file size for avatars.

[Wilfredo_Martinez]

Doomsday is probably the best-known of Superman’s post-Crisis villains. Mostly because, you know, he actually killed the hero! Or as much as such a character can be killed, anyway. Which I think it’s a pity, because I don’t find him anywhere near as interesting as Eradicator or Maxima. Though that may have been the point; let’s check out his background…

Back in the 90’s, the Superman comics staff where looking for some gimmick to boost sales. Someone suggested marrying him off to Lois Lane (which made sense, since she’d known his secret for years by then and the two -as Clark and Lois- were dating.) But it turned out the live action TV show (The Adventures of Lois and Clark) beat them to the punch. So, they went for another, older option: KILLING Superman!

Not for REAL, of course. The whole “Death of Superman” had been done several times: in “Imaginary Tales” (read: noncanonical stories) back in the Silver Age; in an episode of Super Friends (!) and in a Justice League cartoon two-parter. To this day, I can’t believe SO many people actually believed DC was really going to kill off their biggest franchise character. (To be fair, most of the people who fell for it were not regular comics fans, and we are living in pretty cynical times. If long-time icons like Barbie and Ken can get divorced, maybe Superman can be killed off as well?)

Anyway, most of us comics fans simply assumed that Superman would seem to die, and then come back a few months later. These things happen all the time in the comics. (Though it was THE first time for the post-Crisis Superman.)

The storyline ran through all the Superman titles (four at the time.) It began with a humanoid figure, wearing a green suit and some broken cables, erupting from the Earth somewhere in the U.S., and then destroying everything in its path. As it battled, its “costume” would slowly rip off, exposing his true appearance: a gray-skinned, Hulk-like monster with bone spikes sticking out of his body.

The Justice League soon learns about the creature and attacks it… only to get their asses handed to them. Now, this is actually not that unusual; for most of their history, the League’s tactic has always been “rush them and if that doesn’t work, THEN use teamwork!” They could learn a thing or two from The Avengers. The League have in fact defeated worse menaces than Doomsday before, and if they’d had time they probably would have found a way to beat him too. But, the situation was too dire; Superman shows up, and when HE gets beaten, he realizes he HAS to stop Doomsday (who was conveniently jumping his way to Metropolis) before he kills millions of people.

He also realizes the ONLY way to stop Doomsday (who btw was named that by an overeager news reporter- the creature had at that point done hardly enough damage to be considered apocalyptic, and it didn’t even SPEAK other than roaring, so it was actually nameless) was to hit it with ALL his might, not unlike what he did to Darkseid in the last episode of Justice League. Too bad Doomsday apparently had the same idea…

After an impact that shook the city and left a crater in its middle, Doomsday indeed dropped dead… and so did Superman.

Well, he lived long enough to dramatically die in Lois Lane’s arms seconds later, but you get the idea.

Actually, he wasn’t truly dead; his wounds were so bad that his body shut down to regenerate, an ability he didn’t even know he had because, up to that point, he’d never been hurt so bad. With a bloody body with no vital signs (and yes they tried reviving him) you can’t blame people for thinking he was dead.

Ironically, by burying him (in Metropolis’ central park) his revival was actually delayed, since his body needed solar energy, which now it wasn’t getting. Oops.

(To be fair, Superman’s soul was actually knocked loose from his body, and it fell into the clutches of a demoness called Blaze (more on her later) and might have been lost if it were not for Pa Kent’s soul (who similarly was having a near-death experience from a heart attack) who, with a little help from good supernatural forces of the DC Universe, managed to get free his adopted son before waking up himself. So Supes REALLY came close to being forever lost.)

As for Doomsday? Well, he looked dead, too. They took him to Cadmus, Metropolis’ secret genetic experiments lab, but later the “Cyborg Superman” recovered the body and tossed it into space, tied to an asteroid, not without first implanting a chip into its body for some reason (we didn’t know he was a villain yet.) But as you can guess, he came back from the dead too.

His next appearance was in the miniseries “Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey” which revealed his origins. With help from Waverider (the time traveler mentioned in the Maxima entry) Superman discovered Doomsday’s past: it turns out he had been created long ago by an alien scientist who was obsessed with creating a lifeform that could adapt to anything, even death. The process involved exposing a baby to a planet’s harsh environment and deadly monsters. The infant died instantly, but his cells were harvested to create a clone… who was exposed to the planet again… and survived a few seconds longer. The same was done to the clone… and his clone… and his clone… after apparently decades of the process, finally a creature that had the desired traits was obtained: the (not yet named) Doomsday. Of course, the process drove it insane, giving it a hatred of ALL living creatures. As you can imagine, Doomsday killed his creator, and (somehow- remember, he hadn’t even been taught to SPEAK) used his spaceship to get off the planet (which, btw, was KRYPTON- apparently millions of years before humans appeared there.)

Doomsday became a galactic legend, as he drifted from world to world killing everything in his path until he found a way off-planet, usually by hitching a ride on unsuspecting spaceships. Finally, the people of a planet named Calaton managed to kill Doomsday (for the first time) using an energy creature they created, “The Radiant”. They then decided to bury him in some far, primitive planet… Earth. (Doomsday’s suit, btw, was his burial shroud/containment suit.)

Back in the present, it turned out that the asteroid Doomsday was on landed -thanks to a convenient space warp- on Apokolips, Darkseid’s home world! There he proceeded to wreck the place, and even beat Darkseid himself in battle!! His right-hand man, Desaad, was forced to ask Superman for help. And, being the nice guy he is, he accepted, knowing not everyone on Apokolips deserved to die. But, as you might expect, there was a trick involved: Desaad teleported both Superman and Doomsday to Calaton, hoping The Radiant might help to kill him again. But Doomsday was revealed as having the ability to create defenses against whatever manages to kill him, and destroys the Radiant. With Waverider’s help, Superman sent Doomsday to The End of Time, where it was hoped he would cease to exist.

But Doomsday was brought back by Brainiac, who hoped to use his unkillable body as a host for his (then powerfully telepathic) mind. Nice idea, but Superman interfered. Ever since then, Doomsday (or duplicates of him) has reappeared in many stories, where he has proven easier to defeat and kill. He keeps coming back, though. (Why not send him back to the End of Time again?)

Doomsday also appeared in the animated Justice League series, but he was a different character. For starters, he had nothing to do with Superman’s “death” there. Second, he could TALK! Third, he was defeated by a Superman from an alternate universe- one who believed in lobotomizing his foes with his heat vision, which is how he beats Doomsday. In a later episode, Doomsday -who turned out to be another one of Cadmus’ genetic experiments; created with Superman’s DNA, to boot- had recovered and Superman (the real one) ends up sending him to the Phantom Zone (which caused Batman to bitch on Superman. What, did he have a better alternative!? It isn’t as if the “zone” were hell, you know. Humph.)

Doomsday also appears in the animated movie Superman: Doomsday, which is an adaptation of the Death of Superman story from the comics, although simplified. His origin is not revealed but seems to be the original one (aliens bury him on Earth) with the addition of his having been freed accidentally by Luthor’s agents.

As I said, I find Doomsday a character of limited appeal. I suspect that he was created because the writers didn’t want any of the current Superman foes to kill Superman but couldn’t be bothered to create a really substantial character. (It may also have been a criticism of the ultraviolent, brawns-but-no-brains antiheroes of the 90’s such as Lobo.) He’s just a nearly-inarticulate bruiser who just happened to be strong enough to kill Superman. His origin, as given later in Hunter/Prey, feels tacked on, especially connecting him to Krypton- but at least it’s something. And for such a dangerous creature, he has since been downgraded to “Superman villain we need to use when we need a lot of muscle and someone we can kill off”. Pathetic.

Next: Time to finish this, folks! For my last post, we’ll have a look a several villains which I feel didn’t deserve a full entry, but are still interesting. Get ready because some of them are really… weird.

[d_Galloway]

Doomsday sucks. There, I said it.

[Valkyrie_Esker]

I haven’t been saying much because I know little about the last few enemies. All I can say is, I actually remember that Pa Kent story. it was one of the few I ever read, and was a little confused at the time, but it was interesting seeing a father’s subconscious and his son’s mix together.

And yes, Doomsday doesn;t seem that interesting to me, either. But then, machines of pure destruction rarely are.

[Khalbrae]

Lesser villains huh, some of his original “villains” were of course, the people America hated most. Adolph Hitler for one. And of course, America still believed the propaganda by Thomas Edison (who stole credit for many inventions via his company) and villified Nikola Tesla as a mad scientist that made death rays and giant robotic monsters.

[Wilfredo_Martinez]

Khalbrae: There was actual comic in the 40’s where Superman captured Hitler, Mussolini, and Toho, and ended the war. However it was completely noncanonical. I think it wasn’t even made by DC.

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Ok people, I think we’ve covered all the really important and/or notorious Superman villains… but there are a few more that I feel are worth mentioning, so here we go:

Titano, The Super-Ape: They loved apes in the Silver Age, so it was only logical Superman would end fighting one as well. Obviously based on King Kong, Titano was actually a chimp who was part of the American space program. Lois Lane met him while making a report on the mission he would go on. In space -in one of those only-in-comics cosmic coincidences- his space capsule flew by the collision between an uranium and a kryptonite meteor! Once on the ground, the combined radiations caused it to grow to giant size AND gave it Kryptonite Vision, with which he could keep away that pesky Superman while he “played” with poor Lois! How did they beat him? Simple: Superman made a pair of giant lead-lined glasses, then Lois put on a pair of (normal) glasses. And since “Monkey See, Monkey Do”, Titano imitated her and just put on the lead glasses! (Did I mention this was a Silver Age story? ) Anyway, once harmless (to Superman) the hero took Titano to a place where he could live happy… Earth’s prehistoric age! Because Tyrannosaurs are SO much fun to play with! (Right?)

Titano is an obscure but beloved part of the Superman mythos, since he was basically harmless unless enraged or controlled, and he appeared in a few more pre-Crisis stories. A post-Crisis story sadly reinvented him as a victim of painful experiments investigated by Lois (in a blatant animal research criticism story) who grows to giant size but doesn’t have K-vision (it didn’t need it as Superman was now less powerful) and ultimately died in the end… just like Kong. ;(

The Superman Revenge Squad: Introduced as the SUPERBOY revenge Squad, they were a bunch of alien space pirates whom Superboy stopped once, so they SWORE they would get him back!!.. except they never did. Seriously, they were losers. They continued plaguing Superman all the way to adulthood (by that time, many other alien criminals also foiled by the Man of Steel had joined them, but strangely, none of Superman’s other space-based villains. Maybe they realized what losers the SRS were.) One interesting story had Superman himself join the cult-like organization (disguised as an alien, complete with temporary amnesia to avoid telepathic discovery) in order to root them out. There was a post-Crisis version of the Squad, composed of a bunch of low-level Superman enemies that sucked so much I’m not even going to bother looking them up. (You know, considering the number of foes Superman had, you wonder why they didn’t team up more often against him. Unless you count the Legion of Doom.)

The Composite Superman: This one is a doozy: a villain with ALL the powers of the Legion of Superheroes… obsessed with bringing down Superman AND Batman… and he looked like this!:

He was actually some poor schmuck who worked at the Superman museum and secretly envied Supes and Bats for their popularity. Then, while standing in front of a bunch of statuettes that of the LoSH that Superman had brought from the future, he was hit by a lightning bolt, and (since the statuettes had “traces” of the original heroes’ energies) he gained all their powers!! So he created the Composite Superman identity and used his powers to ruin the two heroes, beating Superman in combat and ordering them to quit or he would reveal their secret IDs to the world!! And the heroes actually considered giving in!!! Fortunately for them, the power-charge just FADED on its own, and the guy conveniently FORGOT ALL THAT HAD HAPPENED! Yeah, the Silver Age was WEIRD…
(There was a post-Crisis version of the CS, now called just Composite Man, but he fought the Legion, not Superman or Batman.)

The Galactic Golem: An artificial, mindless creature created by Luthor out of “galactic matter” in order to destroy Superman; he tricked it into attacking Superman by charging the hero with the “stellar energy” that it fed on. It might have been even stronger than Superman. During their battle, the hero suddenly vanished- and so did everyone else on Earth except Luthor! The villain was actually tormented, thinking some unforeseen side effect had disintegrated the human race. He also forgot that with Superman gone, the Golem would attack the nearest source of “stellar energy”… Luthor’s machine! The villain was only saved by the sudden reappearance of Superman, who threw the machine into space, with the Golem following right after it. Supes then explains to Luthor that the clash of their super-energies had sent him AND the rest of the human race to another dimension, but he’d since brought everyone back. And Luthor was actually OVERJOYED about it, despite being taken back to jail! (this was definitely the pre-Crisis Luthor.)

Intergang: Not much to say: they are one of Metropolis’ mobs. The difference was that they had superior technology… which actually came from Apokolips! I’m not sure how that helped the alien villains, but this eventually led to Superman’s first encounter with Darkseid. Otherwise they got mopped up easily and were mostly forgotten until recent times, when they resurfaced as an international crime organization.

Colonel Future: Ok, this guy is REALLY obscure, but deserves mention for… being the cause Superman married Lois Lane?? The ORIGINAL Superman, that is, as in, the guy who came out in 1938!! You see, after it was decided that such a version DID exist on the DC Universe (on “Earth-2”) someone decided, hey, we can FINALLY marry them off! (This was back in 1978.) So they did, in a story that explained that a high-tech criminal called Colonel Future, whose crimes were interrupted often by Golden Age Supes, decided to pay magical villain The Wizard for help. And the Wiz agreed, casting a spell that would cause Superman to cease to exist…

…And it worked! You see, IT CAUSED CLARK KENT TO FORGET HE WAS SUPERMAN! Clark changed, stopping his mild-mannered act and becoming a crusading reporter (obviously his true nature was showing) and even wooed Lois off her feet! On their honeymoon, however, Lois found out he was Superman -NO, NOT THAT WAY! but rather by trying to cut his hair while he slept (the scissors broke.) Lois then investigates and eventually finds The Wizard, who was now a homeless man (Future never paid him) and she convinces him to reverse the spell. Superman then captures Future and his gang, and after assuring Lois he still loves her, formally marries her as Superman in his fortress in a Kryptonian ceremony.

(There was a modern version of Colonel Future, but he was an entirely different character- a guy who could see the future, but only when his life was in danger. Except he didn’t interpret his visions right, and he thought Superman was going to cause a disaster, so he battled him using a power suit.)

Hmm, this is turning out longer than I expected… I guess I’ll leave it here and finish this “epilogue” section next time!

[d_Galloway]

I actually remember the Composite Superman having one more story Pre-Crisis. Some alien criminal’s son wants revenge on Superman, so he stages the accident again so the janitor gets turned back into Composite Supes. The heroes fight him, get their asses kicked, etc. Then Composite Superman turns back to normal and jumps in the way of the alien’s guy, getting vaporized in the process. So, I guess that makes it another villain Superman never TECHNICALLY defeated.

[Valkyrie_Esker]

Composite man: Laziest. Design. Ever.

[Ultratech87]

I actually remember reading about Composite Man. A babysitter I used to stay with as a kid had a comic with him in it. At least it was semi-interesting.

And I’m fairly sure Titano was in an episode of TAS. Don’t remember much about it though.

[Wilfredo_Martinez]

Gallo: There is in fact yet a third Pre-Crisis Composite Superman story (of sorts) with the alien criminal coming back to steal the powers from the statuettes for himself (gee, you’d think he would have thought of that TO START WITH) except he called himself “Amalgamax” instead. Sadly I’ve never read it so I don’t know how it ends.

And now, Superman Villain Retrospective: The Epilogue, Part Deux!

The Sand Superman: As I mentioned above, the “Silver Age” of comics began to end (and the Bronze Age began) in the early 70’s when DC comic started getting serious about the stories they published (Marvel was already doing it). It was mostly thanks to writer/editor Dennis O’Neal, who was responsible for reinventing Batman as the grim avenger of the night that he’s today (and not, as many people think, Frank Miller with his Dark Knight graphic novel). He also tried to modernize Wonder Woman (by turning her into a powerless, A-Go-Go martial artist, as I mentioned in the Wonder Woman retrospective). In Superman’s case, he decided he wanted to make it so people could actually fight Superman without Kryptonite. In his multipart “Sand Superman” storyline, a nuclear reaction causes all of the kryptonite on Earth to turn to harmless metal, but it also opens a rift to another dimension through which a formless creature enters the Earth. This creature takes solid form by animating (of all things) the impression in the desert sand left by Superman when he tried to contain the explosion!

It also STOLE a huge chunk of Superman’s power. The two clashed, but the thing wasn’t evil, just misguided, and Superman eventually allows it to return to its universe… taking along half his power! From then on, we had a LOT more physical battles in the Superman comics, since he no longer had his godlike levels of power. However as the years passed, writers forgot about this and Supes soon was doing his typical planet-moving shticks again. Oh, and more kryptonite fell in from space, too. A similar thing happened after the Bronze Age ended, with Superman starting over with a lesser power level (and almost no kryptonite) but years later he was back to his cosmic stunts (but at least only when he “supercharges” himself by flying into the sun.) And more kryptonite conveniently came to Earth along Supergirl’s starship (when they finally allowed her to be reintroduced.)

Terra-Man: Oh, I loved this one: A Wild West desperado… IN SPACE! “Terra-Man” was the son of a criminal from 19th century America whose father was killed by an alien (himself a space criminal) for apparently no reason; he then took his young son into space with him, to teach him how to be a criminal, again for no apparent reason. He grows up to be known as “The Man from Terra” (Earth) or Terra-Man, a feared galactic criminal. As you can probably guess, he also eventually kills his “adoptive” father. Oh, and because of the Einstenian “time dilation” effect of his spaceship’s form of space travel, time passed more slowly for him, which is why he was still an adult in the 20th century. (Funny how that seems to apply to no other space-based DC comics character…) T-M had no superpowers (unless you count the device in his lung that helps him breathe in space –what about the effects of cold and vacuum on his body? Err…) but used advanced technology hidden in his cowboy outfit, such as rayguns disguised as six-shooters. He also had a winged horse that could somehow fly in space (!)

OK, Terra-Man was pretty hokey; he didn’t even have any true reason to fight Superman other than (like the Superman Revenge Squad) having been defeated by the hero. But hey, he was a cool concept. He appeared in quite a few stories too. I always wondered why Brainiac, Kryptonite Man and Terra-Man didn’t team up into a really cool version of the SRS.

There was a post-Crisis Terra-Man, but he was an eco-terrorist with no connections to outer space or the Wild West. And he got ripped alive in two in DC’s miniseries “52” anyway. Bah.

Blackrock: Our next villain deserves mention for, believe it or not, being another by-product of Superman’s “modernization” in the 70’s. They had millionaire Morgan Edge buy the Daily Planet, move it to the Galaxy Broadcasting System (GBS, get it?) building, and forcing Clark and Lois to be TV reporters!! In real life, the CBS building is nicknamed “Black Rock” and I guess that sounded too comic-booky to let pass. So, they introduced a rival company, UBC (based on NBC, obviously) whose owner was convinced GBS beat them in the ratings because they had some deal with Superman; so he ordered Prof. Peter Silverstone, a scientist working for him, to create a superhero of their own! Silverstone agreed, and secretly brainwashed his own boss! to be the new “hero”, Blackrock, who however had nothing to do with rocks and didn’t even have a black costume:

…That’s right, he was a TV-BASED character, complete with aerial-shaped weapon. His powers were the ability to turn into black particles that could “ride radio waves” to fly, and to convert radio waves into solid shapes ala Green Lantern.

Ok, this guy was lame. But I liked his powers, if anything. Thankfully, they soon ditched the TV antenna for a round object that more resembled a black rock. Blackrock also has the strange honor of being an entirely different person on each of his appearances (Silverstone’s boss, his boss’s nephew –also under Silverstone’s control- a construct made of the black particles, and even finally! Silverstone himself.)

After the Crisis, the “power stone” was reinvented as an intelligent symbiote from outer space (any similarity to Marvel’s venom is pure coincidence koff koff!) with the same powers, and has also ended up being used by different persons, most notably a hawt villainess, also named Blackrock:

The Atomic Skull: There are actually two separate villains by this name. The first was Dr. Albert Michaels, a scientist working for S.T.A.R. Labs who developed a brain tumor that caused him seizures. He agreed to work for the SKULL crime organization –one of DC’s best known hi-tech criminal organizations, at least in the 70’s- in return for an operation to save his life. The process involved implanting an atomic-powered device in his head. It didn’t cure him, but it did give him the power to project electric bolts from his head, so powerful they could stun Superman (but only while Michaels was having a seizure). Despite this he took on the costumed identity of The Atomic Skull to work for and eventually lead SKULL.

(…yeah, that makes sense. )

As The Skull, Michaels pestered Superman for a while. After the Crisis, due to some sort of continuity slip up (one of many DC committed) they both updated Atomic Skull with a new version AND also retained the Michaels version! The new A.S. was Joseph Martin, a fan of a fictional hero from a 1940’s movie serial called The Atomic Skull. When Joseph had his latent powers activated by the “metagene bomb” (used by aliens to try to depower all the heroes of Earth in DC’s “Invasion!” crossover in the 90’s) Martin coincidentally turns into a radioactive, superstrong being with transparent flesh (making his skeleton visible) and he goes mad, believing himself to be the actual Atomic Skull from the movies; he also mistakes Superman for the villain in the movie, so he attacks him. Later cured of his insanity by the demon Neron, he eventually becomes a villain anyway. This version of the Skull was also adapted for the Justice League animated TV series.

I don’t know if the two comic versions of the Skull have met.

Next: Yep, we still have a few more minor villains to cover, but (hopefully) the next post will be the last!

[GunslingerGuy]

This is a little off topic, but whatev. Is there some reason people don’t recognize Superman as Clark? They must be retarded.

[Valkyrie_Esker]

They’ve given a few explantions in the past, some decent, some downright stupid, but what it all comes down to is “Suspend your fucking disbelief on this, okay?”

[Killmore]

@Ultratech87

On the subject of ^. My sidequest through the internet earlier this morning led me to this.

It was far too hilarious not to point out.

[Wilfredo_Martinez]

Gunslinger: Like V said, at first there was no explanation, though in the Silver Age Lois Lane DID always suspect Clark and kept coming up with all kinds of zany schemes to prove it! (and Clark kept coming up with even weirder ways to disprove it- he even once got PRESIDENT KENNEDY (who knew his secret ID) to stand in for him (disguised as Clark!) Still, two canonical attempts to explain this away were: that Supes was (unconsciously) using his super-hypnotic vision (yes, that was one of his powers back then!) to keep people from noticing the resemblance; Post-Crisis, the public simply believed Superman had no secret identity at all (they thought he came to Earth as an adult and lived in his fortress) so no one looked for it. Even Luthor refused to believe it when a computer suggested the possibility, because he couldn’t see someone as godlike as Superman bothering to live among mortals! I should also mention that (at least in the Silver Age) Superman & co. just kept running into people who looked just like him, from the first Metallo to his kryptonian cousin Van-Zee. I guess he just had “one of those faces!”

OK, let’s see who’s left in my to-do list…

The Master Jailer: This villain was interesting in two ways: first, because he was a master of super-traps; and the other- because he was, in fact, a childhood friend of Clark Kent! (Sure, we already had Luthor in that role, but Luthor was retroactively inserted in Smallville, as mentioned early in this thread, while Carl Draper was invented that way from the start.)

Draper was one of those obese kids with little self-confidence who had a crush on a girl but never dared to admit it. And that girl was Lana Lang, who of course had a crush herself on Superboy, making Carl resent him, not realizing he was fellow nerd Clark. Ironically, Carl first became a villain because of Superboy; the Boy of Steel decided he needed something to “stay on edge” so he created Kator, a superpowered android programmed to challenge him. You can probably guess how well that went, and Superboy was forced to destroy it in the end; but Kator was smart enough to pass his powers and program onto Carl, and as a second Kator, he almost beat Superboy, but thankfully an emergency switch Clark had given Pa Kent (in case Kator went rogue) still worked on Carl (don’t ask me how) and he lost his powers and forgot all that had happened.

Years later, now an (actually handsome) adult, Carl had become an inventor fascinated by locks. He built a superprison to house Metropolis’ supervillains, complete with devices that drained their powers. His hope was that the publicity from the jail’s inauguration would impress Lana (whom he still pined for); unfortunately, Superman decided to make it safer by making it airborne; as a result the publicity went to him (they even renamed it Superman Island!) Infuriated, Carl used special “keys” he had invented to give himself the powers of three villains in the prison (Metallo, Parasite and Atomic Skull) and, under the costumed identity of Master Jailer, used them to capture Superman and imprison him in the “Island”. He also brought in Lana, trying to force her to be his girlfriend, but she smartly played along until she could free Supes. Draper ended a prisoner in his own jail.

(Note: Master Jailer should not be confused with The Key, a Justice League villain with a similar motif.)

Draper reappeared Post-Crisis, now called “Deathtrap”. I don’t know if he had any relationship with Lana now, but he already had a daughter, Carla. Draper creates the Deathtrap identity (smartly using a hologram so he can be in two places at once) just to prove he could capture and hold Superman… which of course he fails to do. In a humorous twist, Carla herself also becomes a villainess (“Snare”) behind her father’s back (apparently they are both unaware of each other’s secret!) and battled Superboy. Later, the spy agency CHECKMATE somehow discovers Carl’s secret and forces him to work for them as The Castellan, designing their security systems.

Silver Banshee: One of the first truly new villains invented for Superman after the Crisis, the Banshee was really Siobhan McDougal (uh, how do you pronounce that?) a member of a Scottish clan that had a secret ritual to prove who deserved to be their leader. Against the wishes of her uncle, Siobhan attempts the ritual but because of his interference, she’s dragged to some sort of Celtic netherworld. There, a being known as The Crone offers to release her if she can recover a book her father owned. She also turns the young woman into a scary being with supernatural powers: The Silver Banshee!

As you can guess, the book was in Metropolis, and Banshee started killing people to find it. And when Superman showed up to stop her- she KILLED HIM!! Well, sorta. You see, Banshee has the power to kill anyone with her scream, provided that she knows his or her correct identity. This seemed to work on Superman, but afterwards, the villainess was apparently haunted by Superman’s ghost, who was immune to her scream!! (It later turns out that Supes had survived her attack and was just in stasis for a while, and the “ghost” following her was really THE MARTAIN MANHUNTER, who was making clever use of his shape-shifting and intangibility powers to pretend to be Superman’s ghost- which not only psyched the villain out, but protected him since she didn’t know who he really was!

It turns out that the book was actually in Gotham City and Batman finds it and gives it to Superman. He takes it back to the Scottish island where the whole thing began, and The Crone takes it, dragging Banshee AND her uncle back to the underworld. (note: The Crone may have really been Blaze- see below.)

For a while, Banshee existed as an actual ghost, possessing people in an attempt to escape her damnation, but later comes back to life (as does everybody in comics sooner or later). She joined Luthor’s villain group. She was also seen in some episodes of the Justice League cartoon.

Silver Banshee is an interesting villain, but her power makes her a little too deadly. Not to mention Supes is already too weak to magic. She makes a better villain for other heroes.

Lord Satanus and Blaze: Two of the many demon lords in the DC Universe. They’re actually half-human brother and sister (their father being the wizard SHAZAM, the guy who gave Captain Marvel his powers!! He was tricked by a demon in disguise in his younger days.)

Although I mention them together, they are not allies, but rather rivals, as they try to steal human souls and gain enough power to rule Hell. Possibly because they are half-human, they come and go from the infernal realms as they please. They get involved with Superman mostly because Satanus has a thing for Metropolis (in fact posing as a local millionaire) and once even helped save the city! (after Luthor demolished it while he was dying.) Blaze, as mentioned above, once managed to ensnare the just-“dead” Superman’s soul (something about her ruling the Realm of Souls Who Refused to Accept their Deaths or something) but he was saved by Pa Kent’s soul.

Recently the two siblings did join forces to take over DC’s version of Hell from Neron, but Blaze (of course) betrayed her brother at the last minute, and now rules by herself.

Note: Lord Satanus may be a post-Crisis version of Lord Satanis, a sorcerer from the future who fought Superman a few times and also had to duel a female sorceress, though in his case it was his wife, Syrene. I sincerely hope this isn’t true because going from Husband-And-Wife to Brother-And-Sister is pretty… icky, even if in both cases they HATED each other.

Conduit: Ok, this guy is a REALLY special case. Like Master Jailer, he’s someone from Clark Kent’s past: Kenny Braverman, a boy born in Smallville at the exact moment Superman’s spaceship landed! Somehow, this affected him (perhaps because of the kryptonite chunk in the ship? Yeah, I know how the Smallville TV show has many people gaining powers from kryptonite, but in the comics that was rare.) Kenny became a star athlete but always overshadowed by- Clark Kent!? (Yep, post-Crisis, Clark was no wimp until he moved to Metropolis and had to hide that he was Superman. Note that his powers grew gradually, so he wasn’t cheating.) Kenny’s own father made things worse by focusing too much on his son’s “failures”.

Kenny grew up to become a CIA agent but had one of his missions also screwed up by Clark! He resented him so much that, when his powers manifested (he had to wear a special suit to contain and focus them- thus the name) he tried to kill Clark! This leads to his accidental discovery that Clark was really Superman; this drove him even crazier since he was convinced that Clark had always been cheating. He starts stalking Clark, threatening his friends and loved ones (did I mention he had kryptonite radiation powers?) and in the end duels the hero, but his own powers overloaded and (conveniently enough) killed him.

Kenny also appeared in episodes of Superman: TAS, so I kept wondering if he would ever turn into conduit, but he never did.

Kenny is the anti-Superman: from his origin to his powers to his attitude to the way he was raised. Although it was a bit gimmicky how his origin and Clark’s are connected, he was an interesting character, but by having him learn Superman’s secret they ended up needing to kill him off. Kenny also filled the part of the evil-character-from-Clark’s-past that Luthor and Master Jailer had before the Crisis.

Livewire: Livewire is a case of a character going from the 90’s Animated Superman series to the comics rather than the other way around. Livewire was a female “shock jock” who had it in for Superman for some reason; after being hit by a lightning bolt, she turned into a pale-skinned, blue haired person with electrical powers. She then decides to become a villainess;

It should be noted that Livewire and her powers (especially the ability to turn into electricity) resemble the powers Superman himself had for a while! In (yet another) publicity stunt for the Superman titles, they actually had some kind of accident change his powers (and costume) for about a year’s worth of comics (he still called himself Superman, though.) It turned out that he was secretly hosting an alien energy being, Kismet, who later would find another host, a young woman, who became the heroine “Strange Visitor.” Livewire might be a reference to this storyline. Also, note that Lightning Lad (of the Legion of Superheroes) went for a few years under the name “Livewire” as well, and he has a sister with similar powers who also kinda looks like the animated Livewire.)

Livewire proved popular enough (probably because Superman has so few female foes) that they actually teamed her up with Batman’s own female fatale duo, Harvey Queen and Poison Ivy, to battle- Supergirl and Batgirl! I’ll bet that was a popular episode with teenage boys!

Livewire was eventually introduced in the comics (where it was revealed she already had the latent (metahuman) ability to manipulate electricity, but it was only when hit by the bolt that it fully activated, which makes more sense.) She actually helps save the world from an alien who came to Earth to steal all the metahumans.

Manchester Black: This guy deserves mention for being created basically to help prove to modern fans why Superman, with his old mores and values, still rocks. Apparently based on a member of the Authority (a popular independent comic superhero group famous for literally busting heads to get the job done) as were the rest of his team, Manchester was a British guy with tremendous psionic powers. His team, The Elite, went around the world killing villains, saying it was a more effective way of handling them and deriding Superman for his moral limitations.

Finally, after much prodding, Superman challenges all of them to a battle (that gets televised around the world). Shockingly, Supes then proceeds to KILL ALL THE ELITE MEMBERS, ONE BY ONE, saving Manchester for last!! Only then he reveals he had only pretended to kill the others, using his powers in clever ways. But he makes his point: if he’d WANTED to kill them all, he could have. Is that really what they –and the World- wanted him to be? The World was very happy he wasn’t.

Manchester however, only got angry at the hero, and came back later. He was dead set on proving that Superman was a fake… instead, after failing to break Superman even after trapping him in an illusory world where his worst nightmares (such as Lois dying) came true, Manchester realized HE was the real villain, and committed suicide. (Another case of a Superman villain who had to die ‘cuz he knew the hero’s secret identity.)

Manchester has a sister, Vera, with similar powers, who becomes a hero and joins a branch of the Justice League to redeem her brother’s name.

Superboy Prime: Saving the worst for last- sorry but this guy just pisses me off. Or his current version does anyway.

Hark back to 1985 and the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Since part of the plan was to have every character ever published by DC to appear in that story, especially if they were going to be erased from the continuity, someone decided Superboy had to appear as well. Except, Superboy was Superman when he was a boy, so, wouldn’t that meant he had to know the Crisis was coming? The way they got around it: they introduced Superboy as coming from another Parallel Earth… and for some reason, they chose Earth-Prime, the Earth without heroes (or villains) I mentioned above under Ultraa. Turns out the Clark Kent of that world had never developed superpowers for some reason, until the chaos of the Crisis activated them. Superman ran into the fledgling Superboy and actually took him under his wing, motivated by his recent loss of Supergirl (killed by the series’ villain, the Anti-Monitor.) Superboy-Prime actually helps the Superman from Earth-2 to kill the Anti-Monitor, but appears to be killed by the cosmic being’s death-throes. In fact, the two Supermen were rescued by Alexander Luthor (son of the Luthor and Lois of Earth-3) whose dimensional powers bring them to another dimension they could “never escape, but which was a paradise”; he’d already brought the Lois of Earth-2 (Superman-2’s wife) there. Obviously, the writer’s intent was to give these characters a better ending than just “killed off” or “erased from history” like so many other characters in the Crisis were.

Zip to 2005: In the sequel, Infinite Crisis, the four characters mentioned above return from their “limbo” to help fix the new universe that had replaced the Multiverse at the end of the first Crisis. Except it turned out that they WERE behind a lot of the terrible things that were happening (except for Superman and Lois, who didn’t know what Alex and Superboy were really up to.) Apparently years of living in “paradise”, able to see the real world but not affect it, drove them insane. Superboy ends up fighting several heroes AND KILLING THEM, mostly by tearing them apart with his own hands! He even KILLS THE ORIGINAL SUPERMAN!!! (Lois had died just before of old age apparently.) Alex meanwhile manages to recreate the universe but is killed by the “real” Luthor and the Joker. Superboy-Prime is depowered and held prisoner by the Green Lantern Corps.

I hate, hate, HATE this series. It was basically a big “You though we were REALLY going to make the DC Universe less dark, didn’t you? HA-HA!” to fans like me. And it started the use of the gratuitous dismemberments, decapitations and other gross stuff that still show up unpredictably in DC Comics, and are the reason I don’t buy their comics anymore. As for Superboy Prime? He’s now back to being ultra-powerful (remember, he has the same power levels that Superman had BEFORE the Crisis, so he can literally shatter worlds!) AND he’s all-out evil. And yes, he has killed more people. I blame writer Geoff Jones (who wrote Infinite Crisis and keeps bringing his perversion of Superboy Prime back) and DC President Dan Didio for allowing this to happen. After that wonderful finale 20 years ago, they bring back the characters just so Superman-2, THEIR FIRST SUPERHERO EVER, can be beat to death? These people have no respect for the characters. Or their fans. >:(

Note: Superboy-Prime should not be confused with Ultraman, the evil Superman from Earth-3.

….AAANND that’s all, folks! Oh of course there’s tons of Superman villains I haven’t mentioned (he’s been published since the 40’s after all!) but I think I covered all the meaningful (or interesting) ones. Your opinion may of course differ.

After writing this article, I can only conclude that the reason so many of them are so poorly known is that they haven’t been handled well, or given appropriate publicity. Just look at all the Batman villains who have appeared in his movies: sometimes two or more at a time! But with Superman, it’s ALWAYS Luthor (to the point of making Emo Luthor a fan-favorite character in teenage Superman’s own TV show!!) Seriously if they had bothered on using more characters from the comics in the Superman movies, they might be more popular. (At least the 90’s cartoon did a good job of introducing many of them to the younger generations.)

Hope you have enjoyed this retrospective. I certainly had fun writing it, And reading your comments! (You are welcome to post more here if you wish. ) Until next time….