Rogues Gallery (Fall 2017)

Darkseid comic Feburary 1998.

    Created by Jack Kirby, and first appearing as a cameo in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #134, dated November 1970, Darkseid is a fictional supervillain appearing in many of DC Comics comic books. Originally, “Kirby had designed Darkseid to reflect the fascism and totalitarian hold Hitler had over Nazi Germany” (Warren). Darkseid is the tyrannical rule of the alien planet Apokolips. “He commands a legion of powerful creatures known as Parademons and his court consists of some of the most depraved, sadistic and frighteningly powerful beings I the universe” (DC). Darkseid’s goal is to conquer the universe and eliminate all free will. To this end, he seeks to discover the Anti-Life Equation, which gives its user complete domination over the thoughts and emotions of all beings in the universe. He believes that this equation can be found on Earth, because he believes that humans possess fragments of the Anti-Life Equation. His goal causes him to clash frequently with many superheroes of the DC Universe, most commonly Superman and the Justice League. “His extraordinary physical strength, intelligence, godlike powers and army of Parademons make him not only a threat to our world and its heroes, but to every world within reach. He’s no less than the single most dangerous villain” (DC).

     Darkseid has many different powers and abilities, including his main power: Omega Beams, which are a form of energy that he fires from his eyes or hands, and is capable of erasing living objects from existence. Darkseid travels throughout the universe via boom tubes, a form of teleportation used by residents of Apokolips. With all of his powers, Darkseid is a very formidable opponent to Superman. 

Bizzaro entry from the Supervillian Book: the evil side of comics and Hollywood.

     Bizarro, Superman’s opposite, some may say that he is, “a funhouse distortion with more than a few cracks marring its surface.” like Daniel Wallace who wrote, DC COMICS SUPER-VILLAINS THE COMPLETE VISUAL HISTORY. Bizarre was first created by OTTO BINDER and GEORGE PAPP. His first debut was in October of 1958 in SUPERBLY 68. He was then issued in ACTION COMICS #254 in July of 1959. The first Bizarro was one of Professor Dalton’s demonstrations of his duplication ray. The experiment duplicated an imperfect version of Superboy, for he called Bizarre, but the duplicate mistook him for saying Bizarro, so he kept that name. This duplicate has his own set of special powers. Wallace says in his book, “Bizarro is able to match Superman in raw power, but his special abilities are reversed: freeze vision, flame breath, and X-ray vision that only lets him see through lead.” Unlike Superman, Bizarro is strengthened by Green Kryptonite but will be killed by Blue Kryptonite. Bizarro was brought back as Lex Luthor’s attempt to, “Recreate and perfect the duplicate machine.” says Eto of ComicVine. He hoped that he could recreate Superman so that he would have his own version of the, “Man of Steel” to do his dirty work. Unfortunately, Lex Luthor got the same result as the first time, creating another Bizarro. He falls in love with Lois Lane and goes to create his own Lois Lane. According to Daniel Wallace, in the “Escape from Bizarro World” it costarred other Bizarro duplicate characters. Bizarro was lost in a world he knew nothing about, the other Bizarro duplicates added a scene. 

The Last Days of Krypton front cover.

     General Zod first appeared in Adventure Comics #283 (1961) and was created by Robert Bernstein and George Papp. “General Dru-Zod is a former Kryptonian military general and an enemy to Superman” (DC). He was exiled for treason against his people, he survived the destruction of Krypton and swore revenge against the son of Jor-El: Superman. Zod was the military director of the Kryptonian Space Center, the space program was shut down after the destruction of the moon Wegthor. Zod tried to take over Krypton while this was happening. “Zod created an army of robotic duplicates of himself, all bearing a resemblance to Bizarro. He was sentenced to the phantom zone for his crimes” (DC). The Phantom Zone is prison that the occupants can’t die or get old but they can see everything that happens outside the Phantom Zone. General Zod always has his companions with him, Faora and Kru-El. The first time that General Zod arrived at Earth, he found out his powers and started to kill innocent people. The Justice League arrived shortly after Zod started to kill people and Superman decided to keep Zod in the Fortress of Solitude’s jail. Although General Zod and Superman both have the same powers as each other, Zod is far more skilled in fighting than Superman. This is due to the fact that General Zod has had plenty of military experience compared to Superman that has no military experience. General Zod is a worthy enemy to Superman and is most likely the only enemy that could kill Superman without using Kryptonite.

From the Death of Superman book.

     In 1992, DC Comics shocked the world when they released the iconic Superman storyline centered around the death of its most famous superhero: Superman. Doomsday, created by Dan Jurgens, first appeared in Superman: Man of Steel #17 as a cameo. “Doomsday was originally created on Krypton as part of a deranged scientist’s quest to create the perfect hunter” (DC). The creature was subjected to cruel experiments – killed and cloned thousands upon thousands of times. This resulted in allowing Doomsday’s body to adapt natural defenses against whatever bests him. Thus, Doomsday became an unstoppable, nearly indestructible creature of violence that only knew hate and sought to kill everything and everyone. “Doomsday possesses an immeasurable level of strength and invulnerability beyond those of even Superman” (DC).

     The “Death of Superman” storyline begins with a gloved first punching through a steel wall at the end of Superman: Man of Steel #17. Once Doomsday is above ground in the following issue, he begins to destroy things around him, including killing a bird and snapping the neck of a deer. The Justice League arrives, but are promptly defeated. Most notable about this encounter was the fact that Doomsday was able to defeat the Justice League with one arm tied behind his back, because of the chains used to restrain him. Superman arrives and fights Doomsday. At the conclusion of the arc, Doomsday is defeated, and Superman, while lying in the arms of Lois Lane, succumbs to his wounds and dies (Jurgens). The Superman stories would later go on a three-month hiatus, before returning. 

"Lex Luthor: Man of Steel"

     Lex Luthor is Superman's greatest enemy who looks to destroy superman in every way possible. He is known as a man with tremendous wealth who uses his financial advantages to gain universal power. While he commits evil acts in every way possible, he always believes that his actions are for the greater good. Along with successful conquering in the business world, Luthor also dominated in politics, eventually becoming the president of the United States. Luthor continued to gain power after discovering a planet called Lexor, where he is most victorious and praised by Lexor's citizens. Luthor is also a man of playing constant mind games, constantly manipulating citizens that he is the one true hero. Many times, when fighting, Luthor wears his iconic warsuit. However, the warsuit has failed him quite a few times by being destructive and harming his mental and physical health. Luthor was not always a villain and actually started off as just an intelligent man of society. But, after becoming bald from a tragic encounter with Superboy, he began using his intelligence towards malicious acts. In the Lex Luthor: Man of Steel comic page presented, It gives a visual look at how much this villain really did physically resemble a normal human being. But, his altered mindset towards Superman and twisted mentality towards what he believes is good and evil is what makes Lex Luthor a villain. 

     Brainiac is one of Superman’s most evil Super-villains. From shrinking and stealing Kandor from Superman’s home planet, Krypton, to terrorizing planet Earth and Lois Lane Superman has his hands full with Brainiac’s disastrous tendencies. Brainiac is depicted as an extraterrestrial cyborg. The name Brainiac, was originally depicted as a combination of the word “brain” and “eniac” a term concerning early computers, but later it was revealed as a combination of “brain” and “maniac.” Either way readers or fans analyze the name, he is both a maniac and a eniac almost combined. Brainiac gives Superman a challenge every time they encounter one another because Brainiac has strong computer powers which allow him to absorb trillions of amounts of data in order to “try” to defeat Superman. “Try” being the key word here because although Brainiac contains the power to manipulate computer systems and use them against Superman, he never prevails. In Superman: Brainiac Attacks, Brainiac finds himself in a secret lab absorbing government secrets and skills that even Superman himself does not know. He threatens planet earth with missiles and lasers, and every other weapon that he can put his hands on. Brainiac is Superman’s second Archenemy after Lex Luther because of these abilities which potentially overwhelm Superman. This trend continues throughout the analysis of all Super-villains because each and every villain contains special skills and secrets they use to penetrate and destroy the one and only Superman, but no matter their efforts, similar to Brainiac, Superman will always come away with his pride, his integrity, and preserving justice as he always does.