Superman is probably the most famous superhero ever. He has been on countless covers and headlined scores of titles and narratives in his fantastic 80 years of history. There have been a lot of live-action portrayals of the hero, and the latest have been Henry Cavill on the big screen and Tyler Hoechlin on the television screens who have put on the legendary blue suit and red cape. Superman’s quest is about truth, justice and the American way of life. He might himself be a refugee from another planet that died, Superman has taken it upon himself to be the champion of humanity. However what if he was different? Given the kind of powers that he has, he can definitely be the greatest villain ever. Here are seven alternate Superman versions that are much darker than you might have imagined.
OVERMAN
It is a fact that when we do alternate versions of heroes, we often imagine them as Nazis. Since they were evil, they would naturally be the worst villains ever. In this version, scientists created two beings to compete with Overman, one of them was Overgirl and they fell in love. The other one became a monster. Overman only had a lightning bolt instead of S on his chest.
SUPERDEMON
Etrigan the Demon landed on Earth-13 when his planet Kamelot was about to get destroyed. Upon reaching there, he became a member of the League of Shadows. Eventually, he comes across a horde of vampires that had previously overtaken his home planet. He is called Superdemon because he wanted to keep himself unidentified. Later Superdemon fights the Vampire Ultraman.
SUPERMAN: KAL
Gotham By Gaslight reimagined Batman to be a Victorian era character, but, Superman was given a medieval touch in Superman: Kal. In this story, his Kryptonian pod crashed into the medieval era, and Superman was raised as ‘Kal’ who worked as a blacksmith. Baron Luther wears an armor suit fabricated from the wreckage of the Kryptonian ship. He tried to force ‘Loisse’ to sleep with him and killed her in the act. This resulted in a violent rebellion by Kal against the Baron.
CYBORG SUPERMAN
Hank Henshaw’s brain was put into a robotic body after a space accident, he chose to become Superman during “Reign of the Supermen,” claiming that he was a rebuilt Superman after the battle with Doomsday. However, the real plan of Henshaw was to blow up Metropolis with a nuclear missile.
Henshaw is revealed to be a fake, and he battles numerous heroes. He eventually gets destroyed due to his own mechanisms.
SUPERMAN: THE DARK SIDE
In this story, Superman’s Kryptonian pod lands on Darkseid’s planet Apokolips, and he is raised as one of the New Gods. He wears a black armor, an Apokoliptian helmet, and weapon. Instead of the famous S, his chest has two lightning bolts reminding us of the SS symbol of the Nazis. Here is a Superman who shares Darkseid’s idea of eternal war, and dedicates himself to the war against New Genesis. This is a purely evil form of Kal-El.
ULTRAMAN
Ultraman is the Earth-3 version of Kal-El, who is a member of the Crime Syndicate of America. We know how Clark is impacted by Kryptonite, but, Ultraman becomes even stronger when he is near Kryptonite. Also, unlike Clark, Ultraman is not impacted by magic. In The New 52, Ultraman killed numerous magical Gods. However, he is hurt by sunlight and is basically a night bird.
INJUSTICE
DC’s famous game Injustice: Gods Among Us is not only a fantastic superhero fight game but, an amazing storyline that has expanded a new universe of characters. The story shows Joker drug Superman into believing Lois was Doomsday and he flew her into the space, killing her. Upon realizing the truth, he savagely kills The Joker and sets off a nuke that destroys Metropolis. He then figures out that he could restore global peace by becoming the dictator.
