Superman Through the Ages! Forum

I haven't seen any interesting supervillain in the Superman comics since Euphor (1982!).
Ruin is an exception, and maybe a couple of others, but I can't believe that Superman hasn't met great enemies in the last 25 years circa.

And those names...
Doomsday? Blaze? Massacre? Names which tell everything about those characters. Sigh.

Is creating new valid foes so difficult today?

I think Manchester Black and The Elite were very interesting, and they chalenged the Man of Steel in an intelligent way. There is also Solar from DC One Million.

I agree with everything you posted. Superman does need new, credible enemies.

Indeed. The reason Black was such an effective villain was because he was basically the Iron Age in human form. Too bad they killed him off...

Superman causing him to cry was great.

Yes, the Superman of pre-1982 was better, not least because of the villains: Luthor, Brainiac, Terra-Man, Mxy, The Phantom Zone Villains, Metallo, Prankster, Toyman, Ultra-Humanite, Parasite, Kryptonite Man, CW Saturn, Toybee, Darkseid, Xviar [Mr. Xavier], Amalak, and the rest:

http://superman.nu/wiki/index.php/Category:Villains

Post '82?  I don't envy you your choices, although there were some great bad guys right until Crisis, including Vandal Savage (under Wolfman).  I think one of the big regrets that Superman fans have is that his Rogue's Gallery, while awesome, does not hold the same level of interest that Btaman's or the Flash's do, for whatever the reason.  The vast majority of Superman villains were one-offs, it seems to me, and the Bronze Age under Bates and Maggin seemed to favour this formula. Wolfman and Perez created a better Rogue's Gallery for the Titans in the 80s than Superman ever got (although a bit gruesome for my current super-refined sensibilities: Brother Blood, Trigon, Brotherhood, Terminator --very 80s).

Iron Age?

Morrison's JLA villains were great (although maybe a bit too much for one man, however super he may be).

Superman's classic enemies are a great rogue gallery. So, if authors don't create new good enemies, I hope to see the old guys treated well. I'd like to see again Euphor, the Master Jailer(already re-introduced, see "Ending battle", 2002) and the robotic Brainiac... I think Brainiac hasn't used well in the post-Crisis era, except for some stories.
Glad to see Luthor with his armor again.

I haven't really been following the contemporary series that much since the early 90s, but I rather liked the revamped Terra-Man, the eco-terrorist who used some kind of super-science. I think Jerry Ordway redesigned the character. The Eradicator was a pretty good idea, but not very well brought off in my opinion, and they went on to make it far too complicated.

Apart from that, I can't really say any of the villains in later times have had much impact on me.

I think it would be great if we could see Supes handle some of the Marvel villians. Not that I think that a calaboration like that will happen....ever. But still, wouln't it be great entertainment?

And not only the villians, bit the heroes as well. And I'm not talking about mightiest hero of one universe going up against the other, ie Supes vs Hulk, which was crap anaway, cause there's no way Hulk could put Supes down considering the comparible power levels of each. The fact that Hulk is 7,9 or 15 ft tall and weighs a 1000 lbs and looks meaner than a T-Rex, doesn't make more powerful. Supes's power level and ability-range, if you compare it realistically, far outweights that of the Hulk's. Problem is; you leave the outcome to the fans and the result can be unrealistic. Then again, Marvel wouln't want to lose and nor would DC.

Anaway, I thought it would be interesting to see Supes go up against the  X-men or use Iron Man to light Wolverine's cigar. What about Supes & Sub-Mariner? Any thoughts on this?

The Animated Series did justice to Superman's rogues gallery. (I don't like Lobo, but the Mxyzptlk episode was great.) I just wish the comics could do the same thing, or even some of the live-action shows.

I'd say Superman has gotten a few terrific enemies since 1982.

Pre-Reboot:

The Earth-1 Colonel Future, that was named after Edmond Hamilton (!). I really, really dug that guy's rocket pack.

What was the name of that one villain that wanted Superman dead because he was an alien that was allergic to superpowers? Now there was an interesting motivation.

Then of course, we have Vartox, who, while not an "enemy," was nonetheless most of the time an "antagonist" as a result of his tendency to flip out.

And I agree with TELLE about Wolfman's use of Vandal Savage, particularly that story where he used his greatest strength: his patience and endless cunning, and his near endless resources, to turn the whole world against Superman. Though I was a little miffed by the ending where Superman undoes his whole plan because he reveals his speech on national television. Wasn't that how the "Eight is Enough" kids got to keep their house?


Post-Reboot:

Maxima. Don't let her eighties creation date fool you: Maxima was a product of the Silver Age. She was an outer space queen with mind powers and fins on her chest, whose motivation is breeding. This is some MYSTERY IN SPACE type stuff right here!



Agreed. Superman's best when he's fighting enemies that have a sense of humor, and many Marvel bad guys have that. The ones that would work the best are the ones LEAST like the DC foes that Superman has at home. A few possible suggestions:

The Absorbing Man.
There are so many unique metals native to the DC Universe it would be interesting to see the Absorbing Man try them. For instance, what if he touched a piece of Red Kryptonite? How about X-Kryptonite?

Namor.
He'd be a great villain, because of one reason: Namor ISN'T wrong. The human race HAS done a lot of really thoughless stuff when it comes to the world's oceans. As Superman is a morally sensitive person, fighting him would mean he would have to see Namor's view at least in part. He'd fight both Namor, and whatever it is that caused Namor to attack the surface world to begin with.

There's been some interesting enemies popularized in non-comics media since 1982 -- Tempus, Mercy Graves, Lionel Luthor.  There's been some in the comics -- Solaris, Manchester Black and cast, Ambush Bug.

And then there's Dumbsday...

Personally, I had always liked Silver Banshee, especially in Superman (second series) #17.
And Solaris the Tyrant Sun remains as my favorite Post-Crisis Superman enemy.

The only time I ever liked Doomsday was in Justice League Unlimited. Otherwise he's pretty uninteresting.

I think it's essential that Superman has NEW enemies as well as the classic ones (Luthor, Brainiac, Bizarro, ect). I'm looking forward to the foes that Morrison adds to the mythos.

Curious, I went to the Grand Comic Book Database and looked up the villains in the Bronze Age Action Comics.  Very few new costumed supervillains or recurring adversaries of any stripe in evidence.  The best new characters of the Bronze Age are the WGBS supporting characters, and new super-friends like Captain Strong (really, an extended joke), Vartox and Superwoman.  There are a few super-mischief-makers as well.

The best Bronze Age-specific villain remains Terra-Man, in my opinion.

Here's the Action list.  It is incomplete --someone really needs to finish indexing that series --many characters and plot synopsis are missing.

Action
395-dec1970 Althera
396-jan71 the Seekers  
400-may71 Gregor Nagy ("the Changeling")
-Brainiac; Yllura; Arvor
404 -sep71 caesar
406-no71 Van-Tarr
409 -feb72 Shalox
411 apr72 -Titus J. Person
412 may72-Josdin
413 jun72 -Dr. Mystir (really Brainiac)
415 aug72-The Metropolis Monster
417 oct72 -Brainiac; Lex Luthor; the Marauder; Grax (Crime-Lords)
418 nov72 -Brainiac and Lex Luthor. Also: the Marauder
420 jan73-Towbee
424 jun73 -grodd
425 jul73 -super-moa
426 aug73 -terra-man
428 oct73 -luthor
430 dec73-chameleon creature
431 jan74-chameleon creature
432 feb74 -toyman, toyman II
433 mar74 -Noam Smythe
437 jul74 valdemar & effron
439 sep74 -carnox
441 nov74 -the Weather Wizard
443 jan75 -queen bee (zazalla) Brainiac (villain); Clayface (villain); The Harpy (villain); Merlyn (villain); Ocean Master (villain); Sinestro (villain); Chronos (villain); Gorilla Grodd (villain);
444 feb75-Sinestro (villain); Zoyoz (villain); Kydyk (villain);
445 mar75 the Superman Revenge Squad
454 dec75 toymanII
455 jan76 -junkman
456 feb76 the shark
457 mar76 -Whirlicane
458 apr76 -blackrock
459 may76 -blackrock
460 -jun76 -mxy, Karb-Brak, an alien from Andromeda
462 aug76 -costumed supervillain????
463 sep76 -ditto
464 oct76 -pile driver
465 nov76 -luthor
466 dec76 luthor
468 feb77 terra-man
469 mar77 terra-man
470 apr77 terra-man
471 may77 -phantom zone villains
472 jun77 -pzv
473 jul77 -pzv
474 aug77 dr light
475 sep77 Vs. Vartox, 1st; with Karb-brak
476 oct77 vartox
477 nov77 land-lords of earth
479 jan78 giant from the golden atom
480-83 feb78-may79 amazo
484 jun78 earth2 wizard
487 sep78 microwave man
488 oct78 microwave man
489 jan79 brainiac
495 may79 ultimate warrior
502 dec79 galactic golem
503 jan80 The Astounding Kolzer
504 feb80 mystery marauder
505 mar80 jorlan
506 apr80 joplan; orn-zu
510 aug80 luthor
511 sep80 luuthor. terra-man & ???
512 oct80 luthor
513 nov80 luthor
514 dec80 luthor brainiac
515 jan81 vandal savage, luthor
516 feb81 vandal savage
517 mar81 nemrul
519 may81 "cosmic hunter"?
521 jul81 vixen & mule
522 aug81 clockwork man
523 sep81 aliens
525 nov81 neutron
526 dec81 neutron, HIVE
527 jan82 Lord Satanis (intro, villain); Syrene (intro, villain)
528 feb82 -530 apr82 brainiac
531 may82 Frankenstein's Monster
532 june82-jul82 533 HIVE  
534 aug82 Lord Satanis; Syrene
535-536 sep-oct82 the mole
537-538 nov-dec82 jackhammer
539-541 jan-mar83 Syrene (villain); Lord Satanis (villain)
542 apr83 vandal savage
543 may83 neutron vandal savage
544 jun83 new Luthor and Brainiac
545-6 jul-aug83 brainiac
547 sept83 planeteer
548 oct83 pz villains
549 nov83 zod squad
555 may84 parasite
557 jul84 terra-man
559 sep84 yellow peri
561 nov84 toyman
562 dec84 Queen Bee (villain); King Alexander (villain)
563 jan85 mxy
564 feb85 master jailer
566 apr85 "sea hag"
567 may85 yellow peri
573 nov85 j wilbur wolfingham
575 jan86 intellex
577 mar86 caitiff the vampire
578 apr86 vandal savage
583 mxy, legion of supervillains, brainiac, luthor, kryptonite man

Was just reading a silver ager about a space pirate named Arm-lak whoc eated foes of the 4 elements - earth wind air fire. They almost won too!

Was that Arm-Lak's only app?

That was one of my favorite stories...Amalak, the Space Pirate re-appeared in "Who Took the Super Out of Superman?"...

Superman's new rouge's galley members:
Solaris the Super Sun
Livewire

Now they just need a gravity weilder.

I called him ARM-lak didnt I? Hows a guy who's missing an arm even come close? :roll:

Well, for a deadly space pirate with a fearsome power over earth, air, fire, and water, he does spend a lot of time passed out in that story...then he wakes up, tries to control the beings and screws 'em over... 8)

The Element Enemies was a good example of how Superman could show vulnerability in the high Silver Age, the power of fire and radiation bouncing off Clark's body de-powered him for the whole story...

Up!
Or should I tell "Up, up and away!"?

As told before, I don't like so much the villains created in the last 25 years circa, especially in the post-Crisis era, but I admit that the old ones re-created from 1986 on have been often great.

An example? I really like Zod from the OW@W storyline. Probably my favorite version of the character!

Other characters weren't so lucky: except for "Panic in the sky" I didn't like how Brainiac has been used in the last 19 years (but his Ming-like look was great!).

Brainiac definitely needs to be revamped. Of all the Superman villains I think he was hurt most in the post-Crisis DCU. I'm hoping that Johns and Busiek use the character effectively in their run (and hopefully fix his history).

The only thing that bugged me about the JLU version was he was Kryptonian, not Coluan.  Otherwise, I thought he was the perfect incarnation of Brainiac: highly intelligent, coldly logical, disembodied, inhuman intellect who only used humanoid forms to interact with the world, and who could always come back from "certain destruction"...