Superman is in two books a month, and therefore has a
larger than normal rogues gallery but no Framing tokens. The Superman comic
focuses on his life in Metropolis, while Action comics covers his adventures in
time, space and around the globe.
"Superman" Comic villains:
Bruno Mannheim and Intergang: A persistent and growing
problem in Metropolis, backed by advanced technologies of unknown (to Superman,
at any rate) origin. Readers are aware that Brainiac has managed to insert
technology into the brilliantly benevolent mind of Professor Emily Hamilton,
technology which manifests as a separate villainous personality: The Atomic
Skull. This alter-ego hides its existence from Professor Hamilton, and has
created a secret alien weapons facility in a hyperspace pocket from which she
anonymously supplies Mannheim and others as part of some as-yet-unrevealed
Brainiac master plan. The Atomic Skull has not yet directly confronted the Man
of Steel.
Mxyzptlk: the imp has twice been banished by Superman's
cleverness, but it's only a matter of time before the enigmatic entity
returns...
Minutia: A product of intergang's technology who has
since moved off on her own, minutia can shrink things. Anything. A lot. On one
level this lets her have a variety of high tech tools and weapons at dust size
on her body so that she can unlimber almost any gadget she needs, but that
pales before her ability to really screw with things. There are plenty of plots
where whole scientific complexes are missing because she shrunk them and took
them. Needing to escape Superman she lobs out a school bus full of kids that
had gone missing earlier that day. An entire district of metropolis is held
hostage under a drop of water. Superman has to fight his way out of an anthill,
or is trapped between the molecules of an electromagnet.
Recluse: This spider-themed villain has a grudge against
the daily planet, or superman, or both. His four artificial spider arms are
kind of a poor man's doc ock, but the top two fire darts or clouds or sprays of
varying toxicities of spider venom (that might even be enough to hurt superman
if he ingest it or gets it into his bloodstream) and the bottom two fire a
webbing like glue too strong for Superman to break without extreme effort. He's
the villain who shows up and inadvertently threatens Clark's secret ID, because
everyone in the Planet officers gets hit why isn't he effected? Or he and Lois
get glued their hands together during the initial assault and he has to resolve
the situation without giving up the secret ID. Or Recluse lays his hands on one
grain of Kryptonite and glues it to Superman.
Remus: the requisite Magic villain, Remus is the ultimate
cursed werewolf. Fast, strong and tough enough for his magical claws to hurt
Superman, he appeared once every full moon to hunt Metropolis. After their
first two encounters Superman managed to discern his blameless secret identity,
Hunter Moon, and work out a scientific cure that seemed to work, but now Hunter
turns into Remus on just the 13th full moon of the year ten times more powerful
than he was before, able to slash Superman's flesh and Hunter has gone into
hiding, the magical curse masking him from Super-senses. If Clark is going to
find him again it will take real investigative reporting. Like Mxyzptlk he is
now an occasional problem, but a very real one.
Chimera: an early and now permanently defeated Superman
villain. A criminal mastermind who worked independently from Intergang, Jackie
Reynolds, ran 'the worst gang of Suicide Slum', and was renowned as being 'the
toughest guy' in Metropolis until Superman showed up. He was always legally
protected from his crimes, but the need to best Superman overwhelmed him and he
partook of with ever more bizarre mutation devices and serums giving him an
array of one-off powers (kinda like Jimmy Olson) until in Superman #40 he takes
them all at once has a massive blowout battle with Superman that ends with
Reynold's heart giving out.
Lex Luthor, philanthropist, billionaire family man, and
technological genius, was mayor of Metropolis and a key ally of the superheroes
during the 2012 crisis. His wife and daughter died as part of the massive
collateral damage during one of Superman's battles of that fateful year. He
(and his equally brilliant teenage son) are consumed by anger and resentment
over this. Superman is becoming aware of Lex's vengeful machinations (when he
determined that the Metallo cyborg had previously been Luthor's brother-in-law
and head of security), he has no legally actionable evidence, and is somewhat
conflicted about how best to expose/deal with this threat without causing
further strain to Lex's son and the still-recovering Metropolis community.
Action Comic Villains:
Brainiac: This hyper-intellect is dispersed across a network
of almost unfathomably advanced AI technology. Its interactions with (mostly)
humanoid sentients began as a learning subroutine, but Brainiac's serial
manifestations in green humanoid form have led to an "addiction" for
a single humanoid perspective and emotional personality. Superman has met
several of these Brainiac avatars, and each has had a slightly different
appearance, agenda, and demeanor (although all have been manipulative of
humanoid life and disdainful of anything that might be considered morality).
Bizarro: Pushing the extreme limits of his speed to
return to Earth from a distant corner of space, Superman found himself in a
distorted, somewhat nightmarish reflection of his adopted planet, complete with
a similarly mad version of himself as its champion. This Bizarro being was
belligerent and irrational, if not exactly evil, and his following of Superman
back to "reality" nearly ended in interplanetary disaster as he
attempted to "fix" things in terms of his otherworldly sensibilities.
He is banished and his odd world sealed off for now, but his raging vows to
return and "save" Superman and this galaxy have the Man of Steel
convinced that it is only a matter of time before Bizarro finds a way to
return.
Mongul/War World: Superman's encounter with an
expansionist, militaristic, interplanetary empire led to his capture and
gladiatorial enslavement, and only his defeating of the Emperor Mongul in
single combat was enough to buy a decree that Earth and its neighboring systems
would be spared. How long this decree will be honored is uncertain, and the Man
of Steel has countered several "unsanctioned" actions by Mongul's
"rogue commanders."
Cryana Cordave: The Ice Crow is the queen of her race and
committed to making the last of the Kryptonians her bride (and assimilating his
DNA into her childline. Self-centered, very powerful and unwilling to take no
for an answer she spotted Superman after his Warwold incident and has used her super-powered
royal guard, teleportation technology, and other things to force the Kryptonian
into her presence so that she can pull him more permanently into her orbit. Her
family line has incredibly potent ice generation powers, and while they claimed
the throne through use of that power Superman has to admit that her world is beneficently
ruled, meaning that the tactics that world on Warworld won’t work here. (This
is a sideways homage to Lilandra and the Imperial Guard, though Cryana is much
more personally powerful and her Royal Guard is less powerful and versatile
than the Legionesque Imperial Guard. Still, they have about a dozen members,
any of which can show up to cause Superman grief.
Wang Mang: the man who would, for a while, be an emperor
of China foresaw the forces that would lead to the defeat of his planned
cultural retrenchment – especially after an encounter with the young Man of
Steel – and developed a long term plan to reach his ultimate goals. A very long
term plan. As in, his plan will not see fruition until 2030. But the tools of
this ultimate conspiracy have woven themselves into every corner of human
society, even as one splinter group of it, the cult of Kobra, makes all the flash
and noise. Superman will occasionally – usually when travelling through time
but not exclusively so – encounter some centuries in the making plan or trap,
and will also jump back to the beginning of the common era to directly confront
Wang, whose powers rest entirely on persuasion and plotting.
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