As a paragon of good, it's weirdly natural for DC Comics' Superman to have a vast array of dark reflections. Even Godzilla has a large number of evil opposites, and the Man of Steel's been around a lot longer than the Atomic Dinosaur. Across the face of DC Comics, and even beyond, various versions of Superman have flirted with corruption and sometimes embraced it.

Superman's evil alternates include a surprising number of DC characters since the company evidently can't get enough of good guys turned bad. The category also comprises pastiches and copycats from other comic companies. Superman's too good a character to not reimagine as evil, over and over again until the death of Earth's yellow sun.

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Updated on October 20th, 2023 by John Dodge: Superman's an iconic character, and DC Comics and their competitors are constantly reinventing him through homages and pastiches. CBR has updated this article to include even more variants of Superman who went dark.

20 The Red Son Is Cold And Authoritarian

Most people wouldn't think of the Red Son from the classic Elseworlds story of the same name as an evil Superman. He has a moral compass and, in the end, he's capable of both giving up power and sacrificing himself for others. However, in 2003's reincarnation of Cold War dread, this Superman did tremendous damage to his world.

Born in an alternate timeline where he was raised by the Soviet State, this Kal-El variant fought for "Stalin, Socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact." He quashed human rights, broke global democracy, and used brain surgery to turn thousands or millions into "Superman robots." In the end, the Soviet Superman turned his back on evil, but only at an incalculable cost to humanity.

19 Superboy-Prime Wanted A Better World

Earth-Prime's Superboy started out as a hero. However, after joining the multiversal effort to defeat the Anti-Monitor, he ended up with the Golden Age Superman of Earth-2 and Alexander Luthor in a "Paradise Dimension." From there, he was able to watch as time passed outside his universe, and things remained the same in his. This frustrated Superboy-Prime so much that he punched through reality and broke into his contemporary continuity.

A refugee from DC's Silver Age, Superboy-Prime was already much more powerful than characters in the current continuity. Things got worse when he constructed solar-powered armor based on the Anti-Monitor's and tried to make a perfect world via mass murder. His plans reached their climax when he joined the Sinestro Corps, becoming one of the most overpowered characters in DC history, and killing the Anti-Monitor again.

18 "Reign Of The Superman" Was The First Superman Story

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Before Superman's comics debut in 1938, Jerry Siegel published a story about an evil Superman in 1933 in his 'zine, Science Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization. Illustrated by Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, this surprising evil Superman was the first iteration of the genre-defining character.

In a formula comics fans will recognize, "Reign"'s evil Superman is a transient who's granted incredible intelligence and mental abilities in a weird experiment. He uses his powers to threaten the world for a time before a Flowers For Algernon twist removes his powers and he realizes that he wasted his abilities. The ideas here were innovative at the time, but it's mostly interesting to know that this evil Superman preceded costumed superheroes by several years.

17 The Cyborg Superman Is Superman's Cruelest Imitator

The Cyborg Superman, also known as Hank Henshaw, is a super-impostor in Terminator drag. Already an established villain, Henshaw used Doomsday's and Superman's apparent mutual destruction in The Death of Superman as an opportunity. Using his ability to infect machines with his consciousness, he built a Kryptonian/cyborg body out of the Man of Steel's DNA and tried to ruin Superman's reputation by destroying Coast City.

The real Superman and company eventually defeated and discredited the so-called Man of Tomorrow, but he's a resilient villain. He even joined Superboy-Prime in the Sinestro Corps, which ended badly for him when Prime used him as a weapon against the Anti-Monitor.

16 King Hyperion Rules His Battleworld Domain

The Squadron Supreme is Marvel's version of the Justice League, sporting heroes like Whizzer and Power Princess instead of Flash and Wonder Woman. When the team premiered in 1969, though, they were the Squadron Sinister, the living embodiment of the desire to see The Avengers punch Batman. Thor's opposite number in this match-up was Hyperion, the atomic Superman from planet Argon.

Good and evil versions of Hyperion have thrived in comics since, but even in the worlds where a good Hyperion is dominant, there's always an evil variant lurking in the wings. The character's most recent iteration was Secret Wars' King Hyperion, the dictatorial ruler of the Squadron Sinister's Battleworld domain who later infiltrated The Thunderbolts. His Atomic Vision and vulnerability to Argonite make Hyperion a shameless knock-off, but a great one.

15 Homelander Is Subtle For A Ruthless Killer

Homelander is a surprisingly complex monster. As the leader of The Seven on Prime's The Boys and Dynamite Entertainment's comic series of the same name, he appears affable, wise, and patriotic. However, in many ways, he's a wounded little boy corrupted by his tremendous fame and power.

Though sometimes sympathetic, Homelander is also one of the bloodiest evil Supermen in pop culture. The only thing that holds him back is a deep-seated need for approval and a fear of ostracization. Orders of magnitude stronger than his world's other superhumans, though, Homelander is smart enough to ruthlessly slaughter his opponents without getting caught. More recently, he realized he can get away with literal murder in public, and he's becoming even more frightening.

14 The Plutonian Is Truly Irredeemable

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BOOM! Studios Irredeemable introduced The Plutonian, a hero who lacked the emotional maturity to retain his moral compass. Set apart from humanity by his powers, able to hear every whispered misdeed, Plutonian was slowly filled with childish rage and his tantrum tore his world apart.

Created by Mark Waid, Peter Krause, and Cory Walker, The Plutonian pays unique homage to the idea of an evil Superman, since his interdimensional death somehow sparks the creation of the original Superman story in another universe. However, this imperfect hero did terrible things like drowning Singapore and bombarding Earth with meteors in fits of pique, and his version of the JLA, The Paradigm, was largely helpless against him.

13 Superdoom Is An Evil Idea Made Flesh

Superdoom is more than just a Doomsday/Superman amalgam. He's a toxic idea. The Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen of Earth-45 were researchers who used super science to bring a tulpa — a living thought — into existence. They called it "Superman," an idea made to save the world. However, they sold their technology to Overcorp, and the company changed their design.

The resulting "killer franchise" Superdoom conquered his planet and then invaded other realities to destroy the competition other Supermen represented. He killed his counterpart on countless worlds until he met the Obama-inspired President Superman of Earth-23. Superdoom radiated an overpowering evil. Even Earth-23's white supremacist Lex Luthor allied himself with Calvin Ellis and helped strand the evil Superman between universes.

12 Lex Luthor Tried To Replace Superman

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Lex Luthor is the quintessential brains vs Superman's brawn. However, after Doomsday killed Superman in DC's Rebirth, Lex seized the opportunity to don powered armor, engrave a glowing electric 'S' on the front, and proclaim himself the new Superman. He even joined the Justice League for a time.

It can be argued that, at least for a moment, this Super-Luthor wasn't evil. Instead, he was brilliantly selfish and thought he was the only one who could save the world. However, Lex's run as Superman was marred with failures, moral and technological. His selfish drives put him in conflict with Superwoman, China's New Super-Man, and of course, the replacement Superman who inevitably showed up. Luthor's motives weren't pure, but this evil Superman presented readers with an interesting story about a bad person trying to do good.

11 Omni-Man Wanted To Rule Earth, Not Save It

The hero's father in the Invincible comics and television series, Omni-Man spent decades acting as his world's Superman. However, instead of coming from dead Krypton, Nolan Grayson hailed from the still-living planet Viltrum. Unfortunately, the Viltrumites are brutal expansionists, more like Dragon Ball's Saiyans than the usually peaceful Kryptonians. For Omni-Man, the first step in conquering a world was gaining its trust.

Omni-Man's time on Earth changed him but not quickly enough. He murdered the Guardians of the Globe, the Justice League pastiche he'd led, destroyed his marriage, and nearly beat his son, Invincible, to death before recognizing the Viltrumites' evil. Omni-Man's a redeemable evil Superman, but only barely.

10 Ultraman Is Earth-3's Evil Superman

The evil Superman from DC's Earth-3, Ultraman has a lot in common with King Hyperion. He's a brutal authoritarian and ruthlessly rules his version of the JLA, the Crime Syndicate. The character dates back to 1964 and has gone through many iterations. He was originally an alien who got his powers from Kryptonite, but he's also been imagined as an astronaut from Earth who was given powers by aliens.

Trapped in a toxic love triangle with Superwoman, his Earth's Lois Lane, and Batman-analog Owlman, Ultraman is a perfect example of someone who has infinite power but no happiness. Hailing from an Earth where evil always wins, the easily bored Ultraman is always looking for something new to conquer, torment, or both.

9 Bizarro Is Superman's Imperfect Duplicate

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The first significant "evil" Superman, Bizarro, dates back to 1958, DC Comics' Silver Age. However, from the start, he wasn't always presented as evil. As Superman's "imperfect duplicate," Bizarro is often seen as confused, delusional, or simply stupid; in most stories, Bizarro's logic and understanding of the world are inverted, as is his morality. However, his lack of malice doesn't stop him from doing a lot of harm.

Sometimes Bizarro rescues people incompetently, endangering or ending lives by trying to emulate Superman. He's easily manipulated as well, and can be tricked into killing someone just by calling them his "best friend." Few characters are purely good or evil. At best, Bizarro's an agent of chaos, and sometimes he's just a murderer.

8 Kid Miracleman Killed Millions

The original Captain Marvel was both a reinvention of and a rip-off of Superman. Marvelman, known in the States as Miracleman, was the British rip-off of Captain Marvel. When Alan Moore spearheaded a gritty Miracleman reboot in the early '80s, he brought one of the hero's original allies back as a villain.

Inspired by Captain Marvel's evil opposite Black Adam, the former Kid Miracleman was the stuff of nightmares. He'd grown up as his world's only superhuman, keeping his powers secret but using them to fulfill his every nasty desire. He initially defeated himself by accidentally saying his own name, transforming back into Johnny Bates, but when he returned, he artfully slaughtered millions. Kid Miracleman destroyed London just to get Miracleman's attention, creating an evil legend and even a punk-ish cult as his legacy.

7 Zod Is One Of The Most Important Evil Supermen

Although introduced to DC Comics in 1961, General Zod captured the public imagination in Richard Donner's 1980 film, Superman II. Perhaps the least-complicated version of a villain based on Superman, Zod was a Kryptonian general who was banished to the Phantom Zone after an attempted coup. He thus survived Krypton's destruction and threatened Earth.

Zod's son, Lor-Zod has become more important in recent years. Like his father, he boasts Superman's array of powers and has used them to become a time-traveling threat to DC's continuity. He also appeared as his most redeemable iteration, a not-quite-evil Superman, in the DCAU film, Justice League: Gods And Monsters.

6 Lord Superman's Justice Lords Brought "Peace" To Their Earth

The alternate Superman from the animated Justice League episode "A Better World," Lord Superman never thought of himself as evil. This variant lost his way during his conflict with President Lex Luthor. His Luthor executed the Flash and mocked the Man of Steel for never committing to his principles. In response, this world's Superman executed Luthor with his heat vision, took over the planet with his League's help, and formed the Justice Lords' crime-free global regime.

The Justice Lords' evil was insidious. They saw themselves as their world's saviors, and the terror and lobotomies necessary to realize their vision as a small price to pay. Of course, when they found an alternate Earth, they immediately imagined all the "good" they could do there. As always, evil is at its most dangerous when it mouths idealism, and the Justice Lords were always willing to kill for their ideals.

5 The Last Sun Was A Twisted Superman From The Very Start

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The story of an infant Kal-El being rocketed away from a dying Krypton and finding his way into the arms of John and Martha Kent on Earth is one of DC Comics' most iconic tales. Unfortunately, it is also one that the Dark Multiverse twisted, leading to the creation of a Superman who was doomed before his story could truly start.

By manipulating the trajectory of Kal-El's spacecraft and sending it careening through a storm of cosmic radiation, The Batman Who Laughs created a Superman whose photosynthetic process was replaced by an insatiable hunger. When the Last Sun, or Kill-All, finally emerged in full, the prospect of stopping him seemed all but impossible. By contrast, his potential for destruction was all but unmatched.

4 Kryptothrax was the Most Monstrous Superman of All Time

Another product of the Dark Multiverse, the Kal-El who would come to be known as Kryptothrax is undoubtedly the most monstrous version of the Man of Steel. Like many other denizens of the Dark Multiverse, Kryptothrax's story wasn't particularly long-lived but that doesn't take away from the sheer devastation he wrought in that short time.

Hailing from an otherwise ordinary world whose Justice League stood against Barbatos' Multiversal crusade of terror, this Superman and his allies crafted suits of Tenth Metal to aid them in the fight. Once they donned their armor, however, these heroes discovered their creations had been corrupted by Barbatos' magic. This Superman and his League were transformed into grotesque versions of themselves, bearing only minor hallmarks of who they once were to serve as reminders of the lives they lost.

3 Brutaal Was Darkseid's Custom Made Evil Superman

Introduced in the pages of 2013's Earth 2 #14 (by James Robinson and Nicola Scott), the cloned Kryptonian known as Brutaal was Superman's equal in almost every single way. Having been painstakingly recreated by Darkseid, Brutaal had not only all the powers of his predecessor but all of Kal-El's memories as well — save for those of his time with Earth Two's other Superman, Val Zod.

Brutaal initially waged war on the heroic Wonders of the World on behalf of Darkseid before leaving one fight to join in another. Although Brutaal was more than happy to help Steppenwolf usher in a new reign over Earth, he was also both ready and willing to murder Steppenwolf the moment he declared himself the planet's ruler instead of Darkseid. This kicked off a saga where Brutaal effectively replaced Superman in the public eye, faced off against numerous other heroes, and even claimed the life of Jon Kent in one of the most tragic moments in recent DC Comics history.

2 Rant Proved How Ridiculously Dangerous Red Kryptonite Could Be To Superman

As a member of Perrus the Benevolent's terrifying Unseen, Rant was one of several monstrous characters inspired by classic Silver Age Superman stories. As a superpowered ant-Kryptonian hybrid, however, Rant was one of the most unsettling insectile aberrations that any version of the DC Universe has ever known. Like his fellow members of the Unseen — Kentclark, Olsen, Spiner, and Dear Lois — Rant was a classic storyline taken to its most extreme conclusion.

Rant was inspired by the events of 1963's Action Comics #296 (by Al Plastino), where Superman uses Red Kryptonite to partially transform himself into an ant in order to communicate with a giant colony of irradiated insects. However, Rant suffered a devastatingly long exposure to the same substance. Subsequently, Rant's physical transformation went far beyond a cartoonish appearance and into the realm of pure body horror.

1 The Superman Of DCeased Was A Nearly Unstoppable Undead Threat

Between events like Blackest Knight and Elseworld-inspired tales such as DC vs. Vampires, fans will never have to worry about running short on horrifying versions of their favorite characters. That said, DCeased pushed the bounds of what those horrors could look like thanks to a corrupted Anti-Life Equation and the murderous, animalistic Superman who emerged as a result of it.

When the Darkseid of DCeased kidnapped Cyborg and used him to transmit the Anti-Life Equation across the cosmos, even the Lord of Apokolips was fatally overwhelmed by the force he unleashed. By the time Cyborg and his signal reached Earth, it had evolved into a virus so severe that those who died from it were considered the lucky ones. Like so many others, the Superman of this world was reduced to a bloodthirsty beast with little of his past intelligence but all of his old powers. As such, it took no time at all for the Superman of DCeased to wreak havoc across the globe, even if he was ultimately cured of his zombielike condition.