The concept of a dark Superman will always intrigue fans and creators in the entertainment industry. Zack Snyder toyed with it for the so-called DC Extended Universe, Warner Bros. Animation is bringing out the Red Son animated flick this year about a Russian Man of Steel and James Gunn even painted an evil parallel to Smallville via Brightburn.

However, two of the vilest depictions have been the one from the Injustice game and of course, the Justice Lord Superman from the Justice League realm which came from Bruce Timm's team in 2003. Let's breakdown both versions and see which is the most sinister.

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ALL HAIL LORD SUPERMAN

Justice Lords Justice League animated series

Justice Lords Superman debuted in "A Better World," and influenced the Injustice dimension decades later. Fed up of the constant war on Earth, not to mention villains repeatedly popping back up with cataclysmic plans, when president Luthor gloated to Superman's face about killing this reality's Flash, the Man of Steel annihilated him with his heat vision. The League became disenchanted with humanity and imposed martial law, ruling with an iron fist, rather than chastising the Last Son of Krypton. Basically, they were fed up.

They became the Justice Lords and Superman kept Lois Lane on lockdown, acting as a true dictator, so she couldn't connect with outsiders and leak his plans. He even used his heat vision to lobotomize other villains, including Joker, filling Arkham with these unsuspecting folks as part of their vision of order. It became a bit too much as he led his troops over to the main cartoon reality where they tried to take the planet over. He was a vicious tyrant and even after the League stopped the Lords, this evil Superman would run afoul of Batman Beyond and have to be thrown into the Phantom Zone.

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A SUPERMAN FOR INJUSTICE

The Injustice Superman is someone you do have some more sympathy for. After he was tricked into taking Lois into space, killing her and their unborn baby, he murdered Joker, the mastermind behind it all. This led to a civil war and Superman's Regime (which included Wonder Woman, Flash and Hal Jordan) took over, with Batman's allies becoming the Resistance. Superman went beyond evil, though, corrupting Damian Wayne to join his ranks, banishing Tim Drake and the Teen Titans to the Phantom Zone, not to mention offering Damian support after the Robin killed Nightwing.

Superman allied with enemies as well, such as Sinestro and Black Adam, and even when his authority was questioned, he moved like a king and killed that person, no matter if it were a longtime friend. Billy Batson/Shazam was one such victim and egged on by Wonder Woman, who was ruthless and grew to hate mankind, Kal-El of Krypton even tried to weaponize Supergirl. He viewed everyone as a tool and a means to an end, stopping at nothing in the name of his skewed ideal of justice.

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INJUSTICE SUPERMAN STANDS TALL

injustice superman

The Justice Lord Superman really was a pain but the Injustice Kryptonian is more reprehensible as the latter preferred to kill. He didn't care about women and kids getting caught in the crossfire and allowed Black Adam's army, Ra's al Ghul's League and even Diana of Themyscira to become unchecked death squads. It was pure genocide and felt like if Superman became a Nazi, trying to shape history for those who knelt before him to prosper, similar to Zod.

What made it worse is in the spinoff comics (where he beat Batman's team at the end of Injustice 2), Superman turned Batman into the Black Oracle, using Brainiac's tech to create a slave to fight crime. Bruce was brainwashed and used to predict crimes, getting innocent people incarcerated a la Minority Report, and to make it worse when Supergirl opposed her cousin, she was tossed into the Phantom Zone. In the He-Man crossover, Superman also committed genocide across many other realities as he tried to remove magical relics from the Multiverse so he could never be defeated. The Justice Lord tried to impose their sanctions on other worlds but the Injustice Man of Steel actually actioned this for years to make him the more despicable villain.

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