A New Bizarro's Arrival has Major DC Multiverse Ramifications

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Superman #42 by Patrick Gleason, Peter J. Tomasi, Alejandro Sanchez and Rob Leigh, on sale now.

Bizarro is a strange character, not just for who he is in the DC Universe, but for how he exists as a fictional character. It seems that no-one can ever quite understand what they want to do with Bizarro and there’s two main schools of thought as to who Bizarro should be.

This week’s installment of Superman introduces a Bizarro with a family, living happily — for Bizarros — on Bizarro World, but he’s not the only Bizarro floating around the DC Universe right now. So how does DC juggle the two Bizarros and which one is more real.

Mirror Image

Bizarro was first introduced in 1958’s Superboy #68 by Otto Binder and George Papp, the result of a scientist using a “duplicating ray” which created the less-than-perfect copy of Superboy. An adult Bizarro later showed up in the pages of Action Comics after Lex Luthor rebuilt the duplicating ray with the hopes of controlling the creature, but instead Bizarro used the machine on Lois Lane to create a Bizarro Lois and together they left Earth to find somewhere they could live in peace. Together they founded the cube-shaped planet Htrae — “Earth, spelled backwards —- and created a whole world of Bizarros which was basically his status quo up until Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Following DC's reality-altering event, John Byrne took over the Superman franchise and went about reinventing a lot of its core concepts, including Bizarro. In the Byrne-crafted post-Crisis continuity, Lex Luthor ordered a team of scientists to clone Superman, but believing him to be human with powers as opposed to an alien, the process was flawed and created a chalky white clone who was mute. Thinking himself Superman, he attempts to help the people of Metropolis but doesn’t have the faculties to do so safely. He ultimately sacrifices himself to cure Lucy Lane’s blindness after initial contact with him partially brought back her vision.

The incarnation of Bizarro that most people might be familiar with was actually created by The Joker, during the “Emperor Joker” event in which he stole Mr. Mxyzptlk’s powers. Similar to his Silver Age origins, Bizarro traveled into space to create his own world and in the presence of a blue sun he gained “Bizarro Vision” which allowed him to create Bizarros to populate this world, including a full Justice League roster. He kidnapped Superman’s father and took him to Bizarro World, forcing Superman to travel there to save him and ultimately help Bizarro become the greatest hero of his own planet where he could live in peace.

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The New 52 introduced a new Bizarro during the Forever Evil event; once again a clone of Superman created by Lex Luthor, the first process failed so Luthor created subject “B-0” in an attempt to have his own Superman. However, during the invasion of the Crime Snydicate of America, Luthor was forced to release the experiment five years into a ten year gestation, resulting in another imperfect clone of Superman. This incarnation of Bizarro sacrificed himself to save Luthor and in return, Luthor got to work creating a new version of Bizarro, this time with the aim of bringing back his friend instead of another attempt to clone Superman.

This clone of Bizarro was stolen by The Red Hood, who was working undercover for Batman in Black Mask’s gang. Eventually, Bizarro joined with Jason Todd and Artemis as a new incarnation of The Outlaws, each member representing a dark mirror to the DC Universe’s iconic Trinity. Bizarro died again but was resurrected by Lex Luthor and gained super-intelligence, though he was cursed with the knowledge that it wouldn’t be permanent.

The Bizarro that appears in this week’s issue of Superman in none of these Bizarros. In fact, he's not even from the Prime DC Universe. Among the 52 worlds which make up the DC Multiverse, Earth-29 is a new incarnation of Htrae, and home to heroes such as Bizarro, Adam Familiar and the Sramian Snitch. This is the world which Jon Kent and Kathy visit in Superman #42 and is now home to Boyzarro, Superboy’s very own doppelganger.

It establishes that the Bizarro in Tomasi and Gleason’s story is distinctly separate from the Bizarro of Red Hood and The Outlaws. The revelation also allows the team to explore and expand the multiverse a bit more before they bid the Superman title goodbye, something the pair did previously in last year’s “Multiplicity” arc and will likely continue to do on whatever their next DC project turns out to be.