WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman/Superman #9 by Joshua Williamson, Clayton Henry, Alejandro Sanchez and John J. Hill, available now.
Gotham City has no shortage of nefarious villains who constantly plot to plunge the DC Universe city into chaos and destroy its greatest superheroes. However, in the latest issue of Batman/Superman, one longtime DC villain explosively devastates a significant portion of the city and nearly kills the Batman, even though he's not one of the Dark Knight's usual antagonists at all.
Instead of seeing one of Gotham City's many Batman villains nearly take out the Dark Knight, the original Atomic Skull, one of Superman's foes, nearly took out the Dark Knight, along with a decent chunk of Gotham City in Batman/Superman #9.
Out of all of the colorful villains in Superman's rogues gallery, none have flirted with the idea of redemption more than the Atomic Skull. The original Atomic Skull was created by Gerry Conway and Curt Swan in 1976's Superman #303, as Albert Michaels, a scientist at S.T.A.R. Labs in Metropolis. Michaels suffered from a rare neurological disorder that affected the electrical impulses in his brain, which caused uncontrollable seizures. Desperate, Michaels had the terrorist organization S.K.U.L.L. plant a radioactive device in his head in an effort to mitigate his condition, but the device instead made it considerably worse and eventually changed him into a full-fledged supervillain who battled Superman after the superhero dismantled S.K.U.L.L. and the key to undoing the harmful effects of Michaels' worsened condition.
After serving as a threat to numerous DCU villains for decades and inspiring a second villain named Joseph Martin to follow in his footsteps, the DC Rebirth era opened with Atomic Skull imprisoned for his crimes. After serving his sentence, Michaels attempted to make amends by serving as a warden at a maximum-security penitentiary that housed the longtime Green Lantern villain Hector Hammond. The telepathic villain nearly killed Atomic Skull with his powerful mental abilities only to be spared after a timely rescue from Hal Jordan. Michaels would continue his attempts at redemption in a recent encounter with the Teen Titans.
Atomic Skull resurfaces in Gotham confronting armored and armed figures appearing to be the Gotham City Police Department. After Batman arrives on the scene, the Dark Knight discovers that those confronting Atomic Skull aren't police at all but rather individuals that have had their minds rewired surgically by an unknown villainous mastermind who want to bring the Atomic Skull back into their custody. Michaels reveals that he escaped from his nefarious captor before he uncontrollably self-destructs, blasting away an entire neighborhood and nearly killing Batman with the falling rubble.
After detecting the blast with his enhanced senses, Superman abruptly leaves from a romantic getaway with Lois Lane to arrive in Gotham, rescuing Batman from the debris. As the World's Finest mount their investigation on who was behind Atomic Skull's captivity and explosive demise, the true culprit is revealed: The Ultra-Humanite. The Golden Age DC villain has set up shop in the sewers and tunnels below Gotham, using the technology used to transform Michaels into Atomic Skull to create his own army of similarly powered henchmen, rewiring those he kidnaps to carry out his bidding on the surface.
The Atomic Skull is one of the more personally conflicted members of the Superman's rogues gallery and has actually been inspired to put his powers to good use after his run-ins with the Man of Tomorrow. And while Albert Michaels has made great strides towards his own atonement in recent years, his villainous past has caught up with him to lethal effect as the Ultra-Humanite launches his latest scheme for global domination.