There Are Way Too Many People Who Look Exactly Like Superman

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Mar 1, 2019

In their latest look at recurring plot points, CSBG spotlights five more times when Superman met his exact double!

In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I'll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is "missing" if it is not listed. It's just not one of the five examples that I chose.

Reader Michael M. wrote in to ask about the myriad amount of exact doubles that Superman has in the DC Universe. I have actually done this exact topic many years ago, but you know what, it happened SO frequently that I can easily do another installment on this topic.

KEll-ORR

In Superman #119 (by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan and Stan Kaye), Superman discovers a planet that was sort of like a sister planet to Krypton. He goes to visit and he befriends a family that was a lot like his own, if they had been allowed to grow past Kal-El's time as an infant, that is. They quickly grow close to each other and Superman tells them his life story and they agree for the son (who looks just like Superman) to take Superman's place on Earth for a little while...

Hamilton does a fine job on exploring just how difficult life as Superman really is, even if you have superpowers...

The fill-in quickly gets super stressed out over having to keep up a secret identity while also fighting crime. I like that Superman gets a little bit of appreciation for how much stress he has in his life.

JOHN "METALLO" CORBEN

Action Comics #252 is best known for being the first appearance of John Corben, also known as Metallo, because he was saved from death by being turned into essentially a living robot (there was also a back-up story in the issue that might have introduced somebody. It's sort of lost to history who). Robert Bernstein wrote it and Al Plastino drew it as Lois Lane believes that Corben is secretly Superman because he has super-strength, as well, due to his robot body and he, you know, LOOKS JUST LIKE SUPERMAN!

Corben eventually decides to impersonate Superman...

And then tries to kill Superman...

How did the fake kryptonite power his heart at ALL? Shouldn't he have dropped dead sooner than that? "Oh no, this non radioactive material just KIND of works for some reason!"

VAN-ZEE

I can never tell if I think Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #15 (by Otto Binder and Kurt Schaffenberger) is brilliant or dumb, but either way it is certainly one of the more outrageous issues of Lois Lane. The concept is that this is NOT an imaginary story. This all really happened.

So how could this happen?

Well, note that they make a point of not saying any names on that front page. And here, when the hero proposes, no one says anyone's name...

That is, of course, because this is Van-Zee, not Superman, and he has married a woman who looks exactly like Lois Lane!

The more I think about it, the more I love this story. It's just so darned out there that I can't help but fall for it.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='One of the dumbest reasons a Lois Lane relationship failed!']

HYPER-MAN

In Action Comics #265 (by Otto Binder, Curt Swan and Stan Kaye), Superman is shocked when someone else steps in to fill-in for him as Clark Kent!

It is Hyper-Man, from another planet and he asks Superman to do the same for him...

Superman agrees, but then reveals his secret identity to his version of Lois Lane! It seems like an example of superdickery, but Superman has noble reasons, of course...