Composite Superman
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The Composite Superman is the name of DC Comics supervillain, an enemy of Superman and Batman.
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[edit] History
[edit] Joseph Meach
First appearing in World's Finest Comics #142, June 1964, Joseph Meach was a diver who had fallen on hard times. In an attempt to draw publicity to himself, Meach set up a water tank on a sidewalk in Metropolis and dove off a building. Unbeknownst to Meach, the tank was leaking, and Meach would have died if not for the intervention of Superman. The Man of Steel, upon learning of Meach's misfortunes, obtained a job for him at the Superman Museum, where Meach was employed as a custodian. Meach's bitterness did not subside, and being surrounded by artifacts and mementoes of Superman's career directed his anger towards Superman. One night, as Meach was sweeping in front of a series of statuettes depicting the Legion of Super-Heroes, a bolt of lightning passed through an open window and struck the display. The statuettes, which were actually miniature lifeless duplicates of the Legionnaires, unleashed an energy blast that struck Meach. Meach discovered that he was endowed with the combined powers of the Legion members. Determined to defeat Superman and Batman, Meach used his shapeshifting power to turn his skin green and form a costume that was half Superman's, half Batman's. Calling himself the Composite Superman, Meach told the heroes that if he was not allowed to join their team, he would expose their secret identities, which he learned via telepathy. The Composite Superman then created situations for Superman or Batman to handle, but which he intentionally sabotaged to humiliate the heroes. When Superman and Batman deduced Meach's evil intentions, the Composite Superman forced the team to retire or he would expose their identities. The World's Finest heroes soon discovered that the Composite Superman's intent was to rule the world. Unable to defeat Meach, who used his vast array of powers to keep the duo at bay, the Composite Superman was defeated when his charge of powers turned out to be temporary. Meach reverted back to human form with no knowledge of his activities as the Composite Superman.
[edit] Xan
A new Composite Superman appeared a few years later, in World's Finest Comics #168 (August 1967). An alien villain named Xan came to Earth to avenge his dead father, a criminal who was captured and imprisoned by Superman and Batman. Xan studied the Composite Superman and decided to restore Meach's powers by recreating the accident that endowed him with super-powers. The Composite Superman soon captured Superman and Batman and tried to kill the team. Meach's powers wore off before he could accomplish this though, and soon Xan appeared explaining why he wanted Superman and Batman to die. Xan then fired a lethal energy blast at the heroes but a remorseful Meach intercepted the blast, killing him instantly.
In World's Finest Comics #283 (September 1982), Xan escaped from prison and traveled back in time to recreate the event that endowed Meach with his powers, but with himself obtaining the powers. Xan assumed the identity of the Composite Superman and displayed greater control over his powers and understanding over his weaknesses, such as timing his needed restorations of energy to maintain his power. Xan soon discarded the Composite Superman identity and created an original costume, with the new name Amalgamax. Superman traveled to the 30th century to ask the Legion of Super-Heroes for assistance, and Superman, Batman and the Legion defeated Amalgamax by making him believe that the disease that killed his father had developed in him and that his excessive power was causing the disease to develop rapidly.
[edit] Composite Man
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Following the Zero Hour reboot of Legion history, Composite Superman was removed from continuity. Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 4, #68 introduced a new "Composite Man", a Durlan who had the ability to duplicate any Legionnaire's powers and appearance. Rather than the clean, split-down-the-middle appearance of Composite Superman, Composite Man had a shifting mixture of costume elements from all the Legion members. Both he and his sister had been given these abilities by the Durlan government to be weapons, and resented this. However, while she chose to make her own destiny, he joined the Dark Circle to gain revenge on Durla.
[edit] Fictional character biography
On the planet Durla, there was a long cultural struggle between secular and religious movements. Before the formation of the United Planets, the Secularists of Durla created a program to produce living weapons through mutation. The goal was soldiers capable of not only mimicking the appearance but function of any species. When they lost their grip on power, the Secularists found their program deemed sinful by the theocratic government and the test subjects were imprisoned in crystals, denying them their ability. During regular maintenance to keep the living weapons contained, one of the crystals is damaged and an unnamed Durlan mutant breaks free, killing the entire priest class of Durla. His quest for revenge unquenched, the living weapon goes in search of Durlan priest and Legionnaire, Reep Daggle. When battling the Legion of Super-Heroes the living weapon not only imitates the Legionnaires' abilities, but also parts of their respective appearances. Composite Man meets his ending when Saturn Girl uses her telepathy to shut down his mind, leaving her in a catatonic state.
[edit] Powers
In terms of abilities and raw power, the Composite Superman was one of the most powerful enemies Superman and Batman ever faced. In addition to all of Superman's powers (derived from Supergirl), the Composite Superman's strength and invulnerability levels were three times as powerful as Superman's because Legionnaires Mon-El and Ultra Boy were invulnerable and possessed super-strength. The Composite Superman also possessed numerous special powers, derived from various Legion members:
- The ability to grow to giant size (Colossal Boy)
- The ability to shrink (Shrinking Violet)
- The ability to divide into 3 people (Triplicate Girl)
- The ability to fire lightning bolts (Lightning Lad)
- The ability to generate heat and light (Sun Boy)
- The ability to make things super-lightweight (Light Lass)
- The ability to make things super-heavy (Star Boy)
- The ability to eat any form of matter (Matter-Eater Lad)
- The ability to turn invisible (Invisible Kid)
- The ability to inflate into a large ball (Bouncing Boy)
- The ability to stretch any part of his body (Elastic Lad)
- The ability to shapeshift (Chameleon Boy)
- Telepathy (Saturn Girl)
- 12th level intelligence (Brainiac 5)
- Magnetic powers (Cosmic Boy)
- X-ray vision that could see through anything, even lead (Ultra Boy)
- The ability to transmute elements (Element Lad)
- The ability to phase through solid matter (Phantom Girl)
[edit] Other versions
In Impulse #56 Crayd'll, a nanotech computer belonging to Bart Allen's archenemy Inertia, accesses Young Justice's files and uses information on Robin and Superboy to become a "composite Superboy", with the half-and-half, green-skinned appearance of the original. Crayd'll intended to access information on the other members of Young Justice, but Impulse tricked him into downloading a music CD instead, turning him into Superboy's favourite rap artist.
In Superman/Batman #6 Hiro Okamura creates a spaceship in the form of a mecha version of the Composite Superman. In a more recent arc in Superman/Batman, a new Composite Superman Batman was created when Mr Mxyzptlk merged the Supermen and Batmen of several alternate realities together. Startled to be joined together, Batman mentally exclaimed to Superman "Clark, your mind races, I never knew." to which Superman replied "And yours Bruce, is so dark.". This ended when the battle was over, and all the Batmen and Supermen who didn't "need to be here" were sent away (Leaving only the normal DCU Superman and Batman).
[edit] Other Media
[edit] Television
Composite Superman made a cameo in Justice League Unlimited in an episode called "The Greatest Story Never Told". Unlike the comic, this "Composite Superman" is the product of a battle with the dark lord Mordru. It's actually a fusion of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman with the appearance of Composite Superman, but Wonder Woman's voice, resulting from some twisted spell used in the intense magical conflict.
[edit] Toys
DC Direct released a Composite Superman action figure in 2005.
[edit] Parody
On the comedy show Robot Chicken, there is a Christmas sketch featuring Dragon Ball Z characters. One of the villains in the sketch is a creature who is half-Santa Claus and half-Frosty the Snowman, and was called Composite Santa. Composite Santa was beaten when his snowman half was melted, making the Santa half vulnerable.
