Batman and Superman’s Newest Fusion Leaves Me Wondering Where One of Their Strongest Villain Fusions Is

Batman and Superman are one of DC’s greatest duos. They share the goals of improving the world and protecting life, but go about it in what seems like opposite ways, which provides the best mix of similarities and differences to create teamwork and tension. Their contrast in personality, design, and abilities actually elevates each other, where they can fill in gaps created by the other’s weaknesses. They are two of the best friends you will ever find, and so seeing them bring out the best in each other is both heartwarming and exhilarating as they fight crime as the World’s Finest.

Batman and Superman have worked together countless times over the years, and recently, even become a singular hero. In Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #46, the titular team fused into a singular form to battle a Lex Luthor/Joker combination. They’ve taken on this form before, such as way back in the series’s issue #4, and once again show their unstoppable teamwork by combining their strengths. However, this isn’t the first Batman and Superman fusion, and it made me wonder when we’d next see their original fusion, who is also one of their greatest villains, Composite Superman.

The One-Man Legion

The first Composite Superman was originally a down-on-his-luck high diver named Joe Meach. One day, he tried to leap into a pool with a leak, and would have died if not for Superman’s intervention. The Man of Steel listened to Joe’s plight and helped him find steady employment at the Superman Museum, but Joe grew bitter with jealousy. He was always surrounded by proof that heroes like Superman and Batman were important, while nobody even knew he existed. That all changed when the lifelike replicas of the Legion of Super-Heroes were struck by lightning, which flowed into Joe and granted him all the powers of the Legion.

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This power boost immediately made him one of the strongest beings that either Batman or Superman had ever fought and will ever fight. He was gifted the power of twenty different Legionnaires. He had Lightning Lad’s electricity, Saturn Girl’s telepathy, Brainiac 5’s intelligence, Element Lad’s transmutation, the entire Kryptonian power menagerie from Supergirl, and so much more. Composite Superman used his massive array of powers to learn Batman and Superman’s real identities, then proceeded to humiliate and attempt to destroy them. 

Composite Superman was one of the first villains to truly defeat Superman and Batman, to the point where the heroes were only saved because his powers faded away on their own. In all of his subsequent appearances, Composite Superman would continue to decimate the World’s Finest, being one villain that they never managed to conquer through battle or intelligence. He had a perfect win-rate against them and offers so much as a threat to not just the heroes, but the entire world, and yet, he never makes any appearances.

Composite Abilities, Rare Apperances

Despite the fact, or maybe because Composite Superman is so dangerous, he’s rarely had any appearances throughout the years. Joe Meach only appeared in two issues in the pre-Crisis continuity, with another villain taking up the Composite Superman name for a two-part adventure, and a ghostly version of himself appearing in Superman (1939) #214. Even after Crisis on Infinite Earths reset the continuity, a new version of Composite Superman debuted and died in Superman/Batman Annual #3. Composite Superman is simply a villain that has never been given more than the bare minimum amount of chances to establish himself.

The reason he never shows up is likely because of his insane power level, given that he is an entire army’s worth of superheroes on his own. Still, with Batman and Superman fusing more than once, and clearly being open to doing so when the situation calls for it, a fight against Composite Superman could be the ultimate test of their teamwork. It would be the World’s Finest in their strongest form against one of the few villains whom they never truly beat, and it could demonstrate the difference between having incredible powers and knowing how to use them. 

Now is the perfect time to bring Composite Superman back, because if Batman and Superman are combining into the ultimate hero, there’s no better opponent to test that claim on than their evil combination. 

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