Superman is DC’s number one superhero. He’s the guy who started it all, blasting onto the scene in 1938 and saving the day ever since. He’s consistently been one of DC’s strongest and most virtuous heroes, operating as the ultimate power fantasy of someone with absolute power using it to help others unconditionally. Of course, with Superman being so popular, powerful, and kind, it’s only natural that people would try to invert him and see what happens. There have been a lot, and I mean a lot, of evil Superman clones over the years. We have alternate reality dooplegangers like Ultraman, evil duplicates like Bizarro, and more original characters like Omni-Man and Homelander than I can count. Frankly, I think we’re all tired of this trope.
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That doesn’t mean that DC is going to stop charging ahead with more Superman inversions. They have dozens of evil Supermen, but among them all, one stands as both the newest and the one who might be the most dangerous of them all. Pyrrhos the Red is the son of Superman and the witch Circe, born when she combined her essence with the life energy she stole from Superman. Pyrrhos has all of Superman’s incredible powers alongside the incalculable magical might of his mother, but he’s not satisfied with that alone. He wants to rule the universe, and Adventures of Superman: Book of El #8 showed us all how he plans to become a god.
The Plan to Attain Unlimited Power
This series kicked off with Superman and the Super Twins being flung a thousand years into a dystopian future by Kryl-Ux. The Phaelosian villain had absorbed one of the God Aspects of Olgrun, the oldest and strongest of the Old Gods. Without Superman to stand in his way, Kryl-Ux conquered much of the known universe, leaving Earth a husk of what it was before. Thankfully, without Osul in the timeline, the other Aspects went dormant, preventing Kryl from absorbing them all and becoming truly unstoppable. Unfortunately, when Osul did arrive in this time period, he landed right in the lap of Pyrrhos the Red.
Pyrrhos captured the boy and announced his plan to rip the Fire of Olgrun out of him and absorb it himself. With its might, not even Kryl-Ux would stand a chance against him, and he could conquer the universe himself. He wouldn’t need the other God Aspects, as just one added to his already deadly power would make him practically unstoppable. With all of them, reality would be doomed. Of course, removing the only thing keeping Osul alive would kill him, but that was a sacrifice Pyrrhos was more than willing to make. Superman’s descendants, Rowan and Ronan Kent, arrived to save Osul, but Pyrrhos batted them aside like they were nothing. He’s set to become a true god, and only Brainiac-3 is left to stand in his way.
A King On the Path to Godhood
Pyrrhos often goes by the Red King, and he’s shown his unstoppable might more than enough already. In the Future State timeline, he conquered most of the universe on his own, including subjugating Apokalips and New Genesis. He marched to war with an army of Doomsday at his beck and call, and casually destroyed the United Planets. What’s most dangerous about the Red King is that he sees himself as the ultimate hero and Superman’s heir. He loves his father and the idea of what Pyrrhos thought he was, and constantly strives to live up to that example. Unfortunately, that ideal was twisted by Circe’s machinations.
Pyrrhos the Red is just as dedicated to saving the universe as everyone else in the House of El, but to him, that means having him lord over it as its protector. He’s a control freak who is totally assured that he’s in the right, making him a hundred times more dangerous than a normal villain. Most villains can be swayed or rallied against, but a man who is convinced of his own righteousness can turn an army to his side if he’s charismatic and powerful enough, which Pyrrhos definitely is. He’s not just an evil Superman. He’s a corrupted version of everything Superman is, taking the aspects that make him such a great hero and perverting them. He’s insanely dangerous, and if he attains godhood, he’d rule like a despot, no question.
Which evil version of Superman scares you the most? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!
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Image courtesy of Sony
