Every Superman Clone in DC Comics, Ranked

Superman is one of the most powerful and popular characters in DC Comics. A symbol of hope, the Man of Steel defends Metropolis and Earth from some of the most dangerous and terrifying threats and still manages to be one of the most human of DC’s heroes, caring for the people of his adoptive home as well as his family and friends. They call him the Big Blue Boy Scout, and they’re not wrong and it’s not a bad thing at all.

But Superman is also an incredibly powerful being. For all of his humanity, he’s not human and with his Kryptonian heritage comes immense power. That kind of power is something that plenty of people would want to be able to harness for their own purposes and if you can’t control Superman, making your own is the next best thing. Superman has been cloned plenty of times in comics and, in a few cases, even his clones have been cloned and it rarely goes well for anyone.

These are Superman’s clones in DC Comics. To keep things somewhat organized, we’ll be using the general qualification that the clones need to have a genetic tie to Superman so this list isn’t going to include those who have powers that mimic Superman or any character that is synthetic. We’re also going to try to keep the list to actual clones and not just variant versions from other Earths — though there is at least one notable clone of a variant Superman here. Let’s get into it.

6) X-El

A clone of Lex Luthor, X-El is not technically a Superman clone but we’re including him here because while he doesn’t share DNA with the Man of Steel, his origin has connections to that of a significant Superman clone — Bizarro. X-El is a new character in the Superman story, first appearing in Superman #24 just in 2025 and created by Lex Luthor as one of his various schemes to destroy Superman. Generally speaking, X-El is basically the Bizarro version of Lex as he was created using the same process as a way to give Lex’s genetic template Kryptonian powers (albeit while being immune to Kryptonite). As is the case with this sort of clone, X-El was very unstable and Lex ultimately shelved him, though Mercy Graves would later release him, something that resulted in Lex killing X-El.

While not actually a genetic clone of Superman, similarities to Bizarro can’t be ignored and that’s what earns X-El an honorable mention on this list. It’s a reminder that even Kryptonian might is no match for the mental and emotional degeneration that seems to be a hallmark of the entire cloning process. There’s also the added question of how one bestows Kryptonian powers on your own clone without there being some tangential connection to Superman. After all, X-El was created using Bizarro technology and Bizarro is notably a clone of Superman.

5) Match

A clone of a clone, Match first appeared in 1997’s Superboy #35 and is a clone of Conner Kent’s Superboy. He was created specifically to serve “the Agenda” and was given implanted memories as well as got some basic upgrades over Conner, namely improved durability and better control of his superpowers. This makes him more of an upgrade than just a basic clone. He eventually ends up as a member of the Suicide Squad.

Match also sort of falls in a similar category as X-El: his genetic connection to Superman is not quite as direct and he’s also an example of the darker side of the cloning process. In a very real way, you can think of Match as the Bizarro version of Superboy and he’s often even visually presented that way, with white-ish skin and various scars. He’s also more aggressive and violent than Superboy even with his better control of his powers and is the embodiment of cloning gone wrong in a way that is more unsettling and less tragic than what we see with Bizarro himself.

4) Brutaal

Hailing from Earth-2, Brutaal is Darkseid’s clone of Superman. As you can probably guess, that’s not a good thing. Darkseid had this duplicate Superman conditioned and trained to be a dark soldier named, fittingly, Brutaal, and he was given the task of killing Earth 2’s warriors. He was so vicious and loyal to Darkseid that when Darkseid’s general Steppenwolf tried to claim Earth 2 for himself, Brutaal killed him for it. He was powerful and terrifying.

But, as has been a theme so far, Brutaal suffered from the same weaknesses of other clones. When fighting Earth 2’s Superman, Val-Zod, Brutaal began to become weak and he started deteriorating, turning in to a Bizarro-like figure. Another corrupt, crumbling clone, he’s eventually shattered and turned to dust. As is becoming more and more clear, cloning Superman has serious drawbacks and leads to tragic fates for the creatures created in the process, but what puts Brutaal above Match and X-El on this list is that while he was functional, he was a glimpse at just how vicious an “evil” Superman really could be if he were aligned with the greatest threat to the multiverse.

3) Eradicator

Eradicator had a significant role in the aftermath of “The Death of Superman”. An ancient Kryptonian weapon, following Superman being killed in battle with Doomsday, Eradicator tried to take over Superman’s body in order to preserve Krypton’s heritage. That didn’t work so Eradicator just made a copy that he inhabited and then took the real Superman to the Fortress so he could be put in a Healing Matrix. The copied body wasn’t perfect and Eradicator had to wear special glasses to protect his eyes.

With Superman out of commission, Eradicator put on the Superman shield and cape and presented himself as a hero but he was much more harsh and violent and lacked humanity. Ultimately, Superman did return and the Man of Steel and Eradicator would have to join forces to deal with the threat of the Cyborg Superman. While not a true clone of Superman, Eradicator did use Superman’s DNA as a template which makes him more of a Superman construct. This makes him superior to someone like Brutaal in that he doesn’t degrade because of the cloning process and he remains mentally intact — Eradicator is, technically, sentient AI. This makes the character a bit more complex, as he has endured over the year and varies between hero and villain, allowing for a unique exploration of Krypton’s legacy.

2) Kon-El

Kon-El, aka Conner Kent, aka Superboy, is a very special clone of Superman as he is actually a binary clone: he’s a more of a human/Kryptonian hybrid created by using the cloned DNA of Superman and Lex Luthor. Introduced just after “The Death of Superman”, he notably has the power of “tactile telekinesis” though he also has developed Kryptonian powers, such as superhuman strength, durability, speed, etc. He’s a highly powerful character and a popular one.

What makes Kon-El one of the highest ranked Superman clones on this list is, in part that he’s an example of cloning done right. He’s not just a copy-paste in either personality or powers, and he’s also a character that we’ve gotten to see develop his own identity as well as his own place in the Superman legacy. There’s a humanity to Kon-El that makes him relatable and that’s just exciting from a reader perspective.

1) Bizarro

There really isn’t any other Superman clone that could be the top of this list and that’s Bizarro. First appearing in the Silver Age, Bizarro is the earliest Superman duplicate. A product of a flawed duplication ray, Bizarro is a backward, reversed version of Superman that serves as something of a distorted mirror of the character. He speaks in broken phrases and what he says is usually the reverse of what it means literally. For example, if he hates something, that means he loves it. HIs general origin has been changed a few times — which is how we get the version where he is a product of Lex Luthor’s machinations — but the general concept of a reverse Superman remains.

There are a lot of different takes on Bizarro in comics, not to mention different versions (this list could go on practically forever with different variants of Bizarros) but at the core, he’s the best and most complex Superman clone. He’s not a straightforward hero or villain. He’s a tragic character that is more and, like Superman himself, prompts readers to think about what it means to be humane, not just about humanity itself.

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