DC Makes a Major Change to a Superman Villain’s Powers

Someone from Superman’s rogues gallery has a new powerset. DC has turned its Superman anthology series, Action Comics, into a showcase for all-star creators to tell their definitive stories featuring the Man of Steel. Dubbed “Superman Superstars,” the first entry comes from the creative team of writer Jason Aaron and artist John Timms. While Timms has spent time in the Superman office illustrating Jon Kent’s adventures, Action Comics #1061 will be Aaron’s first time writing Superman. His first story pits the Man of Steel against Bizarro, and the longtime adversary gets an unexpected upgrade in the power department.

*WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Action Comics #1061. Continue reading at your own risk!

Action Comics #1061 comes from the creative team of Jason Aaron, John Timms, Rex Lokus, and Dave Sharpe. It finds Bizarro attacking the sorcerer world of Zerox. In typical Bizarro fashion, he can’t remember what brought him to Zerox, but he ends up in a battle against its mystical defenders. Three of the world’s war wizards bombard Bizarro with enough magic that he should have been wiped from existence. Instead, Bizarro brushes it off. Skip ahead six weeks and Bizarro ends up in Metropolis, where Superman confronts him above the clouds. 

The only problem is Bizarro is acting different… much different than he usually is. Bizarro and Superman were on good terms after the Man of Steel helped Bizarro find a home on Bizarro World with Boyzarro. That’s all in the past, as the fight between Superman and Bizarro whips from Venus, the sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and finally Pluto. Bizarro has become enhanced by magic, which is one of Superman’s weaknesses. In the skies above Metropolis, Bizarro gathers magical artifacts to conjure a spell. Superman ultimately defeats Bizarro – and believes he killed him – but what really happened is Bizarro has used magic to turn all of Metropolis’ citizens into Bizarros, including Lois Lane.

“I’ve been writing comics for almost 20 years, and I’ve certainly enjoyed my share of special moments and exciting projects along the way, but getting to write Superman for the very first time, in the pages of Action Comics no less, the one that started it all, goes down as one of the absolute most significant honors of my career,” Aaron said when “Superman Superstars” was announced. “So the amazing John Timms and I are doing our very best to give readers a Superman tale full of action and surprises, the most Bizarro of all Bizarro stories, in what Bizarro himself would call the worst Bizarro story ever told’!”

Let us know your thoughts on this new development for Superman and Bizarro in the comments!