As it was so beautifully demonstrated in the Superman movie, Lex Luthor is Superman’s greatest enemy. Superman’s bottomless kindness and strength are matched perfectly against Lex’s unparalleled pettiness and intelligence. He debuted all the way back in Action Comics #23, in March of 1940, and has been a recurring threat to the Man of Steel ever since. However, as iconic as Lex Luthor is, he isn’t the first supervillain Big Blue ever faced, and he’s not even his first archnemesis.
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That title belongs to an even older, potentially even more intelligent villain, who goes by the name of Ultra-Humanite. Although he is mostly forgotten about today, back when Superman was first getting his bearings as a hero, there was no threat more dangerous than Ultra-Humanite.
Ultra-Humanite Was The Original Supervillain
Superman first encountered Ultra-Humanite in Action Comics #13, released almost a full year before Lex Luthor’s debut. Ultra-Humanite was a hyper intelligent man due to his own scientific experiments enhancing his brain power, but it inversely affected his body, confining him to a wheelchair as his body slowly came apart from the strain of his mind. They first met when Superman dedicated himself to taking down the Cab Protective League, which was a cab company and gang that would assault rival companies’ drivers. Superman captured their enforcer, only for him to escape with a special gas that killed both policemen who took him in.
The Man of Tomorrow tracked the criminal to his base and discovered the mastermind behind everything; the Ultra-Humanite, who was using the Cab Protective League to gather a fortune to launch his criminal empire, and one day take over the world. He would be the first villain to escape Superman and the first to hurt him, using an electrical floor to knock him out, but found himself entirely unable to kill Superman and was forced to run away.
Ultra-Humanite immediately became a recurring character, being Superman’s first real supervillain. Up until this point, Superman had only gone up against corrupt land owners or politicians. He fought social injustices. Ultra-Humanite was a step towards villains that could equal Superman in some way. Not only was Ultra-Humanite the first to ever hurt Superman, he was the first villain to display greater than human powers, such as his hypnotism, telekinesis, or sci-fi advanced technology.
He even was the first villain to die and return, his original body being destroyed as he tried to kill Superman, and having his brain transplanted into the body of the famous actress Dolores Winters. Body-snatching became his signature M.O. as he took various identities over the years, eventually settling in his best known form: a specially engineered albino gorilla from Gorilla City, which grants him strength and durability to battle Superman directly. He would be a major villain for Superman for years, and eventually become a recurring villain for the All-Star Squadron and Justice Society of America.
A Classic Villain Who Has Been Forgotten
Despite the fact that Ultra-Humanite is the original Superman villain, heck, the original comic book villain, he’s largely forgotten about today. There are obviously plenty of factors that go into this, but the biggest one is that he was replaced by Lex Luthor. Lex practically stole Ultra-Humanite’s entire schtick, being an unbelievably smart man who is as evil as Superman is kind and wants nothing more than to get rid of the Man of Steel so his plans can continue without competition. Ultra-Humanite was the villain that set the stage for so many incredible monsters to follow, but he was lost somewhere along the way and became more of a JSA villain for a long time. And frankly speaking, although I love the JSA, they’re far less popular than Superman. He’s since returned to fighting the Man of Tomorrow, but only very rarely. The last time Ultra-Humanite played a major role was in Monkey Prince, and we haven’t seen hide or white hair of him since.
Ultra-Humanite is a great character that is everything a Superman villain should be. He’s maniacal, ridiculously intelligent, and set a standard all Superman villains, and supervillains in general, have to live up to. He was created to be the ultimate inversion of Superman, being evil and weak where Superman was kind and strong. I’d love to see him make a return to prominent villain status one day, but what do you think? Does Ultra-Humanite deserve a comeback, or would you prefer another obscure Superman villain? Let us know in the comments below!
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