|
|
Bizarro
Bizarro is a supervillain/anti-hero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp as a "mirror image" of Superman, and first appeared in Superboy #68 (1958). Debuting in the Silver Age of Comic Books (1956 - c. 1970), the character has often been portrayed as an antagonist to Superman, though on occasion he also takes on an anti-hero role.
In addition to appearing the company's publications, he has also appeared in adapted media and tie-in products, such as animated and live-action television series, trading cards, toys, and video games.
Publication History
Bizarro debuted in Superboy No. 68 (published in August; cover-dated October 1958), writer Otto Binder casting the character as a Frankenstein's monster pastiche that possessed all the powers of Superboy. Shunned for his unenviable appearance, the teen version of Bizarro only appeared in a single comic book story. An adult version appeared around the same time in the Superman daily newspaper comic strip written by Alvin Schwartz, debuting in Episode 105: "The Battle With Bizarro" (strips 6147-6242: August 25, 1958 to December 13, 1958). According to comics historian Mark Evanier, Schwartz long claimed that he originated the Bizarro concept prior to the character's appearance in Superboy. The newspaper storyline introduced the strange speech patterns that became synonymous with the character, with all of Bizarro's comments meaning the opposite (e.g. "bad" means "good"). The newspaper version wore a "B" on his chest, as opposed to Superman's distinctive "S".
Binder introduced the adult version of the character into the Superman comic book, this time wearing an "S", in Action Comics #254 (July 1959). Bizarro proved popular, and eventually starred in a Bizarro World feature in Adventure Comics for 15 issues, running from issue #285-299 (June 1961 - August 1962), as well as in a special all-Bizarro 80-Page Giant (Superman #202, December 1967/January 1968). The character made forty appearances in the Superman family of titles - Action Comics, Superman, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane, Adventure Comics, Secret Society of Super Villains, and DC Comics Presents - from 1959 to 1984, prior to a reboot of the DC Universe as a result of the limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths #1-12 (April 1985 - March 1986).
Bizarro was reintroduced into the DC Universe in a one-off appearance with characterization similar to his original Superboy appearance in Superman: The Man of Steel #5 (December 1986). He was later revived in the "Bizarro's World" serial that ran through the Superman titles in March and April 1994, and in Action Comics Annual #8 in 1996. An unrelated four-issue limited series titled A. Bizarro (July-October) was published in 1999.
Yet another version was introduced during the "Emperor Joker" storyline that ran in September and October 2000. Remaining in DC Comics continuity, this Bizarro continued to make semi-regular guest appearances that firmly established the character as part of the Superman mythos.
Pre-Crisis Bizarro
General Zod's Bizarro Army
General Dru-Zod had originally created bizarro duplicates of himself to dominate the planet Krypton. The Bizarros had no power because they were not under a yellow sun, but they were soldiers ready to kill and die without hesitation. This was the reason why Zod was banished to the Phantom Zone for 25 Krypton sun-cycles.
Bizarro-Superboy
Some 12 years later, totally oblivious to these facts, a scientist on Earth is demonstrating his newly invented "duplicating ray" to Superboy, and an accident causes the ray to duplicate the superhero. The copy, quickly labeled "Bizarro", is a flawed imitation as it possesses chalky white skin and childlike erratic behavior. Shunned by the people of Smallville, Bizarro befriends a blind girl named Melissa, and loses all hope when he realizes that the girl did not shun or flee from him because she was blind. Superboy is eventually forced to "kill" the "less than perfect" clone, using the remains of the duplicating machine, which acts like blue kryptonite (as opposed to green kryptonite, Superboy's weakness) on the copy. The whole business proved unexpectedly easy as Bizarro deliberately destroyed himself by colliding with the duplicating machine's fragment. The ensuing explosion miraculously restores Melissa's eyesight.
Bizarro #1
Years afterward, Superman's arch-foe Lex Luthor recreates the "duplicating ray" and uses it on the hero, hoping to control the duplicate that became known as Bizarro #1. The Bizarro that is created, however, is confused, stating: "Me not human... me not creature... me not even animal! Me unhappy! Me don't belong in world of living people! Me don't know difference between right and wrong - good and evil!" Luthor is arrested by Bizarro for re-creating him, but forgotten as Bizarro attempts to emulate Superman, creating havoc in the city of Metropolis and almost exposing Superman's secret identity as Clark Kent. When Bizarro falls in love with reporter Lois Lane, she uses the duplicating ray on herself to create a "Bizarro Lois", who is instantly attracted to Bizarro. In addition, he also used the duplicating ray on himself to create "New Bizarro" who later dies from exposure to green kryptonite. The Bizarros leave Earth together, determined to find a home where they can be themselves.
Superman encounters the couple once again, discovering that Bizarro - now called Bizarro #1 - has used a version of the duplication ray to create an entire world of Bizarros, who now reside on a cube-shaped planet called "Htrae" (Earth spelled backwards). Bizarro #1 and Bizarro-Lois #1 also give birth to a child who, while super-powered, appears to be totally human. Considered a freak by Bizarro standards (out of resentment for the way he was treated by Earth humans, Bizarro #1 made a law that they must act the opposite of humans, causing no end of lunacy), the child is the catalyst for a brief war between Htrae and Earth. Blue kryptonite is also invented during this war, as well as the temporary existence of Bizarro-Supergirl. Bizarro also has a series of adventures on Htrae, aiding a normal Jimmy Olsen when he is accidentally trapped there, preventing an invasion of blue kryptonite statues, and stopping the Bizarro version of Titano the Super-Ape.
Bizarro's influence is also felt on Earth: Jimmy Olsen is inadvertently turned into a Bizarro for a while, and a new teen version of Bizarro travels to the 30th century and attempts to join the Legion of Super-Heroes. When he is rejected by the Legion, the Bizarro teen creates his own Bizarro version of the Legion, which Superboy eventually persuades him to disband.
When Bizarro encounters Superman once again, his powers are now the opposite of Superman's (such as freeze vision as opposed to heat vision and heat breath rather than freeze breath), and he attempts to kidnap Lois Lane. Bizarro also temporarily joins the Secret Society of Super Villains to battle the Justice League of America and Captain Comet.
Bizarro appears in the Alan Moore-scripted "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", in Superman #423 (September 1986). Bizarro goes berserk and destroys the Bizarro World and all of its inhabitants, then travels to Metropolis and wreaks havoc before abruptly committing suicide. This and many other deaths turn out to be the machinations of Mister Mxyzptlk, who had become evil and begun a rampage of crime. Superman is unable to undo the deaths, but kills Mxyzptlk and then uses gold kryptonite on himself.
Bizarro's final Pre-Crisis appearance was in DC Comics Presents #97 (September 1986), which was also the final issue of that series. After being empowered by a hideously disfigured Phantom Zone sorcerer, Mr. Mxyzptlk destroys Zrfff and then causes the Bizarro world to implode, killing all its inhabitants. Bizarro's severed head crashes onto Clark Kent's desk and addresses Clark Kent before his simulated life ends. Bizarro does not appear in Crisis on Infinite Earths, apparently because of this story's events.
This story directly contradicts a World's Finest story where it is revealed that sometime in the future, Htrae is transformed into a more normal world (egg-shaped rather than cubical) by the radiation from an exploding celestial body. The Bizarros are changed into normal people without powers, but still retain vestiges of their Bizarro laws (curtains hung outside the windows of a house, etc.).
Post-Crisis Bizarro
Project Changeling
After the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Lex Luthor orders his scientific team to create a clone of Superman that was part of "Project Changeling". Incorrectly starting from the assumption that Superman is a human with metahuman abilities (his alien origin had not yet been revealed), the process results in a flawed copy, which Luthor dismissively refers to as "...this bizarre - Oh, forget it", before ordering for the subject to be disposed of. The clone survives and, although mute and possessed of only limited intelligence and vague memories of Clark Kent's life, attempts to mimic Superman. He kidnaps Lois Lane and is finally destroyed when colliding with Superman in mid-air. Each time he exerted himself, the clone crumbled slightly. When Lois Lane's sister, who had been blinded in a terrorist attack, is exposed to Bizarro's dust, she regains her sight. While Superman had not expected this effect, he speculated that Bizarro heard the sister explain her partial recovery and may have deliberately allowed himself to be killed to cure her.
Bizarro II
A second Bizarro, able to speak and think better due to genetic engineering by Luthor, appears in a 5-issue substory in the clone plague story-arc titled "Bizarro's World" (beginning in Superman (vol. 2) #87). Before he died, this Bizarro seriously injured Dr. Sydney Happersen, kidnapped Lois, created a ramshackle dummy version of Metropolis in a warehouse (to parody Superman's frequently rescuing Lois, he deliberately exposed her to and "rescued" her from one lethal danger after another), abducted Lana Lang, proposed to Lois and finally died in Luthor's labs. During this period, Superman also had to cope with an unending increase in his powers due to exposure to "purple kryptonite" in the climax of the Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen story-arcs.
Project Cadmus/S-01
S-01 coined "Bizarre-O" is the first of the Paul Westfield overseen attempts to clone a new Superman by him during the storyline "Fall of Metropolis". Known as the thirteenth and only success of Westfield's project Superboy was recalled to Cadmus to discuss the new information uncovered regarding his own origin. While the Cadmus directors and Dr. Packard discussed what went wrong with S-01 and Westfield's secrecy on the project Scrapper unknowingly leaned on the control panel for S-01's stasis pod causing him to be released. After breaking free of his stasis pod S-01 rapidly started deteriorating with his skin almost immediately taking on the chalky hue and ridged texture of other Bizarros.
Dabney Donovan's Bizarro
One other Bizarro is created using Lex Luthor's clone process, by Lex Luthor's estranged wife Contessa Portenza and Dabney Donovan shortly after Superman regained his normal powers when he expended his electromagnetic ones. This Bizarro abducted Lex Luthor's baby daughter and intended to send her by rocket to another planet, emulating Kal-El's escape from Krypton. His pile of explosives and bombs, meant to launch the rocket, would have killed her instead, and Superman had to shield her when Bizarro threw the launch switch. Bizarro III, already self-destructing from a genetic booby trap encoded into him by his creator, perished in the explosion.
Joker's Bizarro/Bizarro #1
Another version of Bizarro possesses all the abilities of Superman but with a childlike mentality and method of speech. He is created by Batman's arch-enemy the Joker when the villain steals the powers of the fifth-dimensional imp Mister Mxyzptlk. Creating a twisted version of Earth called "Jokerworld" - a perfect cube with the Joker's image on each facet - the villain designates Bizarro to be the planet's greatest hero and leader of a reimagined "JLA" (the "Joker's League of Anarchy"). When Mxyzptlk regains his powers, the imp allows Bizarro and several other beings to remain on the restored Earth.
Bizarro suffers a setback when captured by the Pokolistanian dictator General Zod. Zod beats and tortures Bizarro, simply because the creature resembles Superman. The hero rescues Bizarro, and to help him adjust to the normal Earth rebuilds Bizarro's "Graveyard of Solitude" (the opposite of Superman's Fortress of Solitude).
During the Infinite Crisis story line, Bizarro is tricked into joining the reformed Secret Society of Super Villains by the Flash's foe Zoom. In a battle with the Freedom Fighters Bizarro accidentally kills the Human Bomb, repeatedly hitting the hero to see the flashes of light that are produced from the kinetic energy of the blows.
Bizarro becomes involved when Kryptonian criminals, led by General Zod, escape to Earth. Wishing to create a home for himself, Bizarro travels into deep space to a solar system occupied by a blue sun. After creating a cube shaped planet, filled with distorted versions of various buildings and locations on Earth, Bizarro is still lonely. The blue sun, however, gives Bizarro a new ability called "Bizarro Vision", which allows him to create new Bizarros. When this fails, Bizarro kidnaps Jonathan Kent, Superman's adopted father on Earth. Superman rescues his father and helps Bizarro become his world's greatest hero.
Bizarro eventually appears on the planet Throneworld, befriending and aiding Earth hero Adam Strange and allies Prince Gavyn, Captain Comet, and the Weird. Together they participate in the war between alien worlds Rann and Thanagar, and against villains Lady Styx and Synnar. Bizarro eventually visits the grave of a deceased Jonathan Kent, and is then sent (by rogue Kryptonians) with other Superman foes to the inter-dimensional prison, the Phantom Zone.
Bizarro has a series of encounters with former Secret Society ally Solomon Grundy, and during the events of Blackest Night, Bizarro confronts the Black Lantern version of Grundy. Bizarro destroys Grundy by driving him into the heart of the Sun.
Later, while investigating an object that crashes into a Metropolis park and leaves a massive crystallized crater in its center, Dr. Light and Gangbuster discover a Bizarro-like creature that resembles Supergirl. The Bizarro Supergirl takes the heroes hostage, but is defeated in battle by the real Supergirl. It is revealed that the Bizarro Supergirl is a refugee from the cube-shaped Bizarro World, and was sent to Earth by her cousin after their planet was attacked by a being known as the Godship. Dr. Light attempts to take the Bizarro Supergirl to S.T.A.R. Labs, only to be violently knocked unconscious by Supergirl, who then absconds with her doppelgänger and her ship, hoping to stop the Godship and save the Bizarro World. After taking Bizarro Supergirl back to the Bizarro World, Bizarro Superman is reunited with Bizarro Supergirl.
The New 52
In 2011, The New 52 rebooted the DC Universe. Two versions of Bizarro first appear in the Forever Evil event.
Subject A-0
Five years ago, Lex Luthor, intending to create his personal army of Supermen, attempted to splice Superman's DNA with human DNA and injected it into a teenage test subject named Bobby. Instead, he transforms into a hulking white-skinned monster with cryonic vision, incendiary breath, and immunity to Kryptonite which is labeled "Subject A-0". Deducing his weakness, Luthor hits him with concentrated solar radiation that oversaturates his cells and kills him. Luthor then takes samples of the creature to continue his experiment, deciding to clone a purely Kryptonian body. Five years later, a capsule labeled B-0 is shown.
Subject B-0
After the Crime Syndicate takes over the world, Luthor releases Subject B-0, though his transformation is only halfway through. When he kills a security guard named Otis on Luthor's orders, Luthor is pleased and decides to use the imperfect clone in his plan to take the Syndicate down. Later, when Luthor and his team of villains pass through a tunnel, B-0 is revealed to be afraid of darkness. Luthor tries to comfort him with a story about his own fears, but ultimately wonders whether the clone was a waste of time; B-0 then speaks his first words, "Bizarro... try", much to Luthor's surprise. Though initially doubtful, Luthor grows truly fond of "Bizarro", who proves to be a powerful asset throughout the event.
During the final confrontation against the Earth-3 invaders, Bizarro battles Mazahs, the alternate version of Luthor himself; although he initially has the upper hand, Bizarro is fatally wounded and left to die. Luthor desperately tries to fix him, to no avail, and they share a sorrowful goodbye. Enraged over the death of Bizarro, Lex Luthor murders his Earth-3 counterpart, avenging Bizarro. After the battle is over, Luthor restarts the cloning process; when one of his scientists states it should take about ten years to fully develop a perfect Kryptonian clone, Luthor corrects him by saying it will take only five years, revealing he truly intends to create a perfect copy of Bizarro.
DC Rebirth
In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called DC Rebirth, which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to The New 52.
A clone of Bizarro is found inside of a tube in a train car stolen by Black Mask sometime after the Crime Syndicate of America incident. The Red Hood and Artemis jump aboard the train car attempting to steal a weapon, not expecting it to be a clone of Superman. Bizarro eventually joins the Red Hood's Outlaws. During this time, Bizarro is stricken with a sickness which causes his cells to rapidly deteriorate. After saving his teammates in the Outlaws, he dies. Lex Luthor takes his body to try to resurrect him, on the condition that he be the property of Lexcorp. This results in Bizarro becoming extremely smart, surprising his teammates.
Bizarro and Artemis briefly get trapped in a different dimension, but return to Earth. Bizarro becomes the ruler of Hell after killing Trigon, and plans to be the Ruler of Hell to make sure Earth is not in danger before saying goodbye to Jason Todd and Artemis.
Powers and Abilities
Generally, Bizarro's powers are identical to Superman with the most substantial difference being that are reverse versions of certain abilities.
• "Arctic vision" unleashes twin beams of subzero light from his eyes which instantaneously freezes anything or anyone on contact; inducing frostbite and even hypothermia.
• "Flame breath" allows him to exhale a superheated napalm-like substance which causes severe burns with minimal contact and even melt steel at maximum intensity.
• "Vacuum breath" instead of wind breath, he can inhale large amounts of air to draw people and objects towards him.
• "Bizarro telescopic vision" which allows Bizarro to see a "short distance behind his head" rather than a "long distance in front of his head".
• "Bizarro microscopic vision" which makes objects "actually smaller to everyone" rather than merely "appear to be bigger to only the user".
• "Bizarro X-ray vision" which allows Bizarro to "only see through lead" rather than the ability to "see through anything except lead".
• "Spotlight vision" which allows Bizarro to project beams of light in the fashion of a spotlight from his eyes to highlight what he is looking at.
• "X-ray hearing" which allows Bizarro to hear through everything except lead.
When operating within an environment under a blue sun, Bizarro gains the ability to replicate new lifeforms from his own body mass. Using this power, he cloned a cube-shaped planet that has become colloquially known as Htrae (Earth spelled backwards). This world is now populated by Bizarro versions of Superman, his family, friends, and enemies. Similarly, Bizarro's weaknesses are reversed: green kryptonite has an empowering effect on him - healing and strengthening his body similar to the effects of yellow sunlight on Superman; while only blue kryptonite (an imperfect duplicate of green kryptonite) affects Bizarro adversely in the same manner that the former does with normal Kryptonians; i.e., causing him debilitating pain and diminishing his superpowers.
×
![]()
×
![]()
