Superman is the most recognizable superhero in the world. Everyone knows who he is; an alien who was launched to Earth as a baby and grew up to be its greatest defender. Fans and creators alike love him. To that end, it’s only natural that a character as iconic as Superman would have plenty of alternate versions in a comic book multiverse that stretches outwards towards infinity with all kinds of stories. However, while many of these alternate takes on Superman are fun and very interesting, some of them are just plain weird. There are Supermen that will make even the most storied comic book reader do a double take, and one or two that would force a triple. So let’s take a look at seven of the strangest alternate versions of Superman.
1) True Brit
In this timeline, instead of crash landing in the heartland of Kansas, Kal-El’s rocket was intentionally sent to England. He is found and raised by the Clark family, being named Colin Clark. What’s especially weird about this story isn’t that Superman was British, although it is kind of interesting and funny to see since Superman is so closely intertwined with American culture, but that this story is very obviously a parody poking fun at British stereotypes. Most especially, this critiques the British desire to conform to society no matter what, with Colin being raised to never use his powers for fear of upsetting the neighbors. He joins the Daily Smear as a tabloid reporter, and eventually creates a purposefully garish Superman costume based on the British flag after saving The Rutles, a Beatles parody band. This entire comic reads like a Monty Python script, and that’s because it kind of is, having been written by John Cleese and Kim Howard Johnson, who both have very close ties to the classic British dry comedy series. This one is pure old-fashioned ribbing, and is definitely going to get a chuckle out of anyone who reads it in good faith. The stereotypes are obviously blown way out of proportion, and it’s all in good fun, but it’s really weird to see Superman in a British flag costume. That alone gets this book a spot on this list.
2) Superman/Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle
When you think of characters that would crossover with Superman, your first thought probably isn’t Tarzan, but this comic showed that this is exactly the type of crossover we need. In this reality, Superman’s ship crash lands in East Africa, where he is raised by apes to be the king and defender of the jungle, named Argo-Zan. Tarzan, meanwhile, was raised in society to become Lord Greystoke. However, the two men are inextricably drawn to their actual destinies, and eventually meet and exchange roles. Argo-Zan moves to the city to become Superman, and Lord Greystroke takes up the mantle of protecting the wild, saying it feels like he was born to do so. This story is just completely stupid in all the right ways, because honestly who thought of Superman becoming Tarzan? What makes this even funnier is that this isn’t even the only Tarzanized Superman, as a version of Big Blue raised by wolves appeared in Superman: The Feral Man of Steel. Superman in the jungle is apparently a popular enough topic to earn two versions, and that’s great.
3) Superman: Red Son
Superman: Red Son is one of Superman’s best known and greatest Elseworlds, having even been adapted into a movie of the same name. It’s a classic nature versus nurture story, where Superman lands in the harsh Soviet Union in 1953, and although he grows up to embody the ideals of his homeland, eventually realizes that he had become a dictator that put himself above humanity and faked his own death to live as a normal man. However, the very existence of this work sounds absolutely insane when you really think about it. Who sits down and asks the question “What if Superman was a communist?” and then proceeds to have this story pitched to a board that approves its creation. I am very glad that it’s here, but this comic had actual historical figures like Joseph Stalin and John F. Kennedy. Really think about the reality of Superman having a conversation with Joseph Stalin, and tell me that doesn’t create a wild amount of cognitive dissonance. This story poses a very interesting question, but it’s also absolutely insane, and ends billions of years in the future where the descendant of Lex Luthor and Lois Lane sends his son back into the past as the Earth explodes. This story literally creates a predestination timeloop for honestly no reason at the end? And makes it so that Superman is related to Lois Lane? It’s buck wild in every regard.
4) Superman: At Earth’s End
This version of Superman is technically the closest to the original version, but lives in a world so utterly bonkers that he more than earns a place on this list. If you have the great fortune of never having read Superman: At Earth’s End, this story is set in the post-apocalypse, where an aged Superman fights to free Gotham City from its ruling army of mutant bat-men before the cyborgs overseeing Earth’s “cleansing” called the Biomech Sevens nuke the city off of the map. Not only does this Superman use a gun larger than his torso, but the main antagonists of this story are twin clones of Adolf Hitler who call themselves the DNA Diktators, and their master plan is to use Batman’s dna to create an army of bat-mutant-men and rule over the world, because according to them they never lost WWII. Oh, and Superman goes about this with a small child soldier army who were a gang that tried to survive on their own after their parents were kidnapped by the Hitler twins for experiments. At the end, Superman retrieves Batman’s corpse and walks into the funeral pyre, and then the kids give an anti-gun PSA over his still burning corpse. This version of Superman and the world he lives in is absolutely insane like nothing else I have ever read, and I can never decide if it’s incredible or stupid. It’s both, at the very least.
5) The Jurassic League
This comic shows a very traditional version of Superman’s origin, where he is a baby launched to Earth and raised by caring human parents, except in this universe he’s a sentient Kryptonian Brachiosaurus and the Earth he landed on is prehistoric and populated by other dinosaurs, both sentient and non-sentient. Supersaur dedicated his life to protecting the humans of his adopted world, helping the cavepeople fashion a city where they would be safe from the mindless predators who saw them as tasty snacks. Supersaur eventually joins up with other sentient dinos like Bat Walker and Wonderdon, and forms the Jurassic League to stand up against the pure evil of Darkyloseid. Supersaur not only defeats this threat, but does it by carrying him into orbit and slamming him down so hard it creates a new continent where dinosaurs and humans can live in peace. This is unironically one of my favorite Elseworlds of all time, and I would love to see a return of the absolute chad that is Supersaur.
6) “Killer Kent Versus Super Luthor”
This imaginary tale took place in Superman #230 and #231, telling the story of Jor-El who, driven mad with grief over the death of his wife, destroys Krypton and flees to Earth with his son Lex-El in hopes of gaining superpowers. Meanwhile, notorious bank robbers Jonathan and Martha Kent had a Chromo-Stimulant brain chip implanted in their son Clark’s head to ensure that he would become the greatest criminal in the world no matter what happened. Their investment immediately paid off as the Kryptonians’ ship crushed Jon and Martha, leaving young Clark an orphan. Lex and Clark grew up as friends, before the chip kicked in and turned Clark into a crime-machine. One day Clark disappeared after killing Jor-El, who was trying to Smallville with a Matter Vacuum. Lex would go on to become a true hero, dubbing himself Superman, and while Lex Luthor becoming Superman is crazy enough, what really sets this story apart is the insane things Lex did in his career. This man at one point built an entire to-scale model of Krypton and populated it with android duplicates. His inevitable clash with Killer Kent ended with the two doing a double fake out with Superman Robots and holograms, Superman’s powers being transferred to a steering wheel, and Clark dying when his brain implant short-circuited. Definitely a wild tale, and frankly, Lex-El’s strangely elongated head makes this already insane story even funnier.
7) The Superman Monster
The final entry on our list sees a very fun combination of the Superman mythos and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Disgraced scientist Vicktor Luthor is obsessed with raising a creature from the dead, and strikes gold when he discovers a rocket ship with the deceased remains of baby Kal-El inside. Building a new body from corpses both stolen and made, Luthor successfully resurrects the baby into a man, but the process goes awry as he emerges with pale skin and superhuman powers. The new being sees Luthor as his father, but the mad scientist rejects him, even after the monster saves him from a fire. Luthor gathers the townsfolk to hunt him down, while the supposed monster befriends Luthor’s betrothed Eloise after saving her life, and is taken in by the Kent family, who name him Klaus after their lost son.
Klaus learns the ways of humanity and even starts to appear more human, but Luthor and his mob eventually find them and Johan Kent dies of a heart attack, and Luthor learns of Klaus’s weakness to Kryptonite. Klaus crashes Luthor and Eloise’s wedding, where Luthor shoots Klaus, only to hit Eloise instead and kill her. Luthor revives her with the same technology he used before, but she rejects him due to the trauma and Luthor having killed her father. Klaus and Eloise destroy Luthor’s Revival Matrix, and escape to live out the rest of their days together in peace and isolation. Luthor followed them to the arctic, where he eventually died of hypothermia trying to find their Fortress of Solitude. This is a wild and often sad tale, but it really makes the best use of both of its source materials, perfectly showing that the monster never wanted to be a beast of destruction, and showing the great humanity that always lives in Superman’s heart. I definitely recommend giving this one a read. It’s far more deep and heartwarming than you’d expect.
So there we have our wild and wacky Superman stories. There are a thousand ways to reimagine Superman’s origins, and each of these are definitely up there as some of the weirdest, but that doesn’t mean some of these stories aren’t really enjoyable to read. Which one was your favorite? One on this list, or another that we never mentioned? Let us know in the comments below!
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