Cover to Cover: Reign of the Superman

The Multiple Monarchies of the Man of Steel!

 “Power corrupts, and absolute 

   power corrupts absolutely.”

   – Lord Acton

Ever since the famous 1938 cover of Action Comics #1, people have thrilled to the adventures of Superman.  From that dazzling debut onward, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s creation has used his immense otherworldly powers in service to mankind.

Well….most of the time, that is.

You see, inherent in the concept of Superman’s power is the possibility of it being used not in service to mankind, but against it. In a flawed and fallen humanity, that sort of selfish choice would be the natural, logical way to go if we possessed that kind of power. In fact, Siegel and Shuster themselves thought as much during their first attempt to create a Superman character in 1933.

Published in their Science Fiction fanzine, “Reign of the Superman” told the story of a homeless man who was given mighty psionic powers (and telescopic vision) by a strange professor (a bald professor, by the way).  Immediately corrupted by his new powers, he named himself “The Superman” and set out to become Emperor of the World.

The following year, Jerry and Joe retooled the concept into a Superman more familiar to us today…but the spectre of such a powerful being deciding to rule mankind instead of saving it has never entirely disappeared from the character’s comics.

As a modest prelude to his worldwide ambitions as an adult, the cover of Superboy #32 (1954) featured “His Majesty, King Superboy" (as well as a strangely bald, Julius Schwartz-like Pa Kent). When old documents revealed that Smallville was actually its own royal kingdom and not part of the United States, Superboy assumed the legally required role of king until the paperwork could be straightened out.

 

Working his way up from King of Smallville, the adult Superman became the king of a hidden jungle tribe in World's Finest #111 (1960) following an amnesia-inducing volcanic explosion. Naturally, his friends Batman and Robin restored his memory, returned him to civilization, and then mercilessly teased him about the goofy fan-shaped hat.

 

Superman’s ambitions to rule the world became more apparent on the cover of Action Comics #244 (1958), as Superman left the surface world to rule his “new ocean empire”. No big deal, right? He’d rule over fish, Aquaman, and a few mer-people, right? Ah, not so fast. Considering oceans cover over 70% of the Earth’s surface, one could consider this a bold prelude to what would come next.

 

In Action Comics #311 (1964), exposure to Red Kryptonite split the Man of Steel into a non-powered Clark Kent and an evil Superman, who promptly stormed the United Nations demanding to be crowned King of Earth (with a giant Pope-like crown, no less). Meanwhile, an angry Clark Kent organized a secret underground organization to take down his power-mad alter ego!

 

Continuing the tale in Action Comics #312 (1964)…quite a rarity for Silver Age DC Comics…a gravely wounded Clark Kent is kept alive by becoming a Kryptonite-powered Metallo cyborg. After exposing the tyrant to his Kryptonite heart, a dying King Superman confessed that his rule over Earth was actually part of an elaborate plan to stop an alien attack (oopsie!). Merging back together into a single being, Superman foiled the alien attack and then explained his plan to the totally gobsmacked (and most likely thoroughly peeved) people of Earth.

 

Action Comics #381 (1968) finds Superman once again storming the United Nations, this time to declare himself “Dictator of Earth” (while planting the same S-flag from the cover of Action #311).

 

In World's Finest #240 (1976), Superman tried to save the Bottle City of Kandor from civil war by becoming its king, but mysteriously began threatening the outside world. Naturally, the people of Kandor did what any caring society would do for a wayward leader: they hit up Batman to kill King Superman!

 

Instead of assassinating King Superman, Batman donned his own golden crown and joined Superman as co-ruler of the world’s crime community on the cover of World's Finest #165 (1967).

 

Nearly forty years later in Superman/Batman #14 (2005), we see the boys once again co-ruling the world, this time as alternate timeline versions of themselves that were raised by villains and sent back in time to conquer Earth. Note how they’ve replaced the U.S. Presidents on Mount Rushmore with their own faces, an apparent rite-of-passage for all would-be world dictators

 

Superman and Batman return to the side of the angels in World's Finest #247 (1977) as they battled the tyranny of the New Superman, who claimed to be Superman’s long-lost Kryptonian brother Kor-El. Following his defeat, Kor-El was revealed to be a disguised Parasite, the power-absorbing Superman foe.

 

As yet another villain posing as Superman, a reality-altering entity named Dominus conquered Earth in Superman: King of the World (1999) while Superman himself was secretly imprisoned in the form of Dominus. Needless to say, Superman faced a boatload of bad P.R. and a wary world population following the defeat of Dominus.

 

Our final three examples of the Conquering Kal-El are set outside of regular continuity as alternate-reality stories (or "Imaginary Stories" in Silver Age parlance). In Superman (vol. 2) Annual #3 (1991), an atomic explosion near Metropolis wiped out most of Superman’s supporting cast, chief among them his wife Lois Lane. A grief-stricken Superman then took it upon himself to rid the world of nuclear weapons and enacting “The Laws of Superman”...leaving it to Batman and the Justice League to bring him down.

 

Superman #417 (1986) asked the question, “What if Kal-El’s rocket overshot Earth and landed on Mars?”. Raised as the mighty “Skagerrak” by a race of warriors (unconnected to DC’s J’onn J’onzz character), he eventually leads a full-scale Martian invasion of planet Earth. However, while going undercover as (I kid you not) a bell-ringing Santa Claus, Skagerrak learns Valuable Lessons about humanity and decides to defend Earth against the Martian forces.

 

In the alternate reality of Superman: The Dark Side (1998), Kal-El is raised by none other than DARKSEID on the evil planet of Apokalips. Following the defeat of the New Gods, Kal-El then turns his attention to conquering the planet Earth!

 

Though not as dramatically off-course as his journeys to Mars and Apokalips, Kal-El’s rocket ended up on the other side of the world in the Red Son mini-series (2003). Landing in the Soviet Union, Kal-El is raised to be the “Champion of the common worker who fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pack”. By issue #3, the U.S.S.R. and its leader Superman rule most of the world, with the exceptions of Chile (?) and portions of the United States (lead by President Lex Luthor).

It’s somehow fitting that U.S. resistance to the Soviet Superman is the jumping off point for our Monarch of Steel survey. Why? Well, at the risk of getting too deep here, I think implicit within all of these stories is America’s traditional (and healthy) skepticism, even antipathy toward monarchies and other forms of centralized power. The spectacle of Superman’s immense power being used selfishly and recklessly was a not-so-subtle reminder that too much power in too few hands can be a very scary thing.

That, and crowns are for sissies.

Comments

[De]

Superman as monarch/dictator/grand poobah seems to be a favorite "what if" game to play with the Man of Steel. He's easily the most powerful being on Earth yet he decides to use his powers to do good—essentially a paradox of the axiom you quoted at the beginning of the entry.

[suedenim]

Another example is the current "Tangent" Superman series, "Superman's Reign."

Seems to be not unlike that original "Reign of the Superman" story, with a psionically-powered Superman becoming corrupted by his powers and taking over the world.

[De]

I just got a look at the pictures you posted (work policy blocks Photobucket). The cover to World's Finest #247 is downright terrifying with all that Nazi saluting going on.

[ShadowWing Tronix]

Hey, IE seems to be working again. Good thing, since going to the homepage through my old Netscape 7 kept making the audio files from the radio show article play on their own and over each other.

Back on topic: The last animated Superman had an episode where Lois ends up in a parallel dimension where her counterpart was killed. There, Superman teams with Luthor and turns Metropolis into a police state..or rather city.
There was also a Justice League episode where an alternate universe League takes over the Earth when the Flash of their dimension is killed by Luthor. Supes liquidates him and give the Joker a lobodomy with his heat vision. Then they learn about "our" universe and clash with "our" JL. So ruling Supermen made their way into the toons as well.

I hope they release the Tanget series as a collected GN or something. I enjoyed most of the Tanget stories before, and only found out about this too late to get into it.

[DIane]

"Kor-El". Didn't he make cheap dinnerware?

[suedenim]

ShadowWing:
Sensibly, DC is indeed rereleasing the Tangent series - looks like 3 volumes of TPBs, two of which should be on shelves now going by Amazon.

[ShadowWing Tronix]

I already have the individual ones I want (Flash is a hoot, Joker keeps things interesting even if the second one didn't seem to remember the first, and I missed seeing the Atom back in action in round 2.) It's the Superman's Reign I'm hoping for, if only to see the Tangent Secret 6 back in action.