Nightmare Superman is one of the darkest versions of the Man of Steel ever, and this villain deserves to be part of the main DC Multiverse.
Superman is one of the most optimistic and hopeful figures in the DC multiverse, which makes every evil, antagonistic or other corrupted version of the character all the more frightening. While DC has plenty of evil Supermen from the multiverse who prove the point, one of the most horrifying one of all isn't even from comic book reality.
Instead, this Nightmare Superman hails from Infinite Crisis videogame version of Earth-43. Now, we taking a closer look at who the Nightmare Superman fromInfinite Crisis, and why this terrifying version of the classic hero should make the transition to the comics.
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In the current comics version of the DC Multiverse, Earth-43 is home to the Blood League. After being turned into a vampire, Batman spread the vampiric curse to the rest of the Justice League, turning them into bloodthirsty despots of their world.
But in the Infinite Crisis version of Earth-43, Superman avoided this fate and suffered a far worse one. While in Metropolis, numerous portals to the Phantom Zone suddenly ripped through the city. Metropolis was promptly flooded by the broken and corrupted phantoms that had been trapped in the Phantom Zone. To make matters worse, anyone touched by the creatures was corrupted themselves, which only added to the phantom army.
Donning a special suit designed by his father Jor-El to transverse the Phantom Zone unharmed, Superman ventured into the dimension to discover what had happened. He discovers Aethyr, a dark and ancient being that's native to the Phantom Zone. In this universe, the being is recast as something like Cthulhu, a god made of madness that enslaved the numerous souls that had been trapped in the Phantom Zone by the Kryptonians.
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Superman battled the creature and had his sanity pushed to the brink by the experience. But in the end, he was able to force the creature to retreat back deep into the Phantom Zone to resume a near-eternal slumber. Superman barely escaped the Phantom Zone before the last of the portals closed. But when he returned, his entire life was changed. His exposure to the Phantom Zone had permanently affected his body, with the energy of the zone flooding his body.
He became weaker physically, but capable of shooting blasts of phantom energy and even briefly creating rifts to the Phantom Zone for various minor uses, such as slowing as pulling an enemy into a minor Vortex or summoning a phantom for a brief moment. He also found himself alone in the ruins of Metropolis, as his battle with Aehtyr had gone too long, and the entire population of Metropolis had been killed and turned into phantoms. Hearing their psychic wails was the breaking point for Superman's sanity, and he goes mad. Superman now wanders the ruins of Metropolis, seeing the world as if it were unchanged. He tries to protect his citizens -- merely the phantoms that roam the streets - from any threat that approaches the city, including innocents he mistakes for villains. And there he remains, Superman, King of the Phantom City.
The Nightmare Superman is a haunting incarnation of the character, a dark and deadly version of the classic superhero who's been turned into one of the most dangerous beings in his universe. He's destructive without realizing it, using his newfound powers for dark reasons without ever even realizing what he's doing. He is Lex Luthor's worst fears about Superman come to life, an accidentally murderous god who lashes out in pain and fury because he knows nothing else. It'd make for a perfectly tragic version of Superman that's still a real threat that needs to be brought down, especially if his powers continued to morph. An alternate skin for the character in-game suggested that his exposure to Aethyr actually changed him into a Harbinger of Madness, and would continue to mutate him into a C'thullu esque being.
This could be a corrupted Superman who spreads madness and death in his path across the multiverse. He also helps give Earth-43 a broader sense of horrors to play with beyond just the vampiric Batman and Robin. He also hints at the continued existence of Aethyr, a minor Pre-Crisis character who briefly appeared inSmallville but has never been treated as fearsome or threatening as it is here. The Nightmare Superman could easily be a denizen of the Dark Multiverse, too. But regardless of his origins, this Superman would truly give the heroes of the core DC Universe a real nightmare.
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Read more:
Nightmare Superman: The Scariest Superman Is NOT from Comics - CBR - Comic Book Resources
