Alternate universe Superman?

Question

Was there ever a storyline in the comics or other medium where he was not raised by the Kents, and so grew up having no one to instill upon him all of his virtues? For instance, if he grew up as bad guy?

Answer 1

Yes, there have been a number of stories like that, but they were all one-shots, and they were all done as “imaginary stories” (as if they weren’t ALL imaginary…!) and not part of the continuity. This was way before they had today’s graphic novels, etc.

There was a Superboy story to the effect that his ship landed in Africa and Superboy was raised by apes. Don’t laugh! He wore a red loincloth and a blue shirt with a yellow S on it that stood for the big serpent he defeated when he was just a baby. Eventually, Lana Lang and her dad came by on an archaeological expedition, and, well, it was Tarzan and Jane all over again. That was in the 70’s

Then there was the one in the late 80’s or early 90’s where his rocket was tracked by military radar and landed in the ocean, and picked up by a US aircraft carrier. The baby became a ward of the US government. Skyboy (as he was code-named) was held in reserve as a secret weapon. He had no public career. When the Russians launched a surprise nuclear attack on the US, and it looked as if there was going to be a global holocaust, Skyboy flew up and threw all the nuclear missiles into the Sun. The Russians didn’t know how we made their missiles disappear, and we didn’t make Skyboy’s existence public. When General Clark who had been his superior officer died, Skyboy decided he’d had enough and wanted to live in the outside world he had only been able to watch at a distance with his super vision. So he fled the military institution where he was raised and lived all his life, and created a secret identity—to hide from the government !!!—taking the name of the general and the name of the young naval lieutenant who had been the first to reach his rocket when it splashed down—Lieutenant Kent. There came the turn of the milennium (2000) and he was grown to manhood, still hiding as a normal human. But then there appeared some four-armed bozo who claimed that he was the one who had saved the world from nuclear destruction years ago, and it was now time for him to rule, as was his right. Skyman (now) returned to save the day! He beat up the bad guy and drove him off and told the people of Metropolis that he wasn’t interested in ruling them, that they had to forge their own destiny and all that jazz, and then vanished again. But Clark told Lois he’d probably return if we really needed him.

Then there was the one that was a tribute to Edgar Rice Burrough’s John Carter—Superman, Warlord of Mars! He landed on Mars, was adopted by the savage hordes, and as he grew (I think his powers developed more slowly) he eventually conquered the planet and united all the Martian tribes in peace under him. He got sick of killing, since it was no challenge with his strength, but was otherwise a pretty nasty dictator, with enemies cowering before his throne and slave girls throwing themselves at his feet. (I think you can see this one on line at ‘Superman through the ages’, IIRC.)

There are probably others, but those are the ones that stand out in my mind. Oh, yeh, the ones that were eliminated from the continuity with Crisis. In Animal Man 23, they had a lot of the eliminated version of the Justice League trying to break back out into reality again. Including a twisted version of Superman called Overman, who went insane as a result of some sexually transmitted disease, and planned to set off a doomsday bomb to destroy all life on Earth. But this was after the groundbreaking Miracleman episode with MM fighting Johnny Bates and devastating London. Who can forget Alan Moore’s horrific vision of a storm of severed hands and feet, human skins hanging out to dry on clotheslines, and people impaled on church steeples…?

In a sense, that was the loss of innocence for many comic readers, realizing that if a superbeing did exist, it could turn out to be a conscienceless monster, one before whom the rest of us would stand no chance at all, whose temper tantrums could shed the blood of millions. Think Saddam Hussein was bad…? It’s the nature of politics not to trust others with power, and I think that the world’s givernments would do exactly what the British government tried to do to Miracleman: nuke them out of existence. They can’t be controlled, and they can’t be trusted.

Anyway, hope that answers your question.

8 JAN 07, 1337 hrs, GMT.

Answer 2

Red Son is the best. It's about what would happen if Superman landed in the USSR. It's even got a Russian Batman.

Answer 3

You bet. There's an "Elseworlds" story called "Red Son" where his rocket crashes in the Soviet Union. Also, check out "The Nail".
Both stories can be scored from www.midtowncomics.com

Answer 4

Aren't they already an alterate universe?

Answer 5

you mean like the spiderman theory?
dunno.