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  1. #1
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
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    Default Ultra-Humanite (Golden Age foe of Superman and the JSA)

    First appearance = Action Comics #13 (June 1939)

    NOTE: Superman's other balding bad-guy, Lex Luthor, wouldn't first appear until a year later. And by that time, Ultra-Humanite looked much different from the way he looked for his initial appearance.

    And from Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe Vol. XXIV (February 1987)

  2. #2
    Boisterously Confused
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    Ultra-Humanite, to me, is one of DC's most unappreciated gems. This is a dude (usually), that can wear any body, given a bit of time for kidnapping and surgery. That's a terrifying notion, even before we get around to the mad-scientist bag of tricks.

  3. #3
    Astonishing Member signalman112's Avatar
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    Justice of League of America #196.

    JusticeLeagueAmerica196.jpg

  4. #4
    Incredible Member Adset's Avatar
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    This thread is a good excuse to mention that The Golden Age was the best mini-series of the 90s. There have been some great Ultra-Humanite appearances through the decades, but The Golden Age will forever be my favorite.

  5. #5
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    It's too bad they put a stop to the Ultra stories just after his brain was put in Delores Winters' body. That could have been a fascinating story. The retcon, where the brain ends up in the body of an albino gorilla seems like a cop-out. Gorillas with gang boss brains were nothing new for DC--but having a man's brain in a woman's body and they being the arch-foe of the world's greastest super-hero--that is kind of revolutionary.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Adset View Post
    This thread is a good excuse to mention that The Golden Age was the best mini-series of the 90s. There have been some great Ultra-Humanite appearances through the decades, but The Golden Age will forever be my favorite.
    Yeah. I mentioned that on the Scariest Villain thread. IMO, it's one of the two times UH was really used to his full potential (Generations being the other).

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    It's too bad they put a stop to the Ultra stories just after his brain was put in Delores Winters' body. That could have been a fascinating story. The retcon, where the brain ends up in the body of an albino gorilla seems like a cop-out. Gorillas with gang boss brains were nothing new for DC--but having a man's brain in a woman's body and they being the arch-foe of the world's greastest super-hero--that is kind of revolutionary.
    The gorilla idea made a bit of sense, but ultimately was a bad step. It did put Ultra on a physical level closer to the Golden-Age Superman. But...

    1) it only worked for one story, everywhere else the Earth-2 Superman was far stronger than even a mutant albino gorilla.
    2) It became stuck in later writer's minds making Ultra-Humanite often come off as a poor man's Gorilla Grodd (see the JLU cartoon) rather than one of the few minds able to match Lex Luthor that he had originally been,

    Roy Thomas made great use of the character in the All-Star Squadron, but less so in the Infinity Inc continuation.

    I'd have preferred playing up Alexei Luthor as the superior engineer, but Ultra-Humanite to excel with biological matters. And Post-Crisis for the 1940's Ultra to have influenced 1980's Lex's not going full-on super-villain and serving as inspiration for the Lex II idea.

  8. #8
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
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    from Who's Who Update '88 Vol. 4 (November 1988):

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