Should Ultraman get a re-invented?

[Castiel]

One of my favorite video games is Injustice Gods Among Us. Ever since I played it I can't stop thinking about the character Ultraman Superman's evil Doppleganger and leader of the Syndicate. I feel like he should be reintroduced and with some tweaking and alterations I think he could be a very compelling character. How I'd re-do him is I'd have him possess all of Superman's powers and weaknesses. Essentially I have his back ground be the same but include differences like his ship after crashing on the Kent Farm caused so much damage it ruined the Kent's Financially causing Johnathan Kent to become an alcoholic and very abusive. Creating a situation where Clark finally fought back but accidentally murdered his Johnathan with his super strength and maybe even accidentally killing Martha with his heat vision.

Ultimately these events cause him to seek out his true lineage and he fully embraces his kryptonian heritage rejecting the name Clark Kent and going only by Cal El. Around the same time his Zod breaks free from the phantom zone and becomes like a father figure to him molding his ideology and beliefs only Zod gets killed by a weapon(possibly designed by his Earths Lex Luthor) using kryptonite and Cal El grows even more unhinged.

Realizing he can't openly conquer his Earth he creates two personas Superman(to give the people hope) and Ultraman(his true personae that gives the people something to fear) which could be where his Lois Lane comes in she could be that beacon of light that keeps him from being a monster and just when he starts thinking he could be a hero for real she gets killed and he completely goes over the edge and fully embraces his Ultraman personae believing humans little more than animals that must be controlled.

Essentially how I'd do his first encounter with Superman is I'd have him pose as his Earth's Superman as a subtle deception leading up to the shocking reveal and for his main goal being to make himself immune to kryptonite. I like this idea because I think it would add a lot of complexity to the character Ultraman and it would be interesting to see his how Superman would react to a version of himself that is completely messed up. I was pretty much inspired by Flash Season 2

[Dispenser Of Truth]

I wrote on how I'd low-grade reinvent Ultraman a couple weeks back; essentially, making him the ultimate nihilist to Superman's ultimate idealist. He had that same "looking into the universe" moment as Lex at the end of All-Star, but it's Earth 3, so he saw...nothing. If all we have is each other, and people are at base worthless in his world, the only way to matter is to rule.

[Castiel]

I wrote on how I'd low-grade reinvent Ultraman a couple weeks back; essentially, making him the ultimate nihilist to Superman's ultimate idealist. He had that same "looking into the universe" moment as Lex at the end of All-Star, but it's Earth 3, so he saw...nothing. If all we have is each other, and people are at base worthless in his world, the only way to matter is to rule.

Just read it and I'm very impressed. He should be Superman's polar opposite but on a fundamental level he should be the same. Where Superman sees light and hope Ultraman should see despair and hopelessness. Where Superman acts out of a desire to protect others Ultraman should act of a desire to always be superior and always fearing the idea that he'll be second best to someone else. This is why I like the Justice Lord story line in Justice League both supermen were different but were quite similar in some regards and that is how Ultraman should be he should be bad but not so evil that he's uninteresting.

He should be like a more extreme version of Zod.

[Sardorim]

Didn't he try to sleep with Super-Girl?

[Castiel]

Didn't he try to sleep with Super-Girl?

Was it his Supergirl or Superman's Supergirl?

[Mutant God]

I like the Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths version where he seems more mobster-ish, like a super power Tony Soprano.

[Slaughter]

Ultraman has a interesting ideology in Forever Evil - he has this sick, twisted darwinian worldview. Very interesting.

[Patrick Gerard]

Didn't he try to sleep with Super-Girl?

Pre-Crisis Ultraman tried to brainwash her into marriage after blinking back into existence in Infinite Crisis.

Note: Morrison's Ultraman and, possibly, none of the Ultramen until Johns' New 52 version, are not Kryptonian. Pre-Crisis never really got an origin although I'm aware of the fan theory that he may be Kal-Ul, son of the evil alternate universe Jor-Ul from the Superboy comics. Morrison has had a thing for non-Kryptonian alternate universe Supermen through his career. Since the pre-Crisis version never got an origin, he may be -- like Morrison's -- a human astronaut made Kryptonian by Kryptonian astronauts who found him in space.

One thing I used to talk about a lot with comic pro friends back in the day was a Crime Syndicate Original Sin story that made sense of their origins. When you stop to think about it, despite being in a morally backwards universe, certain motivations typically still apply in their stories like greed and a desire for revenge. A big question is: what makes them tick? Johns seems to have had similar thoughts since he went out and gave us these origins. But that version of Earth-3 is gone now.

For me, that's where I would start with any exploration of these guys: what motivates and drives them? My focus would be on getting inside their heads and showing us a bigger slice of their world and history and how it functions. Ultraman typically has a secret identity. Why? How does he keep it secret? What was his relationship with the Kents like? Along with that, I'd be looking at Superman iconography I could pilfer, in particular the "Superdickery" covers. So you'd get lots of standalone issues like one where Ultraman starts a religion and puts on that pope hat Superman had in a couple of old Silver-Age issues. We'd get takeoffs on some of the more contentious Golden-Age stories like the one where Superman declares war on cars.

Along the way, I'd be feeding you a coherent philosophy of what makes Ultraman tick while going through a kind of greatest hits of "Bad Superman" stories and moments. Only here, they're the norm. So when Ultraman stops beating up truckers and getting drunk at bars, THAT becomes the change that worries people. There are some cruel twists I'd have in mind there but my overall take would be fairly Young Animal/indie comics. Maybe a dash of Lobo. This is a book full of darkly comedic punchlines that have bodycounts. But I'd also be trying to figure out how to make you sympathize with this jerk.

[Flash Gordon]

I can't stand the current Geoff Johns verison, so I'd like to see something new done. Something a little offbeat.

[greatmetropolitan]

I've always thought that Ultraman should be the most frightening villain in DC, because he should be just like Superman, but evil. That is, he should be focused, a will of iron. He achieves feats of depravity and darkness previously thought impossible. Just when you think the good-guys have an absolutely infallible way to win, he scores the victory due to the depth of his darkness and coldness of his heart. He is just as brave and brilliant as our Clark, but all that intelligence and fortitude backs up a mind so horrifying that telepaths don't like to be around him, and take days to recover if they are.

He is the ultimate villain, the ultimate example of selfishness and personified hate and malice. And as long as he's being evil, as long as he is utterly in the wrong, he is unbeatable.

Clark was adopted on earth by Eben and Martha Kent, a pair of abusive, alcoholic farmers on the outskirts of a dying town. The farm burned down, killing Eben and Martha. Clark survived and was bounced from foster home to foster home. He studied hard and joined the military, hurting people for a living. (this part is Morrison's in JLA: Earth 2). Eventually he joined the space programme and was chosen to test pilot a new hyperspace engine. The test was a complete failure. His dying body was found by a race of aliens (Kryptonians?) and they fixed him to the best of their knowledge. But they didn't understand human physiology, and sent him back...different. Empowered. His ship exploding back into Earth's atmosphere, it brought with it massive chunks of anti-Kryptonite, which irradiated massive swathes of the American heartland. Reveling in his new power, Clark visits on the entire earth the kind of suffering and pain he'd been inflicting on anyone he could since he'd been a boy.

As Ultraman he ushered in a new era of villainy and hate on Earth 3, battling the pathetic Luthor day in, day out, and eventually forming the Crime Syndicate and taking control of the solar system, with designs on the whole universe. The Kryptonians who fixed him up get wind of their mistake and try to rectify it, first by sending their top military commander, the heroic Captain Doz, to defeat Ultraman.

Doz is brutally beaten and his death broadcast around the galaxy, frozen in his final moment of pain in the phantom zone.

Eventually the Kryptonians send their last gambit, the Genesis Child. Exuding nothing but serenity and calm, the Genesis Child, temporarily defeats Ultraman and peace is brought to Earth 3. Before long, Ultraman claws his way out of hell, wrestling his soul from one of the many faces of Satan, and reclaims his life and place as Earth's undisputed ruler. The Genesis Child would return again and again, and would be beaten, again and again. Ultraman loves a good fight, so he doesn't mind.

[HsssH]

I can't stand the current Geoff Johns verison, so I'd like to see something new done. Something a little offbeat.

Well he is dead so you don't have to worry about him anymore.

[Adekis]

I think you guys are overthinking it. Classic Ultraman never had a real name or secret identity, nor did he ever have a horrifying nihilistic approach to life. Why should modern Ultraman need that? Just to make us sad that the Kents were either crooks or had their life ruined by a criminal baby? I have a different approach. "Back to basics", if you will.







EDIT: dang, no comments. Well, I thought it was funny.

[NeonZ]

Pre-Crisis Ultraman tried to brainwash her into marriage after blinking back into existence in Infinite Crisis.

Note: Morrison's Ultraman and, possibly, none of the Ultramen until Johns' New 52 version, are not Kryptonian. Pre-Crisis never really got an origin although I'm aware of the fan theory that he may be Kal-Ul, son of the evil alternate universe Jor-Ul from the Superboy comics. Morrison has had a thing for non-Kryptonian alternate universe Supermen through his career. Since the pre-Crisis version never got an origin, he may be -- like Morrison's -- a human astronaut made Kryptonian by Kryptonian astronauts who found him in space.

It'd be hard to check right now, but I remember Pre-Crisis Ultraman being Kryptonian, from a Krypton that was never destroyed. I can't check his first appearance right now to see if it's from there though.

Anyway, as far as what made them tick, if you look at their original appearance, they didn't seem to be portrayed as conquerors or rulers of the world, but rather thrill seekers. The whole reason they went after the JL and JS was just because they were bored, feeling unchallenged in their own world. Later appearances, even of the Pre-Crisis versions themselves seemed to change things around to making them fight for control and conquest though.

A good element about the thrill seeker concept, IMO, is that it'd make it much easier to keep them as recurring foes or even protagonists compared to most later takes on them. When they're corrupt rulers of the world, it becomes much harder to use them as anything besides one shots.

[K. Jones]

Ultraman is kind of like Bizarro, in that there's sort of a few different versions of him. And then you can factor in the other characters called "Ultra", who Ultra Comics kind of ran into in a hellapocalypse take on Limbo in Ultra Comics # 1, including the original Siegel & Shuster Ultraman from 1940.

But then, there's kind of a few different versions of Superman, too, aye?

[Adekis]

Ultraman is kind of like Bizarro, in that there's sort of a few different versions of him. And then you can factor in the other characters called "Ultra", who Ultra Comics kind of ran into in a hellapocalypse take on Limbo in Ultra Comics # 1, including the original Siegel & Shuster Ultraman from 1940.

But then, there's kind of a few different versions of Superman, too, aye?

Yeah, but the different versions of Superman all work off the same blueprint, which is the origins in Superman # 1. Every other version of the Superman origin either expands upon that or expands upon an expansion upon that, or contradicts another expansion.

When we first met Ultraman in the 60s, he didn't have an origin at all. He was just a crook version of Superman who gained new powers from Kryptonite instead of being hurt by it and that's all we knew. Eventually we found out his father from Krypton-3 was named Jur-Li and wound up in Kandor-1, but that's rarely adhered to.

I think the problem is that Ultraman is so rarely used that there's impulse for consistency. Because there's no initial origin story, there's no blueprint for Morrison or Kelly or Johns or anyone else in the last twenty years to derive their origins from. As a result, Ultraman is always different, often down to his very personality. He's got no consistency.

Although: Siegel and Shuster didn't create the '40s Ultraman, that was Jon L. Blummer. It was neat to see him in Ultra Comics though.