Ultra-Humanite

Ultra-Humanite
File:Jloa196.jpg The Ultra-Humanite on the cover of Justice League of America #196 (Nov. 1981), in albino ape's body. Art by George Pérez
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Action Comics #13 (June 1939)
Created by	Jerry Siegel Joe Shuster
In-story information
Alter ego	Gerard Shugel
Team affiliations	Secret Society of Super Villains Time Stealers
Notable aliases	Delores Winters, Johnny Thunder
Abilities	Superhuman intelligence Mind transference Mental powers Superhuman physical attributes in ape body

The Ultra-Humanite is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Action Comics #13 (June 1939), and was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Debuting as an enemy of Superman, he is the first recurring comic book supervillain.

Fictional character history

Golden Age

The Ultra-Humanite is the first supervillain faced by Superman. He was designed to be the polar opposite of Superman; while Superman is a hero with superhuman strength, Ultra-Humanite is a criminal mastermind who has a crippled body but a highly advanced intellect.

Ultra-Humanite's original body. Art by Joe Shuster.

Superman first discovers the Ultra-Humanite as the mastermind behind a series of crimes with criminals wielding advanced technological weapons running a Taxi protection league. When Superman confronts the villain he is knocked out by enough electricity to kill 500 men, and tied to a log moving towards a buzz-saw, which shatters on his body, a shard piercing the throat of Reynolds, a henchman of the mastermind. The Ultra-Humanite has his henchman carry him out and set the house on fire, but is apparently killed when his plane crashes though his body is not found, but he later reveals he survived due to a parachute. After a series of battles with Superman, the Ultra-Humanite is presumed killed when his weapon explodes after Superman foils his plan to use a plague called the Purple Death to wipe out Metropolis, as he is planning to repopulate the world with a new race. Superman later encounters him alive in the body of actress Delores Winters. The villain explains that his henchmen kidnapped Winters and replaced her brain with his own. He attempts to use his new appearance to ransom a group of celebrities on the ship The Sea Serpent for $5,000,000, but Superman defeats him again and recognies him from the mad look in his eyes, though he escapes by diving into the water. He then kidnaps a scientist who has invented a disintegrator ray and forces him to make it using a torture-ray. He then threatens the city, asking for $2,000,000, but Superman is able to get to the mountain base of the Ultra-Humanite, defeat his robot guards, rescue the scientist after the Ultra-Humanite tells him to get the Crown Jewels of another country, hoping the defences will destroy him, though he survives and gets back. The Ultra-Humanite tries to use diamond drills on Superman, who gets past them, and the base is destroyed by a volcanic explosion while the villain apparently dies from diving into the molten rock.

Siegel and Shuster replaced the Ultra-Humanite as Superman's archfoe when Lex Luthor was introduced into the Superman comic. Originally, Luthor was depicted as a mad scientist with a full head of red hair. An artist later mistakenly drew Luthor with a bald head and Siegel approved of Luthor's new look. Because Siegel and Shuster didn't need two bald mad scientists battling Superman, they dropped the Ultra-Humanite from Superman comics in favor of Luthor. The Ultra-Humanite made his last Superman appearance in Action Comics #21 (1940), where he kidnaps an inventor and forces them to build a disintegration ray to extort $2,000,000 before diving into a volcanic crater to escape Superman, and made no further comic book appearances for several decades.

Silver Age and the Multiverse

With the introduction of DC's multiverse system, the continuity of Golden Age Superman stories and the Ultra-Humanite were retroactively placed on Earth-Two, the Earth of DC's Golden Age characters. The Ultra-Humanite was reintroduced during the Silver Age as a recurring villain in the Mr. and Mrs. Superman feature in the Superman Family anthology comic. Mr. and Mrs. Superman consists of stories about the early years of the marriage between the Earth-Two Superman and Lois Lane, and features a number of Golden Age Superman villains of which the Ultra-Humanite is the most prominent. In the annual JLA/JSA teamup in Justice League of America #195-197, the Ultra-Humanite transfers his consciousness to an albino ape body and becomes a major super-villain of Earth-Two. Afterwards, he regularly appears in DC Comics titles, opposing the All-Star Squadron in the 1940s, and the Justice Society of America and Infinity, Inc. in the decades since World War II.

Post-Crisis

After the 1985-1986 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman's history was rewritten in The Man of Steel miniseries, and the Earth-Two Superman was removed from continuity. However, the Ultra-Humanite was excluded from Superman's reboot, and his post-Crisis history remained tied to the 1940s and to the Justice Society of America and All-Star Squadron. Previous appearances of the Ultra-Humanite fighting Golden Age Superman in the 1940s in Action Comics #13-21 and in All-Star Squadron were re-told for the sake of continuity (a technique known as retconning) to show him having fought other 1940s heroes.

The Ultra-Humanite's most ambitious scheme occurs in the 2002 "Stealing Thunder" story arc from JSA #32-37, where, in the aged body of Johnny Thunder, he deceives Jakeem Thunder into handing over his magical pen. With the power of the omnipotent Thunderbolt, the Ultra-Humanite first restores his body's youth, and then proceeds to take over the world. Under his rule, Earth is transformed into essentially a single mind, with nearly every metahuman becoming an extension of the Ultra-Humanite.

However, a select few heroes manage to escape the control of the Ultra-Humanite: Jakeem Thunder, Captain Marvel, Hourman (Rick Tyler), the third Crimson Avenger, Power Girl, Sand, and the second Icicle. Wildcat and Hector Hall are also free- Wildcat as an apparent side effect of his 'nine lives', and Hall so that he could summon the garb of Doctor Fate and thus provide the Ultra-Humanite with access to Nabu's power-, but both are held captive by the Ultra-Humanite. After the reserve JSA are able to temporarily short out the Thunderbolt to deprive their enemy of access to the Thunderbolt's power, the Ultra-Humanite is seemingly killed by the Crimson Avenger (although the Icicle nearly beats her to it) as revenge for the death of the first Crimson Avenger, who dies earlier in an explosion triggered by the Ultra-Humanite.

One Year Later

Main article: One Year Later

After the events of Infinite Crisis, history was altered to bring Dolores Winters (now called Delores Winters) back to life via the reveal that her brain was placed in a new body after Ultra-Humanite stole her body for his own use in the pages of JSA Classified #19-20 (2007). In Power Girl (vol. 2) #2 (2009), the Ultra-Humanite's secret origin is revised, shedding more light on his past life as a genius youth, Gerard Shugel (a name derived from Superman creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel). He was born with both an intellect that surpassed the world's greatest minds and a degenerative disease that was slowly eating away at him. He used his intellect to find ways to keep the disease at bay, while trying to find a way to transplant his brain into a healthy body.

Working with a reckless and young Satanna, a fellow college researcher, they worked together at their brain/transplant and animal hybridization technologies. Forced to relocate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and beset by rebel forces and the military, Satanna was forced, as a stop-gap measure, to transplant the healthy brain of Gerarld into the altered body of an albino gorilla. They shared an intimate relationship for a while, then they parted way for a long time, paving the way for their separate adventures as chronicled pre-OYL.

In the 2006-2007 "Lightning Saga" crossover between Justice Society of America and Justice League of America, the untold story of how Ultra-Humanite transitioned from Delores Winter's body to his albino-ape form was revealed: Per Degaton, the villainous time traveler, and a young version of Despero rescued the Delores Winters-version of Ultra-Humanite from a hospital in the year 1948. It is revealed that the Ultra-Humanite was stricken with terminal cancer and in exchange for his loyalty, Per Degaton agreed to provide a new body for the villain, in the form of a rare albino ape from the secret civilization known as Gorilla City. Christening themselves the "Time Stealers", they align themselves with Mr. Mind, Rex Hunter, the mysterious "Black Beetle", and the villainous father of Booster Gold in an attempt to manipulate time for their own selfish goals. However, their conspiracy ultimately unravels at the hands of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle Ted Kord. In the end, Ultra-Humanite and Despero were sent back into the past after their group were defeated, while other members were returned to their previous places in time.

In Justice League of America (vol. 2) #1 (2006), Ultra-Humanite is said to still be alive and well, having stolen a copy of Steve Dayton's "Mento" helmet.

Later on Ultra-Humanite is seen aiding the Reach in their plans to conquer Earth; he is defeated by Blue Beetle and Guy Gardner. Most recently he appears in the first arc of Power Girl (vol. 2), using an anti-gravity mechanism to raise New York City into the air, holding the city hostage in exchange to transfer his mind into Power Girl's body. The attempt fails, and Power Girl accidentally scars his whole body with acid burns, maiming his form for good.

Satanna returns to New York, attempting to aid her former lover, stealing the body of the current Terra, Atlee to give that for Gerard's use. After a lengthy fight, however, Power Girl is able to retrieve Terra's brain (now in the crippled simian form of the Ultra-Humanite) and bring both of them to Strata, Atlee's advanced underground birth society, to get her friend restored to her proper body. Strata's scientist agree to clone a new, fully human body for Gerard Shugel, resembling an healthy version of his twenty years old human self, cured from his degenerative disease. Power Girl agrees to hire him as a scientist for her Starr Labs, and Gerard plays along showing a fake desire of reformation.

Powers and abilities

The Ultra-Humanite is a scientific genius, and possess one of the most advanced human minds in the DC Universe. He has the power to transfer his brain into another body. Various bodies occupied over the years include actress Delores Winters, a giant insect, a Tyrannosaurus rex, Justice Society member Johnny Thunder, and a glass dome. His best-known and most frequently revisited form is that of a mutated albino gorilla.

Other versions

• An alternate Ultra-Humanite appears in issues three and four of the Tangent: Superman's Reign series. This version is a living weapon created by the Soviets, that went out of control. He is allegedly destroyed in battle by the Tangent version of Superman, but it is later revealed that he was preserved and reprogrammed to fight for the Tangent's Superman's cause. He is finally destroyed by the combined efforts of the Tangent Batman and New Earth Superman.
• Ultra-Humanite appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold #3. The character targets the President causing Batman and Green Arrow to team up and stop Ultra-Humanite. The reason established for him switching his mind into apes is that he didn't want people to mistake him for Lex Luthor.
• The first three issues of Legends of the DC Universe feature the post-Crisis Superman, early in his career, battling a scientist named Morgan Wilde who, angered by the death of his wife, swore revenge on Luthor and gains the ability to transfer his "life essence" (called "Under-Light") as the U.L.T.R.A. Humanite.
• In the Elseworlds miniseries, The Golden Age, the Ultra-Humanite places his brain into the body of Tex Thomson, known as the "Americommando". He also arranges to place the brain of his ally, Adolf Hitler, into the body of Danny Dunbar, while simultaneously arranging to give Hitler (as Dunbar) super-powers.
• The Ultra-Humanite is the principal villain in the John Byrne limited series Superman & Batman: Generations. He first appears in the 1939 story, but is believed to be killed when his escape rocket explodes. Decades later, it is revealed that the Humanite had his brain placed in the body of his lackey Lex Luthor, and posed as Luthor for the intervening time. He then attempts to swap bodies with a then-powerless Superman, but is killed when Superman, attempting to escape, throws a metal spar into Humanite's computer, causing it to electrocute the villain.

In other media

Television

The Ultra-Humanite and The Flash deliver toys to orphans in the Justice League episode "Comfort and Joy".

• Ultra-Humanite appears in his gorilla body form in three episodes of the Justice League animated series voiced by Ian Buchanan. In this version, he is depicted as a cultured intellectual criminal with a deep love for classical music and violent hatred for most modern forms of art. The animated series version is shown to be somewhat more benevolent than his comic counterpart, as he, in one way or another, always helps the primary protagonist in the episodes he appears in, albeit for his own reasons (such as once betraying Lex Luthor in exchange for Batman bribing with better offer than Luthor).

Video games

• Ultra-Humanite appears in DC Universe Online, voiced by Brian Jepson. He is encountered in a wrecked spaceship on Gorilla Island where he plots to fire missiles at Metropolis if his demands aren't met. The players managed to defeat Ultra-Humanite. Gorilla Grodd was watching the outcome from his base and stated that Ultra-Humanite is no true ape. He is assisted by UGA Commanders, UGA Commandos, UGA Elite Guards, UGA Elite Snipers, UGA Engineers, UGA Marksmen, UGA Sergeants, UGA Soldiers, Bean, Furious George, and Tiny.

Toys

• Ultra-Humanite was the Collect and Connect figure for the fourteenth wave of the DC Universe Classics line.

See also

• List of Superman enemies

External links

• Ultra-Humanite on DC Database, a DC Comics wiki
• A biography about the Ultra-Humanite
• Supermanica: Ultra-Humanite Supermanica entry on the Pre-Crisis Ultra-Humanite