The Composite Superman may have a somewhat goofy appearance, but I took him very seriously as a kid. A giant with green skin and a split Batman/Superman costume that possessed the combined powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes was an immensely cool concept to me not a villain to be taken lightly!
I love me my FF but they are in some extremely deep trouble here. If I'm not mistaken, doesn't Compo have the power of 18 Legionaires?
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ReplyDelete21 according to Wiki not including Timber Wolf, Karate Kid, FerroLad, Princess Projectra (Worst name ever!), Chemical King and Dream Girl.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid after I read the reprints with Composite Superman, if you'd ask me what one character I'd like the powers of, he's the one I'd pick!
ReplyDeleteThis would have been a great matchup!
ReplyDelete@Ross: I couldn't agree more. Although, prior to reading the WF reprint that re-introduced Joe Meachum's ill-fated alter-ego, the two scariest Silver Age Bad Guys I ever beheld were...Anti-Batman and Anti-Superman!
ReplyDelete@Marc Ohare: it's far better than "Kid Psycho!" I mean, which do _you_ think of first when you hear that name? A guy with a green turban who generates life-draining force fields? Or a knife-wielding drag queen?
With the planned Ghostbusters sequel, maybe the Real Ghostbusters could be paired with Filmation's Ghostbusters; one story idea BTW, could have the Filmation's Ghostbusters turn out to be ghosts!
ReplyDeleteI had really wished that the Composite Superman had been a part of the Crisis on Infinite Earths mini-series back in the mid 80's. Bizarro, too. And the Earth-2 Batman and several others. I just thought that it made sense for a power-house like the Composite Superman to be summoned to the Monitor's ship along with all the other heroes and villains. Am I wrong?
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P.S. Great cover by the way.
Love the idea. This past year I've gone thru the STF Images and have seen a whole bunch of ideas I'd love to write stories of. One of the biggest ideas involves the Super Skrull and the Totalitarians. The idea is the tech that created the group and Ultra was by the Skrulls and that they used human agents but Ultra resisted and had Mimic as an ally.of course this was just the beginning.
ReplyDeleteAlways liked Composite Superman. And not only did he have all those powers he cold, like Triplicate Girl, split into three beings, with all those powers.
ReplyDeleteAs for Kid Psycho, I said that since he could project invisible shields, he should have called himself "Kid Colgate
".
It might have made a bit more sense to pit the Composite Superman against Super-Skrull. Even so, this is a fun cover!
ReplyDeleteI tended to think that his appearance was rather silly, given that it was a half-and-half combination of two heroes whose powers he did not emulate. Sure, he had a beef against Superman, so that might make sense from an internal standpoint, but why Batman? A more amorphous form with Supes as the base but incorporating the Legionnaires' appearances as he used their powers would have made more sense. The Composite Man (the character's reimagining following Zero Hour) made somewhat more sense, including the name.
@Marc & Anon #1: Of course, the worst superhero name ever would have to be Arm Fall Off Boy.
and is the worst supervillain name ever Timely's Armless Tiger Man???
Deleteanother great cover, Ross...
It is also worth noting that Composite Superman has all the powers of the FF, via Invisible Kid, Sun Boy, Superman, and Elastic Lad.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Composite Superman when I saw a World's Finest reprint, and it seemed I never found a new story of him! This cover looks familiar, not sure which appearance. The FF are a favorite so the combination is great to me, and it would be interesting to see how they stop someone so powerful!
ReplyDeleteWorld's Finest 283 was the source cover.
ReplyDeleteGreat cover Ross. Methinks that the FF have less of a chance against Compo than they did against Fatal Five!
ReplyDelete@Jackel: Firesplasher! Nuff said.
ReplyDelete@Cary: Oh, I don't know. It's far better than "Sizematic" (which sounds more appropriate for a mail-order kitchen utensil)!
ReplyDeleteGeez Ross, you've just given me another great idea! Composite Superman vs the Marvel universe!
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