Superman and Batman are unstoppable on their own, but together they are much more formidable. However, there was one foe they were unable to beat. Composite Superman is comparable to Superman, or at least that is what you would believe based on their names, but he is much more.
Composite Superman, a villain created from his hatred for the World’s Finest Heroes (called after the World’s Finest Comics, which featured Superman and Batman as a team), proved to be a tough cookie with whom they struggled. He not only defeated Superman, Batman, and their comrade Robin, but he also humiliated them completely. So, what makes him such a formidable adversary? Let us have a look as we dive into it.
Composite Superman: Origins
Composite Superman first debuted in the World’s Finest Comics #142 by Edmond Hamilton and Curt Swan. His actual identity is Joe Meach, a renowned high diver who has been down in the dumps, as he has no recognition anymore and no job. He decided to stage a dive from a high-rise building into a water tank to get the public’s attention and be famous again. He is saved by Superman mid-dive, which gets him mad. But Superman explains that the plastic tank he had used had been leaking water, and there was only an inch of water left, and Joe would have died.
Hearing Joe’s predicament, Superman offers him a job at the Superman Museum as a caretaker. This irks Joe as he believes that Superman views him as a low human as he has no superpowers, increasing his resentment for Superman. He believes that if he had the powers possessed by Superman, he could perform even more incredible feats and surpass the Man of Steel. One day, during a storm, Joe forgets to close the window, and the room he is sweeping, which contains the miniature statues of the Legion of Superheroes, gets struck by lightning.
The figures were exact replicas of the Legion of Super-Heroes and sent out a burst of energy that hit Meach. This resulted in Meach acquiring powers of the entire Legion of Super-Heroes. Armed with these fantastic superpowers, Joe decides to take revenge on Superman, Batman, and Robin. Using the powers of Chameleon Boy, he transforms his costume into half of Superman and half of Batman and calls himself Composite Superman.
In the present, Batman and Superman receive threatening messages at their respective hideouts, Batcave and Fortress of Solitude, to meet a mysterious person in the woods, failure to do so would lead to the exposing of their identities. The superheroes, along with Robin, turn up in the mountains and come face to face with this new superhero who calls him Composite Superman and wants to be a part of their team, or he would have their real identities.
Having no other choice, Superman and Batman agree to let him on the team. A few days, both the heroes received a message that there had been some rockets that were launched into the air and needed to be taken down, but no one knew that it was the work of Composite Superman. The Dynamic Duo and the Man of Steel arrive at the scene and decide to handle one rocket reach.
At the same time, Composite Superman also arrives and takes responsibility for the remaining three rockets. Superman thinks that this is an impossible task for one person, even if they have super strength. Using his newly received telepathic powers, Composite Superman hears Superman’s thoughts. Splitting into three bodies using the powers of Triplicate Girl, he manages to take down the three rockets, much to the astonishment of the rest of the team.
He manages to shine over the three other heroes and make them look like fools. But no matter how much they racked their brains, they could not figure out Composite Superman’s identity. He keeps creating scenarios to humiliate the heroes and feels delighted at the opportunity to be better than them.
Caught on to the fact that Composite Superman is deliberately trying to overshadow and humiliate them, Batman, Superman, and Robin decide to stage a fake scenario of having the heroes attacked in the public eye and gauge if Composite Superman would help them, but what they do not know is that he had already heard their plan by eavesdropping on them in the Batcave while he was invisible.
Metropolis and Gotham City mourn the losses of their heroes, but they are finally brought to light the fact that Composite Superman never wanted to be a part of the team and was always an enemy. Composite Superman bursts through the door and reveals that he was already aware of their plan. He further threatens the group and orders them to shun their costumes and never wear them again, or he will expose all their identities to the entire world. Since the world already thought the heroes had perished because of the staged attack, it worked entirely in favor of Composite Superman. Having no options left, the heroes accept his conditions and are defeated.
Soon after he leaves the Batcave, Robin encourages Batman and Superman not to give up as they are great heroes, and they should try to defeat Composite Superman in their real identities. Hence, they begin an undercover mission to expose his evil plans. But his activities are mysterious, and even though they keep tabs on him with Superman’s human radar vision, they cannot figure out what he is up to.
The heroes decide to defy Composite Superman’s orders and put on their costumes again so they can investigate his lair and find clues. Once they reach there, they see things like an enormous statue of Composite Superman holding the globe, signifying that he wants to rule the world; they also find a throne he made entirely of diamond. Not only that, but they also come across a statue of him holding the planets, which meant he wanted to reign over the galaxy and considered himself the most vigorous organism alive.
Their plan is busted when Composite Superman comes back and overpowers the two heroes. He knocks out Batman and encases Superman in a ring made of green kryptonite (Superman’s main weakness). He then carries them out and drops them to the ground in hopes of killing them. Batman somehow manages to get the ring off of Superman in mid-air, thus bringing him back to consciousness, and they manage to save themselves. During this, Composite Superman notices that his powers seem to be depleting.
Batman, too, had noticed that Composite Superman had seemed to be losing his powers, so they decided to look for him and find him quickly. Composite Superman returns to the museum where he gained his powers, but he has no way of reviving them. Not only this, but he also seems to be losing his memory of his time with the powers. He tries to quickly write down everything that happened but is unsuccessful. Now he is back to being Joe Meach, a janitor of the Superman Museum.
Superman and Batman look for Composite Superman for a very long time but can never find his identity. The lead-lined mask he wore never gave Superman to view his face with his x-ray vision, and just like that, Composite Superman vanished into thin air.
Composite Superman: What makes him such a formidable enemy?
Even though he is considered one of the weirder characters in the DC comics, he was immensely powerful. He was, in fact, one of the most potent enemies that Superman and Batman faced. He had inherited the powers of 17 members of the Legion of Super-heroes, the likes of Ultra Boy, Triplicate Girl, Saturn Girl, Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5, and more, making him basically undefeatable.
He also possessed all of Superman’s powers and was known to be at least three times stronger than him; as an Ultra boy, whose powers he also had were known to be invulnerable and possess immense super strength. Even though these powers didn’t stay with him for a very long time, he managed to defeat Superman, Batman, and Robin, which was admitted by the heroes themselves, making them wish he did not make a return.
Composite Superman: Various appearances throughout the DC universe
Composite Superman made a comeback in the 1967 issue of World’s Finest Comics #168. His powers get restored by an alien named Xan, who comes to Earth to take revenge on Superman and Batman for putting his father in jail. Xan studied the Composite Superman and decided he would be the perfect tool for his revenge. Meach captures the team and tries to kill them, but he loses his powers again and is unsuccessful. Xan arrives and tells them about his reasons for revenge and fires a blast at the team, but a guilty Meach jumps in front of the shot and saves the team, sacrificing himself.
Composite Superman also made an appearance in an episode of Justice League Unlimited. But instead of a person, Composite is an outcome of the battle with Mordu. It happens to be a mix of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. It had the same appearance as the Composite Superman in the comic. Still, it possessed the voice of Wonder Woman, which is honestly a pretty wacky character (But as many people say, Silver Age of DC honestly had some masterpieces). However, the spell was reversed once Mordu was defeated.
Even though he was considered one of the strongest villains faced by Superman and Batman, there is much room for development for the character that DC could very much explore. Some tweaks could certainly make Composite Superman a genuinely great villain in DCU, given the fact he already defeated the Dark Knight and Man of Steel once. But only time will tell what the future holds for this villain of the DC Universe.