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Mongul-kills-mongul

Comics[]

  • The first post-Crisis version of Zod was from an Alternate Universe, where he and his equally bloodthirsty allies had already nearly killed everyone on that universe's Earth and planned to find a way to the mainstream universe to do the same; they were so unrepentantly evil that, after they were defeated, Superman took it upon himself to execute them, probably the only instance since the Golden Age where he knowingly, deliberately killed anyone.
  • Brainiac has counted since his first appearances in the 1960s. When you force Silver Age Superman, perhaps DC's ultimate boy scout, to resort to lethal force, you know you are a monster. His crimes over the years have ranged from shrinking cities and planets for his private collection, coldly slaughtering thousands in a quest to destroy the "Master Programmer" and become God, and brainjacking Luthor, leading to the deaths of Lex, Lana Lang, and Jimmy Olsen in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?? Oh, and that's just Pre-Crisis. Since then, he has fed on human spinal fluid, possessed countless victims and destroyed their minds in the process, exploited the Imperiex War in an attempt to rewrite the fabric of the universe, tried to destroy New Krypton, and, most recently, gone in for planetary destruction and city collection in a big way. He has never shown any remorse, his presence in a story inevitably signals that the bodycount is about to rise, and he has been a genuine physical threat to Superman since the early days when his Deflector Shields made him untouchable.
  • Reactron is a Psycho for Hire with a xenophobic hatred for Kryptonians who has expressed the desire to rape a de-powered Supergirl. It was in the New Krypton storyline where Reactron really crossed the line. Having been rebuilt by Lex Luthor into a cyborg with a Gold Kryptonite heart, Reactron invades New Krypton alongside Metallo, depowering a killing numerous Kryptonians, threatening to rape Supergirl, and then murdering her father, Zor-El, in front of her by giving him radiation sickness. Tasked by General Lane with eliminating Supergirl, Flamebird, and Nightwing, Reactron murdered all the soldiers assigned to help him when they expressed doubts about the mission, and did his best to slowly torture Supergirl and Flamebird to death, all while gloating about how fighting two such attractive girls was a dream come true. Captured and tortured by Supergirl's mother, Alura, Reactron waited until Supergirl came to free him from the torture chamber to reveal that his capture had been a set up and that Luthor had transformed him into a living bomb. Detonating himself with a smile, Reactron gives a serene look as he incinerates Alura, the city of Kandor, and the entire planet of New Krypton, killing over ninety percent of the population in a single fell swoop. A lech, a bully, and a thug at his core, Reactron is a study in just how horrific it can be when somebody like that gets their hands on real power, and in weeks has done more to hurt Supergirl than any of her other adversaries, killing her parents and her entire race.
  • Mongul from the famous Bronze Age story For The Man Who Has Everything is just as loathsome as his equally revolting son mentioned above. To wit, the guy ambushed Superman on his birthday and trapped him in a dream world with a plant known as the Black Mercy. Superman's dream is that of a Krypton that never blew up, where he can spend his days with his wife and child in a peaceful utopia. However, Superman senses that something in this world is amiss and escapes by sacrificing his heart's true desire, which completely mind rapes the poor guy and causes him to attack Mongul in a murderous rage (Which is really saying something given that Superman is very opposed to killing). Mongul comments on this by saying that the sensation Superman must have felt from removing the Black Mercy must have been like ripping off his own arm, a truly disturbing line that perfectly cements how damn sadistic he is. He's also shown to be a misogynist, laughing about how inferior women are to him as he's violently beating Wonder Woman up. Once Jason Todd of all people traps him with the Black Mercy, we get to see the kind of world Mongul finds ideal: he imagines himself as the ruler of a bloodied, war-torn, hellish looking planet overseeing all the chaos in the galaxy.
  • Doomsday, the monster famous for once killing Superman, lives for nothing but destroying, killing, and generally causing suffering by eliminating life. His Establishing Character Moment of crushing a small bird to death and laughing with glee. However, his origins introduce us to an even bigger monster. Bertron, an alien Mad Scientist, was obsessed with creating the so-called "ultimate lifeform." Every day he exposed a newly cloned child to the harsh environment of prehistoric Krypton; when the child died, Bertron would incorporate its memories into the next child, which would be exposed the following day. Bertron continued this process across the course of his lifetime, slaughtering, in his own words, "thousands upon thousands" of children in an effort to achieve the result he wanted. The creature he finally created was, unsurprisingly, completely insane, and sought to destroy everything it encountered, butchering all the life on ancient Krypton, including Bertron himself, before moving onto the rest of the galaxy. It's name was Doomsday, and in it, all of Bertron's malice and Lack of Empathy would live on, devastating all that it encountered.
  • C.W Saturn in Miracle Monday is a demon from Hell and the chief servant of Samael. Introduced torturing 666 condemned souls, Saturn is tasked with breaking Superman's spirit, if he succeeds there will be nothing to stop Samael from conquering the universe and allowing evil to rule over the cosmos. Saturn comes to Earth and decides to test Superman by causing various disasters for Superman to deal with. He creates an earth quake that causes a tidal wave to head towards to Metropolis, causes trains to crash, causes a chemical plant to caught fire and nearly explode and causes a building to start collapsing. After that, he posses Kristen Wells, Clark Kent's new co worker. At first in Well's body Saturn just commits cruel pranks, though some are deadly. After Superman spoils some of Saturn's fun, he decides to get serious and uses his powers to make all the nuclear weapons in the world launch. Saturn's ultimate goal is to force Superman kill Wells in order to stop him, knowing that will break Superman's spirit and allow evil to triumph.
  • In Superman: The Dark Side, Darkseid uses a Boomtube to teleport baby Kal-El's ship to Apokolips after the destruction of Krypton. After murdering two of his slaves who discover the ship, Darkseid raises Kal-El in isolation. Naming Kal-El Superman, Darkseid presents him to the public in a gladiatorial match, where Superman defeats Darkseid's son Kalibak. Darkseid orders Superman to kill Kalibak after he is defeated. Darkseid then orders Superman to go to New Genesis and destroy it with an Omega Bomb. Though High Father manages to save some of the New Gods, most of the population of New Genies dies. High Father reveals Darkseid's lies to Superman and teleports Superman to Earth. However Darkseid soon arrives on Earth discovers Superman's DNA contains the anti life equation. Darkseid has Dessad torture Superman and then uses the anti life equation to turn everyone on Earth into his mindless slaves, intending to do the same to the rest of the galaxy.
  • Superman vs. Aliens II: God War, by Chuck Dixon: Darkseid is the tyrannical dictator of Apokolips who uses the monstrous aliens known as Xenomorphs as weapons in this crossover series. Introduced by forcing his men to drag a spacecraft out of Apokolips' or it and crash it into the slums, Darkseid callously ignores his minions' protests that it will kill millions of his slaves before it does just that. Discovering the eggs of Facehuggers, entities that implant the infant Xenomorphs inside hosts, Darkseid tests a Facehugger on one of his top scientists, leading to the man's brutal death as a Xenomorph bursts from his chest, and Darkseid then begins his new plans for war with New Genesis. Implanting dozens of his soldiers with Xenomorphs, Darkseid has them attack New Genesis, only so as to allow the Xenomorphs to burst forth and slaughter everyone in their way, and, when Superman and Darkseid's son, Orion, travel to Apokolips to stop him, they stumble across the fact that Darkseid has used hundreds of his slaved as breeding materials for more Xenomorphs. In the end, Darkseid "saves" Orion and New Genesis from the Xenomorph threat, solely to plant doubt in Orion so he will one day turn on New Genesis and become Darkseid's slave.
  • Superman: Red Son: In this tale where Superman grew up in the USSR, Brainiac stands as a stark contrast to the misguided intentions of this Superman. At first allied with Lex Luthor to defeat Superman, Brainac shrinks down the city of Stalingrad and puts it in a bottle. Superman easily defeats Brainiac and reprograms him, making him his servant. Brainiac becomes the USSR's chief scientist and comes up with a horrifying way to deal with people who threaten Superman's rule, turning them into lobotomized robots. Brainiac tries to push Superman into more extreme actions, like declaring war on the US in a preemptive strike, noting that if they attack now only 6.5 million people will die and the US will be conquered in a matter of hours. Lex Luthor confronts Superman and Brainiac, wanting to debate Superman, but Brainiac has him taken away to become a robot. Superman relents and agrees to invade the US. Superman is confronted by Lois Lane, who uses a letter from Lex Luthor, to convince Superman what he is doing is wrong. After calling off the invasion, Superman is attacked by Brainiac, who was not really reprogrammed and was simply pretending to be Superman's ally because it suited his own purposes. Brainiac plans to kill Superman, conquer the world and then conquer the galaxy. However Lex Luthor escaped and manages to shut down Brainiac. After his defeat, it is revealed that Brainiac has rigged his ship to explode if he has ever defeated, which would cause an explosion that would destroy the Earth and every thing in 15 million mile radius, willing to kill the human race out of spite.
  • Superman: At Earth's End: Set in a post apocalyptic wasteland, this tale gives us the DNA Diktators, revealed to be cloned twins of Adolf Hitler, who are two biology perverting madmen obsessed with continuing their work from World War II in creating a "master race". As clones of Hitler, the Diktators happily take responsibility for their original form's crimes, and continue these in the present by rounding up thousands of innocents, performing horrific experiments on them that leave them in constant agony, then grinding them up into raw material to create an army of mutant Nazi stormtroopers. After their mutant monsters fail to murder numerous children who escaped the Diktators' grasp, the Diktators order the children, alongside Superman, all murdered by their various creations, even having defiled the corpse of the hero Batman by using his corpse to create nightmarish bat monsters that they sic on Superman to torment him. Utter sociopaths with delusions of godhood and megolomania, these clones of Hitler display all of their original's cruelty and evil in their quest for a perfect race.
  • Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future: As in the Terminator films, Skynet is a malevolent A.I. who killed billions of humans on Judgment Day after gaining access to every computer grid on the planet. When John Connor and the other surviving humans revolt, Skynet sends Terminators back in time to kill John and his mother, all attempts being unsuccessful. When Superman is transported to the future, Skynet captures him, along with an aged Steel, intending to forcibly retrieve information from their heads that will help it defeat La Résistance. Skynet also reveals that after it finishes wiping out humanity, it plans on committing genocide on every other species in the universe until only machines remain.
  • The Dark Knight Strikes Again:
    • Superman's arch-nemesis Lex Luthor is the current de-facto ruler of the United States. Seizing control of the country after installing a hologram to assume the role of the president, Luthor proceeded to turn the entire country into a police state. Recruiting the help of Brainiac, Luthor kept the superheroes of Earth in line by threatening to kill their loved ones. The heroes that Luthor did not find useful were either imprisoned or subjected to horrific genetic experiments. After a series of raids by led by Batman reinvigorates the public's interest in superheroes, Luthor snaps and begins cracking down on any super-heroic activities. Luthor launches a missile strike against Costa Rica that kills Hawkman and Hawkgirl, while he orders his forces to open fire on a concert held by "The Superchix". Luthor has Brainiac kill thousands of people in Metropolis in an attempt to discredit superheroes, not caring at all about the innocent lives lost. Luthor later captures Batman and begins torturing him while gloating how the rebellion has given him the perfect opportunity to use his satellite defense network to kill most of the world's population and allow him to rule what's left. Lacking any pretenses of helping his fellow man, Lex Luthor is motivated entirely by his lust for power.
    • Brainiac is an alien cyborg who partners up with Lex Luthor in order to make sure that Superman is compliant with Luthor's regime. Holding the bottled city of Kandor hostage, Brainiac murders a Kryptonian family for every time that Superman refuses to follow their orders. In an attempt to publicly discredit superheroes, Brainiac attacks Metropolis and orders Superman to not fight back or he'll have all of Kandor destroyed. Brainiac proceeds to wail on Superman when he refuses to flee, and continues on his rampage. While he is eventually stopped by Superman's daughter Lara, Brainiac's assault ends up killing thousands of people, including Captain Marvel, Jimmy Olson, and Lois Lane. Lara travels to Brainiac's hideout to free the citizens of Kandor by pretending to surrender, but not before Brainiac attempts to turn her into his subservient slave. Driven by sadism rather than logic, Brainiac takes immense pleasure in the pain and suffering that he causes others.
  • Infinite Crisis:
    • At first, Superboy-Prime simply comes across as a whiny bitch who wants the DC universe to go back to the way he wanted it to be. However, as Infinite Crisis goes on, he slowly becomes mad with power and begins killing characters left and right, his genocide being practically unstoppable until Superman, almost completely powerless, manages to defeat him. He does have some excuse, though. After his whole world, including his adoptive parents and girlfriend, was destroyed, he chose not to go for the new one in order to help and defeat the Big Bad and, as a result, was stranded in pocket dimension for years (maybe decades). And then Prime finds out that said new universe is worse than all that died so it could live...in the beginning, he was a Well-Intentioned Extremist whose goal was to create a better world. His being bullied at school also explains why he started to beat up Connor, who had been a huge Jerkass for quite some time. He also seems to be pretty pissed off at the DC writers for making him one of these after his universe is restored, as not even his parents will accept him now unless he literally forces them to.
    • Alexander Luthor is higher in regards to vileness and with less so-called excuse. This bastard causes ALL the pain and suffering that precedes the story in order to justify his goal to Golden Age Superman. He manipulates Superman into thinking bringing Earth-2 back will save Lois Lane's life when he knows damn well it won't, even though Superman and Lois have been like parents for him. He betrays people like Pariah and Power Girl without a shred of remorse, is a big factor in Superboy-Prime's descent into madness, and actually pushes Batman to nearly SHOOT him when he almost kills Nightwing. His death at the hands of Lex Luthor and the Joker was more than deserved. This just goes to further prove what The Question said in Justice League Unlimited: "No matter what world he may call home, Luthor is Luthor."
  • The New 52:
    • Brother EYE is an A.I. created by Batman and Mister Terrific, originally designed to protect humanity but having undergone a sudden Face Heel Turn. Despising flesh and seeking to exploit psychological warfare, it decided to assimilate everyone, turning superheroes into grotesque embodiments of Body Horror either by turning them into cyborg monsters or by sewing them to fleshy servants like Frankenstein. Upon learning of Batman's plot with Terry McGinnis, it decides to sew Batman with the Joker to create a cyborg monster that it sends back in time. In the past it is revealed that it manipulated Cadmus by holding King Faraday's family hostage and making a deal with Fifty Sue (whose later rejection prompts it to spite her by revealing her file in order to psychologically break her), taking advantage of the discrimination against Earth-2 heroes by subjecting them to inhumane experiments and embedding them with implants that spread over them like cancer. It always takes its time to taunt people, culminating in The Reveal that all of the plot was meaningless as Tim Drake goes forward in time to find a hologram of a perfect future, which quickly dissipates as Brother EYE mocks him disguised as his Love Interest. In Tim's war against it, Brother EYE "recruits" even more superheroes and when it fails to assimilate Inque it coerces her to be its servant by threatening her daughter's life much as it did with King Faraday's own. All too casual to subject everyone to torture from children to Superman himself and revealing in its sadism, this iteration of the character is one of the most pointlessly cruel villains in DC's recent years.
    • Brainiac is up to the same tricks as always, with the added benefit of being an Eldritch Abomination who has a death count in the millions of dead civilisations and all who resided in them. His actions in the story include attacking Superman and John Constantine in a variety of forms from a poor infected bear to corn minions as well as having murdered the entire Stormwatch. It takes the combined efforts of Superman with Brother EYE to put this evil to rest, symbolically cleansed by the light of the sun.

Live Action Films[]

  • Spanning from the first two Richard Donner Superman movies as well as the later film Superman Returns, we have Superman's greatest foe Lex Luthor.
    • A far cry from the usual Magnificent Bastard portrayals of Luthor in various media, this Luthor is a sleazy, money-hungry narcissistic madman who is willing to turn a profit off of real-estate at whatever the cost. In the first movie, his ultimate goal is to launch nuclear missiles into the San Andreas Fault and cause a series of humongous earthquakes that would obliterate the West Coast and force people to buy nearby desert land that he's purchased, essentially profiting off the lives of millions without giving a damn. Knowing Superman could stop his plans, he also sends a missile over to Hackensack (horrifying his girlfriend, as her mother lives there and she tells Lex this, with him of course not caring in the slightest) which would kill so many other innocent people just to force Superman into stopping one disaster. Worse is that he's no way of knowing if Superman will even try to stop him, as he makes an underhanded method to kill Superman with Kryptonite sealed in a lead box right before launching the missiles. While played as rather campy and zany by Gene Hackman, he's still taken seriously by the narrative and is easily the most heinous villain in the older films, even being worse than the super-powered Kryptonian criminal trio he allied himself with in the sequel, where he was willing to stab Superman in the back if it meant keeping favor with them and in the end, get control over all of Australia.
    • In Superman Returns, Lex Luthor (now portrayed by Kevin Spacey) is bitter and notably grimmer after being humiliated by Superman. Having conned an elderly widow into marrying him, Luthor used her money after she died to re-group, form a new gang and break into Superman's Fortress of Solitude where he stole several Kryptonian crystals and soon learned that he could turn them into enormous landmasses. His mind still focused on real estate and defeating a newly-returned Superman once and for all, he puts his henchwoman Kitty's life in danger by cutting the breaks to her car in order to distract Superman so he can spirit away a hunk of Kryptonite from a museum, with Kitty having not been told in advance. Soon afterwards, he takes Lois Lane and her young son as his hostages on his boat, revealing to them that he will turn the Kryptonite into a humongous landmass and cause it to displace other continental landmasses, which would kill billions of people while he would charge the survivors huge amounts of money to live on "Lexland". The worst part is that like with his smaller-scale plan in the first movie, he knows full well of the consequences, but doesn't care as long as he gets to make money and boost his ego. When Superman tries to stop him and gets de-powered by the Kryptonite landmass, Lex doesn't just try to kill Superman, he slowly and agonizingly tortures Superman by beating him to a pulp as payback for getting him stuck in jail for a few years. He even lets his henchmen get in on the fun before stabbing Superman with a piece of Kryptonite and leaving him to drown in the sea below. It's worth noting that Kitty is so disgusted by him that when his plans have been foiled yet again, she disposes of his future Lexland crystals so he can't repeat his plan again. He and Kitty are last scene stranded on a desert island, with Lex telling Kitty he would trade "every ounce of her blood" for a quart of gasoline for his helicopter, and then silently contemplating killing and eating Kitty's pet dog for food rations. A true self-centered egomaniac to the core, Lex will stomp on anyone, even his own employees, in order to get what he wants and is reviled by pretty much anyone who has the misfortune to interact with him.

Live Action TV Series[]

  • Smallville:
    • Brainiac from has no emotions and is fond of skewering people through the head and draining the info from their brains. Despite being nearly equal to Clark in power, he prefers to perform complex manipulations to make others do his dirty work for him (including infecting Mrs. Kent with a deadly disease just to trick Clark into releasing General Zod from the Phantom Zone), putting Lana in a coma to force Clark and Kara to help him, giving Clark's secret to Lex, bodyjacking Chloe and using her as part of a plot to brainwash Doomsday, and trying on three separate occasions to Kill All Humans via deadly viruses. In the Wonderful Life episode, without Clark to stop him, Brainiac triggers a nuclear holocaust, saying the world is now perfect for Zod, Zod's consort Supergirl, and himself to rule. And that's not getting into his cannibalism of the silicon in peoples' bodies when he needs to rebuild himself, or his condescending personality, or the fact that Bizarro, Lex, and the various other villains who appear are all disgusted by him. Incapable of empathy, and dedicated to the annihilation of all organic life, Brainaic was easily the most vile foe that Clark ever faced.
    • Robert "Bob" Rickman, from season 1's "Hug", is the CEO of Rickman Industries, and possesses the ability to persuade people to do whatever he wants through touch. He uses this ability to build chemical plants which have caused 96 local citizens to be poisoned. He is introduced meeting with an agent who wants to prevent him from building one in Smallville, and makes said agent jump from his office window. Arriving in Smallville, he runs into his old business partner Kyle Tippet, who threatens to expose the truth, due to a year-old agreement that he would leave Smallville alone. Bob uses his ability to force numerous people to make attempts on Kyle's life, including sending Whitney to bludgeon him to death; sending a sheriff to shoot him after he's arrested over the previous attack; and having Lex Luthor trap him and Clark in a car before trying to blow up said car. Completely uncaring about innocent lives, Bob stands above the usual meteor freak.
    • The Toyman, real name Winslow Schott, is a brilliant, deranged assassin who elaborately sets up bombs placed in unsuspecting locations. Putting one on top of the Daily Planet, the Toyman threatens to destroy half of Metropolis with it. To get revenge against Oliver Queen for framing him for Lex Luthor's murder, the Toyman captures over a dozen civilians, strapping one to a bomb and placing them in a factory, intending to destroy it and kill them all. Later planting bombs at a shareholders' meeting Oliver is making a speech at to make him confess to killing Lex, the Toyman reveals he plans to blow up the gala whether or not Oliver caves to his demands. Later creating a fake company to take control of Metropolis's water supply, the Toyman intends to leave thousands without water unless they give into his demands.
    • Lx-3, a failed clone of Lex Luthor who was so depraved that even the LuthorCorp staff at Cadmus Labs felt the need to incarcerate him. Accidentally freed by Tess Mercer, Lx-3 beats her and handcuffs her in place, tries to kill the five year old Lx-15 then grabs a blowtorch proceeds to set fire to the lab, slaughtering all the other clones while claiming that "There can only be one Lex Luthor!" Making his way to Metropolis, Lx-3 wires the Daily Planet building to explode, planning to crush hundreds of people in the streets below, then journeys to Smallville where he kidnaps Lois Lane, ties her to a stake, and sets the field around her on fire. Confronting Clark, Lx-3 gloats that Clark can save the woman he loves, or the citizens of Metropolis but not both, sneering that Clark's pride will be the death of him yet. Almost out of time thanks to Clone Degeneration, Lx-3 spends his last moments trying to force Clark into violating his moral code by killing him. Not bad for a one episode villain.
    • Desaad is Darkseid's Number Two, and unlike his underwhelming master is determined to live up to his reputation, unnerving even his Co-Dragons, Granny Goodness and Gordon Godfrey. Operating a chain of BDSM-themed nightclubs, Desaad uses them as a front to corrupt the minds of his clientele, making them susceptible to a mass Mind Rape by Darkseid. Anyone who cannot be corrupted is gruesomely murdered, as Desaad uses his telekenetic powers to induce hemorraging and implode their internal organs, leading to an agonising death from internal bleeding. Having disposed of several FBI agents who were investigating him, Desaad kidnaps Chloe and subjects her to an extended Mind Rape, attempting to turn her into one of Darkseid's minions. When she proves resistant, Desaad tries to kill her, tries to kill Clark when the latter intervenes to save her, and then turns Oliver Queen/Green Arrow into a minion of Darkseid after provoking the archer into brutally beating him. Incarcerated under Belle Reve, Desaad breaks out, gives the now mind controlled Oliver a Gold K ring, and tries to force him to depower Clark, so that the future Superman can be slain and the end of the world ushered in. Devoted to freeing Darkseid and bringing about The End of the World as We Know It, Desaad is equal parts Torture Technician, cultist, and Serial Killer.
  • Supergirl:
    • Brainiac 8, known better as Indigo, is a Coluan imprisoned on Krypton for attempting to destroy the Kryptonian people. When she introduces herself on earth, she turns every light in National City green, causing accidents and endangering hundreds of lives. Soon revealing her darker side, Indigo tries to launch nuclear missiles to destroy National City, planning to Kill All Humans. When defeated, she later teams up with Kara's Evil Uncle Non and activates Project Myriad to put humanity into a trance-like state. Indigo then puts her plan a step further into motion: to enhance the power to kill everyone else on earth and then leave the planet, leaving Kara stranded as "queen of a dead world." Even in her last moments, Indigo gloats that she had left Project Myriad impossible to stop, taking comfort that humanity will follow her to the grave.
    • Roulette, real name Veronica Sinclair, is a ringmaster who organized an underground Fight Club in National City, commanding aliens to death for money to entertain rich people, including herself. When J'onn and M'gann refuse to fight, Roulette releases Draaga to try to kill them both, but gets arrested. Upon being freed due to her connections, Roulette, with the help of an alien doctor, plans to sell humans in a slave market on Maaldoria in exchange for a large amount of diamonds. Utterly apathetic to aliens and human beings alike, Roulette is a Rich Bitch who has no qualms against making quick money at the expense of others.
    • Rhea is the queen of Daxam, wife of Lar Gand and mother of Mon-El. After escaping Daxam's disaster, Rhea and Lar Gand find Mon-El on Earth and try to get him to join them. When he refused, Rhea blames Kara for it and tries to get her killed by issuing a bounty against her, then tries to kill her herself. Once Lar Gand decides to let Mon-El stay on Earth, Rhea accuses him of "betraying" her and murders him. Returning on Earth, Rhea manipulates Lena Luthor into creating a transmatter portal for her forces to come, and starts an invasion to take over the planet and reduce humanity into slavery. To forge a connection with humans, Rhea forces Mon-El and Lena to get married by threatening to destroy a hospital full of children, stating they could rot in a cell for all she cares afterwards. Challenged by Kara in a trial of fight, Rhea doesn't honor their agreement when she loses and orders her forces to destroy National City, then tells Kara that she will destroy city after city until her whole world is gone. A petty, self-centered individual as well as a horrible mother, Rhea's inability to accept any responsibility for her actions is what makes her a monster.
    • Morgan Edge, the CEO of Edge Global, is introduced as an incredibly unpleasant, self-absorbed and sexist man, but quickly proves himself to be much worse than just that. Having personal profitable plans for the Waterfront of National City, Edge hires a terrorist for an attack on the underwater foundation of the district, endangering hundreds of people attending a public Supergirl event. After Lena Luthor buys CatCo from under his nose, which he planned on remodeling into his own personal propaganda paper, Edge shows just how low he is willing to stoop to destroy somebody for a perceived personal slight: By poisoning an entire public school full of children and then blaming it on Lena's countermeasure against the Daxamite invasion. When Lena confronts him, he has her knocked out and strapped on a remotely controlled plane, carrying more of the poisonous chemicals, which he intends to crash on the city. Edge also shows himself to be completely dismissive of his employee's lives, having two them killed to protect his reputation after failed assassination attempts on Lena, or even using one of them as a Human Shield to save his own hide at one point. In a world full of superpowered menaces, Morgan Edge still manages to stand out as a despicable human being, only concerned with his own position of power.

Animated Films[]

  • Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips, is the Overarching Villain of the DC Universe who seeks to conquer the Earth and add it to his dark empire. In Justice League War, Darkseid Has many humans abducted and agonizingly mutated into his Parademons in order to launch an invasion on the Earth, bombing and leveling entire cities before being defeated and banished back to his world by Superman. Seeking revenge against the Man of Steel, Darkseid in Death of Superman unleashes Doomsday upon the Earth to kill Superman so that he can attempt to conquer Earth once more, resulting in the death of Hank Henshaw's wife who Darkseid rebuilds and corrupts into the Cyborg Superman, using him in Reign of the Supermen to return to Earth where he intends to obliterate Metropolis and then take over the world in bloody conquest. Returning as the Big Bad of Justice League Dark Apokolips War, Darkseid kills half of the Justice League, conquers Earth and tortures and enslaves the survivors, including filling Superman's veins with kryptonite and sending him back to Earth as a symbol of despair, bonding Batman to the Mobius Chair to brainwash him into Darkseid's perfect strategist, tearing Cyborg apart and transforming him into a human computer and turning Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Mera, Starfire and Martian Manhunter into his cyborg Furies. 2 years later, Darkseid invades Oa and slaughters both the Guardians of the Universe and the Green Lantern Corps before dropping Earth's lava on both John Stewart and the Central Power Battery to make it incapable of choosing new Green Lanterns. After returning from Oa, Darkseid attempts to make Batman kill his son Damien, vaporizing the boy when he refuses to do so.
  • Superman: Doomsday: While he doesn't appear that often, this film's interpretation of the Toyman makes good use of the little screentime he has to establish himself as a total sicko. The creepy manchild is introduced robbing a bank and taking a bus full of children hostage with a giant robot spider, threatening to drop the bus and kill all the children inside if the cops don't back off. When Lois Lane is able to get most of the children to safety, Toyman complains about his "playthings" escaping and throws the bus with Lois and the last child still on it to what would have likely been their doom had Superman (actually his clone) not been there to save the day. After being defeated and arrested, Toyman slips away from police custody and attacks a daycare, successfully murdering a little girl before getting away. This causes the clone of Superman to snap and settle for killing the guy out of disgust, and serves as the catalyst to him turning into a full-on Knight Templar.
  • Superman: Brainiac Attacks: Brainiac is as per usual an alien android who desires to conquer Earth and drive humanity back to the dark ages. After failing to kill Superman and having his entire body, aside from one chip, destroyed, Brainiac uses Lex Luthor to rebuild himself in a new more powerful body. Tracking down Superman on his date with Lois Lane, Brainiac attacks him in the middle of Metropolis, endangering countless numbers of innocent people in his quest to destroy his hated nemesis. After Superman's apparent death, Brainiac takes over Metropolis, causing more death and destruction. When Superman was revealed to be alive and starts to fight him, Brainiac deliberately targets hundreds of innocent bystanders to gain the edge over Superman in a fight. When the fight started taking too long, a frustrated Brainiac attempts to overload a nuclear reactor near the city to cause a giant explosion. When Superman defeats him, Brainiac follows him to the hospital and smashes the cure for the deathly sick Lois, simply out of spite.
  • Superman Unbound: Brainiac is a Control Freak and genocidal psychopath on a galactic scale who feels the best way to attain knowledge that is to shrink and steal a major city from a planet and then destroy the planet. He stole Kandor from Krypton (he didn't bother blowing up Krypton because he knew that Krypton would soon be destroyed by natural causes). Then he attacks another planet, again shrinking and stealing a city and then uses a device that causes the planet's Sun to go Nova, thus killing the remaining inhabitants on the planet. Brainiac also sends his drones to the planets he is attacking and the drones proceed to kill random inhabitants of the planet. He later steals Metropolis and tries to destroy Earth in a similar manner. He also tortures Superman for information and tries to experiment on Supergirl.
  • All-Star Superman: Solaris the Tyrant Sun is a gigantic computer that wanders the cosmos, consuming stars for fuel and leaving the inhabited planets to die in The Night That Never Ends. Contacted by Lex Luthor to assist him in his master plan to defeat a dying Superman, Solatis turns the Sun red in an attempt to depower the Man of Steel. Supes counteracts this and leads an army of sapient robots to battle Solaris, but he destroys the army in one blast before announcing his plan to betray Luthor, consume the Sun and force the Earthlings to worship him as a deity or freeze to death in eternal darkness. Superman then tries to feed the Tyrant Sun to a Sun-Eater, but Solaris destroys it. Before Superman destroys the mad machine, Solaris turns the Sun blue to spite Superman by destroying his people.
  • Superman vs. the Elite: Atomic Skull, a psychopath with a grudge against Superman, starts to murder civilians to lure Superman out. Atomic Skull is about to kill 2 women and a baby when Superman attacks him. Superman defeats Atomic Skull and he is arrested, later escaping and starting to kill more civilians. Superman and the Elite team up to defeat the Atomic Skull, but not before he kills Professor Baxter, a prominent Superman supporter. Atomic Skull is so vile, that he helps the Elite gain support for their brutal tactics from the public.
  • Superman/Batman: Public Enemies: Lex Luthor is much worse than his comic counterpart. After an economic recession in the United States Lex Luthor rises up to be president. He recruited a few heroes to his side specifically, Captain Atom, Katana, Black Lightning, Power Girl, Starfire, and Major Force. He would manage to pull the United States out of the depression and the economy began to thrive again, though this was done solely to stroke his ego. The United States government would discover a massive Kryptonite meteor hurtling toward Earth. Instead of asking superheroes for aid, Luthor decides to destroy it with nuclear missiles, so he can get all the credit for himself. He also arranges a meeting with Superman to prevent him getting in the way. The meeting goes badly and Superman and Metallo get into a fight. Major Force ends up killing Metallo and Lex Luthor uses this murder to frame Superman and place a massive bounty on him. Angry at the failure to stop the meteor he decided to instead let it crash on earth so that he can rule over anyone that survives it. Batman and Superman break into Luthor's base disguised as Captain Marvel and Hawkman to retrieve the data on the meteor's radiation. Batman forces him to give them, the files, but Lex Luthor thinks quickly and orders his computer to delete all the files, in his mind dooming the world in the process. Amanda Waller betrays him, however, and gives Batman and Superman a hard drive containing the information needed to stop the meteor, so he continues to try and stop them.
  • Injustice (2021): The Joker, after getting bored from losing to Batman, decides to go after Superman, murdering the latter's best friend Jimmy Olsen and kidnapping his Love Interest Lois Lane. The Joker then brainwashes Superman with a combination of kryptonite and Scarecrow's fear toxin, which he had previously killed Scarecrow for, and left a trap that kills the Flash. The toxin makes Superman kill Lois and her unborn child. Just for pleasure, Joker had linked the nuke's trigger to Lois's heartbeat, destroying Metropolis and killing over 11 million people.

Animated Series[]

  • Ruby-Spears Superman:
    • Chilton Bone, from "Bonechill", was a former university professor fired for spreading his theories on the occult. Bone steals the Talisman of Olaf from the university and transforms himself into a ghoul named Bonechill who can create monsters. Bonechill creates monsters and sends them to kill some university students who could identify him. Bonechill also kidnaps the Daily Planet staff and puts them into death traps inspired by Edgar Allan Poe after they try to investigate him. Bonechill's end game is to create an army of monsters and have them destroy the university, attempting to kill everyone on the campus.
    • Dealmaker, from "The Last Time I Saw Earth", is an intergalactic criminal who hires a Bounty Hunter named Starrok to steal a NASA shuttle, with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen on board. Starrok takes Lois, Jimmy and the rest of the crew to meet Dealmaker at a city he rules over. Dealmaker seems pleasant at first, offering them a feast to eat, but after the feast, he imprisons them in capsules and has his scientists study them. Dealmaker reveals that he is going to sell the Earth to some aliens who will become immortal if they devour humans. When Superman comes to rescue everyone, Dealmaker fills the capsules with poison gas.
  • DC Animated Universe (Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League):
    • Brainiac, even for a robot, is pure and utter evil. He knew Krypton was going to explode, but would not tell anybody, leaving trillions to die. He later reveals that Krypton is not the only dead planet that he'd been involved with: he roams from world-to-world, assembling all of a planet's information and then destroying the original in order to increase the value of his stolen memories, with his objective being to repeat the process across the universe until he has "destroyed all of creation". He also murders the crew of a spaceship that was investigating his presence, tries to steal Superman's body for himself, and eventually, after fusing with Lex Luthor, tries to wipe out the entire universe in one fell swoop, aiming to rebuild it in his own image. Void of remorse, and possessing a bodycount in the billions, Brainiac doesn't act on artificial intelligence: he acts upon selfishness and greed for knowledge and power.
    • Darkseid, who later appeared in Justice League and was the top threat of the entire DCAU, is the tyrannical ruler of the wasteland planet Apokolips, and ultimately desired total dominion over all life in the universe. To achieve this end, he forever seeks the cosmic power of the Anti-Life Equation to use as the ultimate weapon. Incapable of love or empathy, he abused his loyal son Kalibak, handed over his adopted son Scott Free to be tortured and brainwashed by Granny Goodness, and attempted to murder his other son, Orion, for opposing him. His servants are likewise subjected to torture or death should they fail or even question him. Setting his sights on conquering Earth, Darkseid launched a full-scale invasion, only relenting when the planet was declared off-limits by Apokolips's sister planet, New Genesis. To compensate, Darkseid murdered Dan Turpin solely to spite Superman. He would make numerous more attempts to conquer or annihilate the planet, including attempting to destroy it with an comet and brainwashing Superman into leading an attack on his adopted world, turning the Man of Steel into a pariah for years—but not before Darkseid had the brainwashed Superman basically raped. He later attempted to use Brainiac's programming to collect the Anti-Life Equation and bend the universe to his will, leading to his death in a battle with Superman. Upon his resurrection, Darkseid immediately launched another invasion on Earth, not out of a desire for power, but solely to make Superman suffer. Ruthless and tyrannical, Darkseid is Superman's greatest enemy, and one of the few villains he is always prepared to kill.
    • The galactic warlord Mongul. Not many people can claim to have pulled off a Mind Rape on Superman and Batman in the same episode, but Mongul did. As the Evil Overlord of War World, he'd forced warriors to fight to the death in gladiatorial matches with the intention of distracting people from the poverty and oppression of the populace's day to day lives, and he always expected the victors to execute their opponents. When Superman managed to defeat Draaga, the current, undefeated champion, and yet refused to kill him, he felt threatened about his position of power in regards to Superman's public support, so he threatened to destroy Draaga’s planet if Superman wouldn’t let Draaga kill him in their next matc, and he only chose his planet because Krypton, Superman's home planet, was unavailable. When Draaga learned of this, he was angered, even willing to agree with Superman in regards to fighting against Mongul, even when he was feeling quite sore against Superman's allowing him to live after being defeated. Seeking revenge against Superman for ousting him from power, Mongul came to Earth and used a plant called the Black Mercy to trap Superman in a perfect dream world. With Superman out of the picture, Mongul planned to ravage the earth and turn it into a second War World where he could lord over the human race that he'd enslave. Superman was eventually able to free himself from the Black Mercy, but suffered from emotional pain so severe it was enough to make him actually want to kill Mongul before returning to his senses. The dialogue in the scene where Superman tears into Mongul, sums it up:
Cquote1

Superman: Do you have any idea what you did to me?!
Mongul: I fashioned a prison you couldn't leave without sacrificing your heart's desire. It must have been like tearing off your own arm.

Cquote2
  • The DC Showcase shorts present a version of Black Adam thoroughly distilled of his more redeemable traits. Once chosen as the Earth's savior, Adam's power consumed him to the point where he considered himself nothing less as a god, forcing Shazam to cast him out in a far point in space. Upon coming to Earth, the very first thing Adam does is redirect his impact path into an inhabited parking lot, before seeking out and intending to kill Shazam's next candidate Billy Barston. Throughout his appearance in Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam , Adam revels in exercising his own power over living beings, attempting to flood all of Fawcett City as a distraction and taking a hostage to force Billy to depower himself (later trying to kill the hostage anyways) while relating his supremacist philosophies to Billy. Once he's beaten, Adam contents himself with smugly goading Billy into a Not So Different position. Adam would willingly hurt anyone and anything so long as the result would be to his benefit.
  • My Adventures With Superman:
    • Primus Brainiac is a rogue Kryptonian AI that desires war and expansion. Fearing that the Kryptonians would decommission him after peace talks, Brainiac uses their greatest weapon to wipe them out himself, leaving Superman as one of the only two survivors. He would later find Kara Zor-El/Supergirl and raise her as a weapon, Brainiac then brainwashes her as the Eradicator, using her to wipe out entire worlds that will not submit to him. He also digitally transfers the minds of defeated fighters from these worlds as test subjects despite their intense pain. Kidnapping Superman, Brainiac subjects him to horrific mental torture in order to break him and gaslight him into believing no one loves him. Forsaking even the love of his adoptive daughter Supergirl, Brainiac tries to murder her to purge himself of that love, viewing it as a virus. Possessing Superman, Brainiac tries to use his body to force Earth to submit, and when they refuse, intends to destroy them. After being ejected from Superman, Brainiac tries to force Supergirl to kill Superman against her will. The greatest Arch Enemy of both Superman and Supergirl, Brainiac ultimately personifies the worst of Krypton.
    • Season 1: Parasite, real name Dr. Anthony Ivo, starts out as the corrupt CEO of Amazo Tech, whose friendly demeanor hides vicious sociopathy. Ivo is connected with organized crime and sabotages his competitors, having entire neighborhoods displaced to build the headquarters of his company. When the board is about to fire him because of his recent business failures, Ivo uses Kryptonian tech he got thanks to his criminal connections to create the Parasite suit in order to get back on top. Organizing a huge party in Ivo Tower, he throws a board member out of a window to lure Superman after unveiling his Parasite suit, trapping Superman and the party guests in a high-voltage force field. Parasite's plan is to defeat Superman to prove the strength of his technology, taking sadistic pleasure in beating him before attacking the guests. Joining Task Force X, Parasite helps them capture Superman as revenge for the hero supposedly ruining his life. Parasite eventually absorbs enough energy for his suit to turn into a Kaiju, going on a rampage across Metropolis and endangering thousands of people, ready to destroy the whole city just for a shot at killing Superman.

Video Games[]

  • Injustice: Gods Among Us:
    • The Joker is unsurprisingly quite a nasty piece of work, especially the version of him in the Injustice universe. He dies very early on in the game, but what he does is more than enough to establish himself as this trope.
      • The prequel comic Injustice: Year Zero first shows how horrible he was. After Batman leaves Gotham, the Joker goes on a killing rampage killing several guards and prisoners to get out of Arkham. He breaks another inmate named Andre out of jail to get a supposed power of a god he talked about but he refuses to say anything. So the Joker threatens to kill his grandson after he was revealed to him, this causes Andrew to cooperate and tell The Joker everything. He ends up teaming up with Black Manta to get the powerful object. After he does, he ends up killing Andre and takes a Justice Society member Alan Scott. Throughout the rest of the story, he uses various means to kill every single one of the Justice Society members, as well as using his powers to force them to kill each other or themselves in Jay’s case. He then attempts to blow up the hall of justice to kill the entire league, but after a big battle he is eventually stopped loses his newly gained powers. However, Batman as he usually does refuses to kill him. The battle also gave Joker the idea to use Lois as a way of proving that he can be turned evil.
      • In Injustice: Gods Among Us He put a detonator inside of a pregnant Lois Lane that would cause a nuclear bomb he planted in Metropolis to go off once her heart stopped beating, then he hit Superman with some of the Scarecrow's fear gas laced with kryptonite. This caused Superman to hallucinate Lois as his dreaded foe Doomsday and, as a result, he killed her and the baby by flying her into space, as well as unintentionally setting off the detonator, killing millions of people in the process. Why did Joker do this to him, you ask? He viewed Superman as an easier target than his regular nemesis Batman, and he even taunts Superman about this to his face after being locked up. And that's not all, he even said that he had plans to top this after he makes his inevitable escape... which doesn't happen, thankfully, due to Superman ripping his heart right out his chest. This ends up turning Superman into a cruel tyrant hellbent on oppressing the people of Earth in order to snuff out all crime, making Joker the Bigger Bad of Injustice.
    • High Chancellor Kal-El himself is quite awful as well. While he does have a genuinely sad backstory, all sympathy for him goes flying out the window the moment he puts his foot down and establishes the One-Earth Regime, a brutal dictatorship that he rules with an iron fist, oppressing citizens and killing off any would-be dissenters who dare to rise against him, making it clear that any semblance of Clark Kent died along with Lois and their unborn child, leaving only the twisted, rage-filled Knight Templar Kal-El. He also has quite the ego problem as well, given how he decided to unleash his military and sic Regime!Doomsday on Metropolis and Gotham City after the public outcry that arose from him publicly executing Insurgency!Lex Luthor, who was Kal-El's best friend in this universe. His justification for this is to compare them to whining children that need to be punished. When Regime!Shazam calls him out on this and then makes the mistake of bringing up Lois, Kal-El proceeds to brutally murder him in cold blood by incinerating his brains with his heat vision without a care in the world, which not only causes Regime!Flash to have a Heel Face Turn, but also horrifies Yellow Lantern and Regime!Solomon Grundy. What makes this worse is that Regime!Shazam was a teenage boy - and a big fan of Superman, as well! Worse still, Kal-El has plans to invade the universe that the Justice League came from and completely obliterate it, all because they got in his way. He also has plans to forcibly abduct Lois Lane from the main DC Universe, which would undoubtedly end poorly for Lois, given his previous track-record (Superman even calls Kal-El out on this, saying that Lois would be disgusted and horrified if she saw all the terrible things he had done in her name). Once all is said and done and Kal-El has been defeated, he serves as a grim reminder that sometimes, when a once-noble hero falls, they fall hard... and Superman is quite aware of this by the end, seriously disturbed by just how easily his counterpart completely lost it.
    • Brainiac, as cold and ruthless as ever, is the Big Bad of the sequel, Injustice 2. Shown in a flashback to have stolen Argo City and Kandor before destroying Krypton, Brainiac arrives on Earth after learning that Superman was defeated. Intrigued, Brainiac sends his Betas to round up, scan and vaporise civilians as well as brainwashing several heroes. Stealing numerous cities, Brainiac smiles as he takes Metropolis, after which he seemingly kills Superman. Claiming that unless the heroes give him Supergirl to study how yellow sun radiation affects Kryptonian cells he will order his Betas to self-destruct, igniting Earth’s atmosphere and wiping out all its life; in doing so he betrays Gorilla Grodd and the Society that were working with him. (Though, it should be noted that Grodd himself was planning on betraying Brainiac himself to get control of his ship and was aware of Brainiac's true ambitions) When Supergirl and Batman infiltrate his Skull Ship they find at least dozens of shrunken cities from different worlds giving a small glimpse of the scale of Brainiac’s atrocities. They are captured, Brainiac intending to vivisect Supergirl while dismissively leaving Batman to be killed. Personally murdering Doctor Fate, Brainiac is confronted by Superman and Batman, to which Brainiac boasts that he has killed billions of Kryptonians. With countless crimes of theft and genocide, Brainiac justifies himself with this line: “I value knowledge. And like your metal trinkets, knowledge is more valuable when it is rare.” Even centuries later, his influence scars the reputation of all Coluans, as evident in Brainiac-5's ending.
    • Gorilla Grodd is the leader of the Injustice Society and The Dragon to Brainiac. Secretly making a deal with Brainiac that he will turn Earth over to him in exchange for power Grodd uses the Society to subtly advance his master's scheme. When Grodd's rally is attacked by Canary and Arrow, he stalls for time and then alerts Brainiac to their location resulting in them being abducted by the alien. When the Corulan begins his invasion, Grodd puts bombs in the Society's heads and forces them to fight the heroes, getting millions of innocent people killed. When Grodd is sent to Kahndaq, he makes it clear that he will happily sacrifice his fellow apes and pawns to get his desire. Grodd kidnaps Blue Beetle and puts him under his control intending to kill him when his purpose is served. He later admits to Aquaman and Black Adam that he intends to turn on Brainiac when the alien reveals his weakness and concedes that he has no loyalty to anyone but himself. Power hungry, selfish, and misanthropic to the extreme, Grodd shows he will happily allow the death of his people and the destruction of his world if it means he can gain power and satisfy his racism against humans.
    • From the spin-off comics, He-Man/ThunderCats & Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe: Skeletor and Mumm-Ra are the evil supernatural beings who decided to unite in order to destroy their sworn enemies and take over all reality. Enslaving the Ancient Spirits of Evil, thus giving them the form of titanic beasts, the two command them to cause chaos all over Eternia in order to take possession of two ancient magic swords, the Sword of Omens and the Sword of Power. As a result, thousands of Eternians were killed, and nearly all Eternia was on the brink of destruction. When the remaining forces of Eternia and the ThunderCats managed to defeat their beasts, Skeletor and Mumm-Ra fused into the extremely powerful Mumm-Ator and, after destroying the remaining opposition, break into Castle Grayskull to try to take over the multiverse. After Lion-O and He-Man combined their power to separate and banish them, the weakened Skeletor pretends to serve both Darkseid and the power-mad Superman, manipulating them both, causing Darkseid to invade Eternia, an action which resulted in many more people being killed or brainwashed to be servants of Darkseid.
    • Injustice: Gods Among Us & Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe: Per usual, Darkseid is this trope. Torturing Black Racer into submission, Darkseid allows his son Kalibak to lead an assault on Earth, killing tens of thousands of people, before his army was destroyed by Superman. Angered at the fact that Superman sullied his reputation by killing Kalibak, Darkseid starts scheming the destruction of Superman more aggressively, first hiring Lobo to take him down and then, when that failed, joining the conspiracy with Ares and Hera, manipulating humans, superheroes, and Olympians into a bloody conflict, with the human government even launching nukes as a result. After this, Darkseid found the weakened Skeletor in the cosmos, and from him, he found the location of the solution to Anti-Life Equation to be in Castle Grayskull. Invading Eternia, Darkseid kills, captures and transforms thousands of people into his obedient slaves, as he tries to uncover Anti-Life Equation, to take control of the multiverse, killing the minds and personalities of every living being aside from himself.
  • Superman Returns:
    • Lex Luthor somehow manages to be even worse than his film counterpart. Faking reports of Krypton still existing to get rid of Superman, Lex is released from jail and cons an elderly woman out her belongings. Lex steals and experiments on the data crystals, causing a blackout and unleashing multiple criminals and creatures onto the city, including Bizarro and Riot. Lex's ultimate goal is to use the crystals to build a continent that would destroy most of North America and potentially kill billions. Lex later plants the crystals, causing tornadoes, and abandons Lois Lane to die. When Superman comes to the island, Lex beats him up and throws him into the ocean to die. Uncaring and out only for himself, Lex laughs off any of the damage he causes.
    • Mongul is the sadistic leader of Warworld, where he forces aliens to fight for his amusement. Capturing Superman on his way back to Earth from Krypton. Mongul forces him to fight in Gladiator Games against his will. When Superman beats his opponents, Mongul enters the ring himself, but is beaten. Mongul tries to goad Superman into killing him, and following Superman to Earth, he has his men attack Metropolis. In his final battle with Superman, Mongul attempts to have asteroids crash into the city and has his men attack citizens to hurt Superman.