Bizarro


Bizarro is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp as a "mirror image" of Superman and first appeared in Superboy #68.
Debuting in the Silver Age of Comic Books, the character has often been portrayed as an antagonist to Superman, though on occasion he also takes on an anti-hero role, and appeared in both comic books and graphic novels as well as other DC Comics-related products such as animated and live-action television series, trading cards, toys, and video games.

Publication history

Bizarro debuted in Superboy #68, writer Otto Binder casting the character as a Frankenstein's monster pastiche that possessed all the powers of Superboy. Shunned for his unenviable appearance, the teen version of Bizarro only appeared in a single comic book story. An adult version appeared around the same time in the Superman daily newspaper comic strip written by Alvin Schwartz, debuting in Episode 105: "The Battle With Bizarro". According to comics historian Mark Evanier, Schwartz long claimed that he originated the Bizarro concept prior to the character's appearance in Superboy. The newspaper storyline introduced the strange speech patterns that became synonymous with the character, with all of Bizarro's comments meaning the opposite. The newspaper version wore a "B" on his chest, as opposed to Superman's distinctive "S".
Schwartz stated:
quote|I was striving, you might say, for that mirror-image, that opposite. And out of a machine which would reveal the negative Superman, came the mirror imagealways remembering that in a mirror everything is reversed... The times were such that one-dimensional characters, your standard superheroes, even in comics, seemed rather simplistic, like paper cut-outs. What was demanded was the full dimensional personalitya figure that carried a shadow, if you like. I was certainly inspired to some degree also by C. G. Jung's archetype of "the shadow"and Bizarro certainly reflected that, as well. | Alvin Schwartz
Binder introduced the adult version of the character into the Superman comic book, this time wearing an "S", in Action Comics #254. Bizarro proved popular, and eventually starred in a Bizarro World feature in Adventure Comics for fifteen issues, running from issue #285–299, as well as in a special all-Bizarro 80-Page Giant. The character made forty appearances in the Superman family of titlesAction Comics, Superman, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane, Adventure Comics, Secret Society of Super Villains, and DC Comics Presentsfrom 1959 to 1984, prior to a reboot of the DC Universe as a result of the limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths #1–12.
Bizarro was reintroduced into the DC Universe in a one-off appearance with characterization similar to his original Superboy appearance in The Man of Steel #5. He was later revived in the "Bizarro's World" serial that ran through the Superman titles in March and April 1994, and in Action Comics Annual #8 in 1996. An unrelated four-issue limited series titled A. Bizarro was published in 1999.
Yet another version was introduced during the "Emperor Joker" storyline in September–October 2000. Remaining in DC Comics continuity, this Bizarro continued to make semi-regular guest appearances that firmly established the character as part of the Superman mythos.

Fictional character biography

Pre-Crisis Bizarro

had originally created bizarro duplicates of himself to dominate the planet Krypton. The bizarros had no power because they were not under a yellow sun, but they were soldiers ready to kill and die without hesitation. This was the reason why Zod was banished to the Phantom Zone for 25 Krypton sun-cycles.
Some 12 years later, totally oblivious to these facts, a scientist on the Earth is demonstrating his newly invented "duplicating ray" to Superboy, and an accident causes the ray to duplicate the superhero. The copy, quickly labeled "Bizarro", is a flawed imitation as it possesses chalky white skin and childlike erratic behavior. Shunned by the people of Smallville, Bizarro befriends a blind girl, and loses all hope when he realizes that the girl did not shun or flee from him because she was blind. Superboy is eventually forced to "kill" the "less than perfect" clone, using the remains of the duplicating machine, which acts like blue kryptonite on the copy. The whole business proved unexpectedly easy as Bizarro deliberately destroyed himself by colliding with the duplicating machine's fragment. The ensuing explosion miraculously restores the girl's eyesight.
Years afterward, Superman's arch-foe Lex Luthor recreates the "duplicating ray" and uses it on the hero, hoping to control the duplicate. The Bizarro that is created, however, is confused, stating: "Me not human... me not creature... me not even animal! Me unhappy! Me don't belong in world of living people! Me don't know difference between right and wronggood and evil!" Luthor is arrested by Bizarro for re-creating him, but forgotten as Bizarro attempts to emulate Superman, creating havoc in the city of Metropolis and almost exposing Superman's secret identity as Clark Kent. When Bizarro falls in love with reporter Lois Lane, she uses the duplicating ray on herself to create a "Bizarro Lois", who is instantly attracted to Bizarro. The Bizarros leave Earth together, determined to find a home where they can be themselves.
Superman encounters the couple once again, discovering that Bizarronow called Bizarro #1has used a version of the duplication ray to create an entire world of Bizarros, who now reside on a cube-shaped planet called "Htrae". Bizarro #1 and Bizarro-Lois #1 also give birth to a child who, while super-powered, appears to be totally human. Considered a freak by Bizarro standards, the child is the catalyst for a brief war between Htrae and Earth. Blue Kryptonite is also invented during this war, as well as the temporary existence of Bizarro-Supergirl. Bizarro also has a series of adventures on Htrae, aiding a normal Jimmy Olsen when he is accidentally trapped there, preventing an invasion of blue kryptonite statues, and stopping the Bizarro version of Titano.
Bizarro's influence is also felt on Earth: Jimmy Olsen is inadvertently turned into a Bizarro for a while, and a new teen version of Bizarro travels to the 30th century and attempts to join the Legion of Super-Heroes. When he is rejected by the Legion, the Bizarro teen creates his own Bizarro version of the Legion, which Superboy eventually persuades him to disband.
When Bizarro encounters Superman once again, his powers are now the opposite of Superman's, and he attempts to kidnap Lois Lane. Bizarro also temporarily joins the Secret Society of Super Villains to battle the Justice League of America and Captain Comet.
Bizarro appears in the Alan Moore-scripted "", in Superman #423. Bizarro goes berserk and destroys the Bizarro World and its inhabitants, then travels to Metropolis and wreaks havoc before abruptly committing suicide. This and many other deaths turn out to be the machinations of Mister Mxyzptlk, who had begun a rampage of crime. Superman is unable to undo the deaths, but kills Mxyzptlk and then uses gold kryptonite on himself.
Bizarro's final pre-Crisis appearance was in DC Comics Presents #97, which was also the final issue of that series. After being empowered by a hideously disfigured Phantom Zone sorcerer, Mr. Mxyzptlk destroys Zrfff and then causes the Bizarro world to implode, killing all its inhabitants. Bizarro's severed head crashes onto Clark Kent's desk and addresses Clark Kent before his simulated life ends. Bizarro does not appear in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, apparently because of this story's events.
This story directly contradicts a World's Finest story where it is revealed that sometime in the future, Htrae is transformed into a more normal world by the radiation from an exploding celestial body. The Bizarros are changed into normal people without powers, but still retain vestiges of their Bizarro laws.

Post-Crisis

After the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Lex Luthor orders his scientific team to create a clone of Superman. Incorrectly starting from the assumption that Superman is a human with metahuman abilities, the process results in a flawed copy, which Luthor dismissively refers to as "...this bizarreOh, forget it", before ordering for the subject to be disposed of. The clone survives and, although mute and possessed of only limited intelligence and vague memories of Clark Kent's life, attempts to mimic Superman. He kidnaps Lois Lane and is finally destroyed when colliding with Superman in mid-air. Each time he exerted himself, the clone crumbled slightly. When Lois Lane's sister, who had been blinded in a terrorist attack, is exposed to Bizarro's dust, she regains her sight. While Superman had not expected this effect, he speculated that Bizarro heard the sister explain her partial recovery and may have deliberately allowed himself to be killed in order to cure her.
A second Bizarro, able to speak and think better due to genetic engineering by Luthor, appears in a 5-issue substory in the clone plague story-arc titled "Bizarro's World". Before he died, this Bizarro seriously injured Happersen, kidnapped Lois, created a ramshackle dummy version of Metropolis in a warehouse, abducted Lana Lang, proposed to Lois and finally died in Luthor's labs. During this period, Superman also had to cope with an unending increase in his powers due to exposure to "purple kryptonite" in the climax of the Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen story-arcs.
One other Bizarro is created using Lex Luthor's clone process, by Lex Luthor's estranged wife and Dabney Donovan shortly after Superman regained his normal powers when he expended his electromagnetic ones. This Bizarro abducted Lex Luthor's baby daughter and intended to send her by rocket to another planet, emulating Kal-El's escape from Krypton. His pile of explosives and bombs, meant to launch the rocket, would have killed her instead, and Superman had to shield her when Bizarro threw the launch switch. Bizarro 2, already self-destructing from a genetic booby trap encoded into him by his creator, perished in the explosion.
Another version of Bizarro possesses all the abilities of Superman but with a childlike mentality and method of speech. He is created by Batman's arch-enemy the Joker when the villain steals the powers of the fifth-dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk. Creating a twisted version of Earth called "Jokerworld"a perfect cube with Joker's image on each facetthe villain designates Bizarro to be the planet's greatest hero and leader of a reimagined "JLA". When Mxyzptlk regains his powers, the imp allows Bizarro and several other beings to remain on the restored Earth.
Bizarro suffers a setback when captured by the Pokolistanian dictator General Zod. Zod beats and tortures Bizarro, simply because the creature resembles Superman. The hero rescues Bizarro, and to help him adjust to the normal Earth rebuilds Bizarro's "Graveyard of Solitude". During the Infinite Crisis, Bizarro is tricked into joining the reformed Secret Society of Super Villains by Flash's foe Zoom. In a battle with superteam the Freedom Fighters Bizarro accidentally kills the Human Bomb, repeatedly hitting the hero to see the flashes of light that are produced from the kinetic energy of the blows.
Bizarro becomes involved when Kryptonian criminals, led by General Zod, escape to Earth. Wishing to create a home for himself, Bizarro travels into deep space to a solar system occupied by a blue sun. After creating a cube shaped planet, filled with distorted versions of various buildings and locations on Earth, Bizarro is still lonely. The blue sun, however, gives Bizarro a new ability called "Bizarro Vision", which allows him to create new Bizarros. When this fails, Bizarro kidnaps Jonathan Kent, Superman's adopted father on Earth. Superman rescues his father and helps Bizarro become his world's greatest hero.
Bizarro eventually appears on the planet Throneworld, befriending and aiding Earth hero Adam Strange and allies Prince Gavyn, Captain Comet, and the Weird. Together they participate in the war between alien worlds Rann and Thanagar, and against villains Lady Styx and Synnar. Bizarro eventually visits the grave of a deceased Jonathan Kent, and is then sent with other Superman foes to the inter-dimensional prison, the Phantom Zone.
Bizarro has a series of encounters with former Secret Society ally Solomon Grundy, and during the events of Blackest Night, Bizarro confronts the Black Lantern version of Grundy. Bizarro destroys Grundy by driving him into the heart of the Sun.
Later, while investigating an object that crashes into a Metropolis park and leaves a massive crystallized crater in its center, Dr. Light and Gangbuster discover a Bizarro-like creature that resembles Supergirl. The Bizarro Supergirl takes the heroes hostage, but is defeated in battle by the real Supergirl. It is revealed that the Bizarro Supergirl is a refugee from the cube-shaped Bizarro World, and was sent to Earth by her cousin after their planet was attacked by a being known as the Godship. Dr. Light attempts to take the Bizarro Supergirl to S.T.A.R. Labs, only to be violently knocked unconscious by Supergirl, who then absconds with her doppelganger and her ship, hoping to stop the Godship and save Bizarro World. After taking Bizarro Supergirl back to Bizarro World, Bizarro Superman is reunited with Bizarro Supergirl.

The New 52

In The New 52, Bizarro first appears in the Forever Evil event. Five years ago, Lex Luthor, intending to create his personal army of Supermen, attempted to splice Superman's DNA with human DNA and injected it into a teenage test subject. Instead, he transforms into a hulking white-skinned monster with cryonic vision, incendiary breath, and immunity to Kryptonitededucing his weakness, Luthor hits him with concentrated solar radiation that oversaturates his cells and kills him. Luthor then takes samples of the creature to continue his experiment, deciding to clone a purely Kryptonian body. Five years later, a capsule labeled B-0 is shown.
After the Crime Syndicate takes over the world, Luthor releases Subject B-0, though his transformation is only halfway through. When he kills a security guard named Otis on Luthor's orders, Luthor is pleased and decides to use the imperfect clone in his plan to take the Syndicate down. Later, when Luthor and his team of villains pass through a tunnel, B-0 is revealed to be afraid of darkness. Luthor tries to comfort him with a story about his own fears, but ultimately wonders whether the clone was a waste of time; B-0 then speaks his first words, "Bizarro... try", much to Luthor's surprise. Though initially doubtful, Luthor grows truly fond of "Bizarro", who proves to be a powerful asset throughout the event.
During the final confrontation against the Earth-3 invaders, Bizarro battles Mazahs, the alternate version of Luthor himself; although he initially has the upper hand, Bizarro is fatally wounded and left to die. Luthor desperately tries to fix him, to no avail, and they share a sorrowful goodbye. Enraged over the death of Bizarro, Lex Luthor murders his Earth-3 counterpart, avenging Bizarro. After the battle is over, Luthor restarts the cloning process; when one of his scientists states it should take about ten years to fully develop a perfect Kryptonian clone, Luthor corrects him by saying it will take only five years, revealing he truly intends to create a perfect copy of Bizarro.

DC Rebirth

In the "DC Rebirth" reboot, a clone of Bizarro is found inside of a tube in a train car stolen by Black Mask sometime after the Crime Syndicate of America incident. Red Hood and Artemis jump aboard the train car attempting to steal a weapon, not expecting it to be a clone of Superman. Bizarro eventually joins Red Hood's Outlaws. During this time, Bizarro is stricken with a sickness which causes his cells to rapidly deteriorate. After saving his teammates in the Outlaws, he dies. Lex Luthor takes his body to try to resurrect him, on the condition that he be the property of Lexcorp. This results in Bizarro becoming extremely smart, surprising his teammates.

Powers and abilities

Bizarro is depicted as having all the abilities of Superman, although these traits are reversed, such as,
This also applies to weaknesses, as Bizarro is vulnerable to blue kryptonite, as opposed to green kryptonite, which is lethal to Superman. Bizarro is actually strengthened by green kryptonite as opposed to blue kryptonite.

Other versions

All-Star Superman

The limited series All-Star Superman features Bizarro clones from an alternative universe called the "Underverse". They can "infect" a normal human and change them into a Bizarro clone by touch. One of these creatures is called "Zibarro" and is unique in that he has intellect and a roughly human appearance, traits which he considered to be sources of scorn from his fellow Bizarros, resulting in a social isolation and loneliness he attempted to combat through artwork. When Superman was stranded in the Underverse, Zibarro helped him marshal the other Bizarros into building a rocketship that could send Kal-El home - Zibarro briefly considered taking Superman's place in the rocket, but realized he had no way of knowing he would find any more acceptance among humans than his kinsmen. Before leaving, Superman advised him that rather than an aberration, Zibarro may be evidence of increasing intelligence on the part of Bizarro-Home, and encouraged him to keep up his work; Superman had a segment of Zibarro's poetry preserved in Superlaminite within his Fortress of Solitude after returning home.

Amalgam Comics

An amalgamation of Bizarro and Carnage, Bizarnage was made through a botched experiment at Project Cadmus in an attempt to replicate alien DNA. The white, goopy creature they created went crazy and began destroying everything and everyone in its way. Then Spider-Boy arrived and battled him. Bizarnage wanted to be Spider-Boy, so he tried insanely to kill him, but was eventually defeated by getting tricked by Spider-Boy and sucked into an energy containment unit.

Superboy Comics

Bizarro appears in an issue of the tie-in comic for the late-1980s Superboy TV show, in which he is duped into acting as a student's art project. He also was featured in an issue of the Superman Adventures comic series that tied into in which he is brought to Earth by Lobo.

Adventure Comics

A Bizarro fantasy akin to the pre-Crisis version appears in the 1998 Adventure Comics 80-Page Giant by writer Tom Peyer and artist Kevin O'Neill. There, Bizarro demands that a technician at a SETI-like installation broadcast his diary. Having no choice, the technician looks over the diary, which tells the story of the classic cube-shaped backwards Bizarro World. Superman accidentally finds himself there and, to allay people's fears of him, goes on a "constructive rampage." The original Bizarro, a.k.a. Bizarro #1, goes to Earth and attempts to stop Superman with the help of his friends. However, when the other Bizarros try to kill Superman, #1 stops them, saying that killing is the earthly thing that they must, above all, do the opposite of. Realizing that, however strange the Bizarro World might be, its inhabitants are safer and happier than those of Earth thanks to Bizarro #1's leadership, Superman apologizes. To show his sincerity he hides a copy of the Bizarro Code where nobody will ever see it. The people hold a parade in #1's honor and with his loving wife Bizarro Lois #1 and their son, Bizarro Junior #1 at his side, Bizarro cries saying "Me am... happiest creature in universe." When the technician finishes reading the story, he sees Bizarro is gone and, horrified, asks – what if the journal itself is no exception to the Bizarro Code? Elsewhere, the truth is revealed; Bizarro, who has no home and no family and is held in contempt by Superman, weeps because he is the most miserable creature in the universe.

Earth-Two Pre-Crisis

In Superman Family #219, Superman encountered an animated lifeless version of his Flying Tiger alter ego, which he used the previous issue to fabricate a criminal career in order to track down the supplier of Kryptonite to various crooks. Ascertaining that this Flying Tiger was an enlarged 3-dimensional version of a picture drawn of him in the Daily Star, Superman ensnared this Tiger in a trap whereby the demented duplicate was crippled by Kryptonite radiation. Superman realized that this Flying Tiger not only had his abilities but also his weaknesses, and after defeating him he tracked down his creator, Funny Face. Although Funny Face transformed Lois Lane Kent into a 2-dimensional drawing, as he had done years earlier, Superman was able to restore her to normal and transform the fake Flying Tiger back into a drawing on a page.

Trinity

In the 2004 graphic novel mini-series by Matt Wagner, Bizarro is a genetic clone of Superman that is the result of Luthorcorp's "Project Replica". The creature was then sealed away in the frozen wasteland of Antarctica, encased within ice, until it was released by Ra's al Ghul, who used him as a pawn in his plan to use nuclear warheads to decimate Gotham as well as destroy a cluster of communication satellites, causing a major communications blackout, the end goal of his mission being to incite chaos and purge the Earth of the "cancer" that is civilization. After he is injured by Batman's use of a suit of armour and solar pulse lasers, Bizarro's hand is removed by Superman's heat vision before his template throws him into a volcano. This Bizarro is presumably deceased, however, his hand is turned into red kryptonite at the bottom of the ocean.

Adventures of Superman

A story in the out-of-continuity digital-first anthology comic book Adventures of Superman from 2013 by Christos Gage and Eduardo Francisco reveals that Bizarro's penchant for opposites comes as a result of his imperfectly formed brain, a discovery which allows Superman and Professor Hamilton to make him talk and think like a regular person and pursue his desire to be heroic.

Bizarro Comics

The 2002 graphic novel Bizarro Comics is an anthology of short comics by artists of the independent scene handling various DC Comics characters in humorous tales set outside of any continuity. All the stories are bookended by Bizarro Wars, a comic written by Chris Duffy with art by Stephen DeStefano in which Mxyzptlk seeks the aid of Superman to save the fifth dimension from a cosmic conqueror named "A", but ends up with Bizarro instead. The other comics in the volume are presented as creations of the deranged mind of Bizarro himself. The 2005 follow-up anthology Bizarro World features the character less centrally, but includes an introductory story in which the character runs an amusement park.

Earth 2

On Earth 2 as part of The New 52, Darkseid and Steppenwolf created a clone of Superman which they dub Brutaal. After being snapped out of Darkseid's control by his wife Lois Lane, Superman and Red Tornado leave for the Kent Family's farm. After a protracted battle with Earth 2's superheroes, in particular Green Lantern and a younger Kryptonian named Val-Zod, he is revealed to be scaling and decomposing. Realizing he is a Bizarro-type clone and that his power is waning, the Superman clone is destroyed by Lois using a cyclone blast from her hand.

Red Son

In , Lex Luthor chose to create his own version of Superman through cloning to combat and overcome the original. Luthor decided to crash Sputnik into Metropolis which will bring Superman to the event and hopefully allow Luthor to gather genetic material of Superman. As planned, Superman arrived in time to stop the deadly crash. The United States government claims the probe and Luthor obtained the samples he needs in order to create his copy which proves to be defective and was named "Superman 2." Luthor sent Superman 2 off to engage Superman who was attending a state party which Wonder Woman was also attending. Superman 2 clashed with Superman over the English Channel and the two fight. Their battle was so aggressive it accidentally caused an American nuclear missile to launch. Superman 2 proves himself to be a true genetic descendant of Superman as he sacrificed himself to save millions from the nuclear explosion.

Justice

In Justice, Bizarro was created by Lex Luthor, in an attempt to use early cloning technology to find a means to kill Superman. The results were less than perfect. Once fashioned, even Luthor was incapable of controlling Superman's would-be duplicate. He is shown to have freeze vision, heat breath, and loves creating destruction, but isn't as intelligent as Superman and is a member of the Legion of Doom. He's based on the Silver Age version of Bizarro.

Miscellaneous versions

Several alternative universe versions of the character exist:
A Legends of the Dead Earth story set in the far future features a former media-star Bizarro who owns an amusement park and who fights against his own obsolescence.
The Elseworlds one-shot The Superman Monster, essentially a Frankenstein pastiche, features a monstrous copy of Bizarro created by a Viktor Luthor based on the remains of the infant Kal-El, who died upon arrival.
In the limited series , having found Kal-El's ship, Lex Luthor uses DNA samples to create Bizarro-like duplicates, which he disguises as the "Liberator" robots to hunt down the supposedly rogue metahumans. While the Liberators possess Superman's powers in terms of strength and speed, their genetic structure proves to be unstable, to the point that they collapse after sustaining even minor damage in combat with metahuman foes, relying on stealth and superior numbers to overwhelm their prisoners.

Injustice: Gods Among Us

In the prequel comic to the video game, Lex Luthor comes up with the idea of creating a clone of Superman that can combat the corrupt Man of Steel. However, the clone escapes before the process can be completed, resulting in the clone having gray skin and diminished mental capacity. The clone travels to Germany where he meets a man who confuses it with Superman, making the clone assume this is his identity. Giving the clone a Superman suit with the S backwards, the clone goes on to try to establish peacebut because he lacks common sense and a basic understanding of human ways, he inadvertently wreaks havoc and kills Weather Wizard and Heatwave. The Trickster is able to take advantage of the clone's mental limitation to convince him they are friends and the "imposter" Superman is his enemy. The clone becomes known to the Regime, with Superman meeting him as Solomon Grundy is being captured. Yellow Lantern gives him the name 'Bizarro' since he proves to be an imperfect clone of Superman. Bizarro gets away before they can discover his origin. Trickster has difficulty keeping the clone in check, as the clone ends up killing an entire restaurant of civilians when he misunderstands Trickster's instructions. Trickster resolves to be more specific, but Bizarro accidentally drops him during flight, leading to Trickster's death.
Not comprehending death, Bizarro takes Trickster's corpse to the German man who helped him. The man calls the Regime for aid, so Bizarro returns to the first place he remembersLuthor's laboratory. Luthor realizes that the clone will inadvertently expose his work, so he sends Bizarro to the Fortress of Solitude, nominally for answers but in reality to be ambushed by the Luthor-controlled Doomsday. This leads to a fierce fight between the two, which is interrupted when the actual Superman arrives. The three-way battle tears across the Arctic with Luthor trying to prolong it by repeatedly switching Doomsday's assigned target, but he eventually realizes that he can't bring himself to murder even the corrupted Clark, and that Bizarro can't live to reveal Luthor's double agency. When Superman is briefly incapacitated, Luthor turns Doomsday on the unsuspecting clone and succeeds in killing him before having the monster stand down. Superman, furious, takes Bizarro's corpse to Luthor to run tests, not realizing his ally's complicity.

In other media

Television

Live action

seen in the 2007 Smallville episode "Bizarro".