Superman is usually thought of as the greatest hero of them all, saving the day when the odds are down. In the current DC Multiverse, “Superman energy” is a name for the hopeful power that permeates it, why good always wins. He’s basically a multiversal force of purity, which is one of the reasons why we see so many evil Supermen. There’s something about the idea of the character that we all think of as the savior being the devil that human beings love so much. Characters like Homelander or Omni-Man traded on the iconography of the Man of Steel, making their evil all the worse. While the most well-known evil Supermen aren’t from DC in 2026, the company has been creating their own for years, some of them even more evil than the more popular stars of The Boys and Invincible.
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Evil Superman in the DC Multiverse take many shapes and sizes. Some of them are evil conquerors, taking the planet by force and reigning over those beneath them. Some of them are just villains, doing the opposite of what the Last Son of Krypton usually does. Some of them are berserkers, known for killing everyone in front of them. All of them commit terrible acts and today we’re going to rank these seven evil Supermen by the horrible atrocities they’ve rained down on their worlds
7) Superdoom
Grant Morrison’s Action Comics run is fantastic and one of their best ideas was a twist on the evil Superman. Morrison has gone on record saying they hate evil Supermen, so Superdoom takes that hatred into account. On Earth-45, Superman was an idea created by Clark, Lois, and Jimmy using technology that reacted to thought. They created the perfect exemplar of hope and heroism, but the company who owned the technology took him and focus-tested him. People wanted violence and he was changed forever, twisted into the monstrous Superdoom, his creators fleeing their world. It traveled the multiverse ravaging worlds, sent by its corporate overlords to destroy them and any competition. Many innocent people fell before its wrath and it was used by Lord Vyndltvx to attack Superman, but the Man of Steel was able to stop it. Superdoom doesn’t get the attention it deserves, as it is the most interesting of the evil Supermen. I always enjoyed the idea for the character; there’s something about weaponizing the evil Superman trope in a story that just does it for me.
6) Red Son Superman
Superman: Red Son took readers to a very different Earth and has become a legend. On this world, Kal-L landed in Soviet territory and was eventually brought before Stalin. He became the secret weapon of the Soviets and the USSR soon became the most powerful country in the world. After Stalin’s death, Superman took over the Soviet Union and the atrocities begun. Kal ruled like Stalin did, disappearing dissidents, crushing rebellions, and even going after his own inner circle more than once. While he didn’t kill everyone on his planet or anything like that, he caused a lot of suffering in the name of creating a communist utopia and that’s before we get to all of the people who fought against him and his forces that he crushed from other countries. While he would extend the olive branch to his vanquished foes, his rule was absolute. Most people don’t really think of him as evil, but he’s one of the worst on the whole list in a lot of ways.
5) Dark Multiverse SuperLois
Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Death of Superman #1gave readers a very different version of the death of the Man of Steel. In this one, the Eradicator came to resurrect the Kryptonian hero, but his body was too far gone. So, Lois takes on its power and decides to take revenge for the death of the man she loved. She targets his enemies and destroys them, before moving on to other villains and becoming the superpowered judge, jury, and executioner of her world. Superman does return, but she is unable to save him like Eradictor did on our world when Cyborg Superman hit him with the Kryptonite gas. Believing her world too far gone for there to be a good Superman, she continues the work she was doing, going after the evil of the world and tearing it to pieces. While you can argue whether she counts as an evil Superman, she used the powers of the Man of Steel to brutalize her opponents. She became a force of fear wearing the S-shield, killing everyone who didn’t meet the impossible standards she set in her head.
4) Overman from Animal Man #23-24
There are actually two Overmen on this list, and the first is one that barely anyone remembers. He premiered in Animal Man (Vol. 1) #23-24. Animal Man ends up in Arkham Asylum trying to stop Psycho-Pirate, whose Medusa Mask had become the last resting place of the old multiverse. On one of the dead Earths, the Superman equivalent is Overman, who worked for the government as the enforcer of the status quo. Eventually, he got what can only be described as a super-STD and went mad (it’s all so very The Boys). He attacked the other heroes of the world, created from his own cells, and killed them all. He branched out from there, attacking the innocent people of his world and destroying them as well. He had gotten his hands on a bomb powerful enough to destroy the world when the Mask manifested him and almost detonated it before the whole situation could be resolved. He was a true monster, driven hopelessly insane and desiring to take everything with him.
3) Injustice Superman
Injustice: Gods Among Us subverted the DC formula, taking the greatest heroes ever and making them monster, led by Superman. The game was so popular it became a comic series, allowing us to see how the world had gotten where it was. Superman was tricked into killing Lois Lane by the Joker and went completely insane. He decided that the only way to make the world better was to ruthlessly enforce “justice”, creating a fascist regime that terrorized his entire planet. Numerous people died in the battles against him, whether they be superheroes and villains or just civilians caught in the crossfire. He ruled with a steel fist, smashing anyone who stood up against him. He held a whole planet in his thrall, using his powers to terrorize everyone. While he did eventually stop being the worst Superman you can imagine, there’s no erasing all of the horrible things done in his name. He didn’t destroy everyone on his Earth or anything, but he destroyed them on another level.
2) Ultraman
The DC Multiverse is a vast place, full of every kind of world you can imagine. Earth-Three (or Earth-3 in later iterations of the multiverse) was a world where all the heroes we knew were villains and they always won. The Crime Syndicate ruled this Earth with an iron fist, and become some of the Justice League’s greatest villains, all under the command of Ultraman. There have been several versions of the villain over the years – even one who gains powers thanks to snorting Kryptonite, which was really wild to see for the first time – but all of them have been evil opposites of the Man of Steel. We don’t really spend much time on Earth-Three, all we know is that the Syndicate is in charge of everything behind the scenes, doing whatever they want. Ultraman does the worst things imaginable every day and probably has a body count that could stretch to the moon. He’s not an evil fascist dictator or anything like that, but imagine all of the terrible things that Superman could do if he had zero morals and you’ll get why he’s so high on this list.
1) Overman
Overman is the worst thing that Superman could ever become. On Earth-10, Kal-El landed in German occupied territory and would become the tool of Adolf Hitler. He helped destroy the Allied forces in Europe and then led the invasion of the United States, toppling the nation and allowing the Nazi Empire to take over the world. He protected his Earth from various threats along with the other New Reichsmen and would eventually become the leader of the entire empire. He kept up the brutal practices of the Reich, although it did seem to wear on him as time went on, especially after the death of Overgirl. However, him being sad that he spent almost a century helping the Nazis exterminate everyone they didn’t like doesn’t mean that he is no less evil than any of the others. His entire empire was built on suffering and he benefited from it greatly, risking his life to keep it going.
Who’s your favorite evil Superman? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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