Superman Brings Back Classic Silver Age Villain With Twisted New Design

Published Oct 4, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows. DC introduces a new version of a classic Superman villain, reimagined as a tragic monster Kal El is reluctant to kill. Superman's immense Kryptonian power makes him a godlike figure on Earth, but it also gives him a particularly challenging gallery of rogues. Earth relies on the Man of Steel to intercept supervillains who could easily defeat most metahumans and vigilantes. Only Superman dares to fight Doomsday face to face, and intergalactic tyrants like Brainiac, Darkseid, and Mongul have to defeat the Man of Steel before they can continue their conquest of Earth. The Golden Age and Silver Age of comics introduced dozens of eccentric antagonists with bizarre gimmicks, many of whom failed to survive into modern continuity. Golden and Silver Age foes like Penny Plunderer and Rainbow Raider reflected mid-century camp, but are now considered too silly to be truly menacing. However, a few exceptions survived their absurd origins. For instance, Mister Mxyzptlk retained his fifth-dimensional reality manipulation as a lighthearted but extremely dangerous villain, and Toyman started emphasizing the creepy qualities behind his lethal toys. Brainiac himself dropped his pink polka-dotted tunic and tight shorts to double down on his terrifying extraterrestrial nature. All of Superman's foes, famous and obscure alike, have the potential to return as significant threats to the Man of Steel sooner or later. Chemo Makes His Absolute Universe Debut Absolute Superman #24; Written By Jason Aaron; Art By Juan Ferreyra & Rafa Sandoval Following his victory over enemies like Absolute Shazam and Absolute Metallo, Clark Kent finds a huge blob of living sludge attacking Smallville in Absolute Superman #24. This creature is the Absolute Universe's version of Chemo, a sentient collection of barely anthropomorphic toxic waste who appears to be losing control as it contorts in agonizing pain. John Henry Irons describes Chemo as "a laundry list of lethal pollutants," but Superman refuses to put it out of its misery since it's still a living being, even though its chemicals severely injure Superman. Created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru as an antagonist for the Metal Men, DC Comics' Chemo was originally a twenty-five-foot-tall transparent plastic vat shaped like a human being. An eccentric scientist named Professor Ramsey Norton used the container to dump the chemical by-products of his failed experiments. When he capped it off by pouring in a failed growth hormone, a volatile reaction led to the sludge gaining sentience and rampaging through the city. Instead of a B-movie monster, Absolute Superman's Chemo is a tragic victim of Brainiac's experiments; possibly a human being who was transformed into sentient toxic sludge. Absolute Superman's Enemies Are Even More Tragic Than Usual Superman's Absolute Villains Are Too Tragic To Kill Absolute Superman himself is a much darker version of DC's Man of Steel, but the fundamental lack of hope in Darkseid's experiment is better reflected in all his enemies so far. Lex Luthor is a regular family man stripped of his wealth, helpless against Brainiac's attack, which leaves him emotionally broken and motivated by nothing but revenge against those with superhuman power. On the other side of the spectrum, King Shazam is an ancient champion from a forgotten era, desperate to restore his lost dominance but incapable of returning to the prime of his power. Although Parasite always acts in self-preservation, Absolute Parasite is an even more tragic character. The latter is an innocent alien organism torn away from its home world by Brainiac and brutally experimented on by the Lazarus Corporation who morphs into a grotesque swarm of maws that absorbs citizens, driven by fear and confusion. Absolute Metallo is Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker, who suffered a traumatic childhood under a mass-shooter father before being weaponized, brainwashed, and eventually turned into a sort of Frankensetin's monster by Brainiac. This timeline teaches Superman that threats can't simply be punched into submission more than any other. Which DC villan would you like to see reimagined in the Absolute Universe? Absolute Superman #24 is available October 7 from DC Comics Created By Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel First Appearance Action Comics Alias Kal-El, Clark Kent, Jonathan Kent Alliance Justice League, Superman Family Race Kryptonian Franchise D.C.