Warped Weird Wonders of Wrongdoing: Crazy Clone Cronies

Htrae was a reformed planet formed as a warped version of Earth-One, where Bizarro and his race of artificial men lived for a few years. Initially just the original, when he first created an imperfect Lois Lane and then other imperfect inorganic beings, changed his name to Bizarro Number One being their progenitor. As Superman's complete opposite, this creature and his fellows caused more chaos than the norm. While initially, Number One and his fellows seemed hostile to the Man of Steel and humans in general, even going to war with them at one point, the invention of Blue Kryptonite seemed to keep the Bizarros at a respectful distance. Nevertheless, there were periods when humans and Bizarros interacted.

Funny Face did much the same while remaining on Earth-Two, breathing a form of sentience into replicas of cartoon strip characters, culminating in his final creation of Flying Tiger. Like Bizarro, the Tiger was a non-living mirror image of his world's Superman, although in this case replicating the hero's crooked alter ego during a period when that hero was trying to locate Metropolis' underworld's crime kingpin. However, Flying Tiger never had occasion to journey to his universe's version of Htrae, a world designed to replicate Earth-Two by the evil Kryptonian known as Mala years before.

For a brief period, it seemed as if the Flying Tiger was the perfect foil for Superman, unlike his imperfect Bizarro twin a universe away. Replicating all of Superman's powers plus the ability to grow large, turn immaterial and teleport away... his powers came close to equaling Earth-One's Composite Superman in some regards, who had the combined abilities of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Still, his susceptibility to Green Kryptonite proved the Tiger's downfall, leading to his exile back into the two-dimensional existence from which he came.

Funny Face's folks included villains Viper, Torgo, Machine-Gun Mike, Goola and the Black Raider. Also among the ranks of these pseudo citizens was Happy Daze, Prince Peril, Detective Craig, Streak Dugan and the Solitary Rider... as well as for a time Kitty aka Lois' Flying Tiger sidekick. While all of these entities have only brief periods of existence in the three-dimensional world, they continue on as they had for an untold period in the fictional realm of the Daily Star's comic strips with several supporting characters to interact with in each of their imaginary realms. Funny Face and his counterpart Professor Phineas Potter with their crazed-clone creating rays caused the Supermen headaches with lifeless duplicates of themselves in addition to various other warped versions of famous people spawned from their devices.

As to the Bizarro Earth, what is known is that eventually, it became the basis of the parallel world of Earth-Zero. This world, modeled after Htrae that Mister Mxyzptlk destroyed only a few years after its creation just prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, had its own faux versions of heroes and villains originating on Earth-One. Proof of its existence came to light when Alex Luthor of Earth-Three recreated the multiverse including its individual Earths, which materialized this Zero world in a vibratory frame of existence.

The technology Funny Face developed on Earth-Two had been used previously by Professor Anderson, who used his own version of the bio-ray on Batman and Robin as they adventured in a world populated by replicas of fairy tale fictional beings.

Another such device was employed for untold decade by the Soldiers of the Secret City, although after their encounter with the Flash and his associate Doctor Maria Flura, word got out to this potentially dangerous people and their ability to multiple forces.

Spurred on by this, Professor Lexon encourage Flura to join him in developing a replica of the Secret City image duplicator, which he then used to fake his own death. In so doing, he created image clones of Flash's girlfriend Joan Williams, Maria, himself and several of the Secret City soldiers. Previously, Flash himself encountered three of his own clones, as had an aged journalist who first found the city.

The golden age Hawkman had himself encountered a synthetic pseudo life form known as Czar  Sculptor Boris Nickaloff devises a special clay which he molds into the form of what he labels the "Un-Killable Man" which he mentally controls for his unspecified misdeeds.

Aware of this activity by a curious Winged Wonder, the hero battles Czar and is initially defeated by his pale foe. Shortly thereafter, Czar seeks out Sheila Sanders, whom his master appears to be attracted to, and for which Hawkman is engaged to in his civilian alter ego. Defeating both Nickaloff and his creation, the latter of whom he strangles in order to step him, the secret to Czar's genesis remains as his master perishes. Unlike Czar, the Bizarro Hawkman modeled after the Earth-One version is a dutiful member of planet Htrae's Justice League of Bizarros, and initially dies when he and his colleagues as well as their entire race are absorbed into an Amazo Bizarro, although later they are all brought back to their pseudo-life once more.

Chief among those on Htrae was Bizarro's close "friends" of Lois, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White and Krypto as well as his "colleagues" in the Bizarro League of Batzarro, Hero the flash, Yellow Lantern and imitations of Aquaman, Hawkman and Wonder Woman. Then there were the "law-breakers" of Lex Luthor, Joker, Kltpzyxm and Amazo. Not to mention the Legion of other Bizarro Supermen and Lois Lanes populating the planet.

Yellow Lantern, the imperfect clone of Earth-One's Green Lantern, had a doppleganger in the equally lifeless and clueless Grundy Lantern, when Earth-Two's Solomon Grundy inflected his arch enemy Green Lantern in the chemicals of Slaughter Swamp. This transformed evil GL battled Fate while Fate's Green Lantern energy clone battled the original Grundy. Eventually, both pseudo-Lanterns were erased.

Other synthetic creations such as Alphonse Peckabit’s fictional felons used against the Flash, such as Strongman, Peg Leg and Hot Stuff, were Earth-Two versions of the Bizarro clones of Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Amazo. 

Bizarre Baddies - Creepy Clones - Demented Duplicates

One of the core staples of comics is an opposite number or evil twin. In the late 1950's DC Comics hit upon this theme and developed an entire planet of these type of creatures with a catch, they were the imperfect duplicates of established characters. Only this wasn't a new concept, it was already explored previously and would be once more years later, as we shall see.

On Earth-One, Professor Dalton developed a duplicator ray which created a distorted doppleganger of Superboy, soon after destroyed. Years later, Lex Luthor recreated this device and spawned the pale jagged-skinned Bizarro, and from this template derived a whole civilization. Originally mirrored after this Bizarro Superman #1 and his mate Bizarro Lois Lane #1, after creating several of their own duplicates the original decided to build his own copies of some of Superman's closest friends like Jimmy Olsen and Perry White, and bitterest foes. Htrae was a square shaped world otherwise resembling Earth which Superman created as an act of penance on one occasion. He even went so far as to create a Bizarro Justice League with a Batman, Hawkman, Aquaman, Flash aka "Hero", and Yellow Lantern... as well as some of Superman's greatest enemies including Lex Luthor, the Joker, Kltpzym and Amazo. These beings were not carbon-based life forms yet had sentience based on perverse reverse logic, deriving their matter from another reality. Earth-Two analogues would be Flying Tiger, a Fairy Tale Batman, Secret City Flash clones, Grundy Lantern, and various others. On Earth-Two, there were also non-living animated “proxies” of Alexei Luthor, Mister Mxyztplk, and Prankster as well as a faux-Lois Lane

On Earth-Two, a criminal known only as Funny Face replicated a bio-ray projector original created by Professor Anderson which Batman encountered previously, a projector which was capable of creating pseudo three-dimensional life to imaginary characters illustrated by others Utilizing this to create a gang consisting of fictional felons Torgo, Machine-Gun Mike, the Black Rider, Goola and the Viper who all plundered Metropolis. Each was confronted by Superman, and each time the malevolent mastermind's gigantic Funny Face clones appeared to torment the hero. Meanwhile, reporter Lois Lane tracked down the culprit behind these creatures, a disgruntled failure of a cartoonist who nevertheless had exceptional genius in devising the device behind these deviants. Eventually tipping Superman off as to Funny Faces' location, and that of his captured girlfriend, the Man of Steel was confronted by all five menaces. Helping her hero once more, Lois turned the projector on the same newspaper pages to bring to life these criminals' arch-enemies in Prince Peril, Detective Craig, Solitary Rider, Streak Dugan and Happy Daze which defeated their foes. While Lane was transformed by Face into an image on a page, she was revived much as Bizarro-Lois came to "life" decades later a universe away.

A decade later, Funny Face returned with an animated illustrated depiction of Superman's criminal alter ego, Flying Tiger. This was an alias used by the Metropolis Marvel to discover the source of the underworld's Kryptonite, and as such several staged thefts over the new few weeks until he earned the trust of the mysterious kingpin known as Mister K. After the disguised Clark and Lois Kent turned the tables on the crimelord, the pair thought that Flying Tiger's crooked career had concluded. However, when shortly thereafter the faux-Tiger continued in his predecessor's steps, the Bizarro of Earth-Two was born! As before, Funny Face was defeated as was his Superman-clone, who was susceptible to green Kryptonite, and like its "brothers" was returned to the newspaper from whence it came.  Although, as before, Lois was transformed into a two-dimensional creature before being revived.

Similarly, not to many years after the Bizarros were created, Mr. Mxyzptlk returned to Earth-One's universe and merged with an entity known as Aethyr. These two proceeded to devastate Htrae while destroying all Bizarros as well. However, there was apparently a pre-Crisis Earth-Zero that replicated Htrae with the same Bizarro inhabitants residing on it. It is quite possible and most probable that Mxyzptlk/Aethyr used its inter-dimensional abilities of the Phantom Zone to recreate these creatures in this pocket reality, in much the same way Earth-Two's Thunderbolt spawned the Lawless League of Earth-A. This Lawless team was a twisted mirror image of Earth-One's Justice league, whom the Justice Society battled. And both Bizarro and Lawless Leagues would be counterparts to Earth-Three's criminal Crime Syndicate, as well, wherein good was replaced with evil and evil with good.

Synthetic Supermen Simulate Stupendous Stories

In 1942, a failed cartoonist invented a bio-ray, which he used to bring cartoons of his competitors to life. Calling  himself Funny Face, this man sought vengeance for not being recognized as a talented artist, and sought ill-gotten wealth which his animated creations had stolen for him. Despite this, the golden age Superman was able to defeat he and his manufactured minions. The technology behind his bio-ray would be used soon after with the goal of exposing the Earth-Two hero's secret identity of Clark Kent!

Something similar happened on Earth-One, when Lex Luthor rebuilt a duplication projector, which created an imperfect non-living version of Superman. Known as Bizarro, this creature repeatedly pestered his “twin” Kal-El… while using the duplicator to create Bizarro versions of Lois Lane, Perry White, Luthor and others. They ended up migrating to the squire world of Htrae. Eighteen of their Tales of Bizarro World would be told.

A series of seventeen (actually eighteen, including a published tale in Superman #19 that also saw the debut of Funny Face) animated shorts regarding fictional tales of a cartoon version of Superman were brought to life*. This character had the same backstory as Kal-L, and because the projector which brought him to “life” was similar to the bio-ray, he imitated aspects of Superman’s history. The creator of this medium, writer Jerry Siegel, was also the mastermind behind Funny Face. In these shorts, besides Kal-L, there was a Lois Lane, Perry White, a recurring Mad Scientist foe and others. Why Siegel sought to reveal Superman’s secret identity as Clark Kent to fellow reporter Lois, and the world, is unknown. But then, he tended to do that in stories.

It had been theorized that the mystery man behind the mask of Funny Face was Siegel himself, and Superman admitted that the man who conceived the animated tales was also Siegel. This pseudo-Superman was similar to the “handsome” Bizarro which the original created as an “imperfect” version** of himself to date Lois. Just as this second Bizarro had a short lifespan, so too had Funny Face’s later duplicate of Superman, the Flying Tiger (who a now married Clark and Lois created as a cover alias for Superman to help him versus a foe).

* This animated Superman was seen interacting with his real life template, Clark Kent, at the end of his second theatrical tale.

** As film reels are duplicated and distributed to multiple movie theaters across America and later the world, the synthetic sentient Supermen and Lois Lanes in each of these mirrored the additional Bizarro Supermen and Lois Lane clones on Htrae.

Twice-Told-Tales: Majestic Multiverse Myths

The Multiverse holds various Twice-Told-Tales, some chronicled, many left to the imagination. And all tied in to the nature of the cosmos in the DC Universe. This is only natural considering that they all originated from the Earth-One cosmos, when the Malthusian known as Krona unleashed cosmic forces while attempting to view the dawn of creation. As a result, his universe was cloned an infinite number of times to become with countless positive matter and one Anti-Matter Universe of Qward. Undoubtedly the main universe that mirror Krona's own was Earth-Two which seemed to be twenty years ahead of Earth-One due to exhibiting a slower vibratory rate. This may be due to the fact that Earth-One existed for untold eons prior to the other universes, and as such this is a way for all universes to stay in sync.

From Earth-One's universe was spawned the imperfect clones that would become the Bizarro race migrated to a world that Superman remodeled into a square planet at its inhabitants' decree. Several years after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, when the Multiverse was transformed into a single matter and anti-matter universe, another Crisis reignited the Multiverse due to the machinations of Alex Luthor from Earth-Three. Not only was his world recreated, but so was Earth-Zero which mirror the Bizarro Earth of Htrae, alluding to the possibility that the planet which the Bizarros migrated to was actually not in their own universe but a parallel one, accessed by a wormhole Superman used when he first ventured there. This world had a twisted nature, wherein the Bizarro League mirrored the evil sensibilities of the Lawless League from Earth-A and that of Earth-Three with its Crime Syndicate, with sinister counterparts of superheroes.

Then there were the seemingly peripheral planets that didn't seem to resemble Earth-One's Justice League of America and Earth-Two's Justice Society of America, yet had heroes of equal measure. There was, for example, Earth-S that like Earth-Two debuted superheroes in the golden age of the 1940's, and Earth-Four that for the most part had their superhero explosion in the modern age like Earth-One. Then there was the initially hero-less worlds such as Earth-Prime and Earth-X, although they eventually would have their own versions of costumed crusaders. And, lest we forget, just as their was a heroic Justice Alliance of America on Earth-D there was also a Freedom Brigade on Earth-Twelve that were also erstwhile imitators of the League and Society that were more well known. This doesn't even include Earth-666 where Marvel's mightiest reign, nor Earth-MLJ that are published elsewhere....

Fawcett's Finest: Mirrored Menaces

Dark reflections always expose the evil side of mighty moral men, such as those of the Men of Steel and their Big Red Cheese counterpart. We speak of Bizarro from Htrae-One, Flying-Tiger of Earth-Two and Niatpac Levram of Earth-S. While Bizarro and the Tiger were linked to Earth-One and Earth-Two's Superman, each had relatively truncated costumed careers much like Levram. All three were synthetic life forms  Created by Lex Luthor, Funny Face and Wizzo respectively...each pseudo-Superman replicated the abilities and appearance of their originals. The original Bizarro was a lifeless clone of Superboy.

Another clone of Superman was an alien being spawned from an alien vessel that collided into Kal-El's rocket ship during its journey to Earth-One. The energy contained within the vessel replicated itself into a humanoid resembling baby Kal-El, who would be raised by a gangster couple as first Super-Brat then Super-Bully, living a covert life as a super villain. His adopted parents eventually requested that he publically reveal himself as Super-Menace in battle with Superman. However, sent all that the good original had which he did not have,  Super-Menace became energy again to destroy both himself and the Derek's.

Super-Brat had a correlating character on Earth-Two in the lad named Wonder Boy, whose arrival via a meteorite from the Krypton of another universe known as Viro. Wonder Boy would have adventures there from the early 1940's, then returned a few years later having lost his powers. 

Traveling back to his native universe of Earth-X and assuming the alter ego of comic book artist Clark Kent and secret leader of the LUTHAR League who regained powers from a visiting Jimmy “Steel-Man” Olsen of Earth-One! His resurgence as a superpowered paragon was short lived, and what became of him after America finally lost the long-lasting World War II conflict in the late 1960s is unknown.

Twice-Told Tales: The Dark Side of Superman

Superman's code against murder is essential to the mythos of the Man of Tomorrow. On his home world of Krypton, instead of executing criminals they were exiled from that world, residing in suspended animation in rocket ships. Later, on Earth-One, the Phantom Zone projector banished these felons to that alternate dimension. However, on two pseudo planets two Supermen ignored their illustrative past, and principals, if only momentarily.

As a side note, the silver age Superman was once tasked by the Bizarro duplicates of himself to create a variation on his own Earth-One which became Htrae.  The golden age Superman encountered a world in outer space made into a carbon-copy of Earth-Two, created by one of the Evil Three Kryptonians named Mala seeking revenge on his former jailer, named "Counterfeit Earth".

Flash forward to after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, when all surviving universes were melded into one core universe. However, the Time Trapper created an artificial pocket universe which replicated Earth-One from which he spawned his own Superboy to become a sleeper agent against his foes the Legion of Super-Heroes. In this universe, three Phantom Zone criminals were also duplicated in the forms of General Zod, Quel-Ul and Zaora. After he defeated the trio by depowering them with Gold Kryptonite with the threat they would one day return seek vengeance on his own mainstream Earth, Superman used the green variation of his world's meteorite rock to forever vanquish these three threats.

Back on the pre-Crisis Earth-Two, its Superman was molded with a less lofty view of the world as he was separated from his exalted Kryptonian heritage until later in life. Hence, after once more defeating the Evil Three of Mala, Kizo and U-Ban, he did the seemingly unthinkable.

As he again outsmarted the rogues, Kal-L realized that were they to return a third time Earth-Two might not survive their sustained attack. Hence, after sealing them within a flying globe of his design, the Man of Steel lined the vessel with Kryptonite and left them in the depths of space. Years later, in Action Comics #484, the column entitled "Two Men of Tomorrow" comparing the twin Supermen states of Earth-Two's Kal-L: "The only other survivor of Krypton is his cousin Kara (Power Girl)". Ominous words indeed!

Eventually, both the Pocket Universe and that in which Earth-Two resided in ceased to exist, their history erased and with them these shameful incidents. Still they illustrate how dangerous the most powerful men in the world were when threatened by triads of terror!

The Mystery Son of Clark and Lois-Lane Kent

A mystery developed in February 1976, when writer E. Nelson Bridwell discovered a long concealed truth while interviewing the Supermen of two worlds. During this discussion*, the older Superman Kal-L revealed that he and his wife Lois Lane had a son**!

A legitimate question could be asked… was this a biological or an adopted child for the couple? It would be decades later in the late 1960s when  Kal-L’s long lost cousin Kara Zor-L arrived on Earth-Two, whom they would unofficially adopt. She would later take Superman’s place in the Justice Society as Power Girl, and she never mentioned a super-sibling.

A clue as to the identity of this “son” was a two-part tale (penned by E Nelson Bridwell in Superman Family #218-219), when Clark and Lois created the villain identity of Flying Tiger for Superman to use in his search for a hidden cache of Kryptonite that was being stored by a criminal gang in Metropolis to use against the Caped Crusader. Although pretending to only have the ability of flight through an anti-gravity device, Superman manifested his actual superhuman abilities in this identity.

Some time after this, an actual duplicate of the Flying Tiger was spawned from the criminal Funny Face’s bio-ray projector. The evil clone of Superman disguised as Flying Tiger was subdued and reverted to normal, while his creator Funny Face was captured. In effect, this fabricated Flying Tiger was a brain-child of Clark and Lois Kent brought to “life” from an idea made into reality!

And just as the imperfect Superman clone Bizarro and his wife Bizarro-Lois together made a Bizarro Junior (which was briefly human and raised by Superman and Supergirl on Earth-One, before returning to Junior’s home world of Htrae), Clark and Lois Kent quite likely used the fully functioning bio-ray in their possession to create and raise a new “Flying Tiger” clone. This Clark Junior would have all the same abilities and weaknesses of his father. Why he was recreated*** and what became of him is an untold tale****.

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* During this same interview, certain facts were in error. For instance, Superman-One mentioned that an ancestor of his step-father Jonathan Kent was the masked man known as Silent Knight, who was secretly Brian Kent during the days of Camelot. As revealed in DC Who’s Who the Definitive Directory, Jonathan is NOT listed as a relative of Brian Kent. In All-Squadron, Silent Knight was shown as a resident of Earth-Two. Apparently, the folklore of his exploits was relayed in tales on Earth-One, just as comic book characters had portrayed heroes of other Earths. Jonathan heard of stories passed down from generation to generation about his ancestor... in fact Brian may have been the forefather of Jonathan’s counterpart, John Kent!.

** References to Lois Kent’ pregnancy were mentioned, as was an appearance by Clark Junior (within the Superman Dailies in 1946 and 1949), showing the potential future offspring of Mr. and Mrs. Superman. Since there is no record of this child possessing superhuman powers… in fact his father Kal-L himself hasn’t manifested these until he was an adult… the baby may have had a normal human physiology. As no later record of the lad was mentioned, he may have tragically died of crib death. If so, then the reproduced Flying Tiger Clark clone may’ve been spawned to ease the pain of this loss.

*** There is an established history of the Kent’s adopting a child to raise. In the early 1950s, they briefly sheltered the super-powered Liandly from the planet Rolez after she was accidentally transported to Earth-Two when she inadvertently triggered her father’s teleportation ray (in Superman Family #220). When she was pulled back to Rolez, this left Clark and Lois with a taste of having a child of their own, which a clone would provide them. The Kents would once more have opportunity to raise a teenager when, several years later, Kara Zor-L finally arrived on Earth-Two.

**** This “Clark Junior” could’ve been trained to be a replacement for the malfunctioning Superman robot which Kal-L had previously used (in Superman Family #195). In a text piece the Crisis on Infinite Earths Absolute Edition, it was revealed that Clark and Lois' son ended up turning evil, despite having been trained by the original Man of Steel. This may have explained Kal-L's absence from tales of the Justice Society from their revival in 1963 until 1969, when he rejoined their ranks as an active member. Likely, this heir to Superman would’ve been reverted back to the two- dimensional world he was created within.