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.

Pesky Potters Propagate Problematic Phonies

Professor Phineas Potter was an eccentric yet good-natured scientist who became an acquaintence of fellow Smallville resident Superboy. The maternal uncle of Lana Lang, herself a childhood friend of Superboy and his alter ego Clark Kent. His counterpart was an aspiring yet vengeful cartoonist who first met his world's Superman and Lois Lane when first utilizing his invention under his criminal alias of Funny Face.

Potter would cause some complications in the life of Superman as he had when the hero was just a lad, although the two remained good friends. Phineas also began associating with reporters Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen of the Daily Planet. For the latter, Potter's various experiments caused a wide range of bodily transformations, including a serum Phineas developed that allowed Olsen's body to elongate as the Elastic Lad, as well as one that inflated his body into a "fat Jimmy" variation. However, the device that caused Jimmy the most grief was his normalizer ray, a device developed to humanize Bizarros. In this instance, it worked although the effects had an opposite effect on the young red-haired photo-journalist.

In fact, another scientist years earlier developed the original duplication ray that created an imperfect liveless version of Superboy. This clone tragically perished, only years later to be revived by Lex Luthor as an adult Bizarro Superman. Feeling himself alone as a freak on Earth-One, Bizarro journeyed to an abandoned world and used a duplicator ray to create a companion for himself in Bizarro Lois Lane, as well as several copies of both himself and Lois. Eventually, their existence came to the attention of Professor Potter, who after developing his normalizer ray had projected its beams upon a Jimmy Olsen wearing a bizarro mask as a practical joke to scare his scientific friend. Now, both physically and mentally, Jimmy became like his imperfect duplicate, a Bizarro! Now living in exile on Thrae, the Bizarro World, was their hope for him?

The Earth-Two Phineas Potter adopted the alias of Funny Face after failing to fullfill his first dream of being a successful cartoonist. As an inventor, however, he was highly successful... having developed a bio-ray that could bring to life characters from various comic strips. Such villains as the Martian villain Torgo, the gangster Machine-Gun Mike, the criminal cowboy Black Raider, the bald giant Torgo, and the sinister schemer known as the Viper. Also produced were various henchmen aiding these artificial life forms. 

Eventually, with the aid of Lois Lane, the Earth-Two Superman vanquished Funny Face allied with his fictional foes' heroic adversary in Streak Dugan, Detective Craig, Solitary Rider, Prince Peril and Happy Daze. However, Funny Face still lived, and created a clone of Superman's Flying Tiger alias, who also was defeated. Although twice using his bio-ray on Lois to transform her into a lifeless illustration, each time Superman was able to revive her. Similarly, an imperfect Bizarro clone of Professor Potter was able to develop a reverse-normalizer ray, restoring Earth-One Jimmy to his human form!

On one occasion, Potter accidentally activated a transdimensional portal in the Justice League satellite, previously damaged and yet to be repaired, which had unleashed a creature from the  limbo trans-dimensional realm of Limbo. Theorizing that a merged Superman of Earths One and Two could defeat this entity, he aided both Supermen in accomplishing this feat for a limited time, and in fact the two Supermen-in-one were able to vanquish the beast and thus save Earth-One. The Earth-Two Superman had initially traveled to Earth-One to recruit that world's Jimmy Olsen into returning to his world, where Olsen's older counterpart needed an organ transplant. A reformed Funny Face, now a physician, used his bio-ray to create a duplicate organ from Jimmy-One... to be transplanted into Olsen-Two.

Funny Faced Friends, Fiends, Foils, & Foibles

Professor Potter, the well-intentioned yet absent minded uncle of Lana Lang, provided many misguided adventures for his friends and family due to his bizarre inventions. The one most effected by his dabblings into the scientific mysteries of the universe was undoubtedly his young associate, Jimmy Olsen. And Potter's golden age counterpart was likewise a source of trouble on occasion.

Among the most successful creations of Potter's was the serum that allowed Jimmy to transform himself into the stretching superhero: Elastic-Lad. 

Prior to this, the Professor unleashed his z-rays on Olsen, transforming the lad into villain Future-Jimmy with mental abilities... which he soon thereafter reversed. Another time, a pill thought to cure a toothache, turned Jimmy into a giant! Potter had previously spawned an evil clone of Jimmy Olsen, and later still would transform Olsen himself into a bizarro much like his own imperfect duplicate Bizarro Jimmy on planet Thrae. Eventually, while on that world, Jimmy used the duplicator ray that initially created duplicates of Superman's friends and foes on Potter, creating a Bizarro Professor Potter who reversed the process, returning Jimmy to his normal humanoid appearance again.

In fact, on the square shaped homeworld of the Bizarros, there were several familiar if hideously disfigured faces beside Jimmy. Some were Bizarro-Lex Luthor, Bizarro-Joker and Bizarro-Titano. These mirrored the villains brought to psuedo-life by the Earth-Two Potter, aka Funny Face, to rob for him. These were Machine Gun Mike, Viper and a lizard giant... all based on comic strip characters Funny Face's bio-ray brought to life. And in fact, shortly after this first caper, Funny Face reappeared behind the scenes to produce a series of Superman-themed cartoons, where synthetic two-dimensional Supermen and Lois Lanes had a series of adventures in their own virtual reality, scenes by audiences across the United States.

To combat these, Lois Lane slyly activated the device while captured by the criminal, and brought to life comic strip heroes that mimic different persona's of Earth-One Jimmy Olsen. Among these was the red-and-yellow costume clad hero Streak Dugan, who like Jimmy's Kandorian alter ego of the masked red-and-yellow clad Flamebird, came equiped with advanced gadgets to fight the forces of evil. Each comic character could grow large, just like Jimmy as Elastic Lad and during his gigantic Turtle Boy phases.

Perhaps the most dangerous villains that Potter and Funny Face unleashed on their respective Earths was the medieval malcontents known as Krogg and Torgo. While Earth-One was saved from Krogg thanks to the combined efforts of both Supermen, the original Superman on Earth-Two enlisted the aid of the caped knight Prince Peril, a more noble psuedo-personage than the dark knight Bizarro Batman whom modern Superman encountered.

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.

Lifeless Lois Lanes Love Legend's Likeness

Lois Lane was always near her one true love Superman, so when copies of him were made, another version of her would likewise stick closer to the alien she adored. Bizarro number one, the imperfect duplication of Superman, sought to fill the void in his life with others of his kind. To that end, he made several duplicates of hiimself who were all equally lifeless and imperfect, expressing an opposite point of view from the original Kryptonitan whom they were cloned from. Similarly, Bizarro used the same imperfect duplicator ray that spawned him and his twins to create matching mates in Lois Lanes. 

One of these, deemed Lois Lane number one, became his wife and together they would eventually have a son in Bizarro Junior. On occasion, the Bizarro family and particularly the original would visit Earth-One and interact with their living counterparts, much to the dismay of the real persons whom they were modeled after due to their warped logic and propensity to create problems for them.

In like fashion, on Earth-Two in a separate universe, there was a lifeless although perfect copy created of Superman. Or, to be more precise, a clone of his villianous alter ego... the Flying Tiger... whom the caped crusader used in order to locate the mysterious supplier of deadly Kryptonite to various criminal gangs in Metropolis, which Superman had repeatedly encoutered. After defeating the mastermind behind this distribution network in the Tycoon of Crime, Superman retired the Tiger. 

However, sometime after this the levitating larcenous Tiger reappeared and summarily defeated Superman in battle. Recognizing an artist's signature on his foe's boot, Superman knew that this Flying Tiger was an enlarged version of an artistic rendering in the Daily Star. In order to  ensnare his faux foe, Superman had his wife Lois Lane Kent resume her own double identity as Kitty, the former henchwoman of his Flying Tiger. She then revealed to Tiger and to his creator and master, failed artist turned inventor Funny Face, the location of Kryptonite which could render Superman powerless. However, when Flying Tiger attempted to steal these meteorites from Metropolis' police headquarters, he himself was rendered inert as he not only had the same strength but also weakness of Superman. 

Enraged by this, Funny Face turned Kitty into a two-dimensional lifeless drawing with his bio-ray, which he had done a decade earlier. This same ray that can animate drawings also had a reverse effect on humans. Thankfully as he had done previously, Superman saved Lois leaving Kitty a mere drawing like the Tiger. Another synthetic version of Lois Lane appeared in the animated Superman Fleischer cartoons shortly after Funny Face first appeared in 1942, brought to life on 2-dimensional screens by a projector similar to the bio-ray originating from Funny Face’s alter ego Jerry Siegel.

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.

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****.

__________________________________________

* 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.

Costumed Crusaders' Courageous Carbon-Copies

A curious attribute of Earth-One as contrasted with Earth-Two is that many of its greatest champions were not unique, but were simply the most outstanding examples of larger legions of similarly clad costume crusaders. Examples of this amongst members of the Justice League were the Thanagarian Wingmen... of which Hawkman and Hawkwoman were a part, the Green Lanterns Corps... of whom Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan was a member, and the Kandorian Superman Emergency Squad led by Don-El, who protected the original whom they imitated. Then there were the imperfect duplicates of Kal-El / Superman in Bizarro Number One and his fellow Bizarro Supermen. It seems the sole exception to this principal on both worlds were the Wonder Women, who had similarly powered yet distinct fellow Amazonians.

However, upon closer inspection, the corresponding members of the Justice Society each also had larger organizations similar to themselves. Kal-L aka Superman was a member of the All-Star Squadron, with various caped crusaders inspired by him, including the diminutive Darrel "Doll Man" Dane who was his world's Don-El.

Likewise, there was the animated duplicate Supermen spawned by Funny Face, both the 2-dimensional version in movies and the 3-dimensional Flying Tiger who tormented his opposite number.

Similarly, there were the renegade minions of the Vulture King from Thanagar-Two. Centuries earlier, an advanced armada of these Wingmen had attempted to found a colony on Earth-Two, whom the armored avenger known as Silent Knight encountered during one of his adventures. Now seeking to recruit humans into his forces, the Thanagarian Vulture King and his lieutenants used a device known as the Electromizer (their version of the more benevolent device known as the Absorbacron developed on Thanagar-One), which temporarily even brainwashed the Amazing Amazon herself, Wonder Woman! Once defeated, these rogues of Thanagar-Two were placed in Earth prisons.

Finally, there were the Green Dragon Tong, formed by the first wielder of the emerald lamp named Chang… which eventually came into the possession of Alan "Green Lantern" Scott, of whom they would oppose (following a clash with Batman and Robin decades earlier). While the Tong did not possess power rings and batteries as had the Corps, a group of Green Dragon monks did possess the original green lantern and its meteor rocks for centuries, guarding it. A later group of synthetic aliens known as the Sinestro Corps briefly battled Alan Scott and Hal Jordan.

Creating Composite Counterparts

An endeavor in our research of the DC Multiverse is to explore the various facets of the parallel planets known as Earths One and Two, and this includes locating all doppelgängers on each world. For several, this is straightforward for virtual carbon copies, for heroes such as the Batmen, and villains such as the Jokers. For some, this is still relatively easy, for those such as the Hawkmen and Hawkwomen who have different appearances. For others, this is based upon powers and aliases such as the Flashes aka Barry Allen and Jay Garrick.

Then there are the few prominent protagonists and amoral antagonists on Earth-One who initially seem unique, with no direct comparisons on Earth-Two. However, upon further examination, we can ascertain a few upon deeper analysis. Consider, for example, Matt Hagen. The second man to use the alias of Clayface, his predecessor was former movie star turned criminal Basil Karlo. In fact, there was a Karlo/Clayface on both Earths... yet Matt only existed on Earth-One.

However, a crook named Bart Megan existing on Earth-Two adopted the alter ego of Doctor No-Face. Having a similar modus operandi, along with appearance altering abilities, it seemed this one-hit wonder could be his world's version of the second Clayface. His placement on Earth-Two was verified in the Batman Encyclopedia, published as an authoritative work on the characters related to the Batman mythos. 

And decades later, another man with similar criminal intent using the alias of Graham Peake had... like Megan... adopted a profession as a doctor, and also like Matt had sought to synthetically alter his body mass into different shapes. When encountering Batman's daughter, the Huntress, Peake in fact was transformed into a form similar to Hagen when he was Clayface II. And so, we connect the dots, and hypothesize that Bart "Doctor No-Face" Megan and Graham Peake are one in the same person... and his world's version of the second Clayface.

__________________

Another specimen for consideration Toby "Terra Man" Manning, a time-displaced outlaw cowboy from the 1800s who arrived in 20th century Metropolis on Earth-One to repeatedly battle Superman. Employing a variety of advanced weaponry, which Manning inherited from the alien criminal who adopted him after slaying his father, Terra-Man posed a serious threat to the Man of Steel. During one adventure, Toby encountered a counterpart from another universe, a Terra-Man from a world without a Superman.

Yet prior to this, Superman found himself at odds on Earth-One with another time-lost (and universe displaced) rogue, pirate captain Ezra Hawkins... the ancestor of Inza Nelson of Earth-Two! This man appeared similar to Manning, and also using a variety of special weaponry against the Kryptonian caped crusader.

Decades earlier, another man named Sir Traytor battled Shining Knight. This was an immortal villains from the days of Camelot, and in fact during that ancient period the Superman of Earth-Two had battled a Dark Knight who bore a striking resemblance to both Ezra Hawkins! And so, we connect the dots that the Dark Knight gained immortality as Sir Traytor, eventually assuming the alias of Ezra Hawkins in the 1500s, and reappearing in the 1940s to battling Shining Knight!

__________________

Then there was the benevolent Professor Potter, the inventive absent minds uncle of the Earth-One Lana Lang. He had developed a wide range of technologies and gadgets, including a version of the imperfect duplicator that could transform Bizarro clones into humans. He even spawned a Bizarro version of himself. On Earth-Two, the failed cartoonist Funny Face developed the bio-ray, which could animate comic strip characters bringing them to life. Both attempts at defeating his world's Superman with various fabricated foes... including a duplicate of the Man of Steel named Flying Tiger... met with defeat.

Decades later, a kindly physician who developed a duplication ray saved Jimmy Olsen's life, by cloning an organ provided to him by Jimmy's Earth-One counterpart. Connecting these two individuals with the similar bio-ray... Funny Face who wanted to bring cartoons to life and the physician who saved lives... we hypothesize that this former criminal turned doctor was the Phineas Potter of Earth-Two!

__________________

Finally, we consider the counterpart to the most persistent foe the Justice League ever faced. That adversary Doctor Destiny, was originally a sinister scientist who developed a device that could fabricate dreams into reality called the Materiopikon. After four failed forays versus the League, the Doctor was incarcerated for a number of years, before finally being released from prison in his skeletal state. Caused by his lack of dreams, taken from him by a psychologist employed by the League to strip Destiny of his deadly device, this left him criminally insane.

His doppelgänger was Doctor Elba aka Professor Able, a rogue researcher mentally manipulated by fellow felonious scientist Doctor Henry “Brain Wave” King. Using his Solution K, which corrupted those injected with the chemical concoction, Elba hatched a criminal scheme that was ultimately thwarted by the Justice Society. However, soon after, Elba adopted another alias as he became the second "Painter of Death" who preyed upon painter Pierre Antal's victims for profit. Like the original Painter, a socialite named Wylie, Elba committed suicide after his scheme was exposed by the Dark Knight Detective!

These are but a few examples of tying together lose ends throughout the history of Earth-Two, and seemingly one-time characters, to form a more complete picture given a modern lens. A persistent belief had been that this world, in contrast to its contemporary Earth-One, was devoid of many key characters. Upon further examination, there is a richer legacy to be drawn from carefully dissecting tales from the various decades of publishing within the DC Comics Multiverse!

Terrible Toymen Terrorize Twin Terras

The two men born Winslow Schott on Earths One and Two were prolific inventors, incorporating advanced mechanical and theorectical principals into their designs of his state-of-the-art toys. The Earth-One Winslow and ewas a lad with long brown hair, traumatized at a young age when his neighborhood friend stole to first toy he ever assembled, a toy plane, which led him into a life of crime. The Earth-Two Winslow simply was an adult with curly blonde hair who simply decided to pursue a life of crime to quell his insatiable greed. Both men pursued similar paths towards infamy, each renaming himself Toyman, devising various schemes with various childrens playthings incorporating deadly devices. Yet time and time again, the Toymen were opposed and ultimately defeated by the Supermen of their respective worlds. Even when each allied the Luthor and Prankster of his Earth, both Toymen found only further failure.

At a certain point on Earth-One, Winslow grew older, now with whiten hair, and decided to retire as he set up a toy shop of his own. During this period of time, a younger usurper to his title stole the Toymen identity, and began plunder Metropolis with more advanced weaponry than his predecessor. This Toyman, Jack Nimble, incurred the attention of both Superman and Schott-One, who teamed up to capture this copy-cat crook. Nimble would reappear twice more, working on his own employing a separate sinister scheme, and later allied with fellow foes of Superman led by the alien Mr. Xavier.

Meanwhile on Earth-Two, Winslow retired for decades before returning to terrorize Metropolis once more. This time, Toyman was opposed both by Superman, and his old adversary's Kryptonian cousin Power Girl. Given Schott’s appearance, this encounter took place in the mid-1970s. When an older grizzled Schott returned years later, he faced a different Dynamic Duo defending Metropolis, Robin and Huntress!

The original Toyman of Earth-One was motivated to resume his criminal career once more, when his prized display at a toy exhibition was destroyed by an individual appearing to look like Superman. In fact, this was the Man of Steel's imperfect duplicate Bizarro, who returned to Earth-One in a crazed mental state. Reverting to his negative impulses, Schott sought out the two men he felt destroyed his life, Nimble and Superman! Schott slayed Nimble while the younger Toyman laid sleeping in his apartment. However, Superman was harder to kill, and turned the tides on Schott when it was revealed that Bizarro was the true culprit behind the destruction of Winslow's collection.

Contemporaries of each Winslow Schott were the Pranksters of each Earth, each born as Oswald Loomis. These two Pranksters had remarkably similar careers, with each at times teaming up with the Toymen, the Luthors, and the 5th Dimensional pests who plagued the Superman (Mr. Mxyzptlk on Earth-One and Mr. Mxyztplk on Earth-Two). As for the  Earth-Two counterpart to Jack Nimble’s Toyman, this was a crook named Al Fresco, former protégé turned rival of Schott's fellow fiend the Prankster who adopted the alter ego of the Trickster*. Fresco wore a disguise at times making himself appear to look like the Prankster, and used similar gadgetry used by his insidious inspiration and the Toyman.

* Evidence suggests that on a few occasions after his introduction, Trickster disguised as Prankster who clashed with the Earth-Two Superman, given the frequently of a "Prankster's" appearances in the late 1940s and early 1950s. 

Wonderfully Wacky Worlds Weave Wicked Woes

Replication equipment akin to cloning, only with inorganic base materials, was achieved with in both Earths One and Two. On the former world, this resulted in the creation of the Bizarro parodies … and on the latter world, this culminated in the Funny Face facsimiles. Synthetic Supermen were created along with Bizarro Superman Number One and Funny Face’s Flying Tiger which tormented the original Man of Steel multiple times. But their colleagues in the Justice League and Justice Society met other demented duplicates.

For the Batman of Earth-One, this occurred when he and his League teammate Wonder Woman were drawn to the Dazzleland amusement park in the Catskills. Its founder Wade Dazzle has succumbed to a life ending medical condition, which he prepared for by developing a duplicating mechanism that spawned robotic replicas of real persons. Those individuals were sapped of their life, with their bio-energy transferred into Wade’s refrigeration unit, which kept his body in living stasis while the robots assumed the lives of their formerly living templates.

For the Batman of Earth-Two, this occurred when he and sidekick (later fellow Justice Society member) Robin were drawn to the laboratory of Professor Anderson, who’s bio-ray brings to life two-dimensional creations within published books, while drawing three-dimensional individuals to that synthetic fairyland. Anderson’s daughter Enid was captured within that land’s confines by its inhabitants, which the Dynamic Duo were dispatched to help retrieve from her crazed captors within an enlarged publication.

Dazzle’s robotic-animal minions included Jerry Gerbil and Harriett Hamster, among others who operated within the Dazzleland Park. The Professor’s fictional beings included the elementals Burn and Freeze, among others… although whether they were recreated in the Fairy Land amusement park north of Los Angeles, )which Infinity, Inc. later visited) is unknown. 

While a synthetic Amazonian analogue of Wonder Woman faced off with the original, the evil madam Gruel tormented Batman and Robin. Still, the Leaguers and Socialites were able to defeat these creatures and rescue these virtual worlds’ captives.

Both Dazzleland and Fairyland were analogies on Earths One and Two for Disneyland and Disney World on our own.