Early in their costumed careers, Kal-El and Kal-L surmised that they would need help in carrying out their super-feats, as Superman couldn't be in all places at once. Especially given his secret identity as reporter Clark Kent, each Superman developed lookalike robots who could substitute for their creator in times of need.
Kal-L of Earth-Two first used a lifelike dummy in 1944, then a remote controlled automaton in 1949 culminating in the robotic Krag in 1952 to combat an alien invasion. By the time he married fellow reporter Lois Lane, Kal-L built Clark Kent and Superman robots with artificial intelligence.
Kal-El of Earth-One first constructed Clark Kent and Superboy robots during his teenage years. As an adult, he gave a remote controlled replica to pal Jimmy Olsen. A Wonder Man robot was used to face an alien horde.
On both worlds, the increase of air pollution caused the Superman robots to progressively begin to malfunction. This led the Supermen into decommisson them, although Kal-El still used them to a limited degrees within his Fortress of Solitude and in his apartment. A couple caused them great trouble.
A Superboy robot escape the self-destruction decree of his master, and perceived that his master was evil for sending he and his "brethren" to an early "death". Secretly protecting Smallville for years, his presence was eventually revealed when Pete Ross and Lana Lang observed the automaton, and Kal-El tricked this robot into destroying itself.
A Clark Kent robot pretended to be his master, even convincing Kal-L's wife Lois until as Superman it began to malfunction. She was able to deactivate the Superman robot, and apparently the other robots were never utilized following this incident.
One remote control robot labeled Powerman was designed by Superman to safeguard his friends Batman and Robin from Lex Luthor who developed a dangerous death-ray. In fact, Kal-El conceived of Powerman's costume from a dream, which in fact was his recollection of an event which occurred decades early on Earth-Two.
On that world, Kal-L faced a Nazi sleeper agent named Heinrich Melch, who was secretly the Kryptonite-powered Atoman, Although the villain didn't have an opportunity to wear this costume, until his later revival in the 1980's, following the conclusion of their epic battles in the mid-1940s, Superman dressed the seemingly deceased Melch in this uniform, then placing him in a coffin. Following his awakening from prolonged suspended animation, Atoman journeyed to Earth-One to battle the World's Finest team of Superman and Batmen before returning with them to Earth-Two when he discovered his Superman was a different man.
Both Kal-El and Kal-L would eventually become teammates with an automaton who was immune to the pollution of their respective worlds, the android known as Red Tornado. This human-like robot was developed on Earth-Two by the Earth-One criminal T.O. Morrow, based on a prior mannequin Red Tornado inspired by the heroine of the same name Ma Hunkle. This mannequin was later reconditioned into a red-garbed robotic version of Santa Claus, whom the infant pair Sugar and Spike inherited. Unlike the Tornado Claus mannequin/robot, this second Red Tornado had a high degree of intelligence in addition to cyclonic power, which Morrow employed to infiltrate the Justice Society... with the goal of destroying the team from within. When this failed, Red Tornado joined the Society and years later migrated to Earth-One and joined the Justice League. Kal-L and later Kal-El could have used the design specifications to improve upon their Supermen robots, but decided against this.
_____________________
Continuing thru April 2025 - #JSApril! Celebrating 85 years of #DCComics JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA, the world's first greatest superhero team! Join over 40 podcasters bloggers as we honor our favorite heroes! Info participants:
No comments:
Post a Comment