Ultra-Humanite

Origin

The first foe of Superman, Ultra-Humanite is a mad scientist confined to a wheelchair with dreams of world domination. Considered to have a profound intellect, he owned many enterprises to fund his villainous escapades.

Creation

Ultra-Humanite was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, first appearing in Action Comics #13. They created him to be the physical opposite of Superman. Ultra-Humanite was Superman’s first recurring villain.

Character Evolution

Ultra-Humanite is an evil scientist, obsessed with ruling the world. He was Superman’s only foe until he was replaced by a similar looking Lex Luthor by the end of the Golden Age. Shuster and Siegel had Superman kill Ultra-Humanite, and the mad scientist was thought to be gone forever. His return to comics happened during the Silver Age when he transferred his conciousness into an albino ape.

Ultra-Humanite continued to appear throughout the years, in various forms and his history was rewritten when he was reintroduced as Gerald Shugel (honouring his creators). This time he remained a genius but his physical infirmity was in the form of a degenerative disease he worked furiously to cure himself of. Instead of transferring his consciousness, his entire brain was transplanted into one of his test albino apes, due to rebel militia of the African country storming his facility.

Major Story Arcs

The Humanite’s history is rewritten a little bit on New Earth. Presumed dead after a series of battles against Superman, Ultra-Humanite is revealed to be alive but his human body is failing him and he has yet to find a cure for his disease. The Humanite is then forced to transplant his brain into the body of Delores Winters. In the early 1940s Delores Winters was a rising star on the silver screen but she also had sexual indiscretions in order to get leading roles. During of these one night stands, Winters became pregnant and chose to give up her daughter for adoption. She was later kidnapped by the Ultra-Humanite for the purpose of a body swap.

The Humanite’s partner in crime was Dr. Marten, a gifted neurosurgeon who was given the task of placing the Humanite’s brain into Winter’s head. For a time, the Ultra-Humanite grew accustomed to his feminine demeanor and tried to take on Superman as well as the All Star Squadron. Unfortunately, in 1948, the Humanite suffered a near fatal brain hemorrhage brought on by a tumor and was admitted to Our Lady of Snows’ General Hospital by Dr. Marten. Fortunately, Per Degaton and Despero decided to save the Humanite by performing another brain swap in order to gain his loyalty

Degaton and Despero time traveled to present day Gorilla City because an albino ape was born and the gorillas took it as a sign to rejoice. The two Time Stealers stole the baby gorilla and used their advancements in time travel to cause the baby gorilla to age from infancy to maturity. They brought the gorilla back to past and had Dr. Marten transplant the Humanite’s brain from Delores’ body into the albino ape. The operation was a success and the Ultra-Humanite became the latest member of the Time Stealers.

The Ultra-Humanite fought various incarnations of the Justice League Of America, Justice Society Of America and Infinity, Inc. After several battles, the Ultra-Humanite became horribly scarred. With the help of his ex-lover, Satanna the Tiger Girl, he took control of Power Girl’s friend, leaving her mind only when scientists created a clone of his younger self, disease free.Ultra-Humanite reappeared as Power Girl’s nemesis, threatening to swap his brain into her body by taking New York City hostage through the use of an anti-gravity device.

After failing he was unintentionally badly burned by chemicals and Power Girl held off turning him in to the police so he could recuperate. Later he caught Terra with the help of Satanna and put his brain into her body while she was interned at an insane asylum. Power Girl defeated him in combat and recovered Terra, travelling to Terra’s underground home city to have her brain put back into her body. The scientists of Terra’s city were able to clone the Humanite’s original body using his brain tissue and even cured him of the disease that originally destroyed his body and feigning gratitude, he expressed turning over a new leaf to Power Girl.

Powers and Abilities

Utlra-Humanite is considered to be one of the most intelligent, scientific geniuses in the world. He is able to transfer his brain into another life-forms body and can take on their strength, most notably the albino ape. He has created robots, invisible vehicles etc. Ultra Humanite has a wide variety of psionic abilities that developed after exposure to unknown artifact.

Characteristics

• Citizenship: American
• Marital Status: Single
• Occupation: Scientist
• Gender: Male
• Height: 7’0″
• Weight: 666 lbs (302 kg)
• Eyes: Red
• Hair: White
• Unusual Features: Huge head in a genetically altered albino ape

Other Media

DC Animated Universe

Ultra-Humanite appears in a number of episodes of Justice League, as a member of Lex Luthor’s Injustice Gang and as an independent villain. His major episodes are Injustice for All Part 1, Part 2 and Comfort and Joy. He was voiced in these appearances by Ian Buchanan.

Young Justice

Ultra-Humanite appears in the Young Justice episode “Revelation” as part of the Injustice League alongside Joker, Count Vertigo, Poison Ivy, Atomic Skull, Wotan and Black Adam. He is an associate of the light.