"--Unfortunately for mankind, I prefer to use this great intellect for crime. My goal? DOMINATION OF THE WORLD!!"
THE ULTRA-HUMANITE (Real Name Unknown, aka Gerard Shugel, Delores Winters)
Created By: Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
First Apperance: Action Comics #13 (June 1939)
Role: Powerhouse Scientist, Another DC Ape-Themed Villain
PL 11 (166)
STRENGTH 10
STAMINA 10
AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 11
DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 10
AWARENESS 3
PRESENCE 4
Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+7)
Athletics 2 (+12)
Deception 6 (+8)
Expertise (Science) 9 (+17)
Expertise (High Culture) 4 (+12)
Insight 2 (+5)
Intimidation 2 (+4)
Perception 2 (+5)
Stealth 3 (+6)
Technology 9 (+17)
Vehicles 5 (+5)
Advantages:
Beginner's Luck, Chokehold, Diehard, Equipment 5 (Sci-Fi Gear), Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Grab, Improved Initiative, Improved Hold, Inventor, Languages (Various), Ranged Attack 10
Powers:
"Animal Senses" Senses 3 (Acute & Extended Scent, Low-Light Vision) [3]
"Ape Strength & Long Arms" Strength-Damage +0 (Feats: Reach) [1]
Features 1: May Use Hands as Feet [1]
Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +7
Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +10, Fortitude +10, Will +6
Complications:
Motivation (Power)- The Ultra-Humanite wishes nothing less than total world domination.
Total: Abilities: 102 / Skills: 48--24 / Advantages: 25 / Powers: 5 / Defenses: 10 (166)
The Ultra-Humanite- Superman's Forgotten Early Iconic Foe:
-The Ultra-Humanite is a guy created VERY soon after Superman's debut, and was actually the FIRST super-villain faced by Superman- curiously, HE was the bald villain, and Luthor had red hair. An artist's error drew admiration from Siegel & Shuster, who dropped Humanite and made Luthor the main, bald villain- and so this would-be mega-villain had a run of only ONE YEAR. The Humanite later had an extra to him- he started putting his friggin' brain into the bodies of APES, making him the very first ape-based villain at DC! Now, why there are so many damn albino apes in the DC Universe I have NO idea, but when there's an entire city of TALKING ONES, I guess I can lower my disbelief a few notches. Unfortunately, he kind of lost appeal over the years, as "Earth-One" Superman's stories took over, and he was mostly left on "Earth-Two", fighting the Justice Society of America. The only comics I've read featuring him was the pretty-cool "Villain-Controlled World" story of
JSA where he took over the world by putting his brain in Johnny Thunder's Alzheimer's-ridden body to command THE THUNDERBOLT, and a rag-tag band of misfts (Hourman II, Jakeem Thunder, Crimson Avenger II, Power Girl, Captain Marvel & Icicle II) had to save all reality. That series did GREAT "Epic" events.
The Golden Age Ultra-Humanite:
-So the Ultra-Humanite is actually the very FIRST true "Super-Villain" faced by Superman all the way back in Siegel & Shuster's
Superman stories- the polar opposite of Superman, he is a criminal mastermind with a crippled body (paralyzed from the waist down) but a brilliant mind. It's pretty clever that the most powerful man on Earth would be beset with troubles at the hands of a crippled villain using only his mind. The Ultra-Humanite was a top-tier villain whose goal wasn't thievery, but world domination. His genius was said to be the result of an unknown experiment- in his first appearance, he's behind an attempt at controlling the taxi union (THE FIEND!), and actually KNOCKS OUT Superman with electricity enough to kill "five hundred men", then makes his escape- Superman awakens and deliberately crashes the plane (this is back when most Golden Age foes laid waste to their villains), but no corpse is found.
-Superman's next encounter with him involved using a company to deliberately build substandard subway tunnels (yes, industrial fraud was once a regular thing superheroes had to fight- Superman fought injustice of ALL kinds, remember- something that slowly got forgotten as the books got obsessed with supervillains and aliens & junk), then cruise line extortion, then creating an artificial plague. With no true name ever having been given, he was a mystery. In that last story, Superman places the villain in front of his own gun, killing him, but he's temporarily revived "via adrenalin" next issue, and begins the most iconic phase of his career- body-hopping. He has his men transplant his brain into the body of actress Delores Winters. She "retires" from acting and hosts a Hollywood party on a yacht, then has "her" men rob everyone at gunpoint for ransom. She gets the ransom money but decides to kill the actors anyways (I love that focus on evil)- Superman breaks the electrocution device and saves the day. Dolores escapes and recurs in this form, holding Metropolis for ransom after seducing and torturing a scientist with an atomic weapon. Captured once again, Dolores leaps into a volcanic crater to his/her apparent doom. The "Luthor" character soon stole this guy's thunder, and the Ultra-Humanite ended up forgotten.- the villain stopped appearing only one year after his debut (the second Luthor debuted), then vanished for several decades.
The Modern Ultra-Humanite:
-It would be many decades later before the Ultra-Humanite reappeared- this time after the Multiple Earths had shown up and the revelation that the Golden Age Superman had lived on and married Lois Lane. In the
Superman Family anthology comic, the villain came back as the most prominent of the Golden Age villains. It would actually be *1981* before the character would attain his iconic "Albino Ape" appearance, having his brain transplanted into the ape's body in an annual JLA/JSA crossover! He formed Brain Wave, Monocle, Rag Doll, Psycho-Pirate, Mist, and four villains from Earth-1- Plant Master, Signalman, Cheetah, and Killer Frost- into a new Secret Society of Super Villains. Roy Thomas using him in
The All-Star Squadron, and as the very first villain faced by
Infinity Inc.- the Humanite took control of the minds of the Golden Age Superman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman & Flash and the Infinitors had to save the day and stop him- the villain Brain Wave would sacrifice his life to empower his son, Brainwave Jr., with the power to render the Ultra-Humanite brain-dead.
-The Crisis on Infinite Earths re-wrote DC continuity and removed Earth-Two from existence, with a new Golden Age on the sole existing Earth- the Ultra-Humanite was used in this context, with old stories being "retold" to involve other 1940s heroes instead. He's even stated to have killed Lee Travis, the Golden Age Crimson Avenger. However, the character doesn't show up very much- the 1990s didn't have a lot of use for an albino ape super-villain (yes, they'd kept him in that look), but in 2002's
JSA: Stealing Thunder, the character returns, having his body taken from the ape's body and placed in the Alzheimer's-ridden body of JOHNNY THUNDER, who takes back the Thunderbolt from a nervous, admiring Jakeem and immediately uses it to take over the entire world. ALL of it. He controls the minds of all DC's superheroes (except Wildcat, the only one immune- "Of all God's creatures, only one cannot be made the slave of the lash. That animal is the cat. Mark Twain said that"), has Alan Scott's "Green Flame" empower his giant city, and holds total power. Ultimately, only a ragtag band of people who proved immune or got sprung can save the day- Captain Marvel, Jakeem, Hourman II, Crimson Avenger II, Power Girl, Sand and ICICLE of all people. This story puts Marvel & Hourman on the JSA (the Golden Age Hourman suggests they "Short Out" the Thunderbolt and Jakeem gets it back, reversing time to before the Humanite got the pen that controls him). The villain seems ready to escape justice, but the computer housing his brain is destroyed by the Crimson Avenger, avenging the death of the Golden Age Crimson Avenger.
Later Stories:
-The Ultra-Humanite is brought back and given more backstory, as well as a real name (Gerard Shugel, based off of Siegel & Shuster). It turns out he was born with a great intellect, but a degenerative disease ate away at his body and he started his brain-swapping habit. He and a colleague found an albino gorilla in the Congo. It was revealed that in 1948 Per Degaton and Despero saved the Delores Winters version from a hospital and engaged in the transfer (... did they retcon the earlier story then?), forming the "Time Stealers" until they were beaten by Booster Gold & Ted "Blue Beetle" Kord. He appears as a Journeyman Villain after this, losing to Blue Beetle & Guy Gardner and Power Girl (in a story where she does some of her greatest power feats ever... but is still bloodied by a punch from what is essentially a normal ape)- Power Girl has Terra III's people of Strata give UH a new body, and he pretends to be reformed. And that's where continuity ends- he shows up in both the New 52 and Rebirth eras.
The Ultra-Humanite's Powers:
-The Ultra-Humanite's Power Level makes him a decent threat, but it's his inventions that are the real danger- his Mind Control devices are potent enough to make slaves of DC's Golden Age heroes, and his plots are advanced enough to make him one of very few villains to have SUCCESSFULLY taken over the world. The character's tech can be as impressive as Lex Luthor's, and his mind every bit as devious. Also I think he gave himself mental powers once?