Bizarro I (New Earth)




 * "I wanted a duplicate Superman. One with all his powers. All his memories. But one that worked for me! Not this bizarre...Ohh-H! Forget it!"
 * --Lex Luthor

Real Name: None Nicknames: No known nicknames Former Aliases: Project: Changeling Other Current Aliases: Bizarro

Status
Occupation: None Legal Status: Bizarro was an artificial construct, and thus did not possess any legal rights or status. Identity: Secret; few people are aware that Bizarro was an artificial being. Marital Status: Inapplicable Group Affiliation: No known group affiliation Base of Operations: Metropolis

Origin
Some ten years prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, billionaire industrialist Lex Luthor encountered an individual who would ultimately become his lifelong nemesis – Superman. Initially, Luthor offered him a position on his payroll, but Superman proved to be completely incorruptible and uncompromising in his principles – a quality that Luthor despised. As he could not convince the Man of Steel to work exclusively for him, he decided to create his own Superman.

For two years, Luthor scoured the globe seeking out the world's top scientists to work on a secret Lexcorp program known as Project: Changeling. He found a reputed biologist named Doctor Teng and smuggled him out of mainland China, putting him to work on Project: Changeling at the Hong Kong offices of Lexcorp.

Doctor Teng used various devices to remotely scan Superman's DNA, collecting as much data as he could possibly amass. Uploading this data into a bio-matrix chamber, he sought to physically recreate Superman. Unlike the true Man of Steel though, this was to be a Superman completely subservient to Lex Luthor.

Doctor Teng made one critical flaw in his work however. He based all of his computations on the assumption that Superman was a mutated human being. The world had yet to discover that he was in fact, the last surviving son of an alien world known as Krypton. The miscalculation proved detrimental to Teng's project and the creature that emerged from the bio-matrix chamber was a shambling, mockery of the true Superman. Luthor, disgusted by Teng's failure, ordered the creature destroyed, but this Bizarro soon broke free of the Lexcorp building and escaped.

Place of Creation: Lexcorp facility – Hong Kong Place of Death: Metropolis Known Relatives: Inapplicable First Appearance: Man of Steel #5 Final Appearance: Man of Steel #5

History
Over several days, Bizarro began to slowly adopt Superman's memories. His undeveloped brain could not process the information properly, but he attempted to pantomime Superman's behavior and personality. He flew directly to the American city of Metropolis and engaged in various feats of daring-do not unlike the heroic actions of the true Superman. He air-lifted a disabled ambulance to the hospital and prevented a blind girl named Lucy Lane from taking her own life. As Bizarro flew off, Lucy mistakenly believed that it had been Superman who had saved her life.

Soon after, Bizarro broke into a mens' clothing store on Bleeker Street, where he stole a cheap one-hundred dollar business suit. He then acquired a pair of sunglasses and poked the lenses out of them. Placing the suit and glasses overtop of his tattered Superman costume, Bizarro resembled a strange amalgamation of both Superman and Clark Kent. He proceeded to lumber down to the Daily Planet as if he were arriving to work like a normal person.

Clark Kent spied Bizarro with his x-ray vision and immediately changed into Superman. He flew down to the front lobby, and was astonished to see such a grotesque mockery of himself. Bizarro reacted violently towards encountering the true Man of Steel and punched him clear across the street. Reporter Lois Lane arrived upon the scene, and Superman quickly burned away Bizarro's "Clark" suit with his heat vision, fearing that Lois might make the unlikely connection between Clark Kent and Superman.

Not only did Bizarro possess a portion of Superman's memories, but he also shared an aspect of his personality as well, including Superman's affection towards Lois. Bizarro scooped Lois up in his arms and flew off. He took her back to her apartment where he encountered Lois' little sister, Lucy for a second time. Lucy's presence succeeded in briefly calming the monster down, but tempers flared as Superman arrived to fight him once again.

During the struggle, Superman began to notice a chalky residue flaking off of Bizarro's hide. Analyzing the residue with his microscopic vision, he concluded that Bizarro was actually a sophisticated android and not a true living being. The two combatants took to the sky and bore down upon one another at breathtaking speed. As they collided, Bizarro's body exploded into a mist of white, dust. The creature's tormented existence finally came to an end.

Bizarro left one inexplicable and enduring legacy however. Lucy Lane had been attacked in a terrorist hijacking the previous year - an attack that rendered her permanently blind. The dust from Bizarro's remains settled on Lucy, miraculously restoring her sight. Superman posited that Bizarro may have deliberately allowed himself to be destroyed knowing that his demise would help Lucy.

Other Media

 * In Superman: The Animated Series, Bizarro is a combination of Pre-Crisis, Post-Crisis, and original material; he was voiced by Tim Daly, who also provided Superman/Clark Kent's voice. This version has washed-out colors on his costume with a deformed (but still forward) S-shield, pale skin, and his posture suggests that his limbs are twisted.


 * Justice League Unlimited: There seems to have been a change in Bizarro's mind by the time Justice League Unlimited rolls around, though, because in "Ultimatum" he returns, now in confused love with Giganta (even though she's just using him to break Grodd out of jail). He has also joined the Legion of Doom in the most recent season, now functioning under "Bizarro logic" as commanded by Luthor - Luthor says, "Superman is your best friend," and Bizarro immediately understands that he must kill him. The reason for this change in Bizarro's mindset is not explained in the episode, but producer Bruce Timm pointed out at Toon Zone that Bizarro is, in fact, a victim of brain surgery. He's been altered by Luthor specifically to do as he commands (coming full circle with Lex's original intention for Bizarro). The clue for this in the episodes where he appears is that Bizarro now has a big gray gash across his forehead - scarring from the operation.

Other References

 * Sealab 2021 (which airs on Cartoon Network) has satirized the Bizarro concept (episode #17).
 * Episode 105 of South Park, called "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig," features a clone of Stan Marsh that is mutated in appearance, and wreaks havoc on the town.
 * The reality TV parody, Drawn Together, featured a Bizarro Captain Hero at one point and as Captain hero laments "What happens in Bizarro world, stays in Bizarro world" regarding a homosexual fling with his Bizarro Self.
 * Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic used the Bizarro concept (although using a different name) as an important plot element; it was a comic book read by the characters in the story arc A Game of You.
 * The comic strip This Modern World occasionally transforms into "This Bizarro World" in which all the characters are crude duplicates of our world and speak in a Bizarro-like manner.
 * Al Franken's book Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations features a parody of Republican politicians and other right-wing personalities using "Bizzaro speak" - in other words, saying the opposite of what they really mean.
 * The television series Seinfeld, with its many Superman references and in-jokes, devoted an episode to the Bizarro concept, "The Bizarro Jerry", with Elaine dating a mirror opposite of Jerry who had his own Bizarro versions of friends George, Kramer, and Newman. (Since the "Bizarro" group were actually nicer, smarter, and more responsible than the "normal" group, it is arguable that the Elaine's original friends are actually the Bizarros.)
 * Sometimes, when the WWE RAW show comes from Canada, Jerry "The King" Lawler refers to the country as "bizarro world", where the locals root for heels like Christian because they hail from Canada.
 * There is a fledgling literary movement calling itself Bizarro (see bizarro fiction) featuring a collection of authors (including Carlton Mellick III, Chris Genoa, Jeremy * Robert Johnson, Kenji Siratori and Steve Aylett) and small presses (Eraserhead Press, Raw Dog Screaming Press, and Afterbirth Books) who specialize in weird, offbeat fiction.
 * The video game Final Fantasy VII included a boss character named "Bizarro Sephiroth".
 * In the toy and cartoon series of the 80's He-Man, there was a character named Faker, who was created by the villain Skeletor to take on He-Man. He looked just like He-Man, but had blue skin.
 * In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Dopplegängland," Cordelia Chase refers to that reality as "Bizarro World." She uses the term again later in the Angel episode "You're Welcome," when she learns that former evil vampire Spike has reformed and become a hero and Angel is now head of the Los Angeles office of the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart ("What kind of freakin' Bizarro World did I wake up in?!").
 * The Alan Moore version of Supreme included two homages to Bizarro. Emerpus was Supreme's counterpart from a mirror dimension, who literally did everything backwards. The Shadow Supreme was a duplicate with a similar origin to Bizarro, but was actually evil.
 * In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Ripple Effect" Col. Mitchell refers to an SG-1 team from an alternate reality as "The Bizarro SG-1"

Characteristics
Height: 6'3" Weight: 225 lbs (102.058 kg) Eyes: Blue Hair: Black Skin: White/Gray Unusual Features: Bizarro's body secretes a white chalky residue that simulates the properties of human biological cell structure.

Powers
Known Powers: Bizarro possessed powers similar to that of Superman. Inclusive to his power set were:
 * Super-strength
 * X-ray vision
 * Heat-vision
 * Microscopic/Telescopic vision
 * Flight

Weaknesses/Restrictions: Although he shared many of the same powers as Superman, Bizarro did not possess Superman's invulnerability. Bizarro's skin coating was extremely dense, but he was not nearly as indestructible as the Man of Steel. Known Abilities: No known abilities. Strength Level: Bizarro possessed super-strength, and was almost as powerful as Superman. However, unlike Superman, Bizarro could not recharge his body's cell structure with solar radiation.

Miscellaneous
Equipment: No known equipment. Transportation: No known transportation. Weapons: No known weapons.

Trivia

 * Although the Project: Changeling creation is commonly referred to as Bizarro, no one in the DC Universe ever applied that name to him. However, under his biography entry in Who's Who: Update '87 #1, he is credited as Bizarro.


 * All of the covers for the Man of Steel limited series spotlighted a feature character walking towards the reader's point of view. The cover to issue #5 however, illustrated Bizarro walking away from the reader. This gimmick is keeping in line with the Pre-Crisis stereotype of Bizarro as a mixed-up, backwards creature.


 * The origin of the Post-Crisis Bizarro is loosely based on Pre-Crisis Bizarro Superboy as first published in Superboy (Volume 1) #68. In the original story, the object of Bizarro's affections was a woman named Melissa, not Lucy Lane.

Recommended Readings

 * A. Bizarro
 * Adventure Comics (Silver-Age Bizarro back-up stories in issues #285-299)
 * Superman Presents – Tales of the Bizarro World

Related Articles

 * Bizarro (Earth-One)
 * Bizarro II
 * Bizarro III
 * Lexcorp
 * Lex Luthor
 * Lucy Lane
 * Superman