Composite Superman

Pre-crisis

Joe Meach used to be a world famous diver who had been having some bad times. He had an idea to make himself known again. His idea was to jump from a tall building into a tiny bucket. Unfortunately, the tank he was aiming for had already sprung a leak so he would be jumping to his death. As he was falling Superman came and saved Joe. Joe was mad at what he done but, Superman pointed out he would have been jumping into an inch of water. This angered him as this act was intended to redeem him but instead had resulted in him making a fool out of himself.

After hearing of his misfortunes Superman felt pity on him and offered Joe a job as the janitor at the Superman museum. Working at the Superman museum made spite grow in his heart as a result of having to view all of Superman's achievements from the perspective of a janitor. He believed that, with great powers such as Superman's, he could achieve just as much as Superman. One stormy night, Joe was cleaning the room which held the Legion of Super-Heroes's statuettes. These statuettes were a miniaturized version of every member of the LSH created by 30th century science. A lightning bolt struck both him and the statues, knocking him out. When he woke up he discovered that he had gained all of the powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes, but a new personality out to destroy Batman and Superman. He was known as Composite-Superman.

Using Chameleon Boy's shape shifting abilities, Joe had changed half his body to look like Batman while the other half looked to look like Superman. Strangely, he changed his skin color green, the same as Brainiac 5 he claimed he gained this from the statuette incident, however, his skin appears to be unchanged immediately afterwards being struck and demonstrating powers. This suggests that he changed it on purpose. He eventually called the two heroes and asked them to join their team and threatened if he could not he would expose their identity. He easily learned their identity by reading their minds. Then Batman and Superman had a talk with Composite Superman trying to see his face but Composite Superman had covered it with a layer of lead. They agreed to let Composite Superman join them, while in reality Composite Superman really just wanted to get back at Superman, Batman and his sidekick Robin. He started trying to make the heroes look bad. He turned part of a building into Kryptonite and as it was falling Superman tried to stop it, but became weak and people watched while Superman struggled to lift it up. But then Composite Superman lifted it with ease, saving the day and embarrassing Superman by making him look weak.

Next he was with Batman and Robin late at night as they were tailing two crooks. Batman told him to stay back and let Robin and him handle this. As Batman and Robin were sliding down ropes to sneak up on the crooks Composite Superman instantly made them too heavy, forcing their ropes to break. Then he stretched his hands out to catch the bad guys and eventually he ended up saving the day. Superman and Batman started getting suspicious of Composite Superman and as they were speaking of a way to try and figure out what he was up to, Composite Superman was listening to them in disguise. Later he had changed into Robin and got in the Batmobile. Suddenly the top had closed on him and he was curious. He asked what’s wrong and Batman said he wasn’t Robin because Robin and Batman practiced wearing seat belts while driving. Composite Superman revealed himself and flew right through the roof of the Batmobile and knocked Batman out and took him away.

Eventually he met up with Superman in his layer but before Superman had been looking around and realized that Composite Superman wasn’t just trying to take over the planet but in fact the whole universe. Superman tried to talk to him but a fight broke out. Superman was outmatched and only getting one punch in. Composite Superman then put a Kryptonite ring on Superman. He then flew off with Superman and Batman to lay waste to the two but while flying Batman and Superman both noticed that Composite Superman was flying slower as the moments passed and that he also was lowering down. He then dropped the two heroes and flew back to the museum. Their he tried to zap the statues of the Legion of Super-Heroes and give himself powers again but he ran out of juice and couldn’t. Then he tried to write on the paper of how he could turn back but stopped about mid way. Meanwhile Superman and Batman were falling down to their deaths. Batman pulled the Kryptonite ring off Superman so he could fly them away from their death. Batman managed to pull the ring off waking Superman and then Superman flew the two to safety. Meanwhile in the museum Joe woke up with a piece of paper in his hand reading what Composite Superman had left behind for him to see but couldn’t make it out due to the fact that it wasn’t finished leaving the heroes clueless to who Composite Superman really was. Joe writes himself a note to try and tell him how to become Composite Superman again yet his memory dissipates and he returns to his janitorial work.

Years later, on a distant planet, a criminal named Vyl is on his death bed talking to his son Xan. He tells Xan that it was all Batman and Superman's fault that he lost so much of his life to jail. He wishes for his son to avenge him by killing Superman and Batman. Xan goes to Earth and sends an artificial lightning bolt into the room that contains the LSH statuettes while Joe Meach, who has gotten over the animosity that he held for the World's Finest, is cleaning it. Thus, he recreates Composite Superman who still hates the Superman-Batman team. He desecrates the monuments to Superman and Batman in the Superman museum, leaving behind a Batman and Superman symbols combined (his insignia). He breaks into the bat cave when Superman is in it and triplicates. He mops the floor with Superman, Batman, and Robin and when Superman and Batman's gaze is diverted Composite Superman swaps out with Robin, using Chameleon Boy's powers to shape shift into Robin's appearance. Batman and Superman investigate the Superman museum because the first evidence of Composite Superman's reappearance was the demolished statues of Superman and Batman through the use of Lightning lad and Sun boy's powers. Batman draws a connection between the LSH statuettes in the museum and Composite's LSH powers. Superman notices that they are electrically charged and grabs a statuette and travels to the future. He consults Brainac 5 and finds that the statuettes still contain the LSH powers of each member and that they could be transferred if 'the voltage and atmospheric conditions were right'. Batman deduces that It's Joe Meach who was transformed due to his research into missing people during the times that Composite Superman was active. He also deduces that the Robin who is riding with him in the batmobile is, in fact, Joe Meach due to him not fastening his seatbelt which was a mistake that Robin would never commit. This doesn't help him and he just gets captured. Superman fights and loses to the vastly more powerful Composite Superman. Composite Superman turns half of Superman and Batman into antimatter but his powers begin to fade and for some reason the antiparticles begin reverting as well. Xan alights in his space ship and exits wielding a deadly weapon called the magna-gun. He could've killed them both from the start but believed such a quick death would be too merciful. He fires but Joe jumps out and takes the brunt of the beam, saving the lives of Superman and Batman. The story ends with Xan in galactic jail and a monument having been erected in Joe Meach's memory. The epitaph reads: JOE MEACH

He lived a criminal, but died a hero.

Composite Superman (Joseph Meach) was created by Edmund Hamilton, Curt Swan, George Klein and Shelly Moldoff.

Composite Superman (Xan) was created by Cary Burkett, George Tuska and Frank McLaughlin.

Post-Crisis

This creature was created by accident by Professor Ivo. He originally tried to make clones of the Justice League to serve him but had little success, or so he thought. He buried the failures and later made Amazo. Later his attempted clones merged into one being and dug its way out of the ground. He broke into a costume shop and took a Superman and Batman costume. He sewed them together down the middle and went on trying to live out both Superman's and Batman's life. He tried to get rid of them and took both Lois Lane and Tim Drake hostage. He was later attacking Metallo when Batman and Superman arrived, but the duo could not defeat him and he escaped. They tracked him down and told him if he wanted to be both of them then go ahead. They told him of many crimes taking place and he could not decide who to help first. He lost it and ripped himself apart before they could help him.

Composite Superman/Batman Rocket Ship

When Asteroid X, a massive chunk of Kryptonite, was found to be hurtling towards the Earth, Superman and Batman contacted a young genius in Japan named Hiro Okamura to build something capable of taking care of the asteroid. Ultimately, he builds a large, anime inspired robot in the likeness of Superman and Batman made of the Metallo alloy. Superman was initially planned to pilot it, but Captain Atom instead volunteered, pointing out that even if the asteroid was destroyed, the radiation would still exist, which he could instead siphon into himself. The robot was presumably destroyed when Atom made contact with the meteor and broke it into smaller pieces.

Powers

The Pre-crisis Composite Superman.

Joseph gained all the powers of the same intensity as the extensive Legion of Super-Heroes roster.

Some of the powers are as follows:

The shape shifting of Chameleon Boy, the magnetism powers of Cosmic Boy, the telepathy, mind control, and mind reading of Saturn Girl, the ability to increase the mass of anything from Star Boy, the ability to decrease the mass of anything from Light Lass, the electrical projection of Lightning Lad, the ability to transmute anything into any element of Element Lad, the incredible Elasticity of Elastic Lad (Jimmy Olsen was given honorary LSH membership in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #72, the ability to increase in size of Colossal Boy, the ability to decrease in size of Shrinking Violet, the ability to become invisible of Invisible Kid, the ability to phase through matter of Phantom Girl, the ability to project solar energy of Sun Boy, the ability to split himself into triplicates (all of whom have the same powers) of Triplicate Girl, the ability to swell up and bounce like a beach ball of Bouncing Boy, Mon-El, Supergirl and Ultra boy's combined powers of Invulnerability, Super strength, Heat Vision, X-ray vision (Penetra-vision in Ultra boy's case), Microscopic vision, Telescopic vision, Super hearing, Super speed, and Flight. He also displayed the ability to transmute matter into anti-matter which was a combination of all of his power.

The Post-crisis version of Composite Superman

Has displayed the powers and skills of Superman, Batman, Elongated Man, Firestorm, Red Tornado and the Atom.

Other Media

Smallville

In the pilot episode, a similar character called Jeremy Creek appears. He has Electricity Control and doesn't age. When Clark removes his "charge", he has no memory of what has happened.

Television

Composite Superman made a cameo in Justice League Unlimited in an episode called "The Greatest Story Never Told". Unlike the comic, this "Composite Superman" is the product of a battle with the dark lord Mordru. It's actually a fusion of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman with the appearance of Composite Superman, but Wonder Woman's voice, resulting from some twisted spell used in the intense magical conflict. The spell was undone by the time Mordru was defeated.