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.

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.

His history was re-written again, this time he was dying of cancer and in exchange for his loyalty, Per Degaton provided an albino ape from Gorilla City - an society completely hidden from the rest of the world.

In a battle with many years later with Power Girl, Ultra-Humanite became horribly scarred. With his ex-lover Satanna's help, he took control of Power Girl's friend, leaving her mind only when scientists created a clone of his younger self, disease free.

Major Story Arcs

Presumed dead after a series of battles against Superman, Ultra-Humanite reappears in the body of actress Delores Winters, replacing her brain with his own. It's later revealed this was because his body was failing him and he had almost finished curing his disease when he was forced to transplant his brain into her.

Later Ultra-Humanite reappeared again after another "brain-swapping"- this time into the body of a large albino ape, fighting various incarnations of the Justice League Of America, Justice Society Of America and Infinity, Inc..

Ultra-Humanite time traveled with Per Degaton and Despero, all members of the Time Stealers while in his mutant ape form.

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 and invisible vehicles as well.

Characteristics

Citizenship: American

Marital Status: Single

Occupation: Scientist

Gender: Make

Height: 7'0"

Weight: 600 lbs

Eyes: Red

Hair: White

Unusual Features: Huge head in a genetically altered albino ape

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.

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.