A villain published by
DC Comics.
Composite Superman first
appeared in
World's Finest #142 in 1961.
Joseph Meach was the caretaker of the Superman Museum in
Metropolis. Meach also had issues when it came to the Man of Steel
because he believed that Superman had embarassed and humiliated
him by saving his life at one point. Needless to say, Joe had issues.
One day while standing in one of museum's many trophy galleries brooding
about the injustice that had been done him, Meach was struck by
lightning. The lightning had first struck a series of figures
depicting the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes and then arced
to Meach. When Meach awoke, he found that he possessed the abilities
of all of the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes. It seems that
each of the statues had been created with a device that replicated the
Legion and absorbed a little of their powers in the process, which
were passed to Meach by the lightning.
Meach realized that he could now exact revenge on Superman for the
wrong he believed had been committed. Using Chameleon Kid's shape
changing ability, Meach transformed himself into a bizarre amalgam of
both Superman and Batman. Taking a page from Two-Face's fashion handbook, Meach's new appearance and costume consisted of his right half looking like Superman and his left Batman, but with green skin. Calling himself
Composite Superman, Meach confronted the two heroes, telling them he had used Saturn Girl's telepathy powers and
that he knew their identities as Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent. Meach then told the pair that he
would reveal them to the world if they did not retire. Why Batman
was included in the mix was never properly explained.
The two heroes tried to defeat Composite Superman, but the combined
abilites of the Legion proved to be too much for them. They were
about to agree and hang up their capes when the powers wore off of
Meach. With the powers also went Meach's memories of the incident,
so the secrets of the two heroes were safe.
Years later, an alien named Xan gave Meach back the powers of
Composite Superman in an attempt to gain revenge on the two heroes.
Meach again lost his powers and Superman melted the statues of the
Legion with his heat vision to stop them ever being used for such
a purpose again.
Thanks to
Jet-Poop for the insights into Meach's fashion sense and the
Two-Face line.