10 DC Characters Who Survived Terrible Debuts

The Ultra-Humanite was the first super-villain to ever appear in DC Comics and yet it took decades and multiple changes before he became a character that people were interested in. The character was created by Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster for Action Comics # 13. The bald villain was once confused with the then red-haired Lex Luthor and that is why Luthor became bald.

The original Ultra-Humanite was a mad scientist who was paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. His goal was the all too common “world domination but he often used his intellect on local crimes. In Action Comics #13, he worked behind the scenes through an intermediary to intimidate cab drivers through a protection racket. In Action Comics #20, Ultra, as he was sometimes called, had his henchmen kidnap famous actress Delores Winters. He transferred his fiendish mind into her body, retired from acting, and returned to crime and bedeviling Superman.

As portrayed in Justice League of America #195-197, during the annual Justice League/Justice Society team-up, the Ultra-Humanite was portrayed in his most well-known form, that of a talking mutated albino gorilla. In this form, he became a major villain on Earth-two and a serious threat after the Crisis. Finally distinctive in every way, the Ultra-Humanite stood out. It only took 40 years.