Ranking Every DC Movie Villain From Worst To Best
34. Nuclear Man - Mark Pillow (Superman III)
Imagine being Warner Bros in the wake of Superman III's failure and deciding that Supergirl and Superman IV would be the right answer to getting the franchise back on track.
The fourquel might rightfully return Lex Luthor to proceedings (even if Gene Hackman is only vaguely present), but it saddled him with a God-awful side-kick (played by Jon Cryer on majestically terrible form) and the baffling Nuclear Man. Instead of being a welcome Bizarro type antithesis of Superman, he was created completely by accident thanks to Superman thwarting their plan to create an evil version of him by actually doing it. The script was not great.
Aside from the fact that Nuclear Man bears absolutely no resemblance to Superman, and for some reason talks with Gene Hackman's voice. He's also terribly flawed, since he's solar powered with no battery cells, so could presumably be defeated by sun cream. This was not a high-point for the franchise.
Check out The Superman 5 Film Collection over at Amazon.