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Pre-Crisis

Ultra-Humanite was Superman's first recurring nemesis during the Golden Age, even ahead of Luthor. He was one of the greatest criminal geniuses ever. Unfortunately for him, while the energies of his mind continued to develop and expand, even developing low level mind energy techniques such as telepathy, his physical brain interface never advanced. Unable to contain the mental energies, his body began slowly burning out. Thus in his early career, he was a small, elderly, crippled scientist, who fought Superman using his intellect, inventions, and numerous front men and stooges.

The Ultra-Humanite's signature achievement is transferring his consciousness into other bodies. He is the fourth mad medical scientist, in a DC comic book, to transplant a human brain into another live body.

  • The first was Roskoffin, in New York City,[1] the second was Doctor Kichung, in coastal China,[2][3] and the third was Herbert Handers, in Mexico.
  • But Ultra-Humanite was the first to use a live human receptacle for the transplanted brain; his three predecessors all moved human brains into live apes.
  • The human subject of Ultra-Humanite's first (known) human-to-human brain transplant was a well-known movie actress.

It was in the body of actress Dolores Winters that the Ultra-Humanite committed many of his most ambitious and memorable crimes. The Ultra-Humanite selected Dolores Winters' body as, in that era, most male police would not suspect a woman, let alone a recognized public figure, to be an active criminal mastermind.[4] The Ultra-Humanite continued to use Winters' body as his base until he was forced to seek out the next victim to house his super-powered brain. In Winters' form, he fought the All-Star Squadron while in collusion with his own future self; later, in a new and more monstrous form, he clashed with the Young All-Stars.

Over decades of super villainy, Ultra Humanite improved his own technology and techniques, in medicine and many other fields, until he attained the ability to transfer his consciousness directly, without surgery, into other bodies. For several years he simply moved himself from one human victim to another, but in the long run, this was unsustainable. His human bodies' endurance time became less and less, as his mental-energy generation continued to advance, burning out the bodies at ever-faster speeds. Tiring of having to change over to new bodies in an almost ever decreasing time,[5], the Ultra-Humanite re-developed an albino gorilla, originally from Gorilla City [citation needed] to be able to house his super-brain and abilities. He then transferred his consciousness into this giant albino mutant gorilla, which affords him incredible strength and durability.

In this body, the Ultra-humanite has been able to use his mind powers to ever increasing effects. He re-formed the Secret Society of Super Villains and used them to attack both the Justice Society of America and the Justice League of America. These supervillains were defeated and banished to an interdimensional limbo, while the Ultra-Humanite escaped, with the assistance of his earlier self from 1941. Both versions of this monster then teamed up, in 1942, and launched an attack on the wartime All-Star Squadron. This mad scheme was thwarted by the interference of the time traveling members of Infinity, Inc.. Back in the modern era, the older, more powerful Ultra-Humanite attempted to destroy the Justice Society of America again, but was again defeated following Infinity, Inc.'s intervention, and at the end of this clash, he apparently lost his mental powers for a time.

Post-Crisis

Certain aspects of the Humanite's early history were altered by the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, notably the removal of the original Superman from the timeline; in this revised history, the Ultra-Humanite apparently first clashed with the All-Star Squadron and later became a recurring foe of the JSA. Much of his later life, however, appears to have been relatively unchanged. Some time after his initial clash with Infinity, Inc. he came under the mental domination of alien spore creatures but was released by Infinity, Inc. and the New Teen Titans. Later, he clashed with the JSA again following their return to action, after creating for himself a powerful new humanoid body (he kept the white ape as a "pet", having apparently transferred an ordinary gorilla's brain into it).

At some point behind-the-scenes, the Humanite transferred his brain into the body of Johnny Thunder of the JSA, and took possession of the pen that activates the Thunderbolt.[6] The villain used the djinn to rejuvenate his host body and create a world dictatorship, with futuristic cities, and the vast majority of the meta-human population under suspended animation. He was again defeated, and shortly afterwards was apparently killed by the Crimson Avenger, who shot his brain to pieces.[7] He is, however, notoriously difficult to kill.

Powers

Abilities

Weaknesses

  • Common host bodies will degenerate after some unspecified amount of time (cannot support his "powerful mind").

Equipment

  • Power Stone (Formerly)


  • Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-Two era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and no longer apply.
  • The Ultra-Humanite is one of the first ever recurring comic book super-villains. Historically, he was the first recurring enemy to Superman.
  • At some point after gaining his gorilla body, the Humanite was apparently taken out of time to join the Black Beetle's Time Stealers.

Related

Footnotes


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