Who is Ultraman? That’s the question in Superman, which sees Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and his metahuman hench-thug go toe-to-toe with the Kryptonian hero (David Corenswet). The Superman archvillain — the tech billionaire CEO of LuthorCorp who is described by writer-director James Gunn as a “sorcerer of science” — is “connected to everything” that transpires in the new movie, from Superman’s arrest at the hands of the Engineer (María Gabriela De Faría) and Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo), to the siege on Kal-El’s Fortress of Solitude and an assault on Metropolis by the Hammer of Boravia (all revealed in the film’s trailers).
“There’s nothing bad happening in Metropolis during this movie that doesn’t have some connection to Lex Luthor,” Gunn told Entertainment Weekly, with Hoult referring to his Man of Tomorrow as “a real, credible threat” to the Man of Steel.
“Super… man. The most powerful being on planet Earth,” an unimpressed Luthor intones over footage of the bald bad guy somehow accessing the Fortress of Solitude in the final full-length trailer. “Now, as planned, I’ll destroy you.”
Luthor’s plot to destroy Superman involves a kaiju, a squadron of armored soldiers (called Raptors), and forcing the element-powered Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) to subdue an imprisoned Superman with his greatest weakness, lethal green kryptonite. At the center of Luthor’s schemes is his answer to Superman: Ultraman.
In the comics, Ultraman is the evil Superman from Earth-Three and a member of the Crime Syndicate (counterparts of the Justice League). He has the same powers as Superman — including super strength, speed, flight, and heat vision, all displayed in the trailers — but unlike Superman, who is empowered by exposure to Earth’s yellow sun and vulnerable to kryptonite, Ultraman is powered by kryptonite and weakened by the sun.
That could explain why Ultraman wears a full body suit (perhaps coincidentally, Ultraman’s suit resembles the containment suit originally worn by the monstrous Doomsday, created to be the Ultimate Life-Form). The newest trailer revealed an unmasked Ultraman for the first time, and it appears that Luthor’s “Superman” isn’t a man at all. In fact, he seems to be almost ape-like in appearance:
Might the masked villain be an amalgamation of Ultraman and the Ultra-Humanite? The latter, Superman’s first-ever supervillain, debuted as a big-brained, bald mad scientist in the pages of 1939’s Action Comics #13, but later had his brain implanted into the body of a mutated ape.
The body-swapping supervillain is usually depicted as a white gorilla, but in 2000’s JSA Annual #1 and 2002’s JSA #32, the Ultra-Humanite had a black-haired form, making him more resemble an ape-man before reverting to his ape body:
The film’s toyline has already confirmed another Ultraman secret. [Warning of potential spoilers ahead!] The Hammer of Boravia and Ultraman are one and the same. All signs point to Luthor having Ultraman pose as the armored “Hammer of Boravia,” who assaults Metropolis after Superman causes an international incident by intervening with the conflict between Boravia and Jarhanpur to save lives.
Written and directed by Gunn (the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, The Suicide Squad), the new movie stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman alongside Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. The cast includes Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, with Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica/the Engineer, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Alan Tudyk as Superman Robot #4, Neva Howell as Ma Kent, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Pa Kent, with Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr.
Superman opens only in theaters July 11.
