Reign of the Supermen #429: The Negative Superman

Source: World's Finest Comics #126 (1962)
Type: TransformationSometimes, coincidences pile up and you get strange results. Like that day Lex Luthor was planning on testing his new gun on Superman, a gun that would literally turn him into a ghost. What he didn't know was that on the second floor of the jewelry store he was planning to rob, an inventor had created a neutron-splitting machine that used the power of radio waves from space. No big deal usually, except that the machine malfunctioned and created a "cosmic storm" inside the man's apartment, one that (I guess) split the neutrons of Superman as he was arriving, AT THE SAME TIME AS Luthor's ray hit him. Well, the gun didn't do nuthin', but getting your neutrons split creates a negative version of yourself that not only looks like a photo negative, but also does the opposite of everything you do. Because Bizarro isn't enough.
Oh, and he and Superman can't touch because opposites repel. So Negative Superman is all about blowing on Superman's heat vision with his ice breath, freeing criminals instead of catching them, causing more trouble when trouble breaks out, and not caring if people find out Negative Clark Kent is really Negative Superman. With Supes unable to interact, it's up to Batman and Robin to help.
After some mandatory Silver Age shenanigans with fishing gear and a mock-up of the moon (Negative Superman is just as interested in juggling planets as his positive self, it seems), Batman breaks out the kryptonite, strengthening Negative Superman instead of weakening him, which in turn, allows Negative to break through the force that keeps the two Supermen apart.
And when they collide, they merge back together like the Christophers Reeve at the end in Superman III. Lucky!

Comments

Bully said…
Why so negative, Sup...eh, I got nuthin'.
MaskedMan said…
Christopher Reeve. Not Reevss; that'd be George.
MaskedMan said…
Reeves, that should have been. :-)