Superman Revenge Squad
A loosely knit organization of extraterrestrial villains, founded originally by the warlike inhabitants of the planet Wexr II but now comprised of aliens from many planets, who have for years, ever since Superman was a teen-ager, sought to wreak vengeance on the Man of Steel in retaliation for having repeatedly thwarted their attempts to subjugate peaceful planets and "dominate the universe" (Act No 287, Apr 1962: "Perry White's Manhunt for Superman!"; and others). In the words of one Squad member:
We of the Superman Revenge Squad have tried for decades to get even with Superman! We have hated him ever since, as Superboy, he stopped [us] from conquer- ing peaceful planets in out space! Our squad has tried to destroy him many times--but we've always failed! [Act No. 295, Dec 1962 "Superman Goes Wild!"].
The Members of the Superman Revenge Squad are fully aware the Clark Kent is secretly Superman (Act No. 268, March 1962: "The Jury of Super-Enemies!" and others).
In March 1962 members of the Superman Revenge Squad set in motion an elaborate scheme to wreak vengeance on Superman by destroying the Earth (Act No 286: "The Jury of Super-Enemies!"). "Only when his beloved Earth lies in smoking ruins," snarls their leader, a blue skinned alien named Rava, "will he realize that we have finally repaid him for wrecking all our plans to dominate the universe!" (Act No. 287, Apr 1962: "Perry White's Manhunt for Superman!").
The first phase of the villains' scheme involves surreptitiously exposing Superman to a variety of red kryptonite whose effect they know, from having previously tested the substance on Krypto the Superdog, will be to make Superman experience terrifying nightmares set in the future. In one such nightmare, for example, Superman dreams that, in the distant future, the great-great-great-great-grandson of Pete Ross and the great-great-great-granddaughter of Lana Lang are husband and wife, and that they attempt to destroy him by overexposure to green kryptonite. The nightmares are frightening and deeply disturbing, but after having deduced that they are being caused by exposure to red kryptonite, Superman reasons that the nightmares are, after all, only harmless fantasies and that the effects of the red kryptonite will soon wear off (Act No. 286, Mar 1962: "The Jury of Super-Enemies!")
It is then, however, that the Superman Revenge Squad initiates phase two of its scheme: the invasion of Metropolis by an army of extraterrestrial robots which shoot "jets of deadly anti-chlorophyll acid at the ground, converting the earth into a crawling blight that will spread like wildfire till not a blade of grass is left!" "Then," gloat the villains, "all humanity will starve to death!"
At first, as the ruthless extraterrestrial aliens had correctly anticipated, Superman assumes that the deadly robot invasion is merely another of his recurring red-kryptonite-induced nightmares. Ultimately, however, he realizes that the robot invasion is real and destroys the alien robots before they can overrun the Earth.
"Curse Superman!" mutters Rava angrily to his comrades, hovering high above the Earth in their flying-saucerlike spacecraft. "He's foiled us again!" But we of the Superman Revenge Squad will never give up hope! Some day we will execute the perfect revenge against Superman! (Act No. 287, Apr 1962: "Perry White's Manhunt for Superman!").
In December 1962 two members of the Superman Revenge Squad set of to "wreak a vengeance on Superman that is worse that death" by transforming him "from a hero beloved by all...into the most feared and hated person on Earth!" Hovering just outside Earth's atmosphere in their flying-saucerlike spacecraft, the aliens employ a "telepathic signal gun"--a diabolical "telepathic-hypnotic weapon" which is specifically "tuned to Superman's brain"--to bombard Superman's mind with a series of powerful "hypnotic commands" which the Man of Steel is powerless to disobey.
Under the baleful influence of the aliens' fiendish weapon, Superman embarks on a rampage of insanely destructive acts, demolishing the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sphinx, and the Eiffel Tower; denouncing the United Nations on a television program devoted to the cause of international goodwill; maliciously shoving the moon out of its proper orbit, causing massive tidal waves on the Earth's surface and an undersea disaster in Atlantis. Confident that they will succeed in their scheme to "humiliate Superman beyond his endurance" by forcing him to commit acts of destruction "that will disgrace him forever," the villains even go so far as to communicate with Superman by means of "a hypnotic-telepathic beam that penetrates [his] mind," informing him exactly what they have been doing to him and gloating over their ability to "compel him to do anything we want!" Indeed, before long, the villains have made Superman the most despised man on Earth.
Fortunately for Superman, however, the aliens periodically "turn off the telepathic beam and let Superman regain his sanity for a brief time" so that they can force him to endure the painful humiliation of being hated by almost everyone on earth. It is during one of these periods on metal lucidity, while he is no longer under the baleful control of the villains' telepathic signal gun, that Superman enlists the aid of Perry White in a ruse designed to throw the Superman Revenge Squad members off their guard long enough for the Superman Emergency Squad to apprehend them. By and large, the ruse succeeds, but as the Superman Emergency Squad closes in on the aliens' spacecraft, the villains blow themselves and their craft to smithereens rather than submit to capture (Act No. 295: "Superman Goes Wild!").
In May 1963 two members of the Superman Revenge Squad, piloting their flying-saucerlike spacecraft at such "incredible velocity" that it hurtles across the time barrier, cunningly lure Superman into perusing them into the distant future, to the vicinity of Metropolis one million years from now. In this far-future ear, when Earth's sun is no longer yellow, but red, Superman realizes, to his horror, that he has completely lost his super-powers. "The sun...it's red now not yellow!" muses Superman ruefully as the villains soar away gloating in their spacecraft, confident that they have lured Superman into a deathtrap from which he cannot possible escape. "In this far future [era], Earth’s sun has become red as suns usually do as they get old! But...but...but under a red sun, like that of perished Krypton, I have no super-powers! Only the rays of a yellow sun give me powers!"
Stranded without his super-powers in the world of the far, far, future, at a time when the Earth is a barren wasteland devoid of water and all that is left of the human race has long since migrated to more hospitable planets, Superman is literally "the last man on Earth," alone except for the weird creatures that have managed to adapt to a life without water. The only remaining vestiges of humanity are a half dozen lifelike androids of Superman's old friends and adversaries that were created by the people of the distant future to "march like real people in each year's Superman Commemoration Parade."
"What a mockery," sighs Superman dejectedly, "--I'm the last man on Earth with only androids of my past comrades for company! And I'll never escape from this dead world!"
Ultimately, however, after a perilous and arduous journey, Superman finally reaches the ruins of his Fortress of Solitude, clambering up the face of the jagged rock cliff and entering the Fortress through the massive keyhole. Inside the Fortress, after reducing himself to lilliputian size with the aid of a sample of red krpytonite that he knows will render him temporarily tiny, Superman climbs aboard a Kandorian (see Kandor) rocket ship and skillfully pilots back across the time barrier to the city of Metropolis in the year 1963. Once retuned to the yellow-sun environment of the twentieth-century Earth, Superman finds his super-powers restored to him, and once the effects of the red kryptonite have worn off, the Man of Steel returns to his normal size. "Will Earth really be like a million years from now?" wonders Superman. "Or was that only one of many possible futures? I may never know--but I hope I'm never again the last man on Earth!" (Act No. 300: ""Superman Under the Red Sun!").
Appearances: (as Superboy Revenge Squad) SB Nos. 94, 114, 118, NSB Nos. 32,54 (as Superman Revenge Squad) Act Nos, 287, 295, 300, SPJO Nos. 163, 165, S Nos. 163, 165, Act No. 313, SGLL No. 52, SPJO No. 83, S No. 322, Act No. 343, S. No. 198, WF No. 175, Act Nos. 367, 380, 445, 501, S Nos. 366, 367, 368, DCCP 87, S No. 414
