Who Is the Dead Superman That Intergang Stole in ‘Superman & Lois’?

Much of the Superman & Lois season 3 focus is on Bruno Manheim and Intergang, whose criminal activities so far make them the prime villain that Superman will have to face this season. Early on, we learned that Bruno Manheim would stop at nothing to gain the upper hand over Clark Kent, and he is not above using macabre experiments to grant his henchmen superpowers. This leads us to this week’s fifth episode, when we learn that Intergang raided DoD’s secret facility and stole something incredibly important and dangerous. In the last few scenes, we can clearly see what appears to be Superman’s corpse. So who is this dead Superman clone that the Intergang stole? 

The corpse of the dead Superman that Intergang stole from DoD is Bizarro Superman, who was killed by General Anderson back in the second season of Superman & Lois. Following the fight between the two, the Department of Defense kept Bizarro’s body for further research of unknown kind. The body was stolen by Intergang when Deadline broke into the DoD facility, and it’s clear that Manheim will use it for experiments or to revive him, so he has a major player to counter Superman. 

Now that we’ve given you the short answer, it’s time to analyze the issue in a bit more detail. If you’re interested in how Bizarro might pose a threat to Superman and Lois (again), stay with us and keep reading! 

Bruno Manheim desperately needs some Kryptonian blood (and bodies) 

Early in the third season of Superman & Lois, we learn that Bruno Manheim uses Clark’s blood to empower criminals and give them superpowers. This happened with Atom-Man, James Distefano, aka Deadline, and supposedly to Onomatopoeia, whose origin remains unclear in the series. 

We’ve seen that Bruno Manheim uses his political influence and scare tactics to blackmail judges into releasing terminally ill criminals via the compassionate release. 

We’ve also seen that Bruno Manheim invested a lot of money into Hob’s Bay Hospital and the secret research laboratory where Aleister Hook is employed and is experimenting on those released criminals, giving them superpowers. 

All of this wouldn’t be possible if Bruno Manheim didn’t have the necessary reagent to empower criminals, and this is where the Department of Defense comes in.

While researching an abandoned warehouse connected to Intergang, Chrissy, and Lois discovered a fridge full of blood bags. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the blood belonged to none other than Clark Kent, and it was Kryptonian in origin. 

Due to having certain alien properties, Kryptonian blood is easily a good enough reagent to empower humans and seemingly cure them of their diseases (this is perhaps something that Clark will attempt on Lois to help her in her fight against cancer). 

Anyway, Clark was dumbfounded by the origin of his blood and the fact that Intergang had a full freezer of it until he was contacted by General Sam Lane and learned that the blood could be traced to the Department of Defense and the blood leak happened at their facility. They supposedly kept some samples when they saved Clark’s life.

Clark Kent was furious and destroyed the remaining blood samples, which was the story’s end. Or so he thought.

Department of Defense had Bizarro’s body all this time

In this week’s episode, we’ve seen Intergang once again breaking into DoD. This time the attack was led by Deadline, who has the ability to phase through walls and solid objects. Clark stopped him, but not before Deadline managed to transfer some data back to Manheim, and later, Clark learned that the data transfer was only a ruse, so the Intergang could steal other things. At the end of the episode, we can see Manheim standing next to the corpse of what appears to be a perfect Superman clone. It’s not a clone in the technical sense of the word, but he is Superman at the same time. 

The corpse in question is that of Bizarro, which appeared in the second season. The episode ended before we could see Clark’s reaction to this, and so far, the motives behind the theft remain unclear, but we have some guesses as to what might play out. 

Manheim will most likely resurrect Bizarro Superman 

We know that Bizarro appeared in the second season of Superman & Lois and hailed from the Inverse World. He was the polar opposite of Clark Kent of this earth, and despite being physiologically the same, there were significant differences between the two. 

First of all, Bizarro was empowered by Green Kryptonite. That’s right; Bizarro is upon contact with Green Kryptonite, even stronger than regular ol’ Superman. However, this fact caused him to get addicted to Kryptonite which gave Bizarro his monstrous pale and cracked appearance. 

Second, Bizarro is powered by the red sun as opposed to Clark’s utilization of yellow sun radiation. This is because, in Bizarro’s reality, his planet is near a red star, and his cells learned how to utilize that type of radiation. 

Third, Bizarro is extremely weak to yellow Kryptonite, and we’ve seen this type of Kryptonite before under the name X-Kryptonite. X-Kryptonite was turned into a drug that was capable of giving humans superpowers and enhanced physical attributes. X-K was often inhaled. This is how General Anderson managed to kill Bizarro in the first place. Anderson discovered that Bizarro is affected by X-Kryptonite much in the same way that Green Kryptonite affects Clark Kent. 

It’s not known what exactly Bruno Manheim plans to do with Bizarro Superman, but it is quite clear that he will use the serum to resurrect him. We know this is possible because he already did it to Atom-Man. It’s also quite possible that the administration of the resurrection serum will break what’s left of Bizarro’s personality and that he will turn into a rabid animal that Clark will have to deal with. 

So far, we know that Bizarro needs to avoid X-K and the yellow sun, but it’s quite possible that Bruno Manheim’s “treatment” will remove those disadvantages. 

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