| William Dunn | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Naming | |||
| Others | Bill Dunn The Superman | ||
| Personal information | |||
| Species | Human (temporarily altered) | ||
| Gender | Male | ||
| Occupation | Unemployed | ||
| Current status | Alive (brought back to normal) | ||
| Biology | |||
| Body type | Human | ||
| Abilities | Telepathy Telescopic vision Mind control Knowledge absorption | ||
| Sentience | Sentient | ||
| Sapience | Sapient | ||
| Behind the scenes | |||
| Universe | The Reign of the Superman | ||
| Created by | Jerry Siegel | ||
| Designed by | Joe Shuster | ||
William Dunn, a.k.a. the Superman, started out as a vagrant who was waiting in bread-line in the early 1930s, when he was selected by Prof. Smalley to take part in a scientific experiment that gave him superpowers.
History[]
Unaware of Smalley's intentions, Dunn accepted his offer of food and shelter. In the Professor's lab, Dunn was offered a sandwich which, unbeknownst to him, contained remains of a mysterious element that Smalley had discovered inside a meteorite. The alien substance made Dunn sick and, suspecting that something had been done to him, he escaped from Smalley's residence.
Over the next days, Dunn quickly developed powers such as telepathy, telescopic vision and the ability to influence the minds of others, convincing them to do what he wanted. He also became capable of absorbing knowledge from others like a sponge, which allowed him to read text in any language, among other benefits. Finally, he developed the ability to literally foresee up to 24 hours into the future and amounted a fortune by gambling.
When Smalley read about Dunn's gambling activities in a newspaper, he realized Dunn had become a threat and intended to stop him somehow. Dunn anticipated this and killed Smalley. At the same day he influenced the minds of dignitaries in an international peace conference and attempted to plunge the world into a war state from which he could assume control and become its ultimate ruler.
At this point, however, Dunn's plan failed as he realized with horror that his powers were fading and would be entirely gone in less than an hour. Without any more of the alien substance left, Dunn had no means to replicate the formula and would soon be dragged back to normality. And back to the bread-line, at that.
Appearances[]
- "The Reign of the Superman", by Jerry Siegel, illustrated by Joe Shuster (1933)
Notes[]
- This character would later be redeveloped by Siegel and Shuster and turned into their most famous creation, Superman. Unlike Dunn, however, the final version of Superman is neither human nor villainous (he's an alien superhero), and has a completely different set of powers.