| Nuclear Man | |
 | |
| Appeared in | Superman IV: The Quest for Peace |
| Status | Deceased |
| Actor | Mark Pillow Clive Mantle Gene Hackman (voice) |
Nuclear Man was created by Lex Luthor with the DNA of Superman and is one of the main villains in the fourth film along with Luthor.
Biography[]
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace[]
First Nuclear Man[]
If one goes into the history of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, there is a long history of deleted scenes. Deleted scenes from the film show a prototype Nuclear Man (played by British actor Clive Mantle), who was quickly defeated. This Nuclear Man also seemed to resemble Bizarro. This Nuclear Man was made in the laboratory of Lex Luthor. The only time he battled the Man of Steel was when Superman (in the form of Clark Kent) and Lacy Warfield went to the Metro Club to dance. Nuclear Man entered the club with the intention of killing Superman, until a woman began hitting on him. After killing her, Nuclear Man battled Superman using cars, garbage cans, and other street objects. Ultimately, Superman kicked him into a power transformer and the first Nuclear Man was destroyed. Later, Lex Luthor's nephew Lenny salvaged the remains to help him make Nuclear Man 2.
Second Nuclear Man[]
The powerful second Nuclear Man. The salvaged remains of the first Nuclear Man were put into a computer-enhanced box with a computer, the genetic material of the first Nuclear Man, and some material to make his clothing. After being assembled, Lex Luthor put the case onto a nuclear missile and, thanks to Superman, thrown into the sun. Then the second Nuclear Man was born. Immediately, the Nuclear Man made his way to Lex Luthor's building, where he showed that he has the power to generate heat and electricity by touch, has eye beams (improved over Superman's), can levitate objects by hand beams, can shoot fire and heatflares that explode, and has the regular super strength. But his only weakness is lost contact with the sun. It wasn't long until Superman and this Nuclear Man battled, from destroying the Great Wall of China to saving Moscow from a nuclear missile, saving a little girl in Kansas from a nuclear tordado to saving Italy from a volcanic eruption. But the big trouble was the near-destruction of the Statue of Liberty. While saving the Statue, Superman was completely distracted by it and Nuclear Man successfully clawed into his neck. After falling to a near-death, Nuclear Man kicked The Man of Steel into the air, with the cape hooked onto Lady Liberty's flame.
The next day, Nuclear Man was made as an asset to help Luthor fire the nuclear arms dealers he had hired. And afterwards, he saw a picture of Lacy Warfield, developing a crush on her. And so, into Metropolis square, Nuclear Man started attacking people and destroying city objects until Superman would take him to "the woman". But Nuclear Man's aggresion got the best of him, as Superman successfully tricked him into going into an elevator, where he short-circuited the power, causing Nuclear Man to collapse and allow Superman to fly the elevator to the moon. But the sun eventually shone into the elevator room, and Superman and Nuclear Man had another battle. Nuclear Man threw, zapped, jumped on, and threw rocks at Superman until he finally got Superman where he wanted him, hammered him into the moon's surface. Nuclear Man flew back to Earth and found Lacy Warfield and took het to Lex's lair, where they got into a shuttle of some kind and flew into space. Superman successfully destroyed the shuttle, but Lacy and Nuclear man flew into space. But Superman eclipsed the sun and brought Lacy back to Earth while Nuclear Man was placed into a nuclear reactor, where he overloaded the reactors.
Relationships[]
- Superman - Enemy.
- Lex Luthor - Creator.
Appearances/Actors[]
- Donnerverse (1 film)
- Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (First appearance) - Mark Pillow (Nuclear Man II), Clive Mantle (Nuclear Man I) and Gene Hackman (Voice)
- Donnerverse (1 comic)
Trivia/Behind the Scenes[]
- When Nuclear Man was being developed, Christopher Reeve was approached to play that part as Superman's polar opposite, or a darker version of Bizarro.
- Originally, the film had two Nuclear Men. The first, dubbed Nuclear Man 1, wore a black costume. His scenes were filmed, but eventually cut, allegedly because previews revealed several serious visual effects errors. The deleted footage was considered for a fifth Superman film.
- Nuclear Man has only eleven lines.
- According to Mark Pillow, he found Christopher Reeve to be quite an intense person during the shooting. However, Pillow stated what a joy it was to work alongside Gene Hackman.
- Nuclear Man was an updated version of another villain that first appeared on the Superman radio show, and was adapted for the serial "Atom Man vs. Superman".