Superman & Lois could finally redeem the much-hated villain Nuclear Man, from Christopher Reeve's final Superman movie. With the CW show recently revealed to be existing outside of the Arrowverse, Superman & Lois is prepping to take Tyler Hoechlin's Man of Steel and his family on more adventures of its own. Story details for Superman & Lois season 3 are expectedly still under wraps, though the season 2 finale teased Bruno Mannheim, and by extension the Intergang, as the next villains.

While Nuclear Man would hardly strike most fans as an ideal villain contender for Superman & Lois given his terrible reputation from the 1987 movie Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, he ought to be considered for a redemptive return. As portrayed on screen by Mark Pillow, Nuclear Man was a more radioactive version of Superman with additional powers derived from his creation from the sun. Unfortunately, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was a failure in every aspect, ending the Christopher Reeve era of Superman movies.

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Nuclear Man remains burdened with a legacy of being a lackluster Superman villain, especially compared to General Zod and others, but that dishonor does not have to be permanent. With the approach that Superman & Lois has taken in telling its own story, with Clark Kent looking after his family, the return of Nuclear Man would be an excellent villain choice for the show. In turn, Superman & Lois could offer Nuclear Man a shot at turning his bad reputation around.

Nuclear Man Has A Complex History In Movies & Comics

Superman holding Nuclear Man's hands in a still from Superman IV

Nuclear Man's disappointing debut in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was mostly the fault of bad circumstances. The movie's greatly slashed budget, due to the Canon Group's financial troubles at the time, are as much to blame for its failings as Nuclear Man's bizarre voice, which undercut the villain's development as a convincing threat. Nuclear Man's powers were also as undone by the movie's half-cooked visual effects.

While there's no arguing that he was a poorly realized villain in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, having a stronger support system in place certainly could have given him more of a fighting chance. Brian Michael Bendis and Ivan Reis both recognized that with their work on Nuclear Man when the character was officially brought into DC Comics in 2018. Nuclear Man's appearance was largely maintained and the villain re-imagined as a failed Kryptonian experiment sent to the Phantom Zone. Though Nuclear Man died at the hands of Rogol Zaar, his comic book appearance showed that even widely reviled super villains are not necessarily doomed to being forever forgotten on their bad first impressions. Superman & Lois shares that perspective.

Superman & Lois Reveres Superman's Entire History

Tyler Hoechlin in Superman & Lois and Christopher Reeve in Superman

From the beginning, Superman & Lois has not only told a compelling story of Clark Kent as a family man protecting all of humanity, but the show has also shown great respect for the entirety of Superman's character history. Easter eggs to Superman's stories in every medium are all over Superman & Lois, while the show also has worked in frequent tributes to every live-action take on Superman under the sun. Not only is the team behind Superman & Lois still eager for crossovers that tap into DC's multiverse, but they also regard all the Man of Steel's stories as equally valid.

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Superman III, itself widely seen as one of the lowest points of the character's big-screen stories, received an homage in the very first episode of Superman & Lois with Superman using the frozen water from a nearby lake to prevent a nuclear power plant from going into meltdown. All that the series sees is an act of heroism by Superman and retrofits its own version of that into its story. With the view of Superman & Lois being one in which all of Superman's history is welcomed and cherished simply for having a common love for their shared hero, it would be the perfect place for Nuclear Man to get a second chance at live-action greatness.

Why Nuclear Man Would Make A Great Superman & Lois Villain

Nuclear Man looking to the sky and shouting in Superman IV

One consistent strength of Superman & Lois, on top of fixing problems that occur along the way, has been the show's skill at creating new and unique takes on different Superman villains. Morgan Edge was revamped into Superman's own half-brother Tal-Rho, with Ally Allston becoming Parasite through her merging with her Bizarro doppelganger, and Bizarro himself re-imagined as an anti-hero and the more cynical Superman of the Bizarro World. Nuclear Man is the kind of villain whose conception and execution clearly weren't in harmonious sync with each other, but that was also something that Bendis and Reis's comic book run reworked into a new take on the villain.

Superman & Lois has more than enough to build its own take on Nuclear Man as it has already done with Morgan Edge, Parasite, and the show's version of Bizarro. The series could now see Nuclear Man finally be the nuclear weapon personified that Superman IV: The Quest for Peace failed to showcase him as. The show has yet to feature the Phantom Zone at all, so retaining that aspect of Nuclear Man's comic book story is one way he could be introduced, while the Bizarro World could be another origin point for him. Superman & Lois could also elect to take an even more original approach, building its own version of Nuclear Man from scratch, with the show's approach to Superman villains giving it the freedom to do so.

Super villains rarely get to make a comeback after a debut as bad as Nuclear Man's, but his introduction into the Superman comics is already proof that new stories could be told with him. Meanwhile, in following Tyler Hoechlin's portrayal of Superman in his arc of managing heroic and family life side-by-side, Superman & Lois has been a very inviting and open show to any story, movie, or character that has been a part of the Man of Steel's history. Combined with its talent for putting its own unique spin on Superman's villains, a re-imagined take on Nuclear Man could be a surprisingly strong asset for Superman & Lois while the show could finally allow him to become the powerful and menacing super villain he was originally dreamed up to be.