Over the years, Superman has had plenty of powerful movie villains – but I’m convinced one of his supposedly strongest villains is actually way weaker in the big picture of things. As a major superhero with now almost 90 years of DC comic history, saying Superman has a lot of powerful villains is perhaps as staggering of a statement as saying that water is wet.

The fact that Superman has such a generally immensely powerful villain roster has also meant that his movie installments have by and large featured some seriously strong antagonists. With that said, looking back at the depiction of one notable villain from Superman’s movie roster, it really does seem like they’re one of the hero’s weakest movie enemies, despite almost killing Superman himself.

Superman Has Had A Range Of Seriously Powerful Movie Villains

Superman Has Faced Off Against Many DC тιтans In His Movie Career

Given Superman is easily one of DC’s most powerful superheroes, it stands to reason he also has plenty of villains who pose a serious threat to him and the wider world. With Superman movies tending to only have one main villain, too, it’s been par for the course that Kal-El’s most imposing antagonists have tended to share the big-screen spotlight with him.

General Zod is one of the most consistently used heavy-hitters for the Man of Steel’s film stories – especially given in both Man of Steel and Superman II, he appears accompanied by his Kryptonian allies. However, he’s not the only antagonist that DC bring out of the woodwork for these films, by any means.

Lex Luthor, while without conventional powers, does use his considerable intelligence and scheming mind to accomplish some major things in his movie appearances – including creating more than one villain who defeats Superman. Superman has also faced up against Steppenwolf, Doomsday, and even duked it out with Batman before they became DCEU allies.

All of this is without even factoring in Superman’s animated movie history, which features its own selection of powerful foes. With this roster including Darkseid, Brainiac, and even the Anti-Monitor – one of the most powerful enтιтies in DC’s lore full-stop – it’s safe to say Superman usually has his work cut out for him when it comes to facing down various threats.

Nuclear Man Is Supposed To Be One Of Superman’s Most Powerful Movie Villains

Nuclear Man Is Theoretically A Major Contender In Superman’s Movie Rogues Gallery

Superman IV: The Quest For Peace clearly intends for its new villain – Nuclear Man – to be one of Superman’s most powerful movie villains. Nuclear Man is not only cloned from Superman’s DNA, but specifically made by Lex Luthor to crush his nemesis, meaning he’s custom-built to defeat the hero.

And, indeed, the pair’s first major battle ends with Superman losing, and being forced to return home to rest instead of dealing with Nuclear Man. In fact, it seems like Superman might have actually died after this fight, had it not been for the shard of Kryptonian energy that his parents left him, and that he uses to come back from the brink.

With all of this in mind, the idea that Nuclear Man is actually one of Superman’s weakest movie enemies might seem downright bizarre, even if many of the villains the Man of Steel faces are otherwordly level of powerful. However, thanks to one crucial reveal regarding the character, it really does seem like this is the case.

Nuclear Man’s Weakness Being So Hard To Avoid Makes Him Way Weaker

Nuclear Man Being Weak To Darkness Seems Too Colossal Of A Vulnerability

While Nuclear Man would otherwise seem like an all-time opponent for Superman – especially in the live-action movie world, where he’s faced fewer of his most powerful enemies – the villain’s major weakness means this isn’t quite the case. This is because Nuclear Man has one big problem: he’s rendered unconscious when not in sunlight.

The movie introduces us to this concept via Lex Luthor totally knocking Nuclear Man out by simply having him walk slightly further into his lair, at which point Nuclear Man goes from an immensely powerful force to lying on the ground. From this point, it’s hard to see Nuclear Man as quite on the level of most other Superman movie villains.

Though the movie is pretty careful to skirt around it, it seems like this is such a major weakness of Nuclear Man’s that it’s hard not to see him, given he theoretically could be defeated by a carefully angled beach umbrella, or by it simply turning to nighttime. As such, it’s simply too much of a glaring gap in the character’s armor to not seriously downgrade him as a threat.

While Nuclear Man’s actual powers are considerable – and Superman defeating him by moving the entire moon is a pretty major way to beat him – it doesn’t seem like Superman would have strictly needed to go to those lengths looking back. Indeed, it seems Superman theoretically could have defeated his enemy without using any of his powers after he realized the dark knocked Nuclear Man out.

Nuclear Man’s Weakness Really Seems To Make Him Far Weaker Than Almost Every Other Superman Movie Villain

It’s Almost Impossible To Overlook How Nuclear Man’s Weakness Defines Him

Given that the likes of General Zod or Doomsday are just as if not more powerful than Nuclear Man while also not being defeated by a spot of shade, it really does feel as though Nuclear Man is one of Superman’s weakest movie villains when looked at in terms of overall skillsets. This is doubly true given Lex is essentially able to take the villain out despite having absolutely no powers.

However, given Superman’s movie history also includes the likes of Spider Lady – from the first Superman movie serial – and the Mole Men from Superman and the Mole Men (even if they weren’t strictly villains, really), it’s hard to say that Nuclear Man is the weakest villain in the live-action movie roster. That said, he seems to come close.

Realistically, when looking at these enemies in terms of how hard they are to defeat, Nuclear Man is theoretically one of the easiest, so long as someone is able to put two and two together about his weakness. Since Nuclear Man would seemingly be unable to operate at night or in many buildings, it doesn’t seem like this would necessarily take too long.

With more Superman movie appearances on the near horizon – starting with 2025’s DCU Superman movie – it’ll be interesting to see how new villains change the overall rankings of Superman’s film villains, and whether Nuclear Man will still hold such a spot within it when comparing them. Whatever happens, though, Nuclear Man will no doubt remain a unique part of Superman‘s movie villain roster.