Soeperman

Real Name: Klark Klont

Identity/Class: Unknown

Occupation: Former food writer for Nieuw Nieuws, product tester

Affiliations: Leo (first successful rescue, room mate, sidekick and cynic hedgehog), Loes van der Laan (his married girl friend), Commissioner Breukebroek

Enemies: Bubbelboys; the invisible man (invisible bankrobber); Mega Lady; Pjetr, Pjotr & Pjatr; Bertha; Professor Hepa Titus Borstelaer (His archenemy, the one who killed him); Rex Gluton, Luna Tick; Bedman; Spinneman (the latter two rivals rather than real enemies, but that is a very small difference), Thuygh van den Righel.

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Supermax (German translations)

Base of Operations: City with underground rail road system and harbour(s) in the Netherlands. (Amsterdam and Rotterdam are the only real cities with this description). He lives there in an apartment a couple of floors up.

First Appearance: Eppo Wordt Vervolgd 5-1986

Powers/Abilities: Soeperman is deprived of all his powers if he is exposed to, or as he expressed it himself, if he sees, broccoli. This may explain the different levels of his powers displayed; at one time, he can stand hundreds of bullets fired at him without feeling anything and on another time he is in pain as the result of a kick by a very small person, or knocked down by a brick thrown at the base of his skull. It may well be that this is the result of some exposure to broccoli or that certain other plants might have a less spectacular but similar effect. If the broccoli is removed he gets his powers back (to a very acceptable degree at least) immediately.

Soeperman has some kind of combustion engine under his cape, which he needs to fly (as demonstrated in adventure II). He is however able to fly in outer space where his engine cannot work, and seems unable to continue to fly with that engine if he has lost his powers due to exposure to broccoli (he can however use it to launch himself away from the broccoli). Therefore his flying ability seems to be one of his natural powers assisted by technology. Perhaps Soeperman could fly on a broccoli-free world. In flight he can push an oil tanker at high speed, showing that he has quite some power. "Soepersonic hearing" allows him to hear a cry for help from as far away as outside the city while he is at work. Soeperman claims to have a Soeperinstinct, but that has not often been any good. His invulnerability level varies - a kick by Leo can hurt him, a normal black cat “Bertje” can hurt him, an elephant running over him hurts him just enough to get irritated, a brick thrown at the base of his skull has knocked him down, a fall on the street has removed some teeth, (but that can be a broccoli effect), whereas an armoured car running into him or dozens of bullets from short distance shot in his face cannot harm him under normal circumstances. Heat vision is rarely used by Soeperman, but he can melt a frozen river and heat the air with it, so the energy he can project this way is considerable. He has not demonstrated the use of it as a direct weapon against opponents, neither are there indications that he can reach a very high temperature with it. Superbreath can be used by Soeperman to freeze a river.

Soeperman is really fast (The time he needed to travel from Earth to the planet Oxtron suggests his cruising (!) speed was well over 175 million times the speed of light. It may be that this is caused by Soeperman’s use of wormholes (or similar) large enough to allow a space shuttle to pass (possibly created by Soeperman himself). Anyway, he has the power to move himself through the universe in a way that gets him there more than 175 million times faster than light. This could indicate an extraterrestrial origin for the character. Soeperman can change his costume in less than 0.00003 second, a peculiar trait he shares with his rivals Spinneman and Bedman. He would have no problem outracing those two and can get anywhere in the city well under 1/100 of a second. Soeperman has without doubt a regenerative ability. He’s no Wolverine, but he seems to regrow teeth, (many teeth were knocked out in fights and he still had his own teeth on the day of his death, forming a beautiful set of teeth, his only beauty). Even more impressive is that three months after his burial, that is after being declared death officially by the proper authority, Soeperman crawled out of his grave alive. Evidence of superstrength is common in the series, but never too impressive, but he can lift effortless a van with one hand; the upper limits of his strength are unknown.

His abilities as car mechanic, TV repair man, plumber, strip poker player and cook are best described as non-existent. Granted, he is a bit better as plane mechanic.

History: (Adventure I) Soeperman's story starts with a robbery of a bank (in a town probably smaller than the city described as his base of operations). Soeperman’s unneeded intervation causes the escape of the bankrobbers, who had been cornered by the police.

(Adventure II) Soeperman fails to punish a masked purse snatcher, but kicks a dog urinating in public.

(Adventure III) Soeperman unsuccessfully tries to stop a fire.

(Adventure IV) Soeperman saves a suicidal hedgehog and gains a room-mate. He also stops a criminal from escaping with a stolen computer.

(Adventure VI) Soeperman, Leo and an unnamed third guy successfully rescue a beach babe from a shark.

(Adventure VIII) Soeperman saves a lady from a train, just to discover too late it’s just a film set (first demonstration of Soepersonic hearing).

(Adventure X) Soeperman has a bad day, when the bank robbers escape again.

(Adventure XII) Soeperman saves an oil tanker lost at sea in severe storm by pushing it at high speed into the harbour, causing some collateral damage, but preventing an ecological disaster.

(Adventure XVI "Voor de Leeuwen" (For the Lions)) Klont and Leo visit the zoo, where some animal liberation activist releases all animals. Soeperman catches them and puts them all in one pit in the zoo, but unfortunately this causes a feeding frenzy survived only by the lions and tigers.

(Adventure XVII) In the middle of saving a plane, Soeperman is called away by Commissioner Breukebroek, who it turns out had called him to tell him that he should save that plane.

(Adventure XIX) Soeperman protects the civilian population from rabid dogs, but is too late to prevent the infection spreading amomg the police force.

(Adventure XX) Soeperman goes body building to impress Loes van der Laan, without any need.

(Adventure XXI) Soeperman saves Loes at a carnival, while he kicks her husband Arie to Tibet and lets her children be kidnapped.

(Adventure XXII) Soeperman beats the invisible man, who was robbing the bank, but is taken away to a nice place by friendly men in nice white coats, as he was fighting somebody nobody could see.

(Adventure XXV) Soeperman carries an ambulance on one hand to a Chinese restaurant. A little later Soeperman meets his fellow heroes Bedman and Spinneman.

(Adventure XXVII) Stopping a circus elephant which is afraid of hedgehogs forces Soeperman to spend a night as an elephant washer.

(Adventure XXX) When a criminal robs an old lady, Soeperman. Bedman and Spinneman all change to their costumed identities. The criminal more or less catches himself and the heroes fight to determine who gets to arrest the crook. The decision is left to the victim who turns out to be Soeperman’s version of Supergran (power shown: flight). Directly after that Soeperman meets his arch enemy Professor Hepa Titus Borstelaer for the first time, when he kidnaps Soeperman to copy his powers. Something goes wrong and he copied his looks; as a doppelganger of Soeperman, Borstelaer commits several crimes, and after Soeperman escapes, the hero is arrested for Borstelaer's villainy. Leo helps him to escape again and when two Soepermen are seen together the real one proves his identity by admitting that he kisses his teddy bears good night every night before he goes to sleep.

(Adventure XXXVI) A failed attempt at cooking by Klark comes to life in the sewers. This stinking monster, Blurp, is donated to Loch Ness, even though the Scots are not too happy about that.

(Adventure XXXIX) Soeperman acts as a personal bodyguard to the mayor on a luxury cruse, preventing the kidnapping villain Rex Gluthon had planned. This ends with Rex Gluthon with his two henchmen, Co and Ad, lost at sea.

(Adventure XXXX) Soeperman has to go to the planet Oxtron where a giant version of Blurp is destroying the environment. Soeperman succeeds in saving Oxtron and against his desires princess Ulayof Oxtron tries to marry him. Fortunately a space shuttle crashes on Oxtron during the wedding to get Soeperman to save the Earth from a comet, Soeperman kicks the comet away, the comet damages the spaceship of the Oxtronians following him and Soeperman has to deal with a bunch of aliens in his house.

(Adventure XXXXI) Soeperman meets the sexy masked heroine Luna Tick, who has a weird influence on gentlemen.

(Adventure XXXXVII, “Wednesay Afternoon”) Borstelaer builds a nuclear missile, pretending it is a spaceship to bring the Oxtronians back home. He escapes with his construction while Soeperman fights with Bedman over catching Luna Tick (she is eventually caught by Spinneman).

(Adventure IIL) Rex Gluton returns with his henchmen in a little boat, and they try to free Soeperman’s arch enemy Professor Hepa Tiitus Borstelaer from prison, but Soeperman has gotten him to build a spaceship for the Oxtronians.

(Adventure L) Soeperman is replaced by Spinneman as defender of the city, to deal with the three-way war between Rex Gluton, Luna Tick and Borstelaer. Gluton and Tick are webbed down, but Professor Borstelaer beats the webhead. Now Bedman, Soeperman and Spinneman cooperate. Bedman fouls up a bit, but Spinneman and Soeperman save the city by teamwork, or perhaps did Spinneman most of it, depending on how one reads between the pictures, Soeperman gets a Space shuttle to bring the Oxtronians home.

(“De 11e Dimensie” (The 11th dimension)) The Mafia hires Mega Lady, the superhero-destroyer, to destroy the four main superheroes of the city. With the assistance of Pjotr, Pjetr and Pjatr she transports Robin, Bedman, Spinneman and Soeperman to the 11th dimension (other superheroes possibly fallen victim to this: Silver Surfer, Hi-Man). There they become part of a video game in an arcade. Soeperman is the only one to escape from there, more or less trading places with Mega Lady and thus regains his position as the only superhero of the city.

(De Verschrikkelijke Sneeuwmannen (The Terrible Snowmen)) Borstelaer creates an army of animated snowmen. They are unstoppable, but Soeperman finds a way to melt his army by heating the air with his heat vision. Borstelaer succeeds in creating a terrible war machine which he uses to attack the city. Soeperman is surprised by that machine, looks at it, is hit by a double shot and killed. Borstelaer conquers the city, but three months later Soeperman crawls out of his grave, not undead, but alive. Soeperman joins the resistance and uses some grenades to blow up both the machine and the man causing his death.

(“Huize Hommeles”) Huize Hommeles is a haunted manor bought/created by Rex Gluton. The house is an effective weapon, and Soeperman is being destroyed, when the wrecking of the house for the construction of a new road saves him. Soeperman reacts by smashing Rex Gluthon out of his clothes into an orbit around the Earth.

(De Nar (The Fool)) De Nar is Soeperman’s new foe, stealing one of the two crystal balls of Rokan from an Exhibition about magic in the city museum. Soeperman is alarmed but cannot prevent the theft of the second one, in use by Madam Zorna, a fortune teller - in fact Soeperman is severely beaten. Auguust and Benitoo, two criminal clowns, discover that Soeperman is told that one needs the “balance of Bincho” to use the power of the balls effectively. Therefore three parties try to reach the monastery of Bincho: 1) the Fool, 2) the Clowns 3) Soeperman and Leo. Soeperman befriends Neti, a white haired, female yeti. In the fight for control of the balls one breaks and all three factions are transported to the world of Rokan, the planet Ommekeer. Willem Ritsier, René Uilenbrork, Madam Zorna, Commissioner Breukebroek and the museum manager follow our hero by the use of a séance. Soeperman has been found and bound by Immcar and Lord Mistifoo, (the fiancé of Liebliebling, the granddaughter of Lord Rokan), two good guys, in the land of the doomed: Andersomm. The doomed have all been banned from the land of Omm by the ursurper and tyrant Thuygh van den Righel. The Fool offers an alliance to Thuygh, who attacks attacks the Soeuperman faction in his battle (air) ship, just as they are also under attack by the criminal clowns. The clowns are hit, while Soeperman flees carrying Neti, Immcar and Mistifoo. They fall prey to the Loeblies, who put them (bound by unbreakable rope) in a cooking pot. The Loeblies are preparing for a feast, but the four are rescued by Leo, leading a huge army of fast running cowardly tortoises, commanded by General Doss for his queen Weena, who has been cursed by Rokan. As Soeperman found himself out of fuel during the attack by the Loeblies he has to walk to the “pruttelput”, to get a bottle of water from there, to prevent the curse destroying all Skids. Soeperman walks through the very big desert, fights King Desert ( after which he says that his strength is no longer what it has been), walks into a wall, finds a door, locked, enters a garden, is pushed by Tholl and Smoll onto the grass, which disappears, making Soeperman fall down. To help Soeperman his seancing friends have to go to Bincho. Willem the writer is to be transported to the world of Rokan in a séance by a Bincho abbot, René Uilenbroek, Madam Zorna, Commissioner Breukebroek and the museum manager. Willem Ritsier finds himself on the top of a mountain. Between the mountains Soeperman is looking for the “pruttelput”, and meets Rikker the Chicken, a telepath frog, who thinks he’s a chicken. Rikker flies Soeperman to the Pruttelput, a common old fashioned well, in the shadow of a huge garbage dump.Soeperman goes into the well, is captured by a half girl/half squid-creature, who wants to marry him, but gives him permission to fill the bottle. In his search for the water he finds Rokan. Soeperman frees Rokan, who tells him that the curse on Weena was just a joke. Thuygh has caught Willem Ritsier, Neti, Queen Weena, General Doss, Immcar, Mistifoo and Leo. During an escape Mistifoo falls in love with Neti, rather than with Liebliebling. A great all-in confrontation means the end of the villains. Rokan marries Weena, Liebliebling feels insulted and Soeperman returns in his sleep to Earth.

(“Koeien op, Koeien neer” (Cows up, Cows down)) A producer of a drink based on 7-up blows up cattle. Soeperman catches the culprits.

(“Queen of the Road”) Bertha, a black haunted car, is buried by Soeperman, only to find more haunted vehicles on his path.

(Hiphopnose) Soeperman fights Rex Gluthon, who is using TV to perform mass hypnosis. Soeperman uses his hypnosis against him and Rex and his gang turn themselves in.

Comments: Based on the appearances of Minister-President Ruud Lubbers Soeperman operated in and/or around the period 1982-1994. (New Soeperman-stories were published from early 1986 to early 1995).

Adventure II shows us that Soeperman is a writer of cooking articles for a periodical, that his family name is Klont, and that he is no good at his job. His suit is at this stage is washed etc. by Mathilde, who is aware of his double identity. Adventure III more or less establishes the need Soeperman feels to change costume, doing that much slower than he later would, in a toilet, a strange feeling which causes him to be a complete failure at a fire. In these stories Soeperman is a real anti-hero. He’s small, he’s ugly and he’s no good.

Adventure IV introduces one of the most important additional characters in the series: Leo. Leo is a slightly anthropomorphized hedgehog, living behind a door under a tree very close to a speedway/highway in a large forest. He is kicked out by his “Annie” for his drinking habit and his pleas for mercy are ignored. This makes him decide to commit suicide by throwing his little body in front of the first available vehicle, which happens to be Klont’s. The car dies before Klont kills Leo. After some clues that Klont is not very familiar with automobile technology, Leo kicks Klont and his car because he’s not dead yet, then tries to kill himself by throwing himself in front of a truck. For the first time Soeperman does something superheroic, when he saves a person trying to commit suicide. However this has the result that the truck is knocked onto its side, but that’s all right as it turns out that it was driven by a criminal, who had stolen a NATO-computer. The police commander of the force in pursuit thanks Soeperman. Soeperman offers Leo cohabitation, Leo accepts that. This story marks the start of Soeperman as a hero and introduces his identifying quote: “Toe ze reskjoe!” Adventure V shows the apartment of Leo and Klont and there is a poster of Superman on the wall, in the start of the falling fat female neighbour running gag.

XXI is the story telling how Soeperman saves Loes at a carnival, but kicks her husband Arie to Tibet (Arie survives that), while her three children are kidnapped. Loes cannot have loved them much as they are never heard of again and Soepes has conquered his girl friend.

Soeperman was been buried as Soeperman, with the service by a Roman Catholic priest in 1989, so his death was not aping Superman (+1992). Soeperman started as a Superman (DC) parody, and showed during his entire career many easy-to-see similarities to that character. However those similarities are all superficial, Soeperman and Superman have similar costumes and powers, but are facing life in a rather different fashion. Soeperman is more selfish, not above abuse of his powers for selfish enterprises, but determined to be a hero, kept on the good side rather because he has friends keeping him there than because of some propaganda slogan. The similarity in powers is not too striking. If he had been called Maxman rather than Soeperman/Supermax, had a different letter on his chest and and a different color scheme, nobody would have noticed a special similarity between the two. Soeperman started as a Super-anti-hero, therefore it was a logical decision to take the most archetypical of the superheroes an example.

In Eppo (v2), Soeperman reappears in issue #8 (coverdate 7th May 2009). The hometown of Soeperman is described again as a "province town". Jan-Peter Balkenende, the current minister-president of the Netherlands has a cameo; it turns out that the police force has been reduced (due to financial cuts) to commissioner Breukebroek; Spinneman has a cameo and Bedman and Robin are together with "Thor,Spawn,Trunk,Woverien, Wonderwomen" greeted by Soeperman but not shown. The paper where Klark Klont works is revealed to be the "Nieuw Nieuws" (=New News), but Klark is fired there, while Loes (and Leo) run of together. This way the first new story cuts away lots of the extant continuity "trappings" for the new century without harming continuity. Soeperman has had one Eppo story (in #12) which he catches villain Harry (de) Hamsteraar.

Profile by Theodoor Westerhof, modified by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

• Superman, the DC hero of similar name

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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