2) High Chancellor Superman
Perhaps the most famous alternate Superman for those who don’t read the comics is the star of Injustice: Gods Among Us. The smash-hit video game’s story goes that, due to an evil scheme by the Joker, Superman was inadvertently responsible for the destruction of Metropolis and the death of a pregnant Lois Lane.
The tragedy tipped Superman over the edge and he became the totalitarian dictator of the world. While most of his fellow heroes supported him – like Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. – his old buddy Batman did not and ran an underground rebellion against him.
Initially just a way to explain why the superheroes were fighting each other in Injustice‘s Mortal Kombat-style gameplay, the storyline of Injustice struck a chord with fans and went on to spawn a hit comic book series which details this version of the DC universe in more detail.
If those doom-laden nightmare sequences in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice – where a darker Supes speaks of losing Lois and has soldiers working for him – are any indication, the DCEU might take inspiration from it as well.