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Atomic Skull is the secondary antagonist in the 2012 DC animated direct-to-DVD feature, Superman vs. The Elite. He is a supervillain who held a grudge against Superman and is willing to kill innocent civilians just out of spite on the latter.
Not much of his origins is explained, but it was made clear that he was already a dangerous criminal on the run who got his powers from a gene-bomb. He was first seen killing innocent people once again, to which some of his attempted victims being next were two women, with one of them being a mother as she was seen holding her baby, before Superman barged in to stop his spree, during the fight Skull explained that he did what he did to get Superman's attention until he got overwhelmed by the latter when he landed on a lake, having his flames extinguished and taken away to prison.
During his time at the Stryker's Island Penitentiary, he was locked up in a specialized cell where his flames are used to contain his energy but also to provide more energy to the electricity system with the city as community service. However, sometime later on, Atomic Skull manages to break free from his cell by overwhelming his contained energy and goes back to his killing spree where the excitement will begin.
He's then seen in the city as he begins killing more innocent people, including police officers as well, not until the Elite arrived to put a stop to the destruction Skull's causing before having to fight each of them, thus came in next was Superman overwhelming Skull in their second fight. However, Skull's power begins to get intense enough to throw one powerful thrust on Superman that caused a mass of sonic waves, thus only to be fused with his Fatal Touch, to which it killed Professor Baxter when he was protecting his son in his final moments.
However, with the effort combined from Superman and the Elite's attacks, they all managed to defeat Skull when Coldcast extracts most of his energy. Just as Skull is now rendered powerless, he was prepared to be killed by Manchester Black before Superman tries to have him spared, but Black only made a point that people like Skull deserves nothing more than death than just jail due to the many losses of lives thanks to him and destruction around the city, even the son of Baxter agreed with him.
As then all the civilians chanted Skull's fate to be death as then Manchester Black finally puts an end to Skull for good.
Personality[]
Atomic Skull is rather portrayed as sadistic, vengeful, and highly homicidal, but aside from them, it's his grudge against superman that defines his characteristics, as he isn't above killing innocents just so he could provoke a fight with him just for not only his vengeance, but also enjoying it alongside his murders.
Aside from how monstrous he can be, he can also be seen faking his expressions, when he was locked in a cell explicitly made for him when he was talking to a guard, he calls this treatment "inhuman" just to gain sympathy, not before he was willing to grow enraged when the officer pointed out that this cell was a way to his community service. Especially given his actions, it's quite fair to what he did.
But the one thing that later on in the film to his death, was his lack of remorse and could care little to human life, as pointed out by Manchester Black himself. So overall to the character, Skull is one of those people who are pointed out to be beyond redemption and is completely irredeemable compared to his comic counterpart, especially given how his actions made him deserve more than just being imprisoned.
Trivia[]
Atomic Skull's real name, Joseph Martin, was never mentioned throughout the film.