WANTED: Earth-Two's Most Dangerous Super-Villains
Colonel Future
Personal information
Name: Edward Hamilton Future
Residence: Metropolis
Occupation: Professional
Criminal
First Appearance (Post-Golden Age): Action Comics #484 (June 1978)
Character History
Nothing is known of the crime lord known as Colonel Future before he organized a criminal syndicate in Metropolis in the late 1940’s. His most brazen and famous crime occurred when, after a series of thwarted robberies by Superman, he employed The Wizard, the leader of the Injustice Society, to cast a spell that wiped Superman out of existence. In return, he offered the Glastonbury Wand, a mystic artifact of great power. When the Wizard used it, Superman did indeed vanish for existence by all appearances.
In reality, Superman had been submerged into the identity of Clark Kent, who then forgot his super-powered alter-ego. Much to Future’s chagrin, the heroic impulses of Superman began to manifest in Kent, who went from being a mild-mannered reporter to a crusading journalist, busting up gambling dens and interfering with Future’s operations. Lois Lane, long infatuated with Superman, began to switch her affections to Kent and over the months that ensued, they eventually married. At one point, Future attempted to kill Kent by riddling him with bullets on the Kents’ honeymoon but when Lois discovered him unharmed, she began to suspect why Superman had disappeared.
Using her reporter instincts, she eventually tracked down the Wizard, who was living as a vagrant after being discarded by Colonel Future’s operation. She convinced him that the path to glory was to thwart Future and return Superman to the living, proving that he had been the architect of his disappearance all along. The Wizard agreed and in a public display, summoned forth Superman who quickly defeated the Wizard, enraging Colonel Future (Action Comics #484).

Colonel Future became obsessed with ridding him of Clark Kent. His next move was to send his agents to replace the movers that were helping the Kents re-locate to their new home. After a couple of failed assassination attempts, the Kents confronted the criminals directly, pretending to reveal that Kent was Superman and then staging a ruse that made it appear that Superman had disguised himself as Kent to capture the criminals. The would-be assassins were carted off to jail but Colonel Future remained free (Superman Vol.1 #327).
Some months later, Colonel Future was further enraged to see Clark Kent promoted to editor of the Daily Star, rewarding what Future saw as a rise fueled from opposing him. He resolved to topple the entire building housing the Star Office and planted a vibrational force field projector that would envelop the building and shake it to pieces with everyone inside. Superman was initially thwarted at escaping but eventually identified a way to break through the field and capture Colonel Future and his men deploy the vibration beam. Colonel Future was then taken to jail (Superman Family #198).
Later still, Colonel Future was once again free and returning to his roots of futuristic science. He developed a weapon designed to drain Superman of the solar energy that gave him his powers and started a robbery at the Fourth National Bank. As Superman swooped in to engage, Future discharged his weapons, sapping Superman’s strength and ability to fly and then deploying a robot device with heat-vision proof bindings. Unknown to Future, the Kents had been caring for Liandli, an alien girl from the planet Rolez who also possessed awesome powers on Earth and her timely arrival freed the Man of Steel, who in turn promptly turned the tide against Colonel Future and his men (Superman #220).
The fate of Colonel Future on Earth-Two remains unrevealed.

Powers and Abilities
Colonel Future possessed an impressive array of futuristic weapons that permitted him to stage and daring and nigh-unstoppable crimes. Whether he was a genius-level inventor of such weapons or simply a high-end criminal organizer with an extensive network of supplies is not clear.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Without his weaponry, Colonel Future was a normal human and could be arrested as such.

Multiversity
Earth-One
The Colonel Future of Earth-One is Edmund Hamilton, a NASA scientist who inadvertantly gained clairovoyance when he was electrocuted by an advanced machine on which he spilled coffee. He often had flashes of future events and developed that Colonel Future identity to save the day, albeit often somewhat ineffectively since he did not always fully predict future events. This version of Colonel Future is not a criminal at all but a well-meaning hero who tries to periodically work with Superman.
Appearances
Issue |
Comment |
Reprinted in |
Action Comics #484 |
With the Wizard, staged disappearance of Superman |
Superman in the Seventies TPB, DC Retroactive - Superman: The 70's, Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman (Deluxe Edition) |
Superman #327 |
vs. Superman |
|
Superman Family #198 |
vs. Superman |
|
Superman Family #220 |
vs. Superman |
|