Dev-Em

Dev-Em is a fictional character who appears in DC Comics. He first appeared in Adventure Comics #287 (June 1961), created by Jerry Siegel and George Papp. Various versions of the Dev-Em character has appeared over the years in Legion of Super-Heroes related comic books.

The original Dev-Em was a Kryptonian juvenile delinquent that attacked Superboy, after being thwarted by Superboy Dev-Em traveled to the 30th century where he became an occasional ally of the Legion. Once DC Comics re-wrote their history with Crisis on Infinite Earths Dev-Em was changed into a Daxamite instead of a Kryptonian. In the Post-Infinite Crisis he was once again made a Kryptonia, a criminal sentenced to the Phantom Zone.

A character called Dev-Em, played by Revard Dufresne, appeared in the 2013 Man of Steel movie where he was portrayed as a Kryptonian villain similar to the original comic book character.

Fictional character biography

Pre-Crisis

In the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, Dev-Em is a Kryptonian juvenile delinquent who took Jor-El's warnings of Krypton's impending doom seriously enough to place himself in suspended animation in an orbiting space capsule. When the planet Krypton exploded, Dev-Em's ship was blasted into space, where it eventually landed on Earth. Dev-Em imprisons Superboy in the Phantom Zone and assumes his identity in an effort to destroy the Boy of Steel's reputation. Eventually he frees Superboy and departs from the twentieth century, traveling through time to finally settle on the more advanced Earth of the 30th century. Since the people of Smallville will not believe Superboy's story of the impostor, he has to use a cover story that he was acting under the influence of Red Kryptonite to restore his reputation.