History Main / Ubermensch

* ''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}'': The title character -- who was actually developed by an ex-Nazi scientist, as it happens.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/uberm.png]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', Walter White, Gustavo Fring, Hector Salamanca, and Mike Ehrmantrout.

** These ubermensch traits even extend to his friendships, with several companions he encourages them to follow their own path even if they resort to actions he doesn't approve of.

* Kreia in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' [[spoiler: is Nietzsche's counterpart in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' ExpandedUniverse. Her ultimate goal is the death of the Force (or at least its influence over the lives of sentients), and she admires the Jedi Exile because of the Exile's status as an Übermensch who forsook the Force to escape death. Her Last Man is both the Jedi order ''and'' the Sith because of their dependence on the force and their dogmatic traditions.]] It is also probable, considering Kreia's status as [[spoiler: an UnreliableNarrator, that Kreia is an example of TheFettered Übermensch, who uses her massive, galaxy-spanning GambitRoulette not to end the force or to destroy the Jedi order, but to impose her philosophy upon the Exile, restarting the Jedi Order through her in order to correct what it is suggested throughout the game she believes are flaws in the Jedi teachings which led to Revan's Fall and the Jedi Civil War. It is ultimately difficult to say, given, first, that she is a MagnificentBastard whose adroit manipulations would put even David Xanatos to shame, and second, that thanks to ExecutiveMeddling, the game's intended ending wasn't allowed to play out.]]

* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** Big Boss didn't start out this way, according to the prequel, but he became one in the first and second games to the point of wanting to start an eternal world war.
** To a certain extent this would make [[spoiler:Zero]] the Last Man. Where as betrayal and disappointment made Big Boss's ideals stronger and more radical [[spoiler:Zero]] abandoned his own, fell into despair and gave his legacy to a set of emotionless [=AIs=] out of the belief that humanity would be happier under their solid, predicable guidance.
** His predecessor, The Boss, is another example. Her will and the effect she had on those around her pretty much kicked the entire series off.

** Awakening a Persona in ''VideoGame/Persona5'', as the Phantom Thieves and [[spoiler:Goro Akechi]] do, essentially entails becoming an Ubermensch. The Last Men in this case are the ApatheticCitizens of Tokyo and [[spoiler:Yaldabaoth]].
*** A notable example of this is shown in the UpdatedRerelease ''Persona 5: Royal.'' During the newly-added third semester, the new palace ruler uses their power to warp reality and [[spoiler: [[LotusEaterMachine create a paradise where everyone's deepest desires are fulfilled]]]]. While the Phantom Thieves all reject this new reality, it is most deftly shown in [[spoiler: Goro Akechi, who rejects the reality not just because it's fake, but because they explicitly believe a reality without challenge and suffering is a boring and stagnant one. He holds fast to this even when presented with the possibility that he could be a figment of the new reality created from Joker's memories, saying he wouldn't be honest with himself if forsook his ideals just to keep existing.]]

* Wilhelm from ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}''. Considering his name is from Friedrich ''Wilhelm'' Nietzsche and Nietzsche's book names are subtitles for each episode, this is not surprising.

* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'', Galatea [[https://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/227 identifies herself]] as a post-human Übermensch. As of this writing, though, it looks like she may be growing disenchanted with the idea and gaining some sense of humility.

** General Tarquin. He rejects conventional morality and wants to make the Western Continent free of power struggles and endless warfare.
** The Dark One and by extension Redcloak also rejects conventional morality and seeks to lead the goblins into becoming a sovereign race with equal rights as other humanoid species. Though this gradually gets [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype deconstructed]], as [[spoiler: while their grievances are legitimate and their dedication to their fellows is admirable, their continual rejection of any kind of compromise plunges them deeper and deeper into the SunkCostFallacy for a plan that won't even work because they're missing key info they would have learned if they cooperated with the heroes.]]
* Doctor Universe of ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}''. He is a MadScientist who holds himself to a strict moral code (that he adopted after reading Creator/AynRand).

* Wiki/SCPFoundation: A curious example is that of [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/ethics-committee-orientation the Ethics Committee]], which is considered by the rest of the members of the Foundation as a joke and a useless organization, but in reality it is perhaps the most powerful group within the organization, since that they know EVERYTHING the Foundation does, and it is they who authorize or not any of its actions. In short, it is a committee whose members must establish new parameters of what is right and what is wrong, all in order to protect Humanity, thus becoming -- without wanting it -- Ubermenschs.

* [[spoiler:The Fal'Cie]] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''. They believe the current state of the world is an absolute mess and are perfectly willing to [[spoiler:sacrifice all of humanity and themselves]] to bring back their creator in the hopes that it can fix everything. The player characters are The Last Men trying to preserve the status quo [[spoiler:by protecting Cocoon]]. In the end, [[spoiler:neither of them get everything they want. The Fal'Cie do succeed in destroying Cocoon and themselves, but Vanille and Fang's HeroicSacrifice saves the human population and prevents the Maker's return.]]

** Takaya of ''VideoGame/Persona3''. In that case the Main Character would count as his Last Man. Or, in the case of ''[[UpdatedRerelease Persona 3 Portable]]'', Last [[DistaffCounterpart Woman]].
** Awakening a Persona in ''VideoGame/Persona5'', as the Phantom Thieves and [[spoiler:Goro Akechi]] do, essentially entails becoming an Ubermensch. The Last Men in this case are the Palace rulers, the [[ApatheticCitizens Prisoners of Regression]], and [[spoiler:Yaldabaoth]].

* [[WellIntentionedExtremist N]] of ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' wants to change the very nature of the Pokémon world's society, and possesses a superhuman will and drive. The main character is the Last Man/Woman and [[spoiler:defeats N in their final battle, where N rejects his ideology in favor of the protagonist...only for [[BigBad N's father Ghetsis]] to reveal that he ''deliberately manufactured'' N to be an Übermensch since birth and manipulated him the whole time. This may indicate that Ghetsis is the true Übermensch.]]

* Music/DavidBowie's 1970 song "The Supermen" draws from this trope. Bowie later said he was ''pretending to understand'' Nietzsche and translating the latter into his own terms.

* Khan Noonien Singh from ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' (and of course TheMovie ''[[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan The Wrath of Khan]]''. From Wiki/TheOtherWiki: Professor William J. Devlin and co-author Shai Biderman examined Khan's character compared to the Ubermensch and found that Khan's blind pursuit of revenge is in fact against Nietzsche's ideals of transcendence and self-creation of a meaningful life. Instead, the authors offer Spock's self-sacrifice in ''The Wrath of Khan'' as a better example of the Ubermensch.

** On the color wheel, Black’s philosophy is the one most closely tied to that of the Ubermensch, by rejecting traditional values of morality such as good and evil and exalting the value of the individual. Other aspects of the Ubermensch can’t be explained without Red’s emphasis on emotion, self-expression and its shared values with Black towards individuality. Blue would be in third place, because of its shared rejection of tradition alongside Black and its desire to innovate and improve. Therefore, the Black/Red pair (also called Rakdos), the Blue/Black pair (Dimir) and the Blue/Black/Red trio (Grixis) are the most fit to represent the Ubermensch.

* Reinhard von Lohengramm from ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'', a military and political genius who wants to reform TheEmpire from the inside. He faces two main last men: First of all, the DecadentCourt of TheEmpire, who have grown fat and happy on their repressive and static system. Secondly, Yang Wen-li, his equivalent in The Free Planets Alliance who only entered military service because it was the only way he could get higher education and keeps fighting for increasingly corrupt and incompetent politicians while dreaming of early retirement. A recurring motif in the story is also that "great men build history" and in many ways espouses the Übermensch theory in a historical context -- Reinhard is the example we're given during the time period the story is set in, but Rudolf Goldenbaum is also presented as an example in the backstory.

** The Dark One and by extension Redcloak also rejects conventional morality and seeks to lead the goblins into becoming a sovereign race with equal rights as other humanoid species.

** On the color wheel, the Red/Blue mixture can be seen as an ideological manifestation of the Ubermensch by combining Blue's desire to innovate and improve with Red's emphasis on emotion, individuality, and self-expression.

* Sylvanas Windrunner in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', starts to show elements of this as her motives become clearer in the ''Shadowlands'' expansion. It's revealed the undead are cursed to a tormented existence in the afterlife should they be killed in their undead state; something Sylvanas refuses to abide [note] quite reasonably, even within the Scourge many undead had enough free will to earn one of the other afterlives available: and a few have in fact managed to escape damnation, such as Alexandros Mograine. While it should be noted that the afterlives are not per se based on morality, every other person who dies gets a chance to purge themselves of their sins. Undead who are killed however, don't seem to get this chance most of the time.[/note]. In turn, she made a deal with a being known as [[GreaterScopeVillain the Jailer]], who is empowered by the essence of dead souls. To this end, Sylvanas aids in empowering the Jailer by causing as much death as possible while being a leader of the Forsaken and the Horde. By helping the Jailer become strong enough to break free of his prison in Torghast, Sylvanas seeks to destroy the current cycle of life and death, not only to avoid her otherwise inevitable fate, but to -- in her words -- free people from the shackles of fate, unable to change their own destinies in both life and death. So to reiterate: Sylvanas seeks to ''destroy the cosmic laws of life and death'' just to avoid an afterlife of eternal suffering.

* [[BrokenAce Sosuke Aizen]] from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. His declaration that he will supplant God in heaven pretty much clinches it, although he could possibly just be an extreme egomaniac. Egomania is almost a requirement for the Übermensch, the main difference being that the Übermensch can back up most of his claims.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** A rare heroic example is Batman himself. He has his own code and in most adaptations only [[ThouShaltNotKill one rule]]. ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'' informs us that Gotham was once a place where law and order had given up (read: traditional morality has collapsed), and Batman has repeatedly recruited and mentored fledgling superheros (converting others to his ideals). By contrast, the Joker is a StrawNihilist. An agent of chaos even in more campy versions, he has no code, no purpose in society and no sense of hierarchy, so he'll kill just about anyone for no reason. Spending a month ''acquainted'' with him will drive you insane, if poor Harley is any indication. This is actually the key focus of ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy''.

** The Batman character that most resembles an Übermensch is WellIntentionedExtremist ComicBook/RasAlGhul. He rejects the morality of society, but he replaces it with his own. While his goal of destroying all human life seems destructive, he ultimately has the goal of recreating the Earth as a new Garden of Eden.
* Huey Freeman from ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks'': Deconstructed. Initially, Huey is the picture perfect example or was one in progress. However, as the series progresses, he has his faith challenged that force him to accept that there are forces he can't understand and sometimes he can't make a difference. As the series progresses, Huey starts become more hopeless to eventually giving up on society and accepting that his Blue and Orange Morality is not enough.
* ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'': Doctor Doom. A genius who runs his own nation and believes in no authority but that of '''[[ThirdPersonPerson DOOM]]'''. His willpower is so absurdly strong that he was able to resist the Purple Man (whose power is to make you do whatever he wants) at point-blank range when the guy's abilities had been augmented to planetary scale. His biggest weakness is his crippling desire to prove his superiority over Reed Richards -- rather like Luthor and Supes, Reed isn't interested in proving anything.
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Judge Dredd's arch-nemesis Judge Death is an OmnicidalManiac who grew up in a dark MirrorUniverse. Inspired by his father's intense hatred of humans before ultimately supplanting him, he instead developed his own philosophy that life is inherently sinful and the purpose of law is to fight life. Not just in his own universe, but ALL universes, having entered Dredd's world with his acolytes to continue his crusade. He does not see this as evil, but justice.
-->''The laws of physics, nature, and humanity are of no concern to me. In the end, there is only ONE law that matters... the law of death.''

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'': Lex Luthor. Superman is loaded with Nietzschean subtext, albeit in a very anti-Nietzschean way. Indeed, Luthor may have been purposefully designed to be this, though probably sometime after his creation. The original Superman story was [[https://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2012/06/1933s-reign-of-superman-first-superman.html "The Reign of the Superman"]] and concerned a ''Film/TheLawnmowerMan'' style plot about a down-and-outer who is given superintelligence and psychic powers, and used them to try and TakeOverTheWorld. The writers were very critical of Nietzsche and the story was intended as a TakeThat to his writings, even though it ultimately transformed into a series about a benevolent alien superhero. Upon gaining his powers the subject lost his hair and strongly resembled the future Luthor in appearance.
* V from ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'', who seeks to build an anarchist {{Utopia}} upon the ashes of the fascist Britain -- replacing the morals of the fascists with his own moral code. His incarnation of TheMovie might also count, but [[spoiler:since his death was an intrinsic part of the plan in the movie]] this lessens it somewhat. Then again [[spoiler: he did mold his co-star into somebody who could carry on his works.]]
* In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', Rorschach and his {{foil}} [[spoiler:Ozymandias]] are both examples of this but expressed in different ways. Rorschach is a textbook example of TheAntiNihilist who instead of abandoning rules and discipline due to a nihilistic outlook, he decides his rules and principles are all the more important in a world that has no more meaning than the one we impose on it. [[spoiler:Ozymandias represents the Nietzchean post-human ideal almost to a tee, being a [[SuperIntelligence superhumanly intelligent specimen]] with his own peerless moral percipience, (mostly) free of any fear from a divine creator's judgment. His vision to unite all the nations of the world under one peaceful society also reflects the Ubermensch's role in rejecting StrawNihilism that [[PracticallyJoker the Comedian]] embodies, instead providing humanity goals to strive towards. In the end, though, Veidt still demands Dr. Manhattan's appraisal, fuelling his doubts.]]
* Magneto from ''Comicbook/XMen'', as written by Chris Claremont. He actually describes himself as one in a supplemental story.

* C.S. Friedman's ''Literature/InConquestBorn'' provides an interesting case. It revolves around a pair of archrival generals (with a hefty dose of FoeYay) on opposite sides of a war. ProudWarriorRaceGuy Zatar comes from a culture essentially created to forge its nobility into Übermenschen. The other, Anzha, is the wunderkind of an experimental psychic program. Throughout the series, Zatar is actively trying to be an Übermensch, outsting his father, making very public displays of going beyond human limits, etc. while Anzha is much more singlemindedly committed to her goal (destroying Zatar's whole race for killing her family), in the process she almost incidentally realizes a stronger form of psychic practice and uses it to enslave her teachers, revolutionizes faster-than-light combat, infiltrates and manipulates two other societies, and ''awakens the hidden psychic talents of her enemy Zatar''. At that point, it becomes apparent that she was the real Übermensch all along: Zatar was trying to be one in the tradition of his society, while Anzha rejected all other values and as such has been able to cope with her abnormally strong abilities while Zatar is destroyed by them.

AdministrativiaNoRealLifeExamples ,please!

NoRealLifeExamples ,please!

No RealLifeExamples ,please!

* Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog is another heroic example. His character profiles likewise state that he has no regard for authority, and his {{Image Song}}s and ''[[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]'' make references to how he doesn't care about what's right or wrong and will always fight for what he believes in. In the latter he specifically states that he doesn't care if this makes him "the bad guy" in front of the rest of the world. His moral code consists of being "free like the wind" and doing what feels good, as he stops his arch-enemy Dr. Eggman's plans both for the fun it brings and because he dislikes the idea of others being oppressed. ''Anime/SonicX'' specifically brings this aspect of his to light, with Rouge explaining that he helped the government fight Eggman in the past only because their actions aligned with his goals, and will turn on the law without a second thought the very instant this one starts conflicting with them.

* Hannibal Lecter of ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', arguably.

* Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog is another heroic example. A number of his {{Image Song}}s and ''[[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]'' make references to how he doesn't care about what's right or wrong and will always fight for what he believes in. In the latter he specifically states that he doesn't care if this makes him "the bad guy" in front of the rest of the world. His moral code consists of being "free like the wind" and doing what feels good, as he stops his arch-enemy Dr. Eggman's plans both for the fun it brings and because he dislikes the idea of others being oppressed.

* Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog is another heroic example. A number of his {{Image Song}}s and ''[[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]'' make references to how he doesn't care about what's right or wrong and will always fight for what he believes in. The latter, he specifically states that he doesn't care if this makes him "the bad guy" in front of the rest of the world. His moral code consists of being "free like the wind" and doing what feels good, as he stops his arch-enemy Dr. Eggman's plans both for the fun it brings and because he dislikes the idea of others being oppressed.

* Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog is another heroic example. A number of his {{Image Song}}s and ''[[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]'' make references to how he doesn't care about what's right or wrong and will always fight for what he believes in. His moral code consists of being "free like the wind" and doing what feels good, as he stops his arch-enemy Dr. Eggman's plans both for the fun it brings and because he dislikes the idea of others being oppressed.

* Raskolnikov from Creator/FyodorDostoevsky's ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment'' is a VillainProtagonist who wants to be an Übermensch, and spends most of the book wondering if he is one or not. It is perhaps worth noting that the novel was published before ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' and that Raskolnikov considers Napoleon to be the archetypical Übermensch, showing t* Leto Atreides II from ''Literature/{{Dune}}'', fits this trope even more than his father, taking his father's Übermensch qualities to their logical end [[spoiler:by essentially becoming [[GodEmperor a god]] ]].hat the idea at the very least predates Nietzsche.