Joe Meach was not a happy fellow. His life was saved by Superman, who then got him a job at the Superman Museum, but he soon began to resent being condemned to a life of sweeping floors by the Man of Steel - maybe a few courses in a trade school could have solved that for him. Anyway, one night while Joe is looking at a group of statues of the Legion of Superheroes a lightning bolt comes in through the open window and irradiates the statues. Joe is exposed to the irradiation, which apparently contains a bit of the powers of the Legion within it, and is given the powers of the entire Legion. Using Chameleon Boy's shape changing powers he creates the persona of the Composite Superman, half Superman and half Batman, who he also apparently resents although I'm not sure why. Joe battles the World's Finest team to a standstill, even learning their secret identities, when suddenly the charge of powers he got wears off and he's just plain old Joe the mop pusher again, with no knowledge of... well... the knowledge he had as the Composite guy. Later he gets exposed to the radiation again thanks to a not-so-friendly alien, but ends up giving his life to protect Superman and Batman - ah, redemption in the DC Universe. Anyway, I liked the look of the character but I was having trouble figuring out how to meld the Superman and Batman costumes together. Siegel and Shuster and Bob Kane should have better coordinated when they created them in the first damn place! I finally decided on two Superpowers Collection figures, taking the right arm and right leg off a Superman figure and putting them on a Batman, along with Superman's head. I then sculpted Batman's cowl from epoxy putty and reshaped the right side of Batman's belt to more resemble Superman's - not a particularly easy task. Painting the emblem on his chest was also a bit of a challenge. I also had to sew together red and blue T-shirt material to make the cape. All in all this was one of the more challenging figures I've done over time.
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