Superman villains gained from elsewhere?

[JulianPerez]

As the idea of the "DC Universe" started to form by tying together the different comics and concepts into a single world, Superman started to battle villains that were originally not "his." (Apparently, you can "call" villains like fly balls.)

It is true that most villains of a character show up in the beginning, and then they start to branch out into the rest of the universe. Heck, even the Justice League fought their own villains like Doctor Light and Felix Faust for YEARS before a bad guy from one of the solo member's books popped in, and perhaps they were all the better for it.

It's strange, but you look at the annual where Reed and Sue get married that stars "everybody" in the Marvel Universe. For all intents and purposes, pretty much all the major characters of the Marvel Universe TODAY showed up THEN. The only exceptions I can think of is the later addition to the Marvel Universe of Hercules, Ultron, and Kang the Conqueror by Roy Thomas.

Every comic that's starting out should have time to get its own unique identity before they start to go out and link up to everybody else. It was a mistake in the first few issues of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN to have him battle Doctor Doom.

This was one problem I always had with the 90s comics lines founded by Marvel alums, like Malibu and Valiant: their worlds were so cohesive and tied together from the outset, that none of the books ever really acquired their own identity (with the exception of the atmosphere-intense NIGHTMAN).

Anyway, as for the Superman villains that started out elsewhere and get pulled into his gravity:

Mongul.
Started out (and please don't laugh) as a John Jones, Manhunter from Mars villain. He tricked Superman into fighting John Jones for control of a crystal key, and ever since has been a Superman villain.

Amazo
A foe introduced by Gardner Fox back in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, Amazo was a Superman foe during the Schwartz years. Started out as one of Xviar's Nine Ultimate Enemies of Superman, and since then showed up over and over, most notably in a SUPERMAN SPECIAL in 1985 by E. Nelson Bridwell.

Darkseid
Yes, he did show up in an issue of SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN, but Darkseid has fought Superman often enough to be a part of his Rogues Gallery.

[Uncle Mxy]

Would you count The Wizard in this category?  He was more a JSA villain initially, but the most memorable story involving him has to do with wiping out the Earth-2 Superman.

[TELLE]

Solomon Grundy.

Superman fights the Earth-2 Grundy at some point (he comes to E-1 seeking a version of himself, ironically) and then Parasite animates the Metropolis sewers and creates the Earth-1 Grundy, who gives Superman a hard time for a few issues around #320 (1978) but mostly just gets wedged between 2 tram cars and forgotten.  Swan's E-1 Grundy has longer stringy hair and freckles/pockmarks than the classic original.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Brainstorm debuted in Justice League of America #32 (December 1964) fighting Superman, Batman, Flash, Atom, and Hawkman, but he was really after Green Lantern. He returned in #36 (June 1965) fighting the whole JLA.

AFAIK, his next appearance was in Superman #294 (December 1975) where he fought the Man of Tomorrow one-on-one. I don't know of any appearances after that. Too bad. He made a "good" villain.

...the Justice League fought their own villains like Doctor Light and Felix Faust for YEARS before a bad guy from one of the solo member's books popped in...

As soon as I read this, I was sure I could disprove your claim. However, the only evidence I could uncover was...
- JLA #21-22, where Mr. Element (a Flash-rogue) and Chronos (an Atom-opponent) teamed with Felix Faust and three villains from Earth-Two (the Wizard, the Fiddler, and the Icicle -- old Injustice Society pals) as the Crime-Champions.
- JLA #34, where the Joker (you-know-who's foe) and Chac (who previously fought Hawkman) appeared together. But this doesn't count because they were really just dream creations of Doctor Destiny!
- JLA #61, which ended with a battle royale involving several of the JLAer's individual enemies (the Penguin, Lex Luthor, Tattooed Man, Captain Boomerang, I.Q., Jason Woodrue, etc.). But once again Doctor Destiny was behind the plot, and the other villains seemed to be in his thrall!
- JLA #77, where the Joker tricked Snapper Carr in a plot to turn public opinion against the JLA. And no Doc Destiny in sight! Finally, one member's foe acting alone and in his right mind (well, as "right" as the Joker's mind can get) took on the whole team.
Okay. That last one was from 1969, nine YEARS :shock: after the JLA's debut. :oops: I yield to your superior knowledge, Julian.

[JulianPerez]

Would you count The Wizard in this category? He was more a JSA villain initially, but the most memorable story involving him has to do with wiping out the Earth-2 Superman.

If you really, really want to get technical, Earth-2 has so few villains compared to Earth-1 that, come Roy Thomas, there were some that just the "entire planet" shared. The example of the Ultra-Humanite comes to mind, as does Alexei Luthor, Sportsmaster, the Fiddler, the Wizard, that Green Lantern guy that's part plant, the Icicle, Count Vertigo, Solomon Grundy, that sort of Raggedy Andy looking guy,  Red Panzer, and...wow, I think, with a few exceptions that's pretty much everybody.

The only person on Earth-2 to have a "Rogues Gallery" comparable to the Earth-1 heroes was the enviably endowed Wonder Woman foes, featuring a crossdressing Arab woman, Giganta, Doctor Psycho, and I forget the rest. There was also Osira, who was used in an extraordinary Marty Pasko/Alan Brennert Golden Age Wonder Woman tale.

One often overlooked Earth-2 Rogues Gallery is Robotman's, which sports Rubberman and others.

Some Earth-2 characters did not obtain Earth-1 equivalents until late in the game. An example that comes to mind is Golden Ager Colonel Future, who obtained a much more sympathetic Earth-1 equivalent with a name like "Edmond Hamilton." (Classy.)

The Puzzler, a Golden Age Superman foe, didn't even have a Silver Age incarnation, until Geoff Johns brought him back recently!

[TELLE]

It would be interesting to see a list of all the E-2 villains from the various annual JSA-JLA crossovers before Crisis on Infinite Earth.