Not your parent's super-soldier serum.

Project Cadmus, in their "infinite" wisdom are convinced they must have a meta-human as powerful as Superman under their thumb as a fail-safe against Kal-El and any other Kryptonians or uppity aliens. To that end, they have painstakingly shadowed any and all meta-humans/aliens of comparable power in order to obtain a sample of their DNA so as to retro-engineer the samples and build a "super"-human all of their own loyal only Cadmus and the US Government.

They actually achieve their goal and produce the serum, although only one sample is viable, and ready it to be administered to their chosen military subject. When the sample is inadvertently stolen in-transit alongside the shipment used as subterfuge, and it is ingested by mistake by a young adult out on the town (through a series of mishaps the sample ends upended in his drink), all of Cadmus's and the Governments plans fail spectacularly.

A new meta-human is indeed born, one who will change the face of the world.