Gladiators powers?

Can anybody explain how a B-list, blue-skinned alien with a mohawk wound up with Superman's powers? I mean, really ...

He relies on confidence. If he thinks he can beat someone, it makes him strong, but catch him off guard, like Cannonball did by absorbing his punches into his field, and he loses his confidence completely. Then one punch can easily take hims down.

So when does he change his name to G'ladiator?

Actually, as of the Byrne revamp, doesn't Superman now have Gladiator's powers?

Not quite. There was a letter or two from Byrne in The Comic Reader back in the late 70s/early 80s positing his theory that Superman's powers were mostly based on various mental powers rather than physical. He moved that theory to Gladiator, and then when he got at least semi-control over Superman implemented as much of them as he could with Kal-El.

'Fairy Dust! He can fly because of Fairy Dust!'

I'm pretty sure that the Kal-elesque name only dates back to the same series that debuted Commando; both are way too recent to tell us anything about the original intent of the character.

Whether he was intended to be an analogue for Superboy or Mon-El is pretty much anybody's guess.