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Javaman

(62,530 posts)
Fri Mar 22, 2024, 08:20 AM Mar 22

The origin of Super Villians: Kanjar Ro

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanjar_Ro

Publication history
He first appeared in Justice League of America #3 (February 1961) in the story "The Slave Ship of Space", and was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky.[1]

Fictional character biography
Kanjar Ro is the dictator of the planet Dhor in the Antares star system. Dhor is constantly at war with three other Antarean worlds: Alstair, ruled by the plant-like Queen Hyathis; Mosteel, ruled by the metal-skinned Kromm; and Llarr, ruled by the lizard-like Emperor Sayyar. In his first appearance, he enslaves the Justice League with his Gamma Gong, and uses them to battle the other three monarchs by threatening to leave all humanity in a paralyzed state, to only be released if all three monarchs spoke Kanjar Ro's name at the same time. The League is able to defeat all three monarchs, and also defeat him, despite him taking away the monarchs' voices with his energi-rod (the League had recorded their voices so humanity was freed). The JLA imprisons all four monarchs on a small planet around which Green Lantern creates a power ring barrier.[2]

Ro escapes after the four villains make a crack in the barrier with their thought waves, but leaves the other three behind. Ro makes several attempts to conquer Rann, prompting the League to team-up with Adam Strange. He first uses radiation from Rann's Triple-Star to become three times as powerful as Superman and nearly defeats the JLA, but Adam defeats him with his own Dhorite Energi-rod (like Superman is weakened by Kryptonite, Kanjar is vulnerable to Dhorite) and imprisons Ro in a prison with bars of Dhorite. For some reason the yellow radiation he released means Adam cannot stay on Rann for more than a year. While the people of the planet Rann are distracted, Kanjar Ro creates a duplicate of himself from his own aura and leaves it in his place. He then uses the auras of the Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Atom, and Aquaman to create doubles to draw the other members of the Justice League into various traps which Kanjar Ro has devised. The real members of the JLA are able to spot the duplicates as they do not have the same weaknesses or personalities as the real JLA members. Kanjor Ro's duplicate, upset at being left behind, reveals the real Ro's plan to the JLA, who return the camouflaged Earth back to its proper location and re-imprison the real Ro.

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths Kanjar Ro is reintroduced in Hawkworld as a plotting bureaucrat in the Thanagarian Ministry of Alien Affairs. This was originally intended to take place prior to JLA #3, but is later revealed to occur in the present. Ro's pre-Crisis background still exists, however, as his Gamma Gong is kept in the Justice League Watchtower's trophy room.

Kanjar Ro subsequently appears in both Superman and JLA (vol. 3) attempting to conquer planets through force or guile. Kanjar Ro's sister, Kanjar Ru, appears in Valor as the warden of the Starlag II prison. Kanjar Ro is mentioned in Justice League of America #4 in passing by Black Lightning. He later appears in Justice League of America #19 on the planet Cygnus 4019, the intended prison planet for Earth's supervillains. After attempting to capture the League (who had come to check on the prisoners) he reveals that he planned to take control of the villains upon their arrival, only for their teleport beams to be redirected elsewhere.

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