King Kull (DC)
King Kull is a male comic supervillain who features in Fawcett Comics/DC Comics.
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Biography
Pre-Crisis
King Kull
Thirty thousand years ago, Earth was populated by two species namely the Beastmen and Mankind. (Marvel Family v1 #67) The Submen were regarded as a mighty civilization of superhuman beings with scientific weapons unlike any seen even by modern humanity. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125) These Beastmen attempted to destroy the civilization that arose from the time prior the Ice Age. (Marvel Family v1 #67) This changed when mankind rose in bloody revolt against the Submen as humans were used in gladiatorial combat with this sparking a war to the death fought between the two races. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125) Despite their scientific superiority, they were quickly overwhelmed by the more numerous humans. (Marvel Family v1 #67) At the time, the being known as Kull was the King of the Submen though his people were exterminated by mankind. In those final days, humans attempted to slay him but Kull fled to his secret lair and triggered a bomb in his wake in order to make his pursuers believe that he had killed himself. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125) As such, he was the last survivor of a race of prehistoric Submen who vowed revenge against humanity. To survive, he built a hidden underground vault in order to protect himself and his scientific secrets. Through such means, King Kull managed to survive across history where he would rise in order to attack and plague mankind thus sparking the legends of horrible evil in the world. His attacks often during night time led to the birth of legends such as the Boogeyman and the Old Man of the Sea. (Marvel Family v1 #67) Kull was a terror feared in countless lands with legends of his terrible reign being known in the Orient. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125)
Knowledge of King Kull came in the modern age when a chasm formed in the Earth allowing him to reach the surface. At the time, Station Whiz reporters arrived at the scene with boy newscaster Billy Batson arriving the scene. A reporter named Charlie was attacked by Kull leading to Batson calling on the power of Shazam to become Captain Marvel to rescue the falling human. Afterwards, Kull fled in order to damage one of the support struts for a bridge that trains travelled through but Captain Marvel repaired the damage before confronting the ancient Beastman. King Kull would escape and activate the moon machine in order to destroy the planet and broadcast his origins to the world as he prepared it for destruction. However, Batson managed to free himself from Kull and called upon the might of Shazam to defeat the ancient Subman. He then forced Kull to reveal the location of the moon machine and temporarily trapped him in a cave to destroy the device but discovered that the Subman managed to escape during that time. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125)
The Beastman King Kull came to learn that Shazam had ages ago captured the Seven Deadly Sins, evils gods that represented the worst of humanity, and kept them as stone statues in the Rock of Eternity. He used a life-ray to restore them to life, bringing them to his underground kingdom Evil Olympus to manufacture sin bombs to destroy mankind. Billy Batson showed up at work, thrilled with his job when Sterling Morris announced he was cutting his salary as well as the salaries of everyone at WHIZ so he could keep all the money for himself. Billy was bummed and stopped at Doc Quartz’ for a soda, but Doc said he hated his customers and kicked him out. The dejected Billy visited Dexter Knox, to find the boy genius sleeping instead of working on science experiments. Billy spotted King Kull lobbing sin bombs around Fawcett City, and changed into Captain Marvel. Kull shoved him out of the way, fleeing back to his hideout underground. Marvel consulted Shazam, who told him all about the Sins. Kull started dropping sin bombs from a helicopter, and Billy was at WHIZ when he was hit. Full of hatred he almost attacked his boss before fighting off the effects of hatred and changing into Captain Marvel. Marvel confronted Kull in Evil Olympus, defeating him and using his life-ray to turn the Sins back into stone statues. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #137)
Mr. Mind later teamed with the 5th Dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk to conspire against Captain Marvel and Mxyzptlk ‘s enemy Superman. Mr. Mind recruited King Kull, promising he could destroy humanity after he helped them defeat the heroes. Mxyztplk created a magic lightning rod at the Rock of Eternity that transferred Shazam lightning bolts to Kull, increasing his power fourfold. He stood his ground against Marvel and Superman, but Mxyztplk was uncomfortable with muder, he only wanted to torment Superman, so he sent the heroes to Earth-S’ funny animal dimension to protect them. Kull left Mind to deal with his reluctant associate while he stormed the U.N. to let the world know he intended to obliterate humanity. He was opposed by Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Marvel, but easily defeated him. Mxyztplk knew the villains had gone too far, and undid his spells, returning Kull to normal strength. He sent funny animal Hoppy the Marvel Bunny after Kull, who defeated the villain with one punch. (DC Comics Presents v1 #34)
On Democracy Day, Kull broke into the Rock of Eternity following an earthquake and intended to extinguish the three torches representing democracy, freedom as well as liberty. These torches were kept safe by the wizard Shazam but King Kull intended to stop their flames from burning as mankind prospered in democracy and thus end peace on Earth. After stealing the torches, he placed them within a dark river to knock out the flames whereupon he escaped the Marvel Family by entering an underground river. This saw riots forming among the human population that desired to bring down democracy and install Kull as the dictator of the world. However, the Marvel Family travelled back in time to bring back the flames of democracy from those that inspired them thus restoring it to Earth. King Kull attempted to kill these figures but was stopped by Captain Marvel and was forced to flee into the underground tunnels. (Marvel Family v1 #67)
His chains were broken when the magic lightning bolt was deflected by Captain Nazi's shield and instead struck Kull freeing the last of the Beastmen. Once freed, he made his escape from the Rock of Eternity and began to revert time backwards to the time of the Beastmen and use his knowledge to ensure their ascendance against True Humans. The Marvel Family would travel through Hell itself in order to go back in time to stop Kull in his plot whereupon he was taken to prison once more. (Shazam! v1 #35)
Fawcett City from Earth-S was later taken by Brainiac who managed to save it from the destruction of the Multiverse. Thus, it and all its occupants survived within a domed city with King Kull being among the many trapped inside. They were then placed among the various bottled cities on the living world of Telos that had survived the cosmic events that erased entire realities. Hiding underground, King Kull came to find the broken parts of the machine known as Mr. Atom and used his technical genius to repair the robot. The pair joined other noted villains of their world including Dr. Sivana and Ibac who operated in secret within the city. Using the body of the petrified Oggar, Dr. Sivana and Ibac used magic to disguise themselves as Billy Batson's trusted allies. The intention was to secretly infiltrate the Marvel Family in order to destroy. Billy Batson came to uncover the plot but was powerless against his foes as the domed city prevented him from turning into Captain Marvel. In this time, King Kull used a sonic weapon to deal with the threat posed by Tawky Tawny. This meant that Batson and his friends were nearly overwhelmed by his enemies when the shield around the city dropped allowing him to become Captain Marvel again. King Kull then joined in the fight against his old foe but was ultimately defeated alongside the other villains as their lair collapsed. However, Captain Marvel's attention was turned elsewhere when Fawcett City of Earth-S came under attack from a rival Gotham City from another Earth in the Multiverse. (Convergence: Shazam! v1 #1)
Post-Crisis
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
He was later shown battling Stargirl and Cyclone as part of a massive plot by Prometheus to distract Earth's superheroes so that he could plant massive teleportation devices in various cities. (Justice League: Cry for Justice v1 #5)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new history of events was created as a result of the altered timeline. King Kull was once the King of the Earthlands long ago until he was thwarted by humanity. (Shazam! v3 #13) This saw him being imprisoned in the Dungeon of Eternity located within the dreaded Monsterlands within the Magiclands. (Shazam! v3 #12) As Shazam fights the Mister Mind-controlled C.C. Batson, King Kull states to the rest of the Monster Society of Evil to leave the women to him while Mister Merry-Go-Round states that he "gets the youngest to play with" which is what they agreed on. While mentioning that his kind used to rule the Earthlands, Mary tricks King Kull into attacking the three-headed Crocodile-Man. He manages to pin Mary down as Mister Mind provokes Shazam into reading a spell from the Book of Champions that unites the Seven Magiclands. (Shazam! v3 #13) King Kull continues his fight with Mary until magical energy emitted from Shazam defeating Mister Mind knocked him and the Monster Society of Evil out. The Monster Society of Evil was mentioned to have been remanded to Rock Falls Penitentiary where the Shazam Family built a special section to contain magical threats. (Shazam! v3 #14)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, he was said to resemble the boogey man or an evil demon. (Marvel Family v1 #67) Mankind often referred to Kull as other monstrous creatures such as the Wolf Man, the Beastman, the Boogeyman and as a Banshee. His existence was noted for being an ancient fear from times immemorial and was called the ancient enemy of the whole human race. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125)
Captain Marvel once described him as being the world's worst enemy with Kull championing the cause of bringing the end of democracy. (Marvel Family v1 #67) He had a singular savage goal in that he desired to wipe out the human race and destroy the world as revenge for the death of his people. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125)
Powers and abilities
He claimed that he knew the underground regions like a book and actually kept a hidden underground vault to serve as his lair that remained a secret from his enemies. (Marvel Family v1 #67) King Kull had a secret chamber located fifty miles beneath the Earth's surface and contained a host of advanced technology. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125)
Kull's strength allowed him to easily bend the supporting struts of a bridge and even punch Captain Marvel into large rocks with Batson claiming that it was the most powerful punch he had ever faced as a superhero. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125) Being a powerful Subman, he had incredible durability allowing him to survive superpowered strikes such as those from Captain Marvel Junior. He also had ape-like agility that allowed him to quickly evade a melee strike made on him. (Marvel Family v1 #67)
The lair of King Kull contained a host of advanced technology created by his people the Submen. His headquarters also contained equipment that could put him within a state of suspended animation that allowed him to sleep for thousands of years. Among the technology also included the moon machine that could expand the size of the Moon thus increasing the effects of gravity it had on Earth. This would lead to severe environmental effects such as tidal influences and would eventually spin Earth outside of its orbit whereupon it would fall into the sun. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125) Another was a machine that allowed him to reverse time itself to an earlier period. (Shazam! v1 #35)
Notes
- King Kull was created by writer Otto Binder and artist C. C. Beck who made his first appearance in Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #125 (October, 1951).
Alternate Versions
- In Convergence: Shazam (2015), a version of Fawcett City was abducted by Telos with this one holding a version of King Kull who was among the Monster Society of Evil that were in hiding. He was responsible for rebuilding the destroyed Mister Atom as after his last battle enough parts remained to reconstruct him.
In other media
Television
- In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a character named Kru'll the Eternal was seemingly based on King Kull with some traits of Vandal Savage who appeared in the animated television series in the episode "Menace from the Conquering Caveman!" where he was voiced by actor Michael Dorn. 10,000 years ago, a meteorite crashed on Earth. A protohuman Cro-Magnon bathed in its radioactive rays. Naming himself Kru'll the Eternal, he terrorized early man but was opposed by Anthro. Kru'll outlived his people and set out to rule the world. From Aztecs to Romans, Kru'll continued to face a simple problem, he always outlived those he conquered. Over the centuries, he studied sciences and became adept with using technology for his various plans.
Appearances
- Captain Marvel Adventures v1: (1951)
- Marvel Family v1 #67:
- Shazam! v1:
- Convergence: Shazam! v1: (2015)
- Shazam! v3: (2020)
External Links
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