Manga Khan
| Manga Khan | |
|---|---|
 Manga Khan and L-Ron as depicted inWho's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe#3 (October 1990). Art byJoe Phillips(penciller/inker) and Anthony Tollin (colorist). | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Justice League International#14 (June 1988) |
| Created by | Keith Giffen J.M. DeMatteis Steve Leialoha |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Unknown |
| Team affiliations | The Cluster |
| Abilities | Alien being which exists in a gaseous state possessing telepathic abilities. |
Manga Khan,originally known asLord Manga,is aDC Comicssupervillainand an intergalactic trader. A gaseous being, he relies on a metallic suit to give him form. He had a robot companion namedL-Ron(before trading him to the Justice League), and was a foe of theJustice Leaguein the early 1990s.[1]
Fictional character biography
[edit]In one of his first encounters with the Justice League, Manga kidnapsMister Miracleto open up trade relations withApokolips.He is followed in a spaceship byBig Barda,G'nort,Rocket Red,andMartian Manhunter.Teamwork allows them to find Manga, which enrages him to the point of damaging his L-Ron. His robotic assistant is not too concerned, he then ponders what the 'fall line' of robotic forms look like.
Eventually, Manga Khan reforms and becomes an ally of the League, helping to imprisonDesperoafter theMartian Manhunterdevolves him and allowing L-Ron to join them.
InJustice League Europe#28, Manga takes the defeated villainStarro.Despero however escapes, but Khan hiresLoboto retrieve him. Lobo comes to believe that Khan's way of speaking has started to affect him: Khan suffers from a condition which causes him to soliloquy at random intervals, in a parody of comics from the sixties. In the same vein, he founds the Manga Khan School of Melodrama to teach similar speech patterns to other characters. One of his alumni is the Scarlet Skier.
Khan later works with Mister Miracle as part of a scheme to market soap all across the galaxy. At first it gets the two into trouble with the dolphin-loving Lobo. Khan suffers damage to his robotic shell but later recovers.[2]Later, they attempt to market the soap to the denizens ofApokolipsbeforeDarkseidstops their revolution.[3]
Powers and abilities
[edit]In his natural gaseous state, Manga Khan can communicate telepathically but cannot physically interact with anything. He normally wears an armored suit that makes him impervious to damage and grants him superhuman strength. Manga is a poor fighter preferring to talk his way out of combat. Manga is a master negotiator and barterer, thoroughly lacking ethics in his wheeling and dealings.
Relationships
[edit]Many of Manga Khan's male (or "male" -personality) robotic assistants are named afterscience fictionwriters: L-Ron afterL. Ron Hubbard,Hein-9 afterRobert A. Heinlein,K-Dikk afterPhilip K. Dick.In the 2003 miniseriesFormerly Known as the Justice League,a "female" robotic assistant, J-Lo, was introduced, whose moniker is derived from a popular nickname forJennifer Lopez.This same series saw Manga Khan speaking of strong feelings for L-Ron, which he referred to as "the love which can never speak its name".A portion of the storyline is dedicated to his attempts to recover the robot, who remains in the company of several of Earth's superheroes. The same storyline implied that J-Lo was interested in a relationship with Manga Khan, which the alien trader seemed to reciprocate. Although none of the robots have biological genders, their personalities are described as such, and they are referred to by other characters with appropriate pronouns.
References
[edit]- ^Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019).DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle.DK Publishing. p. 295.ISBN978-1-4654-8578-6.
- ^Mister Miracle#13-14 (March–April 1990).
- ^Mister Miracle#17-18 (July–August 1990)
