Kanjar Ro

Kanjar Ro is a fictional supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics.

Kanjar Ro
Justice League of America #3 featuring Kanjar Ro,
artist Murphy Anderson,
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceJustice League of America #3 (February 1961)
Created byGardner Fox
Mike Sekowsky
In-story information
Alter egoKanjar Ro
Place of originDhor
Team affiliationsR.E.B.E.L.S.
AbilitiesBasic martial art skills, and possessed high tech weaponry, including a "Gamma Gong" that renders people motionless.

Publication history

He first appeared in Justice League of America #3 (February 1961) in a story entitled "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 it 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 has subsequently appeared 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.

Kanjar Ro appears in Trinity, having disguised himself as Despero, in order to take his place in a ritual that takes the positions of "keystones of the universe" from Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Although the ritual is successful, granting Morgaine le Fey and Enigma great power, Kanjar gains nothing, due to his deception.[3] Revealed as a fake, Kanjar flees Morgaine and Enigma, but is confronted by a vengeful Despero.[4] He barters the location of the imprisoned Crime Syndicate of Amerika in exchange for leniency; after this, he is ignored when he demands vengeance against Morgaine, and is taken to Krona's polar base, from where he radios for the heroes to save himself from the destruction Krona prepares for Earth. In the end, as the Green Lanterns take custody of Despero's massive alien armada, he reveals he has copied Krona's files and notes and is ready to sell them to the highest bidder. He is last seen ready to sneak away from the fleet en route to the prison planet Takron-Galtos.

Kanjar Ro is later seen in the Oan prison cells, and is present during a mass breakout. Unwilling to be killed by the rioting prisoners, Kanjar bargains with Kyle Rayner, offering to help quell the riot in exchange for leniency on his sentence.[5] This pact later saves Kanjar's life--The Guardians had ordered the Alpha Lanterns to kill all the escaped prisoners, and Kyle is able to convince the Guardians to spare Kanjar by citing his assistance during the riot.[6]

After presumably being released from Oa, Kanjar Ro returns to Dhor and resumes his rule of the planet just as Starro the Conqueror begins his latest conquest. Vril Dox erects a forcefield barrier, stopping the spread of Starro's invasion, but also trapping a number of planets with the Star Conqueror, Dhor and Kanjar Ro included. Kanjar Ro is seen telling Dox he "will consider" Dox's request for his assistance in stopping Starro. After ending their communication, several members of Vril Dox's R.E.B.E.L.S. team speculate that Kanjar Ro is more likely to cut a deal with Starro to save himself rather than throw in with Dox. However, Kanjar Ro seeks the R.E.B.E.L.S.' help when Starro's horde begin their invasion of Dhor, and is denied by the Dominator Xylon. When Kanjar tries to use his gamma gong against the horde, Starro's general Smite shatters it to pieces. As Smite is about to kill Kanjar, Adam Strange, who had just heeded Dox's call for help, zeta-beams himself and Kanjar away to the R.E.B.E.L.S.' temporary base. It is revealed that Dox had originally sent Strange to retrieve the gamma gong, not its inventor, who Dox described as a "dithering idiot." Nevertheless, Kanjar Ro is currently a member of the R.E.B.E.L.S. team.

Powers and abilities

Kanjar Ro is a cunning strategist and relies on advanced alien weaponry. He carries an Energi-Rod that allows him to levitate and communicate through hyper-space.

Other versions
  • Kanjar Ro has appeared in the Justice League Unlimited spin-off comic book. His appearance is in issue #4.
  • In Green Lantern comics, an alien race called "the Laroo" have a distinct likeness to Kanjar Ro except they are blue.
  • The 1980s series Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew presented the parallel Earth of "Earth-C-Minus," a world populated by funny animal superheroes that paralleled the mainstream DC Universe. Kanjar Ro had an Earth-C-Minus counterpart named "Kangar-Roo," an alien kangaroo who battled his universe's heroic Just'a Lotta Animals, paralleling the story seen in Justice League of America (volume 1) #3.
  • In the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume 3 backup feature, Minions of the Moon, the Galley-Wag escaped from slavery aboard a space ship propelled by oar-like devices, similar to Kanjar Ro's in his first appearance. His captors are said to come from Antares, and are described as pink-skinned with compound eyes and wearing short shorts. One is named Kelger Vo.

JLA/Avengers

Kanjar Ro is among the enthralled villains defending Krona's stronghold in #4. He is shown fighting Yellowjacket.

In other media

Television
  • Kanjar Ro appears in Justice League, voiced by René Auberjonois. In the episode "In Blackest Night", Kanjar Ro testifies at John Stewart's trial on Ajuris 5, describing the destruction of Ajuris 4, and the death of 3 billion people by Stewart. With Kanjar Ro's testimony, the court decides to sentence Stewart to termination for destroying the planet. The Justice League learn of this and investigate, with Flash buying time by acting as Stewart's lawyer, thus risking sharing the termination sentence due to planetary law stating that lawyers share the same fate as their clients. The League discover that Ajuris 4 is still intact, but disguised as part of a plot by the Manhunter robots to distract the Guardians, and destroy Oa. Kanjar Ro admits to being paid off after the League reveals Ajuris 4 is intact. Afterwards, Kanjar Ro was held under intergalactic custody. Kanjar Ro's ship (shown in a flashback sequence and later again in his attempt to kill Superman and Martian Manhunter on Ajuris 4's moon) bears a striking resemblance to the Legion of Super Heroes' cruiser.
Kanjar Ro as seen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
  • Kanjar Ro appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced by Marc Worden.[7] He was enemy with Blue Beetle years ago who managed to defeat the alien using a sonic-emitting Gamma Gong that the Scarab is vulnerable to. In the episode "The Rise of the Blue Beetle!", he returns to the same planet to capture more of the Gribble aliens because their bodies can apparently be used as fuel. After defeating Batman and Jamie Reyes, he managed to use the Gamma Gong to get the Scarab off of Jaime and wear it in his next fight against Batman. Just before Kanjar Ro can use the Scarab to kill Batman, Jaime uses the Gamma Gong to remove the Scarab from the space pirate. In the opening of "The Super-Batman of Planet X", Kanjar Ro appears along with his bounty of Space Pirates. They were stopped by Batman, Will Magnus and the Metal Men. Kanjar Ro appears again at the beginning of "Night of the Batmen" where he is attempting to destroy a planet for profit. He and his robot army is stopped by Batman, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Captain Marvel and Martian Manhunter but Batman is injured while attempting to disarm the bomb. He reappeared again in "Four Star Spectacular!" in the World's War vignette where he is trying to take over Rann by attempting to teleport a negaton bomb, but was foiled by Adam Strange and a puppy after he made several failed attempts to teleport the bomb to the right planet, then was teleported with the bomb he promptly shut down and is last seen eaten to death by a creature.
  • Kanjar Ro is mentioned in Legends of Tomorrow. In the episode "Marooned", he is mentioned by Rip Hunter when telling the Time Pirates that Ray Palmer has outrun Kanjar Ro, although this is actually a command code established by Hunter to allow the Waverider to take particular action without Hunter's presence.
  • Kanjar Ro appears in Justice League Action, voiced by Khary Payton. In the episode "All Aboard the Space Train", he and his crew hijack a space train containing Justice League items where they ran afoul of Batman and Cyborg. As Kanjar Ro gave Batman and Cyborg a hard time with his cloaking technology, they enlisted Space Cabbie for help. After thawing out a frozen Jonah Hex, Space Cabbie leads him into fighting Kanjar Ro and his crew in order to retake control of the space train. The two of them managed to defeat Kanjar Ro and land the train on a nearby planet.

Film
  • Kanjar Ro appears in Green Lantern: First Flight, voiced by Kurtwood Smith. This version has more squid-like facial features and is more insectoid in nature, having functional wings and being capable of flight. In the movie, he works alongside the corrupt Green Lantern Sinestro to acquire the "yellow element", a crystal that's the polar opposite of the green element which powers the Lantern Corps' battery. Sinestro plans to have Kanjar Ro use the Weaponers of Qward to create a ring for Sinestro who kills Kanjar Ro and frames Hal Jordan. Sinestro later briefly revives Kanjar Ro in the morgue reconnecting dead synapses with his energy rod to learn where Qward is. The rod and Kanjar Ro's corpse is later incinerated in a battle between Kilowog and Jordan against Sinestro's accomplice Boodikka.
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References
  1. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 250. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  2. Rovin, Jeff (1987). The Encyclopedia of Supervillains. New York: Facts on File. p. 173. ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
  3. Trinity #21
  4. Trinity #23
  5. Green Lantern Corps(Vol. 2) #38
  6. Green Lantern Corps (Vol. 2) #39
  7. "Comics Continuum by Rob Alstetter: Wednesday, October 22, 2008". 2008-10-22. Retrieved 13 November 2008.

7. DC's Legends of Tomorrow season 1 episode 7 Rip Hunter signals his ship to perform pre-planned maneuvers using the phrase 'Kanjar Ro'.

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