Mongul

DC Comics Presents No. 27, marking Mongul's first appearance. Art by Jim Starlin.

Mongul. A huge, yellow-skinned and enormously powerful alien warlord who is driven solely by the desire for conquest. The only known fact about Mongul's early life is that he was once the merciless dictator of an entire world until an ancient holy man called the Arkymandyte appeared and incited the general population to revolt against his rule. The revolution proved successful, and Mongul was forced to abandon his world and flee into space in order to save his own life. Because of this, it is generally assumed that Mongul aquired his vast powers as some point shortly after his exile, otherwise he would have been able to use them to put down the revolt against his dictatorship.

Sometime later (after he had gained his extraordinary power), Mongul learned of an ancient crystal key created by a deceased alien race that could give him control of the immensely powerful battle station called Warworld. This key was secreted within a crypt on the fourth planet in the Cygnus star-system, a world commonly known as New Mars and the second home of the Martian Manhunter (who had, at the time, been charged with the key's protection) and his race. Seeking a pawn who was powerful enough to defeat the Manhunter and retrieve the key, Mongul journeyed to Earth and kidnapped Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Steve Lombard in order to coerce Superman into serving him in this capacity, threatening to murder them if the Man of Steel failed to cooperate. Superman did indeed obtain the key, but naturally refused to hand it over to the alien would-be conqueror. When Mongul engaged Superman in personal combat for possession of the key, the villain proved himself to be one of the Man of Tomorrow's toughest and most dangerous opponents, nearly besting the Kryptonian before finally escaping with the key (DCCP No. 27/1, Nov. 1980: "The Key That Unlocked Chaos!"). Eventually discovering the location of Warworld, Mongul used the key to lay claim to the war machine and began preparations to use it to reconquer his lost world and then spread his rule across the universe. However, Mongul encountered resistance when he was tracked down by both Superman and Supergirl. Cybernetically linked to Warworld's vast array of extraordinarily deadly weaponry, Mongul launched a devastating attack on the two heroes using the vehicle's arsenal of ultra-powerful missiles that were capable of killing even them. However, the Super-Cousins used Mongul's cybernetic interface with Warworld's systems against him, causing him to pass out from the tremendous mental strain of controlling all of Warworld's weaponry in his continued assault. However, Mongul managed to recover in time to escape after Warworld was disabled when Supergirl destroyed its central computer core (DCCP No. 28/1, Dec. 1980: "Warworld!").

Mongul next appeared on the Throneworld of the interstellar empire known as the Infinite Realm, the ancestral home of Prince Gavyn (also known as Starman). Mongul murdered Empress Clryssa, Gavyn's sister, and forced Gavyn's love Merria to marry him in order to usurp the throne of the Infinite Realm for himself with the plan to use it as a staging ground for yet another attempt to retake the world of his first rule and build his intergalactic empire. To prevent anyone from interfering with his rule, Mongul imprisoned Starman in a dimensional-inversion cube, designed to prevent escape by warping its interior reality and absorbing any power used against it from within. In addition, the alien warlord took control of Throneworld's doomsday device, which was located within Throneworld's sun and would turn the star into a supernova if triggered, destroying the worlds of the Infinite Realm in the process. Superman arrived in the Infinte Realm and freed Starman from his cube-like prison by shattering it with his heat vision. Starman then joined the Action Ace in opposing Mongul and freeing the empire from his rule. While Starman disabled Throneworld's doomsday device, Superman engaged Mongul in one-on-one combat for the second time, a battle which turned out to be inconclusive when Starman arrived on the scene and Mongul was forced to retreat instead of facing both heroes and the empire's forces (DCCP No. 36, Aug. 1981: "Whatever Happened to Starman?").