Than-Ar

Than-Ar

An official of Kandor and longtime friend of Superman, sometimes rendered Than-Kar, who agrees to transform himself temporarily into a “Metalloid,” or metal man, by means of a special “force-radiating instrument” capable of transforming human flesh into “invulnerable metal” and to embark on a bogus crime rampage in Kandor as part of an elaborate scheme devised by Superman for undoing the serious loss of morale and self-confidence recentiy suffered by Batman as the result of having been wounded by a ricocheting bullet during a battle with criminals. The plot becomes unexpectedly complicated, however, when Jhan-Ar, the evil brother of Than-Ar, steals the force-radiating instrument, manufactures a series of duplicate instruments with which he transforms himself and two accomplices into metalloids, and then unleashes a genuine metalloid menace in Kandor. The villains are ultimately defeated and apprehended by Batman and Robin, however, with the aid of Superman and Jimmy Olsen, who function throughout most of the adventure in their Kandorian identities of Nightwing and Flamebird (WF No. 143, Aug 1964: “The Feud Between Batman and Superman!”; “The Manhunters from Earth!”).