Torr the Terrible

Torr the Terrible

The power-hungry "space emperor"—so named "because of the many worlds he [has] vanquished and looted"—who is the ruler of Duplor, a far-distant planet, situated in the Duplor Galaxy, which is the home of the Duplorians, a humanoid "race of space conquerors," all of whom "look exactly alike" due to "an accident of evolution," who have "plundered countless planets" with the awesome "weapons of [their] super-science."

By July 1965, however, having gambled away virtually his entire "space empire" by wagering recklessly "with other space rulers, using whole planets as stakes," Torr the Terrible has concocted an evil scheme of conquest known as Project Earth-Doom, a mad plot to "kidnap the Earth" and a dozen other planets by using the "volcanic forces" of these various worlds to power gigantic atomic engines designed to propel the captive planets out of their respective solar systems into a new galaxy being prepared by Torr's minions in the outer reaches of spaces, an artificially created galaxy which will enable the power-mad Torr to rule unchallenged over "the greatest space-domain in the universe."

After successfully thwarting the Duplorian scheme to kidnap Earth and other planets, Superman races to Duplor for a showdown with Torr the Terrible, only to find the villain—his sanity shattered by the strain of defeat—standing alone on a balcony, deprived of his empire and deserted by his followers, pathetically shouting orders to an army of inanimate robots, his only remaining subjects.

"Now Duplor is a huge asylum for a single madman!" muses Superman grimly. "Let it be a warning to all other would-be emperors...dreams of conquest are only madness!" (S No. 178/1: "Project Earth-Doom!"). (TGSB)