Kanjar Ro

Kanjar Ro is a fictional supervillain in the DC Comics universe.

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.

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 enslaved the Justice League with his Gamma Gong, and used them to battle the other three monarchs by threatening to leave all humanity in a paralyzed state, who would only be released if all three monarchs spoke Kanjar Ro's name at the same time. The League was able to defeat all three monarchs, and also defeated him, despite him taking away the monarch's voices with his energi-rod, the League had recorded their voices so humanity was freed, before imprisoning all four monarchs on a small planet which Green Lantern created a power ring barrier around.

Ro escaped after the four villains made a crack in the barrier using their thought waves, but left them, and subsequently made several attempts to conquer Rann, prompting the League's team-ups with Adam Strange. He first tried to use radiation from Rann's Triple-Star to become three times as powerful as Superman and nearly defeated the JLA, but Adam defeated him with his Dhorite Energi-rod, like Superman is weakened by Kryptonite, Kanjar was apparently vulnerable to Dhorite, and was imprisoned 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 were distracted, Kanjar Ro unleashed his latest plot of revenge against the Justice League of America: Sending out his Aura form out to his lab, Kanjar Ro used a device to draw the Auras of the Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Atom, and Aquaman to trick the other members of the Justice League into various traps which Kanjar Ro devised for them while he stole Earth. However, when the aural fakes displayed that they did not have the same weaknesses or personalities as the real JLA members, the members they'd been teamed up with realized the hoax and defeated the impostors. They learnt from Kanjor Ro's aura, upset at being left behind, his plan. They found the camouflaged Earth and transported it back, then Ro was re-imprisoned.

While on the planet Rann, Adam Strange checked on Kanjar Ro and realized what the foe is up to. Transporting his own Aura to Earth, Strange met with the real Justice League and informed them of Ro's plot. The Justice League then tracked Kanjar Ro's aural duplicate on Earth and used their combined might to stop him. With the aural Kanjar Ro defeated, the Justice League and Adam Strange imprisoned the aural Kanjar Ro within the same cell as his physical form. One of these attempts eventually proved successful, at the same time one of his previous rival monarchs conquered Thanagar. This prompted the first Rann-Thanagar War.^[1]

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths Kanjar Ro was introduced 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 was later revealed it was occurring 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, appeared in Valor as the warden of the Starlag II prison. Kanjar Ro was recently 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 take 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.^[2] Revealed as a fake, Kanjar flees Morgaine and Enigma, but is confronted by a vengeful Despero.^[3] 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, in strict accordance with the massive greed he had displayed through the series. He is last seen ready to sneak away from the fleet en route to the prison planet Takron-Galtos.

Kanjar Ro was later seen in the Oan prison cells, and was present during a mass breakout. Unwilling to be killed by the rioting prisoners, Kanjar bargained with Kyle Rayner, offering to help quell the riot in exchange for leniency on his sentence.^[4] This pact later saved Kanjar's life; The Guardians had ordered the Alpha Lanterns to kill all the escaped prisoners, and Kyle was able to have the Guardians spare Kanjar this sentence by citing his assistance during the riot.^[5]

After presumably being released from Oa, Kanjar Ro returned to Dhor and resumed his rule of the planet just as Starro the Conqueror began his latest conquest. Vril Dox proceeded to erect a forcefield barrier, stopping the spread of Starro's invasion, but also entrapping a number of planets with the Star Conqueror, Dhor and Kanjar Ro included. Kanjar Ro is then 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 sought the R.E.B.E.L.S.' help when Starro's horde began their invasion of Dhor, and was denied by the Dominator Xylon. When Kanjar sought to use his gamma gong against the horde, Starro's general Smite shattered it to pieces. As Smite was about to kill Kanjar, Adam Strange, who had just heeded Dox's call for help, zeta-beamed himself and Kanjar away to the R.E.B.E.L.S.' temporary base. It was then 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 appeared in the Justice League cartoon series, 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 with Flash sharing the sentence as well due to law stating that lawyers share the same fate as their clients. Fortunately, the Justice League learn of this and investigate. They 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 appeared in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced by Marc Worden.^[6] He was enemies with the Blue Beetle years ago and 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 the Gribble aliens because their bodies can apparently be used as fuel. During the fight against Batman and the new Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes), he managed to find a way to get the scarab off of Jaime and wear it in his next fight against Batman. Kanjar Ro was beaten by Reyes after Batman fought and distracted him, letting Jaime use the Gamma Gong to remove it 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 at the beginning of "Night of the Batmen" where he attempts 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 when attempting to disarm the bomb. He appeared in "Four Star Spectacular!" in the "World's War" vignette where he tries 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.
• In the Legends of Tomorrow episode "Marooned", Kanjar Ro was mentioned by Rip Hunter when he tells the Time Pirates that Ray Palmer has outrun Ro, although this is actually a command code established by Hunter to allow the Waverider to take particular action without Hunter's presence.

Film

• Kanjar Ro appears in the DC animated film 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.

References

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'.

External links

• Toon Zone: Kanjar Ro
• DCU Guide: Kanjar Ro chronology