Despero
Despero is a male extraterrestrial comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Pre-Crisis
Despero was a pink-skinned with a central fin on his forehead who was an inhabitant of the planet Kalanor. (Justice League of America v1 #1)
After coming into power, he ruled his dimensional world as a tyrant with Saranna and Jasonar fleeing the world. In response, Despero dispatched hunters to capture them as the two looked to find shelter on Earth in order to develop a weapon to help defeat the tyrant and topple his rule. Upon learning of this, he discovered that the escapees had found a friend in the the Flash who called a meeting of the Justice League. However, upon arriving, he found that they had fallen under the hypnotic thrall of Despero. He then waged a game against the Flash where the Justice League were used as pieces in the match. Unknown to the Flash, Despero was manipulating his perception of the game in order to secure his defeat and his losses led to his comrades being teleported to distant worlds with the intention of perishing in their harsh environments. Despero also used this to track down Jasonar and claim his anti-weapon but Snapper Carr came to use the device against the tyrant of Kalanor who was depowered leading to his capture. Jason then took the villain back to their world to stand trial for his actions with the Justice League freed from Despero's control. (Justice League of America v1 #1)
He was taken back to Kalanor for punishment where he was sentenced to a rehabilitation program that consisted of the surgical removal of his third eye. It was deemed that this would make him like the other citizens of the planet and be reformed as an honest as well as good person. At first, he pretended to be an honest citizen but he was simply buying his time to allow his body to regenerate his third eye. His high mental rating led to him being assigned to a research laboratory where Despero enacted his scheme that involved an explosion to make it appear that he was killed but in reality he escaped and plotted his next plan for global conquest. Arriving on Earth in secret, he used chronal energy to age several of the Justice League whereupon he began to steal the unique energies inherent in them. After trapping them, he used his enhanced abilities to fashion three new versions of Earth where each had a different form of dominant life with one held by reptiles, another by insects and the third by marine creatures. He then displaced the Justice League to each of the alternate Earth's where he stripped them of their powers in order for them to watch helplessly as he conquered each world. (Justice League of America v1 #26)
After escaping from the Krill, he plotted his revenge against the Justice League and targeted the Martian Manhunter who was on his people's new world of Mars II. Despero threatened to kill the peaceful Martians and also the Justice League unless J'onn J'onnz participated in a game. J'onnz reluctantly agreed with Despero arranging for an elaborate cosmic game of chess but as part of his schemes he decided to use the Justice League themselves as his player pieces. Meanwhile, the Martian Manhunter was given a set of animated chess pieces where he had to destroy the Justice League with them or suffer Mars II's destruction at the villain's hands. The game was won by whoever could no longer field any pieces in the match. Unknown to the villain, the Martian was secretly sending messages to the heroes allowing them to realise the true circumstances of the strange incidents affecting them. They managed to teleport to Despero's ship with the villain being unware of this making it seem that he had no pieces to field. This allowed the heroes to attack him leading to his capture and arrest by Martian authorities. (Justice League of America v1 #178)
Later on, he was among supervillains that fought Earth's heroes during the multiversal conflict being fought against the Anti-Monitor. During the battle, he came to be knocked out by Platinum. (Crisis on Infinite Earths v1 #10)
Post-Crisis
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Despero was the pink-skinned inhabitant of the planet Kalanor that centuries ago was inhabited by a technologically advanced humanoid race. At their prime, they came to harness nuclear energy and created a powerful reactor in the city of Py'tar. Despite warnings, the reactor was activated and exploded where it clouded the entire world in radioactive storms that wiped out the dominant race on the planet. Those surviving species were mutated beyond recognition and a fierce battle for dominance erupted until in the end several intelligent races emerged with one being proto-humanoids and another being a pink-skinned finned telepathic people that evolved from a lower evolutionary form. With their powers, Despero's people enslaved the other weaker species and ruled over Kalanor for over a century as they rebuilt their planet. (Justice League of America v1 #253)
On Kalanor, he sought a means of getting his revenge against the Justice League and decided to empower himself with the Flame of Py'tar. (Justice League of America v1 #249)
Single-minded in his revenge, he took a ship that brought him to Earth's solar system where he went to the Justice League's orbiting satellite only to find it abandoned. He the determined that his foes must be on the planet's surface. (Justice League of America v1 #251) This saw him sending the satellite headquarters crashing to the planet where it landed by the Canadian as he looked for the location of the heroes. After killing a nearby hunter, he learnt from their mind that the Justice League had been disbanded and that a new incarnation of the team was currently operating. Despero had intended to confront them and use them to find the other heroes so that he could get his revenge. (Justice League of America v1 #252)
Whilst in space, his defeat led to him feeling unending hatred for the Justice League and he wanted his revenge against them. He came to be drawn back to Earth where he crashed into the U.N. and sensed the presence of one of his foes. However, he only found the unresponsive Steel whose body was on a life support machine but his mind had long died away. In anger, Despero destroyed his remains and continued his pursuit of the other Justice League members. He next travelled to the home of Gypsy when she was away and was responsible for killing her entire family. The alien then attempted to kill Gypsy herself when she returned home but she fled the scene with Despero taking out his rage on the entire town before attempting to track her down. (Justice League America v1 #38)
Despero managed to overpower the League leading to Booster Gold bringing the Conglomerate into the fight. It was then that Lobo looked to claim his bounty where the two battled with this serving as a distraction. This allowed for Kilowog to activate a machine located on a collar placed on the villain's body that used components from the robot L-Ron that allowed the machine to take control of Despero's body. As a result, Manga Khan considered the bounty claimed and he had the L-Ron possessed Despero join him on his ship as it went back into space. (Justice League Europe v1 #34)
Though seemingly killed, his mind had become a free floating evil essence that was able to possess innocent people. In this state, he confronted Young Justice who were currently attempting to prove their maturity by tackling a crisis on their own. Initially, he sought to possess Superboy after seeing Kon-El as the most powerful host available as Robin was merely mortal and he could barely comprehend Impulse's chaotic mind. Eventually, he managed to take control of the Martian Manhunter who had been watching the fight in case the teens required assistance. Using J'onn's primal fear of fire, they drove Despero out of his body and he was subsequently banished to another dimension by Secret although he apparently escaped. (Young Justice v1 #6)
As a psychic being, he came to hear a call and went towards it where he came to coalesce in the abyssal plane that was a realm located in a dimension in a crack in reality. Once there, he encountered Johnny Sorrow who was a villain of the Justice Society who had been banished from Earth. The two then decided to work as allies in order to get their revenge against their respective enemies. Using their combined psychic power, they came to reach out to Doctor Bedlam where they overpowered his mind. They forced him into the abyssal plane and took control over him where they had him a doorway to Earth where Sorrow went to the Rock of Eternity to free the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man that possessed several of the planet's heroes. Bedlam then was sent along with an army of Animates against Earth that was a ruse to allow Despero to take control of Lex Luthor. Despero then manifested through Luthors body where he battled the superheroes as he sought to conquer the planet. This was until several of the heroes released their compatriots from the sins whereupon they rallied against Despero and Johnny Sorrow. Despite their strength, the pair were defeated with the heroes using Sorrow's power to force Despero from Luthor's body thus freeing him from the villains control. (JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice v1 #1)
Green Lantern Hal Jordan managed to cage Despero and delivered him to Oa for prosecution for breaking over seven hundred laws in the Book of Oa. (Green Lantern v4 #7)
Vril Dox reached out to various planets with a hologram to aid him in battling Starro the Conquerer. Despero turned him down, and said he wished he came in person so he could rip Vril's face off. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v1 #7) Starro's High Vanguard invaded Kalanor, and Despero fought them in a pitched battle, demanding single combat with Starro. Starro agreed to his demand, and while Despero blustered about his power he entered Starro's mind and found a will he could not break down. Starro beheaded Despero, saying he would have wished Despero to serve in his High Vanguard, but his peek at Despero's mind made it clear Despero would serve no man. (R.E.B.E.L.S. Annual v1 #1) On Kalanor, Vril Dox found the decapitated Despero, and told him he had regenerated his body in exchange for help with Starro. He was building a weapon to separate Starro the Conquerer from his mindslaves, and had his R.E.B.E.L.S. acquire a genebomb and the remnants of Dhor's gamma gong while sending Kanjar Ro on a side-mission which would end his feud with Despero. Despero admired how Vril played his teammates against each other, and wondered why he always pandered to law and order. Vril said law was a bludgeon in his hands. Vril used a Psion science lab to grow Despero a new body, and presented him with the weapon he'd constructed from the gamma gong and genebomb that would sever Starro from his star-slaves. The last thing he needed was Despero's Flame of Py'tar to charge its' psionic matrix. Vril's son Lyrl Dox opened his transmatter portal, and snatched his father away. Starro was planning an invasion of Earth, but Lyrl had decided the warlord was beneath his 12th-level intelligence, and wanted to help Vril kill him. He'd deduced the weapon Vril would construct for the task, and broke Vril's arm, not wanting him to be the triggerman because he said he wanted him alive. Starro thought Lyrl's next transmatter portal would take him to Earth, but Lyrl said he'd be sending him to Vril's ship so he could be ambushed. The R.E.B.E.L.S. were prepared when Starro arrived, and the villain was not entirely surprised that Lyrl had betrayed him. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v1 #13)
Vril had a rare miscalculation; his weapon had no effect on Starro. He clashed with the R.E.B.E.L.S. saying he'd miss them when they were dead because they provided so much sport. He discovered the Psions lab of genetically altered and dissected Starros, and flew into a rage. His proximity to them gave him control over them, and within moments all of the R.E.B.E.L.S. were his star-slaves, save for Vril, who threw up a personal forcefield. The Omega Men returned from their mission, armed with darts dipped in a poison that could kill Starros. They struck the Conqueror, but missed his Starro, forcing Vril to get close enough to him to kill the creature with a dart. The Conqueror's Starro died, severing his connection to trillions of mind-slaves, and killing their Starros as well. Despero performed the coup de grace, and told the R.E.B.E.L.S. they were invited to Kalanor to witness Starro's execution. Vril sent out a broadcast proclaiming his victory, giving his intention to put L.E.G.I.O.N. back on track and finding some way for everyone he helped to thank him. Adam Strange thought that Vril might be a worse manipulator than Starro. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v1 #14) Despero's approval rating jumped 20 as he made a spectacle of Starro's public execution. Starro was still in shock at having lost his empire, and refused to believe this was his ignoble end. Before Despero's ax could be brought down on his neck he was freed by Astrild and Smite, who insisted they never lost faith in him. Smite wanted to stand and fight Despero, but Astrild insisted that Starro's safety was their main concern, and they fled. Despero called them cowards and promised vengeance. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v1 #15)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Despero
At some point, he was known to had fought the Justice League where he was defeated by the Martian Manhunter when he was a member of the team. This saw Despero being imprisoned in a cell on Mars where he remained for sometime and led to him vowing revenge against the heroes. (Justice League v2 #20)
After being freed, he attacked the Watchtower in order to get his revenge though only the new Atom Rhonda Pineda, Firestorm and Element Woman were on the scene. The three struggled to fight against Despero who used his powerful telepathy to incapacitate the heroes and nearly killed them but it was then that the Martian Manhunter arrived at the scene. The Martian Manhunter was able to defeat Despero and left him to be apprehended by the Justice League though the battle had caused the Watchtower to crash to Earth's surface. (Justice League v2 #20) He later stood amongst the Secret Society of Super-Villains when the Crime Syndicate of America arrived on that world and had taken it over. (Forever Evil v1 #1) He worked with the Secret Society to ensure that all the heroes that were detained inside the Firestorm Matrix would be too disoriented with his telepathy to try and break out. (Justice League of America v3 #13)
He was later being transported to Belle Reve where he was kept in a sealed container when Despero awoke and escaped without anybody ever realizing. The alien returned to his home world of Kalanor where he killed the elders that had ruled it, declaring himself the new ruler and mind-controlling the rest of his planet's inhabitants (Death of Hawkman v1 #3) From there he would instigate tensions that reignited the long standing conflict between Rann and Thanagar by implementing suicide bombing perpetrated by mind controlled wingmen, using it as a cover to orchestrate the demise of Alanna's father. Further pushing the two worlds towards interplanetary war, in truth however Despero had been keeping Sardath alive and under mental persuasion like his daughter in order to replicate his Zeta-Technology on a much grander scale. The cosmic tyrant intending to beam an army towards earth in an attempt to conquer it and its meta-human protectors. (Death of Hawkman v1 #5) One of the crucial elements Despero needed for his plans was Thanagar's Nth Metal, a fresh deposit of which had been found on the largest of the planets three moons. As a testing phase he set the Zeta Beam portal to snatch up its entire core, causing the lunar body to explode and rain genocide down on the unsuspecting Thanagarian homeworld. Now armed with the metamorphic material, he launched one final assault on Adam Strange and Hawkman, literally ripping out the precious metal from the ailing heroes body. (Death of Hawkman v1 #4) As the battles escalated and his hold over the Nth Mental in Katar's being solidified. In a last ditch effort Hawkman dealt a crippling blow to the monsterous despot, splattering his skull with his own Nth Metal just as Adam sabotaged the Zeta Beamer. Seemingly eradicating the three battlers when they were really transported around and beyond existence. Despero reviving himself shortly after from a few scraps of leftover Nth Metal. (Death of Hawkman v1 #6)
Overview
Personality and attributes
After crashing into the U.N., he began to drab its flag around him as a cape. (Justice League America v1 #38) He later swore revenge against the Justice League where he came to call himself Despero the Destroyer. (Justice League of America v1 #250)
According to him, his race had always been intensely competitive. (Justice League of America v1 #253)
He was said to had been consumed with a rage that could only be sated by destroying the Justice League. (Justice League of America v1 #251) The heroes of Earth were said to had broken and humiliated him with Despero suffering pain he had never experienced before. This had taught him to hate in new and darker ways with him expressing this in his rage. He was said to only be capable of hate by this point and that this needed to be expressed against his foes. Despero found feelings of love to be illogic and insane with him puzzled by people clinging to it. Instead, he was fuelled by his hatred and gave him purpose in life. He enjoyed the death and destruction he was capable of bringing with him considering this 'playing' as a source of amusement. (Justice League America v1 #38) He had said that he despised the Justice League more than any other group in the universe. (Justice League of America v1 #177)
He was said to be a sportsman who enjoyed playing games with his foes. (Justice League of America v1 #1) It was his nature as an inhabitant of Kalanor to not outright kill his foes. (Justice League of America v1 #26)
It was noted that his mother had tried to kill his father with this coming from a competitive streak as she wanted to rule their world. In response, he came to kill her and years later Despero was responsible for killing his own father. (Justice League of America v1 #253)
Powers and abilities
It was shown that he was able to withstand the heat from the Flames of Py'tar and even the heat from atmospheric re-entry without a protective suit. (Justice League of America v1 #251)
He was known to possess a high mental rating that allowed him to operate in a research laboratory. (Justice League of America v1 #26) Such was his great strength that he was able to hold up the Rock of Eternity that was sent crashing onto him. (JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice v1 #1)
His senses were able to feel people even if they were invisible to his eyes. The third eye on his forehead could also influence the visual senses of another person allowing him to make them see whatever Despero had desired of them. (Justice League America v1 #38) Despero's body was shown to possess regenerative powers allowing him to regrow lost body parts. (Justice League of America v1 #26)
Despero was able to create powerful trances that brought others under his control. (Justice League of America v1 #1) With his powers, he could telepathically scan an area for signs of life and for his foes. (Justice League of America v1 #178) He was shown as being capable of making a person feel unbearable pain constantly in an act of torture. In one instance, he was shown to had absorbed the mind of a victim to learn everything they knew in an act that destroyed the person's body and killed them in the process. (Justice League of America v1 #252)
It was said that his powers seemed infinite with him being the master of time and space as well as the strange realm of the mind. He had the ability to absorb the energies produced by superhumans and using them to achieve various feats such as manipulating chronal energy to age an enemy. After empowering himself further, he was shown to be able to create entire worlds that were duplicates of an existing planet with intelligent life inhabiting them. (Justice League of America v1 #26)
He risked destruction by stepping into the Flame of Py'tar in order to achieve wisdom and power beyond imagination. (Justice League of America v1 #249) It was said to not be true fire but rather a field of pure energy and manifested as a column of nuclear plasma that altered whatever exposed to it. Purification through it was said to had afforded him a power beyond description where he could change matter to energy and energy to matter with Despero claiming he was like a god. With this ability, he was capable of altering reality according to his desires such as creating living creatures or remaking landscapes. With this power, he could turn a building into a winged loka that was a deadly fire-breathing carnivore long extinct on Kalanor. (Justice League of America v1 #253)
With his power, he was capable of transforming other beings into monstrous creatures to serve him. (Justice League of America v1 #252)
From Kalanor, he had equipment that could generate a teleport beam allowing him to transport people across dimensions. (Justice League of America v1 #1)
Notes
- Despero was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky where he made his first appearance in Justice League of America v1 #1 (October, 1960).
- In 500 Comicbook Villains (2004), Mike Conroy noted that after the characters introduction, "It was the first of several run-ins the would-be universe conqueror would have with the superteam."
- In 2010, IGN came to rank Despero the 96th-greatest comic book villain of all time.
Alternate Versions
- In Future State: Justice League v1 #1 (2021), a possible reference to Despero was shown in the alternate timeline of Future State. By the mid-2030's, it was shown that there was a female being resembling Despero called Despara who wielded the Lasso of Existential Terror. She was an enemy of Wonder Woman Yara Flor and was a member of the Legion of Doom headed by T. O. Morrow until they were all killed by the recently freed White Martians of the Hyperclan.
In other media
Television
- In Justice League, Despero appeared as antagonist in the DC Animated Universe series episode "Hearts and Minds" where he was voiced by actor Keith David. He was an inhabitant of the planet Kalanor who was born a weak mutant with a third eye who had been forced to flee his village into the wastelands. Once there, he was beset upon by three bandits when the ground shook and a chasm formed with a burst of white fire emerging that killed his attackers. This was the Flame of Py'tar that transformed Despero into a more muscular form with powerful telepathic abilities. He considered himself a religious leader and returned to his settlement where he turned people to his will with him quickly controlling his world. Despero established the Legion of the Third Eye that were empowered by the Flame of Py'tar through him which he intended to us to conquer the universe. His actions attracted the attention of the Green Lantern Corps but their task force was defeated whilst Despero planned for a large scale invasion of space.
- In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Despero appeared as an antagonist in the animated series episode "The Eyes of Despero!" where he was voiced by actor Kevin Michael Richardson.
- In Young Justice: Invasion, Despero appeared as an antagonist in the animated series episode "Cornered" in a non-voiced role. He was shown as a gladiatorial warrior that sought out worthy champions as trophies to prove himself as the best fighter in the cosmos. As such, he journeyed through space for combatants and was assisted by his robotic majordomo L-Ron. After learning of Earth's Metahumans, he journeyed to the planet where he intended to fight the members of the Justice League. Upon arriving at the Hall of Justice, he fought against members of the Team where he used his powers to telepathically incapacitate some of its members such as the magic wielders as he felt their powers wee cheating. Though stronger than his foes, they managed to get Zatanna to reverse his telepathic powers against him whereupon they managed to knock him out.
- In the Arrowverse, Despero made multiple appearances in the shared continuity:
- In The Flash, Despero appeared in the setting of the live-action television series during the crossover arc episode "Armageddon" Pt. 1 where he was voiced by actor Tony Curran.
Films
- In Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Despero appeared in the setting of the animated film adaptation in a non-voiced role. He was among the supervillains that attacked Superman and Batman.
Video games
- In Justice League Task Force, Despero appeared as a playable character in the setting of the fighting video game.
Appearances
- Justice League of America v1: (1960)
- Justice League America v1:
- Justice League Europe v1:
- Young Justice v1:
- JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice v1:
- R.E.B.E.L.S. v1:
- Justice League v2:
- Forever Evil v1:
- Justice League of America v3:
- Death of Hawkman v1:
External Links
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