Endless Mike
Illustrious
Content Warning: Incredibly Goofy Silver Age DC Shenanigans
I know you're probably pretty confused. I don't blame you. In all my years of reading and discussing comic books, I had never once heard of this guy. But having recently read his only appearances (the Supergirl stories in Action Comics #329-331), I felt that this was warranted.
Obscure but powerful villains like this are just the sort of thing I was hoping to find when I started my Pre-Crisis Superman overview thread. Compared to many other Pre-Crisis DC Characters (Zha-Vam, for example... I have a thread on him too) this guy is pretty much completely unknown, yet he's potentially just as dangerous, if not even more so.
I suspect it's due to the fact that both his name and appearance are rather forgettable, but his feats and powers speak for themselves. So I'll use this thread to introduce him to the world of internet respect/battle threads.
Please note that many of these scans display multiple examples of his different feats and powers, so I won't be posting redundant scans. But all of the powers and feats I mention are displayed in the scans in this thread.
Drang the Destroyer, also known as Dr. Supernatural, is a magic - wielding villain from an entirely separate universe, who was known as the greatest and most feared villain in that cosmos. The Circle of Evil, a multiversal villain team that planned to conquer the heroes of every universe were considered small-time to him, and he had easily defeated 5 of their best candidate members. Circle candidates were previously shown to have captured Supergirl, and defeated heroes who were responsible for protecting entire galaxies:
Drang himself is not just some random evil wizard, though. He's actually a non-corporeal, elemental being made up of pure evil magic energy. Essentially, a sentient concentration of evil magic (if you want to get fancy, you could say that he's an egregore). He most typically took on a humanoid form, but a physical form wasn't necessary for him, and his true nature was an intangible mass of energy. He was known as the tyrant of the "Purple Planet" and had a pretty wide and impressive range of powers.
Powers
Let's go over them one at a time, starting with the ones shown on the above page:
* Invulnerability: This was initially implied to just be Kryptonian - style super durability, but it was eventually revealed that he was quite literally "invulnerable" to any physical force, being an intangible being of pure evil magic:
As you can see, Supergirl's attacks pass right through him harmlessly:
* Energy Vision: Basically just heat vision with another name. Magical in nature, unlike Kryptonian heat vision. Fast enough to destroy a spacecraft before Supergirl could reach it when she was urgently trying to. He was able to use it to destroy a computer aboard a space station, and a small spaceship, otherwise it has no real feats, but by powerscaling it should be at least equal to the likes of Superman and Supergirl's heat vision.
* Cyclone Breath: Never actually demonstrated, although he is stated to have this. The Circle of Evil's records show it being used to demolish a group of large buildings. Potentially could be scaled to Kryptonian super breath.
* Invisibility: Part of his nature as a concentrated being of pure evil energy. He can presumably appear in any form he wishes to, including nothing at all (aka being invisible). Supergirl's vision abilities weren't of any help against this power.
* Tele-Projection: This power seems to be a bit of a misnomer, as he seems to actually be teleporting rather than projecting an image of himself. Being a non-corporeal energy being, he has at least universal range with this, and can manifest any of his powers while doing so.
Of course, he demonstrated many more powers.
* Power Nullification: Using his magic, he was able to completely remove Supergirl's powers, akin to being under the effects of a red sun. At first she thought this was an inherent property of his universe, but he revealed that he did this to her deliberately. He was also able to restore her powers at will.
* Telekinesis: After having removed Supergirl's powers, he was able to use this to invisibly push her where he wanted her to go on his planet, and even force her to open a door.
* Illusion Creation/Telepathy: He was able to create realistic illusions that could fool all of Supergirl's senses, by implanting the thoughts directly into her mind. He was also able to read her mind in order to do this (never explicitly stated, although she suspected it, and there's pretty much no other explanation for how he could create perfectly accurate illusions of her college classroom, Superman, and Metropolis). He was also able to create the illusion that he had gained more power when he had not.
* Extra-Sensory Perception: Drang was able to detect Supergirl nearly as soon as she entered his universe in order to nullify her powers (she was brought there by a member of the Circle of Evil, so he wasn't responsible for doing so). He was also able to eavesdrop on the Circle's conversation with Supergirl in their base, which was in a different part of his home universe than his planet. He knew Supergirl was on her way to his planet and greeted her right as she arrived in her ship (and these ships were special "cosmic ships" that could travel between universes). He was also able to easily see through a trick created by Supergirl and some of her allies, although it's not clear how much of this was due to his sensory powers and how much due to his intelligence.
* Matter Manipulation/Transmutation: By simply waving his hand, he was able to change the disguised Linda Danvers back to Supergirl. Also, he transformed the fake "magic wand" she was using as a bluff into a candy cane. He later used this power to enlarge and enhance a "Time Magnet" device Supergirl had built. Making his Vigorator (see below) intangible along with him was also possibly an application of this power.
* Forcefield/Barrier Creation: When he gave Supergirl back her powers, he said that it was under the condition that she could only use them on his planet. This didn't mean that she would become depowered if she tried to leave, but rather than her escape was blocked by a seemingly impenetrable magical forcefield surrounding the planet.
* Evil Energy Empowerment: He gains power from "Evil Super-Energy", which is apparently generated when any superbeing commits an evil, angry, or aggressive act, or even has a thought of that nature. This is what fuels all of his other powers, but it's also his weakness, as he needs to continuously recharge his stores of this energy to perform his magical feats, or else he will become weak and unable to do much (but he'll still be intangible and non-corporeal, so it's not like most people could hurt him in this state anyway). In order to use this power, he requires a device known as a "Vigorator", which converts the energy. Supergirl destroyed his primary Vigorator, but he had a backup one (which he kept on his person, and had made intangible like himself). The primary one seemed capable of draining this energy from anywhere on his planet, and, with the help of a "Space-Warp Portal" machine, even from as far away as other universes. The smaller secondary version was able to drain evil energy from an act that occurred in orbit of his planet, and he did eventually plan to use it to gain power from evil deeds he would commit on Earth as well.
However, his true weakness is that he can be overloaded if he absorbs too much evil energy at once, causing his energy form to explode. This seemed to dissipate most of his power and consciousness, but he still survived as a remaining wisp of evil magical energy, with the possible implication that he couldn't truly be destroyed as long as such energy existed.
* Unconfirmed Powers Before he overloaded, he intended to use his magical abilities to recreate the following acts:
- A criminal known as "Dynar" used "Hyper-Energy" to create a forcefield that cut off a city and all of its inhabitants from contacting each other. Drang intended to use this same power to raise invisible, indestructible barriers separating every nation on Earth.
https://i.imgur.com/tdNNFA9.jpg
- Another criminal by the name of "Raptor" used "vibro-vision" to destroy a city. He later used this same power to destroy one of Drang's satellites (see below) and suggested Drang do the same to an entire planet.
- A third criminal named Voltan gave Drang the idea to transform people into giant insects.
- Even after his Space - Warp Portal Machine was destroyed, he seemed confident that he could travel to the Earth-One universe from his own.
- He bluffed Supergirl by claiming that he could create a "Negative Zone" on his planet where his Evil Energy Empowerment was reversed, so he would gain power from good deeds performed there instead. However, he never actually showed this ability, and chances are it's completely made up. Although with enough power, who knows?
Generously, this could be interpreted to say that his magic powers essentially allow reality warping as long as he has enough Evil Energy to pull off the task he wants to perform.
Weapons and Equipment
* Vigorator As mentioned he had 2 of these, a larger one that could be used in concert with his Space-Warp Portal machine, and a smaller, portable version that he had made intangible and carried around with him
* Space-Warp Portal Machine This was a device that allowed the Vigorator to be used to drain evil energy from evil deeds in a completely different universe (such as Superman stealing a bunch of silver bars while under the influence of Red Kryptonite... it seems that the definition of an 'evil deed' is also kind of sketchy, since the Red K compelled him to do that against his will, but it still counted).
* Sentry Satellites We only saw one of these, but he was implied to have more. These were artificial, planetoid - sized satellites orbiting his homeworld, crewed by androids. When one of them was destroyed to demonstrate a villain's evil plan, he didn't seem to care much, indicating they were not difficult for him to create.
Weaknesses
As mentioned before, performing too many of his magical feats in rapid succession drains his power, and requires him to absorb more Evil Energy to recharge himself. His range also seems limited to his own universe without specialized machines, although it was hinted that he could overcome that limitation if he absorbed enough energy. But, of course, absorbing too much Evil Energy in a short enough period of time would cause him to explode, effectively rendering him a mere shadow of his former self. This is probably pretty hard to quantify, since the "Evil Energy" is not exactly something that can be measured in any scientific way (it included acts and thoughts of aggression, theft while under compulsion, evil with intent to do good, simply thinking up an evil plan, etc.)
Intelligence and Skills
He ruled an entire planet, had plans to conquer other universes, captured many superheroes from across the Earth-One universe and manipulated them to increase his power, and outsmarted Supergirl on multiple occasions. He only really messed up once, by failing to foresee that he could overdose on Evil Energy.
So, as you can see, this guy is fairly formidable, and tricky to defeat. Use him in some threads, why don't you?
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