Fictional universe DC Universe | ||
 | ||
Created by Williams Woolfolk (story)Al Plastino (art) Abilities Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, senses, intelligence, regeneration, and longevity, super breath, heat vision, and flight Similar Jax‑Ur, Conduit, Preus, Dan Turpin, Bibbo Bibbowski | ||
Mala is a fictional supervillain in the DC Comics universe. He first appeared in Superman #65 (July/August 1950) in the story "The Three Supermen from Space!"
Contents
Fictional character biography
Mala, along with his brothers Kizo and U-Ban, is a native of the planet Krypton, and a former member of the science council. Some years before Krypton exploded the trio attempts to take over the planet by threatening to remove all moisture from the atmosphere with one of their inventions. They are stopped by Superman's father Jor-El who places them in suspended animation and sends them into outer space, as an alternative to the death penalty.
Many years later their rocketship is struck by a piece of space debris, which brings the trio out of suspended animation. Mala and his brothers find their way to Earth, where they meet Superman. Once there, the three brothers construct a machine that hypnotizes all of Earth's population. Superman manages to destroy the machine, but soon finds himself overwhelmed by the combined might of Mala and his brothers. The quick thinking Man of Steel tricks the brothers into fighting each other, until the trio are exhausted. Superman then places Mala and his brothers back into hibernation and sends them back into space.
In Action Comics #194 (Jul 1954), the three Kryptonians manage to escape again, after their rocket is once again struck by a piece of space debris. Kizo and U-Ban go to the planet Saturn (for a "vacation from trouble"), but Mala decides to get revenge on Superman. As Superman is off planet on a mission, Mala constructs a duplicate Earth in order to keep Superman out of the way. Mala, who looks exactly like Superman, decides to cause more problems for Superman by disguising himself as Clark Kent and then admitting to the public that he is Superman (never realizing that Superman really is Clark Kent).
With his plan in place, Mala summons his brothers from Saturn and prepares to destroy Earth. Superman arrives and manages to trick the three evil Kryptonians into entering their space capsule, putting them back into suspended animation once again. This is the last appearance of Mala, Kizo, and U-Ban.
Powers and abilities
Mala, like all Kryptonians, has a number of inherent superpowers. These powers include super-strength, invulnerability, flight, super-speed, heat and x-ray vision, and super-intelligence. Presumably, like Superman, Mala can only be harmed by certain forms of kryptonite.