Kalibak

For the Romanian village of Romaneşti, called Kalibák in Hungarian, see Blăjel.
Kalibak

Kalibak from Jack Kirby's Fourth World #9,
artist John Byrne,
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance New Gods #1, (February 1971)
Created by Jack Kirby (writer & artist)
In-story information
Alter ego Kalibak
Species New God
Place of origin Apokolips
Team affiliations Darkseid's Elite
Notable aliases Kalibak the Cruel, The Scourge of Apokolips
Abilities
  • Immortality
  • Superhuman strength, endurance, speed and reflexes
  • Skilled fighter
  • Beta club.

Kalibak is a fictional deity and supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in New Gods #1 (February 1971). Kalibak is the eldest son of Darkseid and one of the main enemies of Superman and the Justice League of America.

Fictional character biography

Kalibak is the first-born son of Darkseid and Suli. His mother Suli is killed by Desaad, acting under orders from Kalibak's grandmother Queen Heggra. Kalibak becomes a legendary warrior, and often serves as Darkseid's second-in-command. After Darkseid breaks the pact of peace with New Genesis, the rival planet of Kalibak's home Apokolips, he aids his father in the resulting battles.

Kalibak is often pitted against Orion, and after numerous clashes they learned that they were half-brothers. This fuels Kalibak's hatred of Orion to new levels, for Darkseid clearly values Orion over his first-born. Unlike Orion, Kalibak secretly craves the love and respect of his father - something neither he, nor anyone else, can ever hope to attain - and it has been shown that he has a gentle side which is completely submerged under his brutish exterior, and which he consistently and fearfully keeps hidden for any sign of weakness is, on Apokolips, subject to the cruelest punishment.

For his part, Darkseid is more lenient towards Kalibak's failures than those of his other servants; having slain him, he always returns him to life. It is implied this is because his eldest son is the offspring of the one person Darkseid truly loved.

At one point, Kalibak is desperate enough to confront Orion without Darkseid's consent. Kalibak's scheme fell apart and he kills his accomplice Desaad, also a servant of Darkseid, to cover his tracks. Darkseid was not pleased when he finds out and reduces his son to a pile of ash. After enough time had passed Darkseid resurrects Kalibak, hoping the boy had learned a lesson.

Kalibak later spends some time in an Apokolips prison, on Darkseid's orders. In Orion #1, (June 2000), Darkseid is on Earth when Orion invades Apokolips. Justeen, a servant of Desaad, releases Kalibak to battle Orion yet again. Kalibak is swiftly subdued, but does not care much as Orion leaves to battle Darkseid and Kalibak hopes to gain power as a result.

During the universe-wide Genesis incident, Apokolips forces, including Kalibak, invade Earth. In Young Heroes in Love #5, Kalibak and his small squad of Parademons are defeated by the leader of the Young Heroes, the telekinetic and telepathic Hard Drive.[1]

Kalibak is slain by his uncle Infinity-Man, who has been murdering the residents of Apokolips and New Genesis as an agent of the Source Wall in Death of the New Gods.

In Final Crisis the new Fifth World and human version of Kalibak appears alongside Darkseid (calling himself Dark Side) seemingly reborn in a new form alongside his father and a human Kanto. This form is later replaced with a humanoid tiger-like form, engineered by Simyan and Mokkari. He is seen devouring a Green Lantern named Opto.[2] He leads a regiment of tiger soldiers against the heroes in Blüdhaven, but he is killed in combat with Tawky Tawny. Before he dies, he begs his soldiers to help but they refuse as they only follow the strong. They then bow to Tawny as Kalibak dies.

In the 'New 52' continuity, Kalibak is a loyal follower of Darkseid, backing him up in a war against the Anti-Monitor. He does have a problem with slaying Apokolips soldiers that literally get in the way between him and the enemy.[3]

Powers and abilities

Kalibak possesses incredibly high levels of superhuman strength, endurance, and durability. Despite his great size, Kalibak is actually fast and agile.[4] Like all beings of the Fourth World he is immortal. Kalibak is a highly trained hand-to-hand combatant known on Apokolips for his savagery.[5] He is armed with a Beta-Club, a weapon that fires force bolts or nerve beams that causes living beings agonizing pain beyond comprehension. It is nearly indestructable, though Orion once destroyed it with some assistance from Lightray.[6] He can also summon and use aero-disks which allow him to fly.[4] Kalibak also has access to high-tech weapons of mass destruction. Physically, Kalibak is one of the strongest gods on Apokolips, and the most loyal to Darkseid. This is what makes Kalibak an indispensable member of Darkseid's Elite. Kalibak possesses incredible levels of superhuman strength almost on par with Superman, Orion, and even Darkseid himself.

In other media

Television

Kalibak as he appears in Superman: The Animated Series

Film

Video games

References

  1. ↑ "Young Heroes In Love" #5 (October 1997)
  2. ↑ Final Crisis #4 (2008)
  3. ↑ "Justice League" #43-45 (2015)
  4. 1 2 The Death of the New Gods
  5. ↑ The DC Comics Encyclopedia
  6. ↑ New Gods #8 (May 1972)
  7. ↑

External links

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