Warning: The following feature contains SPOILERS for Stargirl season 1, episode 8, "Shiv Part Two."
The latest episode of Stargirl gave some much needed definition to the villain known as Dragon King. Despite his status as a figure of authority within the Injustice Society and his position as Cindy Burman's father, the show has not revealed much about the mysterious masked scientist, his powers or his background.
Dragon King occupies a unique position in DC Comics history. Despite being introduced as a villain for the heroes making up the WWII era Justice Society of America, Dragon King is a fairly recent creation, first appearing in comics in the year 1981. He also only appeared in a handful of stories before his apparent death in Stars and STRIPE #12 in July 2000. Despite this, Dragon King was still a villain of tremendous power, whose stunning intellect enabled him to enact schemes and develop weapons that required the whole of the All-Star Squadron to defeat.
Ironically, this lack of a lasting legacy made Dragon King an ideal recruit for Stargirl's version of the Injustice Society of America. With little comic book canon to fight against, the show's writers were free to develop Dragon King into a more memorable villain who better fit the classic villain team. Yet the show's take on Dragon King has remained true to the original comics, where he was the first supervillain to truly test a young Courtney Whitmore, as she took her tentative first steps towards becoming Stargirl.
Dragon King's Origin In The Comics
First appearing in All-Star Squadron #4, the Dragon King was created for two purposes; introducing a Japanese villain who wasn't a racist stereotype into the lineup of Earth 2's villains and explaining why the Justice Society of America never intervened on the side of the Allies during World War II. The Dragon King's premiere story explained that he was responsible for keeping America's greatest heroes from invading Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, having found a way to use the power of the Spear of Destiny and the Holy Grail in conjunction with his own sorcery and technology to work a spell that turned any superhuman who approached Japan with thoughts of fighting the Japanese empire into a fiercely loyal defender of the Axis Powers. After a battle in which the All-Star Squadron nearly destroyed themselves as they turned on one-another, the team was forced to focus their efforts on defending the United States domestically, as the war dragged on.
The Dragon King was never given a secret identity in the comics, nor was it ever explained how became a master of mechanics and magic. Little was known about his background, beyond his once having been affiliated with the Japanese nationalist group known as the Black Dragon Society. (Reportedly he left them for not being extreme enough for his liking.) At the height of World War II, he was the most powerful man in Japan after the Premier and the Emperor. Not content to rest on his laurels with having protected his homeland from invasion, Dragon King continued to fight the JSA and All-Star Squadron and was responsible for killing Danette Reilly, the second Firebrand, shortly before his apparent death on the sword of Danette's husband, Sir Justin of Camelot, aka the Shining Knight.
The Dragon King survived his injuries, however, and retreated to the last place anyone would think to look for a Japanese Imperialist following World War II; the American Heartland. It was in the town of Blue Valley, Nebraska that the Dragon King bided his time and began building an army, brainwashing the young people of the town and training his daughter Cindy to follow in his footsteps as the villain Shiv, as he prepared a plan that would allow him to enslave the minds of every child in the United States. Thankfully, his plan was thwarted by the new Star-Spangled Kid, Courtney Whitmore, and her partner STRIPE and the Dragon King was apparently defeated once and for all.
Dragon King's Powers And Skills In The Comics
Much like Marvel Comics' Doctor Doom, Dragon King was a super genius and a master of multiple disciplines, including various forms of science and sorcery. He was credited with the invention of sarin gas, implying that he was an expert in chemistry and biology. What made Dragon King uniquely dangerous, however, was how easily he was able to combine seemingly incompatible areas of study in his work and his willingness to push beyond all ethical considerations in the pursuit of his goals. Beyond his corruption of two holy artifacts, Dragon King was also an early pioneer in the study of genetics and he spent decades experimenting on himself to enhance his genetic potential and splice his DNA with that of a lizard, giving him a truly dragon-like appearance underneath his hood.
It is unknown what powers Dragon King may have developed as a result of his reptilian DNA experiments. However, the Dragon King was able to keep himself in the peak of human condition, despite his advanced age, even before he became a half-animal hybrid. He was also an accomplished martial artist, marksman and master of many weapons, though he preferred to depend on his inventions and intellect rather than face his enemies physically.
Dragon King In Stargirl
Stargirl's take on Dragon King is true to the Stars and STRIPE comics where the character was revived and apparently died. Given that the show is a passion project of producer Geoff Johns, who wrote the Stars and STRIPE series, that's no surprise. What is surprising is that the show has given Dragon King a much clearer set of motivations than a simple desire for world domination. "Shiv Part Two" also gives him a secret identity, Dr. Shiro Ito, and a background as an infamous Japanese war criminal, who was responsible for creating chemical and biological weapons that were used to spread plagues throughout China in the early 1930s. As in the comics, Dr. Ito was presumed dead, though in the reality of Stargirl he was reportedly executed for war crimes in 1947 rather than killed by Shining Knight.
As in the comics, Dragon King is a true team player, though his loyalties in the show are reserved for the Injustice Society of America rather than reestablishing a Japanese empire. Such is his commitment to the goals of the Injustice Society that he remains wholly loyal to the idea of it, despite his personal distaste for many individual members of the team. It is clear that he is considered a power to be respected and even Icicle, the nominal leader of the team, seems nervous and uneasy in dealing with the Dragon King directly. This suggests that Dragon King may ultimately prove to be the chief villain of Stargirl Season 1.