Byth

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Byth
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Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	The Brave and the Bold #34 (February-March 1961)
Created by	Gardner Fox Joe Kubert
In story information
Full name	Byth Rok
Species	Thanagarian
Place of origin	Thanagar
Team affiliations	Wingmen of Thanagar
Abilities	Shapeshifting

Byth Rok is a DC Comics supervillain who is a recurring foe of the Silver Age Hawkman. He was created by Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert, and first appeared in The Brave and the Bold # 34 (Feb-Mar 1961).

[edit] Fictional character biography

[edit] Pre-Crisis

Originally, Byth is portrayed as a Thanagarian thief who steals a pill that endows him with the ability to shapeshift into the form of any animal. He then steals a spaceship and escaps to Earth. Thanagarian policeman Katar Hol and his wife and partner Shayera are assigned to track him down and capture him. Eventually he battles the Hawks in Hawk Valley in the form of an enormous Thanagarian creature called a Brontadon. He is defeated by being struck on his Brontadon form's twin brains simultaneously by their maces and reverts back into his original shape. The Hawks place an unconscious Byth into a hibernation chamber and set his spaceship for auto-pilot back to Thanagar for incarceration.

He would later escape on several occasions only to be captured again by Hawkman and Hawkwoman.

[edit] Post-Crisis

In the Hawkworld mini-series, Byth is a corrupt Wingman commander who manipulates Katar Hol into killing his father, aiding his rise to power. Now Administrator of Protection, he gains his shape-shifting powers from a new drug called Krotan. Katar Hol, with the help of Shayera Thal, uncover his schemes and Byth escapes arrest. He flees to Earth and ran some criminal operations in Chicago. He supplied Carl Sands with a shadow generator. He is later captured by Katar and Shayera, and returned to Thanagar.