King Kull (DC Comics)

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Publication information
King Kull
King Kull battling the Justice League, the Justice Society, and Shazam's Squadron of Justice. Justice League of America #135. Art by Ernie Chan.
Publisher	Fawcett Comics (1951 - 1953) DC Comics (1976 - 1985)
First appearance	Captain Marvel Adventures #125 (October 1951)
Created by	Otto Binder C. C. Beck
In story information
Full name	Kull
Team affiliations	Monster Society of Evil
Notable aliases	Beastman

This article is about the Fawcett Comics and DC Comics character. For the Robert E. Howard and Marvel Comics character, see Kull.

King Kull (sometimes called the Beastman or the Beast Man) is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain originally published by Fawcett Comics and now owned by DC Comics and appearing as a foe of Captain Marvel. Created by writer Otto Binder and artist C. C. Beck, Kull's first appearance was in Captain Marvel Adventures #125 (October 1951). Kull appeared in adventures of Captain Marvel during the 1950s and the period in which DC Comics revived the hero during the 1970s.

In prehistoric times, King Kull is ruler of the Submen, a brutish but technologically advanced race which ruled humanity until overthrown in a revolt. Kull survives until the 20th century in suspended animation, then awakens and repeatedly threatens the human-dominated modern world with his immense strength and bizarre technology. He is usually thwarted by Captain Marvel, but one particularly well-planned escapade requires the efforts of the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America (in one of their dimension-crossing team-ups, which DC produced annually from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s), as well as a group of heroes of Captain Marvel and King Kull's home universe of Earth-S, referred to unofficially as Shazam's Squadron of Justice. All of these are required because Kull has captured both the wizard Shazam who grants Captain Marvel's powers and the ancient gods the powers are drawn from.

King Kull has occasionally appeared as a member of the Monster Society of Evil. The character has not appeared since Captain Marvel's history was rebooted by Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. He is sometimes confused with Kull, a barbarian hero and king created by Robert E. Howard, but Howard's Kull was an ancient human in a sword-and-sorcery setting rather than a protohuman with science-fiction technology. However some degree of relation between the two characters can be inferred since many comic writers of the 40s and the 50s have had careers in the pulp fiction markets of the 1930s, among them Otto Binder who used to pen short stories for Weird Tales and other pulps with his brother Earl, under the pseudonym Eando Binder (Eando stood for "Earl-and-Otto").