We all know that Darkseid reigns as the supreme villain of the DC World. He who fears no one and nothing, right? Wrong. Let me introduce you to the one that makes Darkseid himself quiver. The one that broke Dessad’s loyalty to Darkseid. And, the one that everyone in the DC Universe fears the most. Yuga Khan otherwise known as Darkseid’s father.
Yuga Khan’s first appearance was in New Gods #17 in 1990. He was known as Zonuz before adopting the name Yuga Khan, and is the first God of Evil. Yuga Khan is one of the most powerful beings in all of existence. So strong that the effort it takes him to open his eyes could move mountains on Earth, and with one blink could level a civilization. He is astronomically large in size, much larger than Darkseid. By his sheer will he could withdraw the source, taking mother-boxes offline. Not allowing Darkseid to utilize his omega beams, or the use of boom tubes. Yuga Khan is in fact so powerful that he cant travel through a boom tube. He’s too powerful to be contained in a boom tube, when he arrives he just appears, no boom tube necessary. He has also wielded the anti-life equation at one point.
The One Darkseid Fears
Personally, my most favorable story-line of Yuga Khan is in New Gods #17 – New Gods #21. In those issues it showcases his raw strength, power, and the fear that he strikes on everyone.
The beginning of New Gods #17 kicks off with La Gand patrolling the galaxies, and he gets a front row seat to Yuga Khan’s awakening. He was at the right place, right time. As Yuga Khan awakens, the nearby planet of Velos begins trembling and their citizens are immediately stricken with panic. Their planet has an exterior barrier shutting them off from the outside world, which noone has ever been able to penetrate. Making this planet completely cut off from the outside world. La Gand takes notice but is unable to approach the planet and investigate due to it’s barrier. As the planet violently shook, their citizens held each other as they knew their end was nigh. And in an instance the planet was gone. Just by coming into contact with the planet Velos, Yuga Khan absorbed every last bit of the planet. It was a very familiar scene watching the planets end. It was a scene out of Man Of Steel as the people of Krypton held each other as their planet’s end came. La Gand spends the entirety of the story chasing Yuga Khan’s tail. Following the trail of destruction Yuga Khan leaves behind.
Up until Yuga Khan broke free he was trapped in the Promethean Galaxy as a Celestial Giant trapped for thousands of years. Before he was trapped, he began questioning his existence and why the old Gods had perished. He wanted to know as to why, and the quest for all of the knowledge never ended for him. He launched himself past the barriers of reality, and his punishment was being trapped as a Celestial Giant as a warning to all for an eternity.
The moment Yuga Khan was free, skies across every corner of the galaxy darkened and there was an overwhelming feeling of imminent doom. The looming dread finally reached Darkseid across the galaxy and he too knew what was about to come.
Yuga Khan is free… And, for the first time in his existence, he [Darkseid] knows fear.
New Gods #17
In his rise again, he destroys a Thanagarian astro station destroying it and all the souls inside it. In the meanwhile, Metron journeys to where the Promethean giants are held prisoner and notices one in particular has escaped. “Yuga Khan, the most powerful of them all.”
What is interesting is for the first time that we’ve ever seen Darkseid shows weakness. When his servant demands a reward, instead of normally killing someone who spoke to him in a manner of such. He grants his servant their wish, because his mind is so consumed by the thought of Yuga Khan.
Darkseid Vs Yuga Khan
Finally when Yuga Khan arrives on Apokolips in New Gods #19 the fun really begins. Darkseid shows his fear, and immediately orders Desaad to kill Yuga Khan in a panic as he begins fleeing. Yuga Khan laughs at this joking “Come give your dad a hug,” and effortlessly restrains Darkseid. Yuga Khan claims Apokolips is going to have a new leader, reclaiming his spot on the planet he once built. Darkseid’s reign comes crashing down on Apokolips. His statues toppled over, and his people truly miserable. The people of Apokolips learned that there is a worse fate than Darkseid, and that fate was Yuga Khan.
He closes off the source, and in doing so closes all boom tubes, and making mother-boxes non-functional. Desaad is left trembling, uselessly begging for his life promising his loyalty now to Yuga Khan. However, Desaad’s wishes were left unheard as Yuga Khan disintegrated him. New Genesis began their attacks on Apokolips and Yuga Khan sends masses of parademons to destroy New Genesis troops. Metron watches from above in horror at the amount of deaths taking place, as the battle begins spilling onto other nearby planets. Yuga Khan takes matters into his own hands and begins killing New Genesis troops. He still sought out to continue his quest for the origin of the source, even if he had to destroy all of reality in the process.
Whereas Darkseid wants to conquer the Universe, Yuga Khan wishes to destroy it, if it gets him what he wants.
The Conclusion
However, Yuga Khan then becomes primal energy and enters the source, going beyond existence. Meanwhile, Orion frees Darkseid and they go to Section Zero; which contains the darkest secrets of Darkseid’s realm. Orion and Darkseid enter a distorted reality to stop Yuga Khan’s reign. Orion has a huge conflict within himself, he must kill Darkseid in order to stop Yuga Khan. Although every cell in Orion’s body wants to kill Darkseid, he is unable to no matter how badly he aches to kill him. He’s unable to due to the fact that a son cannot slay their father, it goes against the God’s code. In doing so, or shall I say in not doing so the war ends.
Yuga Khan is no more and the source returns. Yuga Khan made the same deadly mistake twice and found himself back among the Celestial Giants. Because, since the source is technically our creator and the father of us all, he could have never destroyed it.
Other Origins
In other comics such as some New 52 like Infinity Man & The Forever People, Yuga Khan’s death was by the hands of Darkseid and Highfather. As the brothers fought side by side, they slayed their father and in by doing so it was known as the day the New Gods were born.
Also in Rebirth Comics there was one point in the Hal Jordan & Green Lantern Corp comic where Golems attempted to wake Yuga Khan but failed in doing so. Yuga Khan also makes a fantastic appearance in Darkseid War: Shazam which is very entertaining watching Billy Batson meet Yuga Khan and take him on. It was a terrifying, yet thrilling read. It’s a head-turner every time Yuga Khan’s name is mentioned. He isn’t a well known character in the DC Universe.
Does Yuga Khan Have a Future in DC?
Yuga Khan hasn’t been mentioned in the DC Universe in recent times. The upcoming film New Gods which is being directed by Ava DuVernay, and Tom King co-writing doesn’t have a release date quite yet. There isn’t much information on the film unfortunately at this point. But there is hope that Yuga Khan will make an appearance or at least mentioned in the film. DC can utilize this character much more than they have before. I think a mini series or a one shot comic surrounding Yuga Khan would be a fun, entertaining, and action packed read.
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