WANTED: Earth-Two's Most Dangerous Super-Villains
Kung
Personal information
Character History
Real Name: Thomas Morita
Residence: Mobile
Occupation: Assassin
First Appearance (Post-Golden Age): Wonder Woman #237 (November1977)
Thomas Morita was borne in the early 20th century in the United States, the son of Japanese immigrants. He came to young adulthood in the mid-1930's when America was in the grip of the Great Depression. Racial discrimination plunged his family into poverty, the stress of which caused the premature of death of Morita's father. Enraged by his family's fortunes, Thomas railed against his home nation, wishing his parents have never left Japan. His outbursts caused his mother to suffer a heart attack and also pass away, further breaking Morita's spirit. Leaving his sole surviving relative, his sister, alone, Morita returned to Japan to train as a samurai. While there he was pulled into a darker school of assassins and named Kung.
Kung's first known case in the United States occurred in December of 1941, shortly after the entry of America into World War II. Traveling to Washington DC in eagle form, Kung landed on a train carrying British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Using mystic hypnotic techniques he lulled the passenger car's occupants into sleep and transformed into a tiger, ripping open the roof. Before he could slip inside to complete his mission, he is intercepted by Hawkgirl. Hawkgirl managed to stall his actions long enough for other members of the All-Star Squadron to arrive. A swift change back to an eagle allowed Kung to knock Hawkgirl into the path of the train before a rescue by Johnny Quick. Transforming into a rhino, he battles Robotman, eventually becoming a praying mantis so small that Robotman overbalances and falls off the train.
Entering the train, Kung reverts to human form and begins to strangle Churchill. Before he can kill the Prime Minister, his neck is grasp by Steel, an injured hero traveling with Churchill. In danger of a broken neck and with the All-Star Squadron regrouping, Kung transformed into an eagle and fled (All-Star Squadron #8).
Later, in 1942, Kung was recruited by Japanese agent Prince Daka along with two other Japanese operatives, Tsunami and the Samurai. Daka had been charged by the Japanese government with stealing advanced technology and had targeted Starman's gravity rod as his first acquisition.
The three operatives stalked Starman to the headquarters of the All-Star Squadron in the Perisphere and quickly attacked. Kung transformed into a gorilla to subdue the Tarantual and into a giant constrictor to defeat Liberty Belle. As his comrades brought the other heroes to heal, Daka appears and takes possession of Starman's gravity rod. Ordering the deaths of the heroes, Daka is thwarted when Samurai and Tsunami hesitate to murder helpless capitives. Kung moves to act and before the Japanese can complete their executions, the Guardian arrives and renews the battle. As heroes begin to recover, Daka's team retreats with Liberty Belle as a hostage but not before the Squadron takes Tsunami as a captive of their own.
Arranging a trade, the two teams meet in a zoo but Daka has planted an explosive to double-cross the Squadron. Tsunami saves them by revealing the explosive and the two teams battle anew. Firebrand attacks Kung who struggles to find an animal that does not fear fire. He becomes an elephant to douse her and seie the upper hand. As victory seems nears, Daka and Kung plan to murder the Americans but Samurai and Tsunami are honor-bound to complete the terms of the prisoner exchange and Samurai disarms Daka. Kung transforms into elephant to cover their escape and they two vanish (All-Star Squadron #42-43).
Kung is next seen later in 1942 in Washington's DC's Union Station. Slipping through the darkness he is discovered by a watchman whom he murders in the form of a bear. Further on, he is intercepted by a patrolman, who he also murders in the form of a large insectoid monster. In the same form, he charges his true target: General George MacArthur. Slashing his way through MacArthur's defending soldiers, he is ultimately opposed by the arrival of Wonder Woman. After identifying himself, he transforms into a panther form and attacks her. As they two battle furiously, MacArthur's men re-group and open fire. Kung is wounded and flees while Wonder Woman castigates the soldiers for not allowing her to capture Kung without bloodshed.
Morita seeks out his sister Nancy to help with his wounds. He finds her and while she indeed helps him mend his wounds, he castigates her for remaining loyal to America while Japanese are send to relocation camps on the West Coast. Kung recuperates and contacts his masters, the Hidden Ones, to learn his next instruction. Learning the MacArthur will be at the launch of a new battleship, Kung has his sister drive him to the site. He transforms into a rhino and charges through the crowd. The battle is joined not only by Wonder Woman but also Sandman and Sandy. The melee de-stabilizes the supports of the ship causing it to sway. As Wonder Woman tries to prevent the ship from collapsing into the crowd, Sandman attempts to stop Kung. Realizing her brother will assassinate the general and is about to kill the Sandman, Nancy throws herself between Kung and his victims. As she does, the ship proves too heavy for Wonder Woman to hold and realizing it's falling onto his sister, Kung rushes under it to push her to safety, being caught beneath it's crushing weight (Wonder Woman #237-238). Kung is believed killed bu the crash of the ship, tho given his ability to change forms this is not known for certain and his later activities are not recorded.
Powers and Abilities
Kung was a highly trained assassin who is schooled in an unknown form of Asian mystic arts. In addition to formidable hand-to-hand combat skills, Kung also possesses considerable mental abilities, including hypnosis and sedation. His most prominent ability to change forms into various animals or human-animal hybird forms. In these forms, he obtains the abilities of that animal (i.e. as bird he can fly). The range of animals forms and how long he can hold these forms is not defined.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Aside from his special powers, Kung appeared to be general mortal while in human form. He could be wounded in forms that lacked an exoskeleton and his human form could be cut or choked as a normal human would. The limits of his animal forms are not fully described.
Multiversity
Prior Earth-0
The Kung of Earth-0 has generally similar history to his Earth-Two counterpart. Whether casework with Wonder Woman occurred with Hippolyta in this timeline or did not occur is not clear. The name Kung may be a title in the order of assassins in which Morita trained as another version was active in the mid-1920's, a time frame that is almost certainly not Morita's history (Guns of the Dragon LS).
In this timeline, Morita survived until 1945 and had returned to Japan, sent by the US to convince Hirohito to surrender. He fails in this mission and is present at Hiroshima, killed when the first atomic bomb was dropped by American forces. His ghosts remains in limbo, waiting decades for vengeance. He obtains it in early 21st century, dragging the Justice Society back to that time to face his wrath. He is ultimately stopped and cast into the afterlife by the Spectre (Justice Society of America Vol. 3 #27-28).
An inheritor is known to be active in the same time frame (Wonder Woman Vol. 3 #4) but his identity and origins are unknown.
Appearances
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Issue |
Comments |
Reprinted in |
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vs. the All-Star Squadron |
Showcase Presents All-Star Squadron Vol. 1 |
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vs. the All-Star Squadron with Tsunami, Samurai and Prince Daka |
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Wonder Woman #237-238 |
vs. Wonder Woman and the Sandman |
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