Why Mongul is a loser
Mongul is one of the biggest losers in the DCU. Here are some reasons why.
He was created by Jim Starlin as a DC analogue for Marvel’s Thanos, who was already an analogue for DC’s Darkseid. He’s a copy of a copy of a copy, and as anyone who’s ever made a mix tape knows, by the third generation a copy is just noise.
He has never actually won a conflict with DC heroes. Darkseid wins occasionally.
His best appearance is Alan Moore’s classic Superman story, “For the Man Who Has Everything”, where he essentially served as the delivery mechanism for a hallucinogenic plant. Weather Wizard could have delivered the plant, and the story would have worked just as well.
He blew up Coast City! That’s something, right? Well, I figure that Ron Marz used Mongul, a Superman villain, in a GL story so he could have a throwaway character destroy CC. He had to figure out some way to save Sinestro for the final showdown, and Darkseid was probably otherwise occupied with reorganizing his socks. And who do we get when Darkseid’s unavailable?
Oh, oh! He was in Identity Crisis #1! That was cool, right? Oh, wait, he was just there to break up a conversation with a fight scene. Again, Darkseid probably wanted royalties, and oh, right, things actually have to happen when Darkseid appears.
There are quite a few more reasons why Mongul is a loser, but I’m going to skip straight to my favorite:
Mongul is dead. He was killed by Neron. He was replaced by his son, Mongul. NO ONE NOTICED. ‘Nuff said.
