REAL NAME: Jakob Karno
OCCUPATION: Scientist, government agent, terrorist
IDENTITY: Secret
CLASS: Human technology user/Genius level intellect
LEGAL STATUS: Citizen of Austria
OTHER ALIASES: Dr. Karno, The Chessmaster
PLACE OF BIRTH: Vienna, Austria
MARITAL STATUS: Single
KNOWN RELATIVES: Simba Karno (foster son)
GROUP AFFILIATIONS: Chessmen (leader)
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Vienna (Austria); Mobile; Fox City (USA)
FIRST APPEARANCE: Wonderworld Comics #9 (May 1940)
HEIGHT: 5' 10"
WEIGHT: 215 lbs
EYES: Blue
HAIR: Brown
Jakob Karno was a very brilliant scientist, but also an unscrupulous man. He had been greatly impressed by a lecture by Professor Blair on human enhancement and decided to carry out his own experiment. After getting a baby in an orphanage, he put all his efforts into making him a super-man...
A super-man completely under his orders. Karno called the boy Simba. Simba's development paralleled Dick Cole's, in a way, his reflection on the other side of the mirror. It was then that the Nazis came to power in Germany and the annexation of Austria took place. Karno quickly became a leading member of the party. By 1941 Dr. Karno and Simba had already carried out numerous missions for Hitler (robbery, kidnapping, assassination). Their next assignment was to eliminate Dr. Blair and his ward. After several clashes ended in a draw, Simba turned against Karno, seeing the difference in treatment that Dick Cole received from his mentor. After crippling him, Simba left Dr. Karno abandoned to his fate. Karno would take several decades to reappear, trapped on a wheelchair and calling himself "the Chessmaster". When the Chessmaster and his Chessmen kidnapped young heiress Irene Jonson and scientist Dr. Fung and his young assistant, american Dan Barrister, the old hero Crimson Moth came to the rescue. Unfortunately Crimson Moth was defeated by the Chessmen and killed. But thanks to the hero's sacrifice, Fung, Barrister and Irene managed to escape taking with them one of the Chessmen's combat suits. Fung modified the uniform for his assistant to wear, calling himself the Crimson Moth, after the man who had sacrificed his life for them. Barrister (with Fung's help) managed to defeat the Chessmen and turned Karno over to justice to finally pay for all of his crimes.
POWERS & WEAPONS
Karno was a true scientific genius with extensive resources. He also had his Chessmen, brainwashed henchmen blindly faithful to him, who wore bulletproof flying suits and carried futuristic weapons.
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