Iron King

"Gnat. Speck. None can stand against the Iron King."

- The Iron King

The Iron King (real name: Jun Kun), also known as the King of the Iron Dominion and The King, is a mighty and ruthless emperor and a villain in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series. He is a Mobian Ox and a strong warlord who initially worked alongside his wife known as the Iron Queen, an Overlander sorceress with mastery over magitek (combination of magic and technology) in the Dragon Kingdom to establish their namesake empire known as the Iron Dominion.

Warlord
Years ago, Jun Kun was a warlord in the Dragon Kingdom. At some point in time, the young Regina Ferrum came before him, pledging her allegiance to him, secretly to gain power. Following this, the two worked together for many years, and became known as the Iron King and Iron Queen.

Rule of the Iron Dominion
Sonic and Tails first encountered the Iron King and Queen during their quest for Ixis Naugus, who fled across all of Mobius. When they arrived at Stormtop Village, they learned that the Iron King and Queen crowned themselves ruler of the village. When the villagers refused to swear loyalty to either, the Iron Queen set Mount Stormtop on fire for over a hundred days and would not lift the spell until the villagers agreed to bow down to them. Sonic and Tails were told by Li Yeun that only the magical Fan of Fen Xing could blow out the flames on the mountain. When the two tried to retrieve it, the Iron Queen cast a spell on renegade cyborg, Monkey Khan, to kill Sonic and Tails before they arrived. They managed to free Khan and he joined them in assaulting the Iron King at his fortress. Sonic and the others returned to Mount Stormtop to blow out the flames, the Iron Queen tried to use her magic to stop them but failed and the flames were extinguished. The Iron Queen left the village swearing vengeance on Sonic.

New Empire
Nearly 2 years later, the Iron King served as a Sub-Boss to the Eggman Empire over the Dragon Kingdom. The local resistance there were beginning to keep the Iron King and Queen at bay. After the Iron Queen made romantic connections with Snively Robotnik over in New Megaopolis, the Iron King accompanied her along with the Yagyu Ninja where they arrived at the landing bay of the Eggdome via dirigible, with plans to usurp the Eggman Empire following Dr. Eggman's recent descent into madness.

Days after his arrival at the Eggdome, the Iron King showed anger at the fact they had come to a ruined city when they had everything back in the Iron Dominion, and he also took an immediate dislike to Snively as he seemed quite casual around the Iron Queen. The Iron Queen reassured her husband that they would move the seat of power back to the Dragon Kingdom, and Snively suggested the Iron King look through the ruins for weapons to add to his armory, which he did with the help of the Bride of Conquering Storm.

When both Sonic and Monkey Khan attempted to attack the city, the Iron King himself arrived on the battlefield after Sonic and Khan managed to fend off the Yagyu Ninja and Dark Egg Legion. Sonic attacked the Iron King with a spin dash, though it had no effect on the giant ox, and it in fact wounded Sonic. The Iron King then knocked back Monkey Khan with his Tremor Mace. Due to this, the Dark Egg Legion managed to wound both heroes even more, which forced them to retreat. The Iron King cancelled Lien-Da's order to shoot them down, insisting they allow them to escape so their humiliation and defeat would instill fear in the Freedom Fighters.

Powers and Abilities
The Iron King is an exceedingly powerful Mobian. He was able to single handingly dispatch an entire platoon of the Mes Braves Battalion with ease and even fought evenly against the combined efforts of Sonic the Hedgehog and Monkey Khan and eventually overpowered them.

The Iron King possesses a mysterious nigh-invulnerability, enabling him to shrug off an incredible amount of damage; he is unaffected by laser blasts and electrical surges from the Atom-Bat, and the combined assault on him from Sonic, Monkey Khan, Amy and Antoine did little more than slow him down. However, he is not completely immune to attacks as he can still be stunned by strong enough strikes or surprise attacks such as when he was rammed by the Freedom Fighters' hovercraft and Amy's Piko Piko Hammer. The Iron King also has an incredible amount of endurance and stamina, as he can participate in prolonged fights and endure continuous attacks without showing any signs of fatigue.

In addition, the Iron King has a great deal of super strength and is easily among the top 5 strongest Mobians. He could smash the majority of Fort Acorn with his bare fists and he could break free from being buried in the ground through brute force. He also has proficiency in wielding various weapons of both technological and magical nature.

The Iron King possesses no known weaknesses and is as such nearly impossible to defeat in combat. The only reliable way to defeat him is the Fan of Fen Xing which creates a wind powerful enough to blow him far away. His large ego is also an achilles' heel as Sonic was able to trick him to attacking a decoy when he pretended to surrender to him.

Weapons
The Iron King possesses a large collection of weapons which he collects to use against his enemies even though he has his own personal favorites.

The Tremor Mace is the Iron King's weapon of choice. It has a red grip and a cylinder-formed head with flat spikes. It has the power to shake the earth and can go up against weapons like the Atom-Bat and the Piko Piko Hammer. However, he lost the Tremor Mace following his defeat in New Mobotropolis.

Romance
The Iron King's only known romantic relationship is his marriage to the Iron Queen, but it was strictly out of benefit and not romance, which is made all the more obvious by the Iron Queen finding love with Snively.

Trivia

 * It was stated in the letters page of "Sonic the Hedgehog: #71" that the Iron Queen was a Mobian badger. However, writer Ian Flynn stated that he considered her an Overlander given her character design, adding that the Iron King and Iron Queen's "titles are purely honorary and not romantic. They're together out of benefit, not out of romance" and that "having a human [Overlander] female wed to a animal character might raise some eyebrows.".
 * The Iron King, along with the Iron Queen, holds the 4th longest non-appearance gap in the main comic series at 140 issues (StH: #60-200), tying them with the badnik Coconuts.
 * The Iron King seems to be based on the Ox King from Journey to the West.