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| “ | In the beginning, I didn't understand why you brought them together. But now, I've seen the light. I believe in the Injustice Society of America... more than any of the others! And I'll never betray you. Not like the Shade. | „ |
| ~ Dragon King to Icicle. |
| “ | Do not make me remove my hood! | „ |
| ~ Dragon King threatens his daughter. |
Dr. Shiro Ito, also known as Dragon King, is the secondary antagonist of the DC show Stargirl. He serves as a supporting antagonist in Season 1, one of the two unseen overarching antagonists (alongside the Ultra-Humanite) of Season 2, and one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Lily Mahkent) of Season 3.
Ito is a Japanese scientist who experimented on himself and transformed his body into a reptilian hybrid form. Under the name Dragon King he became a supervillain and an enemy to the Seven Soldiers of Victory before disappearing and presumably dying. However, Dragon King is still active and is working with the Injustice Society of America to further their goals. Dragon King's daughter Cindy is also involved in these plans and proves to be even more insane than her father.
He was portrayed by Nelson Lee.
Appearance[]
Dragon King wears a dark green hood with a yellow dragon in the middle, a dark green cloak with a high collar and matching dragon insignia on the back, green gloves, a yellow leather apron with different bloodstains, and a crimson-colored belt with multiple surgical equipment. Unmasked Dragon King has a significantly deformed, reptilian visage covered in green scales, a noticeable ridge on his skull, two sets of eyelids, and sharp, fang-like fangs. Dragon King was a middle-aged Japanese guy with short, combed back black hair, brown eyes, and a mustache/goatee before his metamorphosis. From what little was seen of him, he was mostly dressed in a white lab coat.
Ito has a bald patch on his head and a beard after being implanted in the body of a huge albino gorilla. He dresses in a maroon vest with spikes around it.
Personality[]
The Dragon King has a poor impression of people who turn against the Injustice Society, such as The Wizard and The Shade, because he tends to value trust between friends and what the organization stands for. By acknowledging his appreciation that The Wizard was dead as a result of seeming enmity he displayed against him in the past, he further demonstrates that he has a vindictive and petty side. He is also quite sincere, telling Icicle straight out that despite his initial skepticism and worries when Icicle originally founded the group, he had no intention of turning against him.
He claims that he was already experimenting on his own daughter, occupied himself with that project, and planned to utilize the body of the murdered Wizard for some unspecified goal. As a scientist, he appears to be intensely committed to his experiments with what appears to be little care for ethics. Even the ordinarily heartless Icicle was astonished by this act of brutality. The Dragon King appears to have little to no respect for human life and views his many subordinates as nothing more than disposable tools. He seems more irritated by the effort required to "condition" one of the people his daughter killed than by the killing itself.
Despite his claims that he granted his daughter her abilities to protect her, he is a very distant father. He calls her violent outbursts "tantrums," constantly rejects her demands to join the Injustice Society, and cynically expects that she can be calmed down with only clothing or parties. Although Brainwave claims that he views Cindy as nothing more than a failed experiment, it is unclear whether he genuinely cares about her beyond using her as a subject for his experiments.
Dragon King occasionally displays more animal-like features, usually when upset or engaged in fight, which may be a side-effect of his mutation. He hissed numerous times, like a snake or a crocodile, as he got ready to fight Courtney, perhaps to scare her off. He shouted fiercely at Yolanda and Courtney after being eventually thrown back and uncovered, appearing to briefly give in to his feral side. He also shown incredible aggression in battle, never relenting during his brief battle with Courtney.
Past[]
Dragon King was born in 1901 in Imperial Japan and was a scientist to the Japanese military. He was responsible for the creation of several biological weapons and was arrested for war crimes before eventually being executed in 1947. However, Ito survived his execution and disappeared. He appeared in the United States where he now experimented on himself, turning himself into a human-reptile hybrid and giving himself superhuman abilities. He started amassing followers by breaking the minds of people and turning them into barely human drones without free will. He was responsible for several terrorist attacks and became an enemy to the hero group known as the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The group stopped him from destroying New York City with a living weapon but Ito, now going under the alias Dragon King, managed to escape.
Dragon King married and he and his wife had a daughter, Cindy. When Cindy was a child, Dragon King already experimented on her and saw her as nothing more than a promising experiment. Among other improvements, he outfitted Cindy with bone blades she could eject from her wrist, but during a tantrum Cindy accidentally used them to kill her mother. At one point, Dragon King got remarried to an unnamed woman only to get divorced. He eventually got married to Bobbie Burman. Dragon King also got into contact with the Injustice Society of America but their relationship was strained at best, with the Wizard especially proving his disliking of Dragon King whenever he could. In order to improve the relationship, Dragon King sent out a proposal to the ISA member Brainwave. He proposed an organized relationship between Dragon King's daughter Cindy, who was very much aware of her father's identity and his crimes, and Brainwave's son Henry King Jr., who did not know about his father's villainy. This proposal allowed Brainwave to keep an eye out on his son via Cindy and to monitor him for developing telekinetic abilities. Brainwave accepted the proposal and Dragon King kept 'improving his daughter'.
Story[]
Dragon King speaks to Jordan
Eventually, Dragon King is approached by Icicle, the leader of the Injustice Society of America, who proposes working together in order to succeed in "Project New America". For this project, which would result in the ISA controlling the minds of every adult citizen in several US States and lead to the secession of these states from the United States. In order for the plan to work, the ISA needs Dragon King's support since he is required to build a machine which would allow for Brainwave's telepathic abilities to be broadcast over these states. Dragon King is only too willing to build the machine and announces himself to be a firm believer in the Injustice Society's cause. Back at his lair, he is forced to deal with his rebellious daughter Cindy, who wants a seat at the table and is determined to kill Stargirl. Dragon King coldly orders her to stay put and forbids her to take action.
When Cindy ignores his orders and eventually happily returns to her father's lair and proudly announces that she found Stargirl, she is reprimanded by the angry Dragon King that instead of alerting him, she went after Stargirl herself and nearly compromised Project New America. Despite his daughter's angry protest, he orders her to return home and keep a low profile, viciously threatening to remove his hood if she keeps defying him. For once, Cindy submits to her father's orders but when she ends up in another fight with Stargirl only hours later, Dragon King has Cindy captured by his drones and locks her up in a cell in his lair in order to prevent her from messing up his plans any further. However, Cindy's battle with Stargirl has its benefits since through watching the fight, Dragon King has learned that Henry King Jr. indeed inherited his father's telepathic abilities.
Dragon King in his lair
A few days later, Dragon King visits the lair of the Injustice Society in order to brief them on his advancement with the machine. Although many of the villains are uncomfortable with having Dragon King as a partner, only Sportsmaster speaks up and falls silent eventually. Dragon King informs the group that preparations are near completion and that they do not need to wait for Brainwave to wake up since his son has the same telepathic abilities. Dragon King confirms that his machine will be finished within the week and that once it is activated, they will be able of controlling the minds of every adult citizen of six whole states. However, some time later Brainwave awakens from his coma yet has no memories, causing Dragon King to be tasked with re-awakening his memories.
At the same time, Dragon King is handed the staff of Stargirl which Icicle managed to capture. Both the staff and Brainwave are brought to Dragon King's lair where Dragon King starts the procedure on Brainwave. While he manages to retrieve Brainwave's memories, the lair is infiltrated by Stargirls team. From her cell, Cindy warns her father who then sends his drones to fight the intruders. During the battle, Dragon King watches Stargirl taking out several of his drones, resulting in him drawing a sword and and eventually attacking her himself. He manages to overpower her but before he can kill her, Wildcat hurls the Cosmic Staff towards Stargirl. As a result, she can fend off Dragon King's attack, blasts him in the face with her staff – taking off his hood in the process – and then shoots a light beam at him with a horrified shriek once she sees his reptilian face. Dragon King is knocked out and the team is able to flee from the lair.
Dragon King and the ISA attack the JSA
Eventually, the time has come to turn on the machine. After Dragon King took a successful test run with Brainwave – whose powers have increased after his son's death – Dragon King turns on the machine for real. Brainwave starts affecting the mind of adults in ten states while Dragon King gleefully watches the process. However, before Brainwave is finished, the JSA storms the lair once again in order to stop Project New America. To prevent them from reaching Brainwave and the machine, Dragon King joins up with Icicle, Sportsmaster and Tigress. As a united group, they attack the heroes which results in a fierce battle. During the fight, Dragon King ends up dueling Shining Knight in a sword fight. However, during their battle they inadvertently blast open the lock to Cindy's cell, allowing her to free herself. Furious at her father for imprisoning her for days, she sneaks up to her father just as he is about to execute Shining Knight and rams her shiv into his back, with his body still remaining still on the ground.
Dragon King helped Ultra Humanite transfer his brain into others bodies throughout the 1900s most notably the actress “Dolores Winters” to help avoid the JSA, but after the JSA got gained intel he was disguised as Winters, he asked Ito to help put his brain into the body of a modified Albino Gorilla, Ito also revealed due to there inevitably encounter with the heroes he was working on improvements revealing his reptilian arm.
Dragon King survived the battle with the JSA and has teamed up with a recently revived Jordan Mahkent and the Ultra Humanite to get revenge on the JSA, It is revealed through flashbacks that Ito and Jordan dug up Sylvester Pemberton’s body and revived him, Jordan gave Starman a chance to join him but refused, Dr Ito then revealed that he was going to put Ultra Humanites brain inside of Sylvester’s body then he gets his gorilla body to “become something greater”. The trio placed cameras around Blue Valley to spy on the JSA in their homes, school, work, Steven Sharpe/Gambler returned to Blue Valley searching for redemption for his daughter Becky, while in his trailer searching for his daughter he discovered cameras all over Blue Valley even outside of his own trailer, Sharpe went to investigate, Ito murdered him and destroyed his trailer. While investigating the Gamblers trailer “Sylvester” was sucker punched by Ito, which was revealed by the Ultra Humanite to make himself look like a victim to the JSA.
Mike, Jakeem and Thunderbolt search one of Dragon Kings abandoned lairs above a farm for Cindy, not finding any sign of Cindy, Mike and Jakeem hear a growl asking Thunderbolt if it was him to which he replies he doesn’t growl as it’s not his thing, then a giant mutated Albino Gorilla comes into view and growls furiously at the trio who proceed to scream and run, with the gorilla proclaimed he will “kill every last one of them”. Pat and “Sylvester” believe it to the the Ultra Humanite a dangerous foe of the older JSA who transfers his brain into others with the assistance of Ito. Mike and Jakeem ran into a large net trap, Cindy revealed herself believing the gorilla was “one of her fathers crazy experiments” thinking the net was to catch it.
When the Young All Star’s find Ito’s lab Cindy notices someone has been working in it, finding a chair with a body in it, Cindy pulls back the sheet to reveal Ito’s body which has begun to decay and smell horribly, but also revealed his head was cut opened with his skull and brain missing, Ito then walked in greeting his daughter Cindy much to her and the Young All Stars shock and horror, (soon after revealing Sylvester is the Ultra Humanite), The heroes run out of the lab with Ito hot on their tail, he catches up with the heroes and attacks, telling Cindy to return to him as she belongs to him, Cindy attacks Ito but is pinned by his raw strength, Ito attempts to crush her, but Jakeem makes a wish that Cindy will never be bothered by Ito again causing the Thunderbolt to take Ito in the air transforming him into a gorilla plush toy falling right into Cindy’s arms. Out of revenge Cindy gives Ito to the Whitemore-Dugans dog Buddy who runs around with it Jakeem and Mike attempt to get him away from Buddy but the dog has ripped off his arm but it wasn’t. Cindy then asks her “daddy” if “he’s having fun”.
Powers and abilities[]
| “ | I'm not sure that it's possible to kill Doctor Ito. He experimented on himself, Court, until he evolved into something beyond human. Like Cindy, but much, much worse. | „ |
| ~ Pat discussing how Dragon King mutated himself to Courtney. |
Dr. Ito has been conducting experiments on himself since the 1940s. He experimented with his DNA in order to create a human-reptile hybrid. He is significantly stronger than a normal man due to his mutant physiology, able to casually fling Courtney across a room with a single hand and cut through a metal pole with a single, one-armed slice with his sword. He has been living since 1901 and displays no evidence of physical deterioration due to his elderly age. Pat also felt that the doctor couldn't be murdered because of the various scientific studies he had done on himself. Following his death, his brain was implanted into the body of a mutant albino gorilla that had previously housed the Ultra-Humanite.This new body provided Ito huge quantities of strength and durability that his prior body didn't have.
Dr. Ito is shown to be an exceptional scientist, capable of developing chemicals that have allowed him to live far beyond the lifespan of a normal human, as well as covering both technical and medical fields since he was tasked by Icicle with spearheading the construction of a machine that will be critical for the implementation of Project New America, as well as modifying organics to serve Ito's causes. Pat Dugan was uneasy because he knew Ito's predilection for weaponizing science by envisioning and manufacturing things of mass murder and devastation during Sylvester and Pat's time with the Seven Soldiers. And under his guidance, his daughter would gain so much expertise in the subject of chemistry that she would no longer need to glance at the directions for one of her tasks. Dr. Ito displayed exceptional skill with a katana during his encounter with Courtney, easily overwhelming her despite fighting with just one hand. He subsequently demonstrated his ability by defeating Justin, a former knight of King Arthur and immortal swordsman with over 1000 years of fighting experience.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- While Dragon King and Dr. Ito are two seperate villains in the comics, both villains are combined in the Stargirl version.
