| “ | I hear voices calling me -- summoning me to rule! | „ |
| ~ Kaizen |
Kaizen Gamorra , also known as "The Younger", was the main antagonist of the DC Comics story arc "First Contact", a crossover story featuring Batman, Superman, Power Girl and the Huntress which appeared in the comic book series World's Finest and Batman/Superman. His father Kaizen Gamorra, the Elder, is a major antagonist in various WildStorm Comics and later in the DC Comics series Team 7.
History[]
Kaizen Gamorra was the Prime Earth version of Ken Gamorra, the boyfirend of Earth-2 superhero Power Girl, who gave his life in order to save hers.
This version of Gamorra was very different to his Earth-2 counterpart, being a power-crazed psychopath with no empathy and a burning desire for control. His father, Kaizen Gamorra the Elder was also the founding member of the Terrorist organization Basilisk, which worshipped a snake-like god, and who sought to create a human-metahuman war in order to further their own power.
Being involved in the political circles of his home country Rheelasia, he saw about clearing his country of crime, which had run rampant, using an army of crime fighting robots, and creating an orderly and peaceful society in its wake. The country was later renamed New Gamorra in his honour after he fully restored its economy and made it the fourth largest economy in Asia.
At one point, he sent a blimp piloted by Basilisk agents (including bomb expert John Akara) armed with explosives to destroy a football stadium, hoping that this would distract public attention from metahuman "super heroes", so that they would instead idolise the tremendous power of Basilisk. The plan failed however, as it was thwarted by Amanda Waller, Dean Higgins, and multiple NSA Agents.
Some time later he started to receive psychic communications from the Earth-2 version of Superman, who told him that if he (Kaizen) could create an interdimensional portal to return his cousin Karen (Power Girl) to him, then he would give Kaizen his world to conquer and control.
Overjoyed by this opportunity, and in the knowledge that he would need matter from Earth-2 to complete the portal he needed, he set about creating Nanites to mess with Power Girl's powers, which caused her to completely lose control and cause massive amounts of destruction.
While Superman attempted to bring Power Girl under control, Batman and Huntress (Helena Wayne of Earth-2), having tracked the timing of Power Girl's meltdown to when she was flying over New Gamorra, visited Kaizen's palace during a business ceremony, under the guises of Bruce Wayne and his "plus one" Kate Kyle. While Bruce distracted Kaizen with idle conversation, Helena slapped him and left, as part of a rouse to let her sneak into Kaizen's computer system and see what he was doing to Power Girl. After Helena relayed this information to Batman, he warned Superman that Power Girl was going to detonate, and she fknocked Superman out with a giant rock, before flying into outer space to detonate. Though her powers did release a massive surge, she survived and as she fell she was caught by Superman, who suddenly lost his powers. Fortunately, as they fell toward an inevitable death, the pair were caught in a net by Batman and Huntress, who then landed them and the Bat-Plane on an island just offshore of New Gamorra.
Batman and Power Girl then flew to the mainland to confront Gamorra while one of his robots attacked Huntress and the now powerless Superman. Huntress easily defeated the robot, and while Batman conducted a search of the Palace's understorey Power Girl elected to directly confront Kaizen personally. However, when she met him, she was horrified at his identical appearance to her beloved Ken, and she felt that perhaps she could trust him if he were like his counterpart.
Kaizen told Karen that his disruption to her powers was entirely accidental, and that they resulted from his experiments with nanites to create a bridge that would allow inter-universe travel. Kaizen then revealed to Karen that because of the fact that his nanites scanned her body he was aware that she came from a parallel earth where "left handed molecules" were present, and he needed a tissue sample from her to use these molecules to complete his portal and create a bridge that would take Helena and Karen home.
Kaizen Gamorra (in red) launches a surprise attack on Power Girl with his robot army.
However, once Karen gave him a tissue sample, Kaizen mocked her gullibility and se his army of robots to attack her, while an army of human operatives attacked and tried to kill Superman and Huntress on the offshore island. Realising that Kaizen had no good intentions for the portal, Karen tried to shut it down, but was rather overwehlmed by all the robots. Fortunately, Superman arrived in a robot armour built by Toymaster that effectively recovered his powers, but a sudden blast of energy from the portal disabled all of Kaizen's nanites and robots, and forced Superman to have to plug the portal with his own body.
Among the carnage, Kaizen stood below the portal as he, Karen, and Helena were able to gaze up at what had become of Earth-2, and they saw a city consumed by fire, destroyed by Darkseid, with buildings crumbling and aflame. Kaizen then commented to the group of heroes on how this world had been calling to him, calling him to rule it, before the Superman of Earth-2 sent an energy pulse into Prime Earth that converted Kaizen into a humanoid cyborg with superhuman strength and electrokinesis.
Kaizen then battled the heroes for 3 pages before being thrown into the portal by Power Girl. After a long discussion, Helena and Karen decided to go back to their home world even though it was effectively destroyed, but unaware of this descision, Superman of Earth-2 sent Kaizen back through the portal to retrieve Karen, only now he (Kaizen) was around 30 feet tall. Kaizen tried to grab Karen and told her that she was the one "he" wants. Assuming "he" to mean Darkseid, Karen asked why on Eath he wanted her, causing Kaixen to reply:
Kaizen, Earth-2 Superman, and Power Girl.
"Because he loves you most of all", after which Superman of Earth-2 appeared at the portal, revealing himself to be the true mastermind behind everything, and that he was trying to get Karen back the whole time. He then commanded Kaizen to bring her to him, before sending a battalion of Parademons to attack and kill the rest of the Prime Earth heroes. Despite refusing to go with him at first, Karen eventually realises that the Earth-2 Superman, while acting far crueler than he used to be and apparently corrupted by Darkseid, is clearly his real self when he refers to her as his "secret weapon", and Karen, out of love for her cousin, refuses to stay in the Prime Earth reality when her cousin is still alive, loving her, waiting for her. She sheds a tear for her friends as she knows that the only way to save them is to go with Superman, and so she took the choice, seeing this as her only way to go home, to be with her family, and to save her friends' lives, she and Gamorra walked towards the portal. Gamorra made it through, but before Karen could make it, Helena destroyed the portal with an explosive arrow, leaving Karen devastated and trapping Kizen Gamorra on Earth-2.
Infuriated with Gamorra for failing him, Earth-2 Superman restored him to his original human form, refused to give him anything that he promised, and instead threw him in a giant metal dish and set him on fire, causing Kaizen Gamorra to burn to death in agony.
