Alter Ego: None
Height: 5'9"
Weight 161 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Bald
Occupation: Criminal Scientist
Known relatives: None
Base of operations: A Laboratory outside New York, a domed city in the Arctic & a house on Long Island
1st Appearance: More Fun Comics #69
Current Status: Ian Karkull was seemingly destroyed in the early 1940's but has recently escaped his "death". Recently Karkull has threatened the JSA but was once again seemingly destroyed by Obsidian
During the 1930's, the scientist Ian Karkull and his partner Everett Dahlen discovered the legendary lost city of Ragnor in the Sahara desert. The two discovered a ruby and quarrelled over who should take the ruby, eventually Dahlen struck Karkull unconscious and took the ruby while leaving Karkull to die.
Karkull soon came to his senses and wandered through the desert until he was rescued by nomads. Karkull vowed revenge on Dahlen and the world. Through years of painstaking work, Karkull invented a device that could transform a human being into an intangible black shadow. Karkull used the device on a criminal named Hart who murdered Dahlen. Karkull then formed a partnership with Hart's gangster boss.
The original Doctor Fate was investigating the death of Dahlen and confronted Karkull who turned himself into shadow form to prevent Fate from harming him. Fate destroyed the transformation device thus trapping Karkull in shadow form. Karkull then formed an alliance with Wotan and went to the Arctic to create a domed city where they would create weapons to attack the world with. Doctor Fate intervened and as a result of the battle, the Domed City was engulfed in mystical flames. Doctor Fate escaped but so did Karkull and Wotan.
Karkull someone learned how to look into the future and on June 28, 1941 he and other criminals including Wotan attempted to murder future presidents of the United States. The Justice Society of America thwarted these attempts but Wotan managed to kill a young boy who have become the president succeeding Ronald Reagan. Doctor Fate battled with Karkull but it was the Spectre who defeated him, causing his shadow form explode. The explosion irradiated the people present with temporal energy that Karkull had stolen from other people's future lives. Thus the entire JSA and their wives were bathed in this energy that help slow down the aging process. Karkull was destroyed in the explosion. Unfortunately the effects of Zero Hour, namely Extant had stripped this energy from the JSA causing them to regain their rightful age.
- Doctor Fate I
- Justice Society of America
- Sentinel: The Golden Age Green Lantern
- Spectre I
Golden Age
- More Fun Comics #69 (Jul 1941)
Silver Age to Modern Age
- All-Star Squadron Annual #3 (1984)
- JSA #1 (Aug 1999) - cameo
- JSA #7-9 (Feb - Apr 2000)
Television
- Superman the Animated Series: The Hand of Fate