Colonel Koslov was the sadistic and highly ambitious head of the secret police in the country of Lubania. He was also a surprisingly vicious one-time foe of Superman and Batman.
History
Colonel Koslov was the leader of the secret police in the illiberal isolationist state of Lubania. By fact of his position, he was also in charge of supervising the nation's labor camp, where foreign spies and political prisoners were to be held until their wills were broken or their day of execution had arrived. Koslov's cunning and fanatically anti-American, ultranationalist views led him to think up a scheme to replace Superman, to his mind the ultimate symbol of the presumed decadence of the United States, with an intelligence operative. This was meant to be a mere stepping-stone to relaying U.S. military secrets out of the country and back to Lubania, where the ruling dictatorship would make good use of those plans. The first step concerned pressing Lubania's greatest scientist Dr. Zirkan into manufacturing a wave emitter capable of broadcasting Green Kryptonite radiation in the form of radio waves. Then, Koslov engineered the collapse of a train trestle while Superman was skirting nearby the Lubanian border to coax the Man of Steel into technically invading Lubania's airspace, in the process of saving the people on board the train. Next, Koslov trained the Green K wave generator upon Superman from afar, sapping his powers. Changing into civilian clothes, Superman made a long trek towards Lubania's capital city, where he expected to find the American embassy. Meanwhile, Koslov's men found the discarded costume and used it to give Superman's scent to a pack of salivating bloodhounds. Losing the trail of the hounds by traveling several miles above-ground, Superman made it to the embassy, only to realize too late that the entire locale was a set-up, intended to lure American agents for the purposes of launching an ambush.
Evading the armed soldiers who soon barged in following his entry as such, Superman borrowed a trenchcoat to disguise his appearance further, but Koslov devised a new strategy to flush Superman out: He broadcast an elaborately disguised message, supposedly from Batman, on what was supposed to be a jammed frequency used only by pro-American dissident radio, to convince Superman that Batman was being flown into the country by the United States Air Force to pick him up. Subsequently, Koslov flooded the city at night with secret police disguised in imitation Batman costumes, but by a lucky coincidence, the real Batman had infiltrated the capital city the same night, looking for Superman. Unfortunately, this gave the malevolent colonel the idea to take both Superman and Batman captive and subject them to horrendous tortures in his labor camp, such as forcing Superman to carry a boulder by a pulley system for hours on end to keep it from crushing Batman, who was kept in position below by the trained rifles of camp guards. Koslov delighted in feeding Batman and the de-powered Superman insufficient rations on a daily basis to gradually induce the effects of starvation and forced the two heroes to leap on a trampoline with falcon training lures attached to give his pet falcon Katchi a workout with his talons against their flesh. Batman devised an idea to tunnel into Koslov's office to trick Koslov into thinking Superman and he were trying to go under the perimeter fence instead and induce Koslov to put them on the trampoline again as a punishment, at which time they would propel themselves with sufficient force to take them over the perimeter fence. However, this attempt at escape by convoluted reverse-psychology met with failure.
As protests erupted outside the Lubanian embassy in the United States over Superman and Batman's hideous treatment, Koslov put the next phase of his scheme into motion. He arranged for Perry White, editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet newspaper, to be allowed entrance into Lubania to see the heroes' treatment in the camp. Rather than trying to convince a savvy man like White that he was treating them humanely, he hid Superman and Batman in an underground vault for several days and simulated a breakout from the camp by two Lubanian espionage agents impersonating the heroes, for White to be present to witness and report on. The imposters were covertly permitted to make it across the border and taken back to America, where they were consulted by United States Army top brass about any of Lubania's military secrets they may have divulged. In actuality, the imposters would feed the U.S. Army false intel while gathering U.S. military secrets to accomplish their own mission's purpose. Fortunately, the true Superman and Batman, recalling how they outfoxed Doctor Light when he waged war against the Justice League, switched costumes and used rudimentary makeup to pull a trick about their identities. Batman, in Superman's costume, would not be affected by the colonel's Green K wave generator, while Superman, disguised in the Batsuit, would recover his strength under the yellow Sun until such time as a breakout seemed auspicious. The World's Finest duo struck on the day when Koslov decided to execute them with a silenced pistol as they slept in their beds, returning to America to confront their Lubanian impersonators. Knowing the fate reserved by his government for failure, Colonel Koslov gave the counterfeit Superman and Batman the order to initiate Operation Holocaust, which meant to detonate a compartmentalized cobalt bomb in the heart of Washington, D.C., and go up with it for the glory of their country. The real heroes arrived in time to disarm the bomb and made short work of the foreign agents, and the dictatorship of Lubania retaliated against Koslov for the disgrace and increased exposure his actions had incurred for them by stripping him of his rank and ordering him incarcerated for life in his own labor camp.[1][2]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Abilities
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Weapons
- Baton
- Sidearm (with silencer)
Notes
- Colonel Koslov was often seen in the company of his trained falcon, Katchi.
Trivia
- Colonel Koslov is depicted with a monocle on the covers of World's Finest #192 and World's Finest #193 but not in the actual story. This can be attributed to a difference in artistic preference between Curt Swan, who did the covers, and Ross Andru, who did the pencils on the interiors.
- Colonel Koslov directly addresses the reader at the end of the Superman/Batman story in World's Finest #192, ordering the reader to purchase the next issue for the conclusion.
Related
- 2 Appearances of Colonel Koslov (Earth-One)
- 1 Images featuring Colonel Koslov (Earth-One)
- 3 Quotations by or about Colonel Koslov (Earth-One)
- Character Gallery: Colonel Koslov (Earth-One)
Footnotes
  This character has been primarily an enemy of Superman in any of his various incarnations, or members of the Superman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Superman Villains category." |
 Batman Villain(s) |