KGBEAST
Real Name: Anatoli Knyazev
Class: Human cyborg
Occupation: Assassin, former KGB agent
Group Affiliation: formerly Black Lantern Corpos
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Russia, Gotham City
First Appearance: Batman I #417 (March, 1988)
Powers: Cybernetic enhancements gave KGBeast superhuman strength and durability, and he had a prosthetic gun in place of his left hand. He was a master unarmed combatant, and a firearms and explosives expert.
History:
(Batman Plus #1) - A group of Quraci nationals were willing to pay big money for Cheshire for the nuclear attack she inflicted on their country. KGBeast had his men take Cheshire's daughter Lian Harper hostage, and forced Cheshire to do his bidding, setting up a dropoff with the nationals at Gotham's Eagle Airfield. Arsenal learned that KGBeast had Cheshire, and enlisted Batman's help to save her. Gotham arms dealer Gustave Erhard recently received a shipment of cybernetic parts that KGBeast would need to maintain his body, so they went to see him. KGBeast was there, ready to kill Erhard to keep his presence secret, but he eagerly shot at Batman, looking forward to taking his life. A crane on Gustave's compound knocked out Arsenal, and Batman had to save him from a fall, allowing KGBeast to escape. At the airfield Checkmate, also after the Beast and Cheshire, made their move, but only resulted in slightly delaying KGBeast before he boarded the Quraci's plane. The plane exploded, but Batman suspected he'd blown it up himself, knowing his cyborg body could survive it. Arsenal had spotted "Cheshire," but she was wearing a wedding ring, and already dead, so he knew she wasn't the real deal. Batman suggested that Cheshire and KGBeast were working together, and Batman located KGBeast's bunker in the sewers. It was laced with explosives, but the heroes survived. Cheshire deposited the money KGBeast received in her Zurich account, and Batman and Arsenal found her there. Arsenal took out KGBeast with a taser when he stepped in a puddle, and Cheshire revealed that KGBeast was forcing her to cooperate. Nightwing saved Lian, and Arsenal thanked Cheshire for keeping Lian alive, but he still had to arrest her.
(Batman I #565) - Batman set up a holding facility for criminals in Gotham's No Man's Land with Lock-Up and KGBeast in charge but warned them that if they killed anyone their lives would be worth nothing.
(Nightwing II #141-143) - KGBeast's body was taken from St. Stanislaus Cemetery by Dr. Kendall s agents. Kendall created the Loyalists, a winged army created from the DNA of Condor and several other superhumans. Nightwing and Robin confronted the Loyalists on Kendall's African island base, and when the tide turned against him Kendall blew up the base, incinerating his collection of superhuman corpses.
Comments: Created by Jim Stalin & Jim Aparo.
KGBeast received a profile in Who's Who Update '88 #2 and Who's Who in the DC Universe #4.
There was a pin-up of KGBeast in Batman: No-Man's Land Gallery #1.
All characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Please visit The Official DC Comics Site at: http://www.batman.com