DC Exploration: Yuga Khan

 

Yuga Khan is the perfect example of the kind of character I'd wanna do in one of these blogs. He's a character that every casual doesn't seem to know but everyone who's done at least a little exploration into DC knows because of his raw OP-ness even though he was only in two storylines and a baker's dozen issues basically. 

Who is he?

Yuga Khan (Title, real name Zonuz) is one of the Old Gods, the race of gods that existed prior to the creation of the New Gods of Apokolips and New Genesis after the Old Gods' civil war ended the third world and began the fourth world. Zonuz was a leader of the Old Gods, the most powerful of them. He is also the father of Darkseid and was the sole being that Darkseid feared. He tried to claim the power of the Source for himself, but ended up being sealed in the Source Wall the impenetrable barrier that seals all those who try to reach The Source. 

How strong is he?

As you might imagine, absolutely monstrously, to the point he might indeed be considered a god representing power. Zonuz dwarfs his sons Uxas (Darkseid) and Izaya (Highfather) to the point it took both of them to beat him back when he was weaker. His power was so great that he simply shut off the connection from the Source to all the New Gods causing them to all lose their powers and their technology to stop working at once. 

He's without a doubt one of the strongest beings in the Godsphere and in terms of raw power he's arguably the single most powerful being of the Godsphere though Billy Batson amped by the powers of Anapel, S'ivaa, Ate, H'ronmeer, and the Wizard was able to match him, S'ivaa by comparison being a character capable of destroying the entirety of the Godsphere at least. As such it's pretty clear that Yuga Khan is a High Godsphere Level Entity just through raw power alone. 

What are his Powers?

Like all the Gods, Yuga Khan is an immortal conceptual entity with the ability to manipulate reality as well as its components such as matter, energy, spacetime, souls, and minds and create avatars of himself with superhuman characteristics. He has done many of the standard abilities the gods are known for such as grow massive, cut off the powers of others, telepathically creating visions and illusions and mind-read beings as powerful as Highfather, etc. He's also functionally immune to most of the powers of the New Gods with characters like Darkseid not being able to deal with him in any quick way. 

Zonuz's unique power is his Torment Sanction, the equivalent of Darkseid's Omega Section. The Torment Sanction seems to drain the life and energy out of other beings including entire planets and other gods, allowing Yuga Khan to use their energy as his own. While Darkseid tends to annihilate enemies and then tries to drain them of their power if that doesn't work, Yuga Khan is the inverse and tries to drain enemies of their power before erasing them if that doesn't, possibly related to his belief that power is everything. Also, Desaad, Darkseid's mad scientist who he regularly kills and then brings back to life as punishment for failing him says that Yuga Khan has the ability to kill him such that even Darkseid couldn't bring him back which might be related to the Torment Sanction. 

His most dangerous power by far is that he can manipulate the Anti-Life Equation, the dark half of the Source, the power Darkseid sought to obtain, which can do many things such as derive worlds of free will and corrupt creation. Yuga Khan has used it for things like travel through hypertime (metafictional time), resurrecting the Old Gods, and cut off all the New Gods' access to the Source.

What are his weaknesses?

Without a doubt, Zonuz's biggest weakness is his lack of intelligence, or at the very least his complete and total arrogance about his own power. He was initially defeated because he tried to claim the Source's power and was sealed into the Source Wall. After escaping the first time, he basically defeated the New Gods and stole the power of New Gods...only to immediately try to claim the Source's power again and be sealed into the Source Wall again. When he reappeared in the New 52 he tried to steal the Wizard's power given by the Gods so he could try and do the exact same thing again. He doesn't use his powers very tactically most of the time, generally just draining all surrounding power.

Also his constant draining of power can sometimes backfire. His attempt to control the Wizard's power didn't work because the Wizard's power can only be wielded by someone worthy and so he couldn't wield it against Billy. 

In conclusion, Yuga Khan is easily a high Fourth World Tier entity. He would be the vast majority of Gods, Angels, and Demons and other entities in the Godsphere in a direct fight but is weaker then Fifth World Entities like Monitors and Imps. While he's stronger then Darkseid and would beat him, he's overall probably a lesser threat due to his much more exposed weaknesses.

He obviously beat New Genesis and Apokolips. Compared to other Godsphere realms Yuga Khan would be one of the most powerful in raw power with the only comparisons being power outliers like the Archangels of Heaven, Lucifer Morningstar and Amped Belial of Hell, Morpheus of the Dreaming, and the strongest gods of Skyland and Underworld. Compared to other specific worlds of the Godsphere: Against Hell he would be stronger then almost anyone there and would actually be able to escape Neron and First of the Fallen's immersion via the Anti-Life's hypertime movement. That said there are plenty of some of the best tricksters (even outside Lucifer) in the godsphere like Belial or Lady Blaze who could trick him into being sealed into the Source Wall again or Azazel the Second of the Fallen who can use his metaconceptual soul consumption if he can get close to Yuga Khan. Against Heaven, the holy light hax of most of the Angels should work on Zonuz and any of the Archangels would be able to beat him. Against Underworld he would be very difficult to stop though it's possible that Osiris' hax described as being superior even to Nabu's and able to negate the regeneration of Swamp Thing could potentially defeat him, though Osiris is fairly weak and Yuga Khan could absolutely one-shot him in turn. Against Skyland he would have a pretty good fight against most of the top gods like Zeus or Odin, though he would have more raw power as they're considered relative to Darkseid, while he's far above. However, given that the strongest gods of Skyland were the ones who first divided Source into Life and Anti-Life it's possible they could affect his Anti-Life Power and divide it in two meaning the strongest gods of Skyland together should be able to beat him. Nightmare doesn't have much it can do to him save potentially trick him into being sealed again in the Source wall while for the Dreaming he should be able to beat anyone there save Morpheus himself, though Santa Claus who regularly gives Darkseid coal and escapes might be able to similarly escape from Yuga Khan.

So overall I think he would be a High Godsphere level entity. He could certainly threaten most of the Godsphere realms just by himself, though there are some characters that would still be an even fight against him or would outright beat him, and even without the strongest characters might struggle against Heaven due to their anti-evil hax, Hell due to their tricksters and strongest haxes, and maybe Dream/Nightmare due to their own suite of tricksters.