Forgotten Villains: Who's Kraklow?

Who's This? Next in Forgotten Villains Week, Kraklow, the old wizard in the purple robes.

The facts: An 18th-century Polish wizard (hence the name that sounds like a Polish city), Kraklow's only pre-Forgotten Villains appearance is in Rip Hunter... Time Master #28, but at least it's a full-length story.
How you could have heard of him: Like the Atom-Master, he only then appeared in DC Comics Presents #77-78 and Resurrection Man #25.
Example story: Rip Hunter... Time Master #28 (Sept.-Oct. 1965) by George Kashdan and Will Ely

Out story starts with a Silver Age twist-hook, as a monster attacks a town and is defeated by one of the Time Masters, Jeff, who throws magic dust at it and transforms it back into none other than Rip Hunter himself. Flash back to a few days ago when Rip visits a famous historian (these seem to exist in the the DC Universe) who asks him to go back to 18th-century Poland and investigate a legendary sorcerer called Kraklow. From Jeff's dismayed expression, it looks like something Rip was always getting into, so off they go.

Back in time, Rip's time sphere is attacked by monsters created by the nefarious Kraklow. He explains his modus operandi:

Polish voodoo, I guess. Kraklow's also quick to mention the two antidotes - a bag of magic dust and destroying the original statuettes. Not surprisingly, the heroes are outraged by Kraklow's plans to use his monsters to conquer the country, so they destroy his work and free his enslaved humans.

That's a great expression. Poor guy. His dear old dad left him that magic clay. Now he's got nothing. Except a burning hate for Rip Hunter that transcends time itself! So obviously, he lied about having no clay left and makes a statue of Rip that he then molds into monsters. In the present, the cops jail Rip to keep him from threatening the city, but he again turns into a monster and destroys the prison, until Jeff once again shows up with the magic dust. The authorities have no choice but to let Rip and his team return to the past to deal with Kraklow once and for all. But Kraklow won't give them the statuette unless they comply with his demands:

Nothing less than Rip training and arming his makeshift army so they can wrestle the country from King Stanislaus. Rip can certainly arm them with modern weapons, but teaching them to march in unison, that proves a little harder.

Yeah, there's no way they can take over Poland with that complete lack of discipline. But they can certainly try, and under General Rip's orders, are directed to scare Stanislaus' men and not injure them. Because comics are for kids and no other reason, these rebel toughs agree. Now for a little history lesson. The King Stanislaus in this story is likely Stanislaus II, who reigned from 1764 to 1785, was, in his youth, Catherine the Great's lover, and as King of Poland, was a great patron of the arts, but failed to prevent the destruction of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After abdicating to the Russians, he spent his few remaining years in semi-captivity in St. Petersburg. So he can't exactly lose the kingdom to a sorcerer now, can he?

Regardless, he shows here what made him a great abdicator of thrones. "YIIII!" The mood in Kraklow's camp is nothing short of giddy.

But as Kraklow takes over and holds the king for ransom, he is himself defeated by a combination of yet another monster attacking the castle AND Corky, the juvenile Time Master, jumping him. How to get Forgotten as a villain in one easy step: Get beat up by a little boy who wasn't trained by Batman.

The monster takes care of the henchman army, and it's then revealed that the Time Masters manipulated the Rip statue to make their own assault creature.

If there's one thing that makes Bonnie hot for Rip Hunter, it's when he turns into hideous monsters. She loves it. In the confusion, the statue disappears and Kraklow is all, like, nyah-ha-ha, you'll never know when I'll turn you into a monster again, future-man! But since it never happened, I'm going to put my money on Bonnie taking the magic clay with her. She really IS hot for monster-Rip...

In a superhero universe, you're sure to get some weird fetishes, after all.

Being from the past, you wouldn't have expected Kraklow to ever appear again, so it's a small miracle that he was added to the Forgotten Villains' roster, making a clay statue to turn Superman into a monster, and brainstorming with his team as a magic hologram beamed from the 18th-century. But DC Comics Presents often proved to be that brand of crazy.

Who else? THREE down, TWO to go, as Forgotten Villains Week continues!