Who's This? The man with the third eye.
The facts: Despero first appeared in Justice League of America #1 (October 1960), by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. He had a couple of return engagements with the JLofA before returning in a big ape-like form to demolish Justice League Detroit (killing Gypsy's parents and a comatose Steel). This set ups a confrontation with Justice League International a few years later (1990), in which Mister Miracle is seemingly killed (it was a robot duplicate). So Despero is quite dangerous, and given the details of these stories really becomes the Martian Manhunter's archnemesis. He continued to appear in Justice League-related books in the 90s, until his body is possessed by L-Ron and he (well, sort of) becomes a member. He returns whole in JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice (2002) and continued to plague the Justice League even through the New52, and sometimes, other characters (Booster Gold, the World's Finest, the R.E.B.E.L.S).
How you could have heard of him: While he has appeared in animation (Justice League, Brave and the Bold, Young Justice), fans of the Arrowverse will have seen him in the Armageddon [2001] storyline.
Example story: Justice League of America #133-134 (August-September 1976) by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin
This is a weird one. The one-eyed telepaths of the planet Sirkus have kidnapped Superman with a long-rang tractor beam. They want him to defend their world from Despero. But they've read the hero all wrong. Believing that he wouldn't want to answer their distress call while the League was otherwise occupied, leaving his friends to whatever danger (the Queen Bee, to be specific), they kidnap him and use actresses in holographic superhero disguises to act as the JLA using their SFX-assisted powers. Uhm... and you've been planning this HOW long? It's absurd, but let's just get to the bit we care about: Despero's attack!
Despero has a third eye that can do a lot of stuff, and he's been "training up", but he's also a Silver Age JLA villain, which means he's going to use all sorts of mad tech as well. At least it's toyetic. And because this isn't the real JLA, he makes pretty short work of them. As the would-be heroes fall one by one, the aliens decide to try their Cosmic Cannon (this was Plan B and not Plan A?!), but they hit Superman instead, temporarily taking him out of the equation so Despero can bump off a few more JL Fakes. Hold on, SECOND ATTACK!
More heroes are defeated (possibly killed), so this trial run before attacking Earth itself is going well. But Superman's hit his limit. And maybe he's forgotten that one of his weaknesses is purely mental powers.
One thing about Despero's "hypnotic eye"... Presumably, he can use it to control people, but here, he only uses it as a blunt instrument, a psionic hammer to knock people out. I mean, yeah, the first thing you do in hypnosis is put the person to sleep. Does this mean he'll have a hypnotically-controlled JLA to fight the real deal in the next issue? Nah. He does put them all in stasis tubes for later use, I'm sure, but when his ship almost collides with the actual JLA's, a DIFFERENT bunch of aliens transport him and the real deals to their origami glass space station!
Despero does think it's strange that Wonder Woman is there with the B-team when she's snugly held in one of his tubes (so for all his power, he hasn't figured it out). He's not the only dumb one. Ralph attacks his head on and gets mind-zapped very quickly. The Real Wonder Woman(TM) is up next.
Before he beefed up in the 80s, it would be true to say Despero wasn't very adept in the physical arena. Having banged up his knee, he teleports away. Or rather, the aliens did it to debrief on what they've seen and set up another confrontation. They do this a bunch of times. On particular match-up has the Atom strike at Despero's weak point:
Oh! Oh! And Despero is finally using his hypnosis for what it says on the tin! To his puppet, he muses about his "little obsession", you know the one, to "own the planet Earth". But he vanishes again, and this time is pitted against Elongated Man and Supergirl. Despero tapes out though. He refuses to fight under these conditions. Not without understanding what's going on. The heroes might agree except his eyes go wide and he's filled with a murderous rage. He gets punched, he comes back... Supergirl calls it monotonous (Gerry Conway, don't tell on yourself!). Finally, the aliens show themselves and reveal they're just thrilled by violence, is all. They've been boosting Despero's toughness and anger to make sure it happens. Supergirl makes a deal with the two of them (last survivors of their race): One should root for her, the other for Despero, and whoever wins gets the biggest thrill of all. Well?
And the winner's thrill? Getting hit in the face by his sore loser of a partner. Uhm, okay. (It's a cursory ending, don't ask where Despero's taken or what happened to the FakeLA. What *I* can't believe is that they didn't make Supergirl a member right then and there. I mean, COME ON!
Who's Next? A big reader.
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