Hfuhruhurr

Hfuhruhurr, also known as the Word-Bringer, is a supervillain who appeared twice as an antagonist for Superman. He was created by Jim Starlin and Dan Jurgens, and is named after Michael Hfuhruhurr, the protagonist in The Man with Two Brains .

Hfuhruhurr
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	The Adventures of Superman Annual #1 (September 1987)
Created by	Jim Starlin Dan Jurgens
In-story information
Team affiliations	The Union
Notable aliases	The Word-Bringer
Abilities	Psionic abilities Superhuman intellect in the expertise of genetics, biochemistry, and technology

Fictional character biography

Little is known about Hfuhruhurr other than he is a leader of an extraterrestrial telepathic cult he calls the Union, consisting of multiple brains linked together in a vast telepathic gestalt. The circumstances that prompted him to create the Union are unknown, but he appears to be convinced that he is doing those in the Union a favour, describing himself once as bringing 'the Word' to the 'unenlightened', arguing that belonging to the Union grants eternal life and great knowledge to its members. ^[1] Hfuhruhurr first appears in The Adventures of Superman Annual #1. The President of the United States asks Superman to investigate the fictional city of Trudeau, South Dakota after its citizens disappeared. As Superman investigates the city, he approaches a manhole, only to be attacked by a tentacled slime creature. The creature escapes and Superman discovers an alien ship containing the brains of Trudeau's inhabitants preserved in jars connected to a life-support apparatus. Hfuhruhurr revealed he removed their brains from their bodies to create the Union, for them to "become one with a higher power" and "remove them from their prisons of the flesh", and converted their bodies into the slime creature Superman had fought earlier. The creature then appears and Superman destroys it with his heat vision. Hfuhruhurr escapes into space while his victims psionically deactivate their life-support systems, effectively committing suicide. ^[2]

Hfuhruhurr returns during Superman's self-imposed exile from Earth, during which he attacks several aliens to make them part of the Union. ^[3] Superman deduces that Hfuhruhurr is responsible and attacks him. When Superman gains the upper hand, Hfuhruhurr uses his machinery to create Eon, a manifestation of the Union, to battle him. Superman convinces Eon to reject Hfuhruhurr's demands as they realize how distant they had become from the individual lives they had once been. With Superman unable to hand Hfuhruhurr over to any authorities, the Union promise to use Eon to keep Hfuhruhurr in check, vowing that they would only recruit the willing minds of those near death to join the Union. ^[4]

Powers and abilities

Hfuhruhurr has various psionic abilities including telepathy, telekinesis, and the ability to manipulate his psionic energy into waves of concussive force. He also has a superhuman intellect showing advanced scientific knowledge given that he was able to surgically remove brains from different alien races and sustain with a life-support apparatus. He has extensive knowledge of technology far surpassing present-day Earth.

References

1. Fleisher, Michael L. (2007). The Original Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, Volume Three: Superman. DC Comics. p. 476. ISBN   978-1-4012-1389-3.
2. The Adventures of Superman Annual #1 (September 1987)
3. Superman (vol. 2) #29 (March 1989)
4. The Adventures of Superman #452 (March 1989)