Information in this article may not be canonical to the storyline of the games or any other Sonic continuity. |
When rewriting sections, remember to adhere to our Manual of Style.
|
Jun Kun, more formally known as the Iron King, is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics. He is a mobian ox who works alongside the Iron Queen, an Overlander sorceress. Both of them are enemies of Monkey Khan. The Iron King has an affinity for collecting weapons. Sonic and Tails encountered the Iron King and Queen during their quest for Ixis Naugus, who fled across all of Mobius. Sonic and Tails learned during their trek that the Iron King and Queen crowned themselves ruler of a Mobian settlement. With help from the settlers, the Iron King and Queen were defeated, with the Iron King being blown away by the magical Fan of Fen Xing. The Iron King later moved to the ruins of New Megaopolis along with the Iron Queen to take over the Eggman Empire, unaware of his wife's plans to cut him out of the picture and rule alongside her new love, Snively Robotnik.
History[]
Warlord[]
Years ago, Jun Kun was a warlord in the Dragon Kingdom. At some point in time, the young Regina Ferrum came before him, pledging her allegiance to him, secretly to gain power. Following this, the two worked together for many years, and became known as the Iron King and Iron Queen.
Rule of the Iron Kingdom[]
Sonic and Tails first encountered the Iron King and Queen during their quest for Ixis Naugus, who fled across all of Mobius. When they arrived at Stormtop Village, they learned that the Iron King and Queen crowned themselves ruler of the village. When the villagers refused to swear loyalty to either, the Iron Queen set Mount Stormtop on fire for over a hundred days and would not lift the spell until the villagers agreed to bow down to them. Sonic and Tails were told by Li Yuen that only the magical Fan of Fen Xing could blow out the flames on the mountain. When the two tried to retrieve it, the Iron Queen cast a spell on renegade cyborg, Monkey Khan, to kill Sonic and Tails before they arrived. They managed to free Khan and he joined them in assaulting the Iron King at his fortress. Sonic and the others returned to Mount Stormtop to blow out the flames, the Iron Queen tried to use her magic to stop them but failed and the flames were extinguished. The Iron Queen left the village swearing vengeance on Sonic.
New Empire[]
Nearly two years later, the Iron King served as a Sub-Boss to the Eggman Empire over the Dragon Kingdom. The local resistance there were beginning to keep the Iron King and Queen at bay. After the Iron Queen made romantic connections with Snively Robotnik over in New Megaopolis, the Iron King accompanied her along with the Yagyu Ninja where they arrived at the landing bay of the Eggdome via dirigible, with plans to usurp the Eggman Empire following Dr. Eggman's recent descent into insanity.
Days after his arrival at the Eggdome, the Iron King showed anger at the fact they had come to a ruined city when they had everything back in the Iron Dominion, and he also took an immediate dislike to Snively as he seemed quite casual around the Iron Queen. The Iron Queen reassured her husband that they would move the seat of power back to the Dragon Kingdom, and Snively suggested the Iron King look through the ruins for weapons to add to his armory, which he did with the help of the Bride of Conquering Storm.
When both Sonic and Monkey Khan attempted to attack the city, the Iron King himself arrived on the battlefield after Sonic and Khan managed to fend off the Yagyu Ninja and Dark Egg Legion. Sonic attacked the Iron King with a spin dash, though it had no effect on the giant ox due to his armor, and it in fact wounded Sonic. The Iron King then knocked back Monkey Khan with his Tremor Mace. Due to this, the Dark Egg Legion managed to wound both heroes even more, which forced them to retreat. The Iron King cancelled Lien-Da's order to shoot them down, insisting they allow them to escape so their humiliation and defeat would instill fear in the Freedom Fighters.
After taking down Amadeus and his solders in attempting to smash down the pipeline to New Mobotropolis’s power supply, he was knocked to the ground by Sonic for he made sure not to hit the armor and was insisted by Monkey Khan in fighting him. despite taking their assaults well, he was beaten by Sonic, for he’d thought fast on how to trick the iron king and used his super speed to rush back to Nicole and inform her of a plan for a decoy pipe for the Iron king to smash.
Later, he took part in invading the city after Nicole got corrupted. But then fought against St. John and Amy Rose. He then became in conflict with the rest of the Freedom Fighters once Sonic Tails, Sally and Monkey Khan took matters in their own hands on reversing Nicole’s cop prion and weakening the Iron Dominion. Espio later came with the fan of Fen and was blown to the other side of Mobius with it by Monkey Khan.
Powers and abilities[]
The Iron King is an exceedingly powerful mobian. He was able to single-handedly dispatch an entire platoon of the Mes Braves Battalion with ease and even fought evenly against the combined efforts of Sonic the Hedgehog and Monkey Khan, yet the heroes managed to escape him.[1]
The Iron King possesses a mysterious nigh-invulnerability, enabling him to shrug off an incredible amount of damage;[2] he is unaffected by laser blasts and electrical surges from the Atom-Bat, and the combined assault on him from Sonic, Monkey Khan, Amy and Antoine did little more than slow him down.[1][3] However, he is not completely immune to attacks as he can still be stunned by strong enough strikes or surprise attacks such as when he was rammed by the Freedom Fighters' hovercraft, Sonic’s homing attack and Amy's Piko Piko Hammer. The Iron King also has an incredible amount of endurance and stamina, as he can participate in prolonged fights and endure continuous attacks without showing any signs of fatigue.
The Iron King has a great deal of incredible strength, being easily within the top five strongest Mobians.[2] He could smash the majority of Fort Acorn with his bare fists and break free from being buried in the ground through brute force.[1] He also has proficiency in wielding various weapons of both technological and magical nature.
The Iron King possesses no known weaknesses and is as such nearly impossible to defeat in combat. The only reliable way to defeat him is the Fan of Fen Xing which creates a wind powerful enough to blow him far away that is known to be used by Sonic and Monkey Khan.[3] His large ego is also an Achilles' heel as Sonic was able to trick him to attacking a decoy when he pretended to surrender to him.[1]
Weapons[]
The Iron King possesses a large collection of weapons which he collects to use against his enemies even though he has own person favorites.
Tremor Mace[]
The Tremor Mace is the Iron King's weapon of choice. It has a red grip and a cylinder-formed head with flat spikes. It has the power to shake the earth and can go up against weapons like the Atom-Bat and the Piko Piko Hammer. However, he lost the Tremor Mace following his defeat in New Mobotropolis.[3]
Romance[]
The Iron King's only known romantic relationship is his marriage to the Iron Queen, but it was strictly out of benefit and not romance, which is made all the more obvious by the Iron Queen finding love with Snively.
Relationships[]
Friends/allies[]
Enemies[]
- Amadeus Prower
- Eggman Empire
- Iron Dominion
- Iron Queen (former love interest)
- Snively Robotnik
- Freedom Fighters
- Geoffrey St. John
Trivia[]
- It was stated in the letters page of Sonic the Hedgehog: #71 that the Iron Queen was a Mobian badger. However, writer Ian Flynn stated that he considered her an Overlander given her character design, adding that the Iron King and Iron Queen's "titles are purely honorary and not romantic. They're together out of benefit, not out of romance" and that "having a human [Overlander] female wed to a [an] animal character might raise some eyebrows."[4]
- The Iron King, along with the Iron Queen, holds the fourth longest non-appearance gap in the main comic series at 140 issues (StH: #60-200), tying them with the Badnik Coconuts.
- The Iron King seems to be based on the Bull Demon King (牛魔王?) from Journey to the West.
- The Iron King's actual name was implied as Jun Kun in Sonic the Hedgehog #202 and finally confirmed to be so in Sonic the Hedgehog #206.
- Ian Flynn reported on his forum that he chose the name Jūn Kūn (君坤?) because of its Chinese translation, "Leader of Earth" or "Supreme Earth".[5]
- Following the conclusion of the Iron Dominion arc's conclusion in Sonic the Hedgehog #212, the Iron King's status remain unknown. The Iron Queen has since reappeared, but Ian Flynn revealed in a podcast that he does not wish for the two characters to be inseparably tied together.
- Ian Flynn stated that Jun Kun was a cyborg, but his cybernetics resulted in different superpowers compared to Monkey Khan.[6]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Sonic the Hedgehog #207 - "Blackout"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Sonic the Hedgehog #211 - "Home Invasion Part 2: Security Measures"
- ↑ Ian Flynn (31 January 2009). The thread Ian will likely dread - WHO is RF?!. BumbleKing Comics. Archived from the original on 2 November 2015.
- ↑ Ian Flynn (21 November 2009). Ask Ian XXVII - Let's Try that Again. BumbleKing Comics. Archived from the original on 2 November 2015.
- ↑ BumbleKast Q&A for June 21st, 2021 - Heroes Do That. YouTube. BumbleKing Videos (21 June 2021). Retrieved on 22 June 2021.
External links[]
- Iron King at Mobius Encyclopaedia, the Archie Sonic wiki.