The Puppet King is a villain and an enemy of the Teen Titans.
Character history
The Puppet King is essentially a large-sized puppet who had come to life by magical means. Wishing to control Jump City, he poured his magic into a controller, which he imbued with the power to transfer the souls of humanoid beings into puppets and vice versa. Then he crafted life-like puppet versions of the Titans and had them sent to Titans Tower, smuggling himself inside hidden in the puppet's crate.
The effect of the Puppet King's insidious magic.
The same night, the Puppet King emerged and began to carry out his plan. He managed to trap the souls of Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy inside their respective puppets as they slept, putting their bodies and powers under his control. Raven and Starfire, who had been woken up by the King's traipsing around the Tower, were taken by surprise, but just when the Puppet King initiated the transfer, Raven managed to use her magic to knock the control from his hand. This disrupted the transfer process, but with the unwelcome side effect that Starfire and Raven's souls were transferred into each other's bodies. Unable to utilize their new bodies' powers at first, they were forced to escape into the city streets.
After evading their pursuers, Starfire and Raven took their time to teach each other about the proper usage of their respective abilities, and arrived at the Puppet King's headquarters (an abandoned theater) just in time to prevent a dreadful ceremony: The Puppet King was preparing to incinerate the Titan puppets, obliterating the souls trapped within and thereby putting their bodies under his permanent control. Using Starfire's starbolts, Raven made the Puppet King lose his control, which fell into the fire bowl he had prepared for the ceremony. The controller was incinerated, and its destruction restored the Titans to their rightful bodies and dissipated the Puppet King's life force, returning him to a lifeless puppet.
Later, however, the Puppet King was somehow brought back to life and recruited into the Brotherhood of Evil. He appeared in the race initiated by Ding Dong Daddy for Robin's most secret possession as one of its villainous contestants, but was taken out in a mass crash triggered by Red X. When the Brotherhood executed its plan to eliminate young superheroes around the world, the Puppet King assisted Control Freak in capturing Killowat. During the subsequent assault of Beast Boy's team on the Brotherhood's base, the Puppet King confronted Más, who slammed him right into the next wall. Subsequently, when the Titans united for their final fight, the Puppet King joined his fellow villains in defeat.
Powers and abilities
´The Puppet King is a master of ritual magic, specializing in Soul Transferring, in which he uses his controller and his own hand-crafted puppets as foci; the bodies of his victims, deprived of their souls, then become mindless minions the Puppet King can command. He is also a skilled puppet craftsman and puppeteer.
Episode appearances
Season 1
- Switched- First appearance
Season 3
- Haunted- He is seen among the Teen Titans' trophies.
Season 4
- Mother Mae-Eye- He can be seen among the items being sold by the gypsy Cyborg bought the cursed pie from.
Season 5
- Homecoming - Part 2- The Puppet King is seen among the villains recruited by the Brotherhood of Evil at the end of the episode, having somehow been resurrected.
- For Real- Control Freak mentions him while reading a list of the Teen Titans' most dangerous enemies. It should be noted that when reading that the Puppet King is on the list, Control Freak says the villain's name in a somewhat annoyed tone, implying some sort of rivalry.
- Calling All Titans!- He assists Control Freak in capturing Killowat.
- Titans Together- Last appearance, he is seen among the Brotherhood of Evil recruits once more. He also erroneously appears among the Titans in the group shot near the end of the episode.