Baron Karza
From Transformers Wiki
| This article is about the Micronauts villain. For the other evil, caped space warlord with a black suit of armor, see Darth Vader. |
- Baron Karza is an alien from the Generation 1 continuity family
A ruthless tactician and would-be universal conqueror from a distant dimension, few have underestimated Baron Hraal Karza and lived to regret their mistake. His ability to enerchange makes him a formidable and unpredictable foe; his gadget-laden suit of shapeshifting armor only adds to his fearsome reputation among his allies and enemies. Karza sees himself as the only individual capable of saving the Microverse from itself, hoping to rule over the realm with his own iron fist. There's only one thing that stands between him and total subjugation over his home—the heroic Micronauts.
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Fiction
Unit:E comic
While discussing the heroes of Earth, Synergy warned the young Acroyear that he wouldn't be able to stop Baron Karza without allies. Unit:E
2005 IDW continuity
Born and raised on the desert world of Aegis-6, Hraal Karza grew up amongst the mercenaries known as the Sandmen, quickly climbing the ranks and becoming one of the best members of the planet's warrior caste. During a subsequent rebellion on the planet Kronos, the current Emperor of Microspace contracted the Sandmen as his private guards, and over the course of the campaign the ambitious and talented Karza caught the attention of this ruler. Before long, the young Karza carved out a role for himself as an elite guardsman and eventually rose through the ranks to become the Minister of Defense in the Council of Worlds, creating the first Acroyear warriors by subjecting the Sandmen to extensive behavioral and genetic modifications.
During this time, Karza met and fell in love with Shazraella, the woman who would become his future wife after the two colluded to assassinate the Emperor's son and her betrothed, the Red Falcon. This subterfuge would drive the Emperor himself into a grief-induced state of madness, however, which only grew worse when a destructive Entropy Cloud began expanding from the center of Microspace, threatening to destroy their dimension entirely. Correctly realizing that the Emperor was no longer fit to rule, Karza, Shazraella, and Minister of Science Daegon placed the Emperor in cryo-hibernation and ruled in his place—but as the energy storm continued to worsen, a disagreement on how best to deal with the threat divided Karza and Daegon, sparking a brutal civil war between the remains of the empire. Baron Karza profile During one particularly heated battle, Karza told one of his Acroyears that all information from the front lines be relayed to Shazraella... unaware that his wife was in the midst of interrogating the Transformer Windblade, who had had her consciousness cast across time and space to learn about the crisis that threatened Microspace. Informed At some point, Karza and Shazraella used artificial reproductive technologies to conceive an "heir," a cloned daughter named Larissa. Larissa profile
Soon afterwards, Karza discovered a mysterious object that had fallen from the heart of the Entropy Cloud—an aged version of his own helmet. Karza quickly deduced that the threat was not what it seemed: rather, the storm was a rift in time, rather than space. Baron Karza profile Though Karza eventually felled Daegon, Micronauts #6 a group of Daegon's supporters calling themselves the "Micronauts" fled into the Entropy Cloud after clashing with Karza's forces, and the Baron followed them into the heart of the cloud in a last-ditch effort to save his realm. The journey proved Baron's suspicions correct; while only a few days passed for the Micronauts, the random distortions of time within the cloud meant that, while only a few days passed for the Micronauts, Karza spent years lost in the cloud before finally reaching the very center of their universe and discovering a vast mechanical form: the body of their progenitor, Micronus Prime. Karza turned the dormant Cybertronian into his new base of operations and learned to tap the spacebridge that would allow him to communicate with other universes beyond Microspace. Baron Karza profile Karza's efforts came to fruition when he eventually glimpsed a transmission—unbeknownst to Karza, beamed into space by the Titan Metrotitan—from an alien planet beyond his dimension. Secret Raiders
As Karza learned more and more about Earth and its occupants, he opened contact with human military leader Miles "Mayhem" Manheim, and learned of Ore-13, a mineral whose effects could potentially counteract those of the entropy storm. The two villains cut a deal, O Ship of State and in exchange for helping Mayhem with his own plans for world domination and abetting the alien Dire Wraiths, Mayhem helped Karza transfer supplies of Ore-13 back into Microspace through the space bridge, but the process remained inefficient, with forty percent of the ore lost with every transfer and the unstable remainder threatening to annihilate Earth. The Divine Source of Liberty No longer content just to save his people, he now hoped to shepherd them into a new age of prosperity under his rule. Baron Karza profile Micronauts: Revolution
Only a few days later—from the perspective of the Micronauts—the starship Heliopolis's journey into the Entropy Cloud had brought them within communications distance of Micronus's body. Karza hailed the ship and spoke to their leader Oz Rael, expressing disbelief that they had not been claimed by the cloud and its hostile occupants. When the ship's robot Microtron informed them that Karza's signal was coming from the same energy source that they had hoped could refuel their ailing vessel, Karza welcomed them to the grave of Micronus Prime. Micronauts: Revolution
Although Miles warned him that his actions had put Earth in danger of destruction, a frustrated Karza ignored his requests to put his plan on hold; now that he had the Micronauts in a position where they were willing to listen to their arch-enemy, he had pawns of his own. Unbeknownst to the Baron, the Space Knight Rom had opened Metrotitan's Space Bridge on Earth, hurling a mass of Ore-13 through the portal to put it out of reach of the Dire Wraiths and causing it to hurtle into Microspace. Its violent detonations caused Karza to misconstrue the incident as an attack from his human ally, but gave the Micronauts the opening to fly into the spacebridge and land on Earth. O Ship of State
Soon, Wraith leader Caleb Awan betrayed Miles Mayhem during the battle for Autobot City's supplies of Ore-13, forcing the human to summon Karza through the Cybertronian technology within Metrotitan's spacebridge portal. Though Awan initially scoffed at the diminutive warlord, Karza soon got the upper hand by enerchanging with the Dire Wraiths to become into a gigantic, monstrous fusion of Microspace, Transformer, and Dire Wraith. The New Colossus
Baron Karza unleashed his full power on the assembled heroes and villains, taking advantage of Mayhem's continued attempts to mislead the forces of M.A.S.K. into attacking the Transformers while absorbing the powerful Ore-13. When the combatants realized that Karza was the true enemy behind the madness, they refocused on Karza. The colossal Baron slugged it out with Victorion, only to overwhelm her by unleashing several Wraiths from within his chest. Windblade ordered Metrotitan into the air, but Karza managed to grab Optimus Prime in his hand before the Prime could be airlifted to safety. Realizing that he'd been betrayed, Mayhem rammed his Switchblade into the monster, loosening Karza's grip on the Autobot. Karza tumbled to the ground, where Soundwave, Rom, the Micronauts, Mainframe, and Matt Trakker used the exploding spacebridge to send the defeated villain back into Microspace. Valley Forge
A Microspacian year later, Shazraella convinced Karza to abandon Microspace in favour of colonizing Earth as a new home for Microspace's people. Though initially hesitant, Karza ultimately agreed sending advance strike forces that neutralized M.A.S.K. and G.I. Joe. While in the Entropy Cloud, Karza reflected on the cause of the Cloud before he decided to take the ultimate risk and enerchange with Micronus Prime. While the fusion granted Karza immense power, Micronus's formidable persona was also overpowering his own with the Baron feeling his own persona ebbing away. Returning to Monument Valley, the site where he had last been defeated by Optimus and the united heroes of Earth, Karza easily dispatched the Autobot leader, Jazz, and Arcee before he set out to find the Micronauts. Wrath of Karza #1
After placing the Autobots in a special prison, Wrath of Karza #4 Karza set up a base in New York City. From there he watched his military campaigns and confessed to his reluctance to exterminate humanity before a Repto reported in on Larissa's demise. In a rage, Karza slew the beast and conceded Shazraella's point. Wrath of Karza #2 Karza then contacted several of Earth's super-villains and offered them the chance to pledge their loyalty to him in exchange for him sparing human civilization. Not one agreed to his terms but Karza was unconcerned, confident that the power of Micronus Prime was superior to anything on Earth. Wrath of Karza #3
The Micronauts later came to confront Karza in New York but he held them off until the Autobots arrived. At that point, he simply called forth his Acroyear army...which turned on him when Acroyear overcame his conditioning. Unwilling to allow his foes such an advantage, Karza destroyed the army via a failsafe before Shazraella arrived, cloaked in armor reminiscent of his own and wreathed in Time Traveller energy. Wrath of Karza #4 Despite his protests that Shazraella had overstepped her power, he was interrupted when Optimus Prime intervened, before Enerchanging with the body of Micronus once more to battle the Transformers. As Shazraella's new powers began warping time and space, however, Karza realized that they needed to refocus on the true threat: Shazraella's Time Traveller powers threatened to unleash another entropy storm on this universe.
Optimus agreed to a truce, and, as the Autobots swung into action against Shazraella, Karza made one last plea with his wife to stop what she was doing—unaware that Shazraella had merged with the mad Time Traveller responsible for the entropy storm in the first place, and now believed that their future lay within it. Using her power, she was able to forcibly separate Karza's body from Micronus, and though Karza was saved from immediate death by Larissa, he was powerless to stop his wife from bringing about the end of everything... until Oziron Rael, having recently ascended to become a Time Traveller himself, returned, splitting Shazraella and her Time Traveller apart and sealing both Karza and Shazraella within separate energy fields before repairing the damage caused by the entropy storm.
In the aftermath, Karza found himself on the outskirts of Smithton, Illinois, where, despite everything, he still clung to the idea of saving Microspace... Wrath of Karza #5
Aw Yeah Revolution!
Ruling over Microspace alongside his friend Andromeda, Baron Karza was an avid fan of various Hasbro characters, most notably his personal hero Snake-Eyes, and collected comics detailing their adventures. On one occasion, the Baron opted to travel to Earth so as to steal the Orbsah Gem , kidnapping Rom and Snake-Eyes along the way. After stealing the gem, Karza absconded with Optimus Prime, planning to use the mysterious gem to claim their various powers for his own. Aw Yeah Revolution! #1 He was opposed by the Micronauts, who recognized that the presence of the comparatively gargantuan figures would destabilize their universe, and despite coopting Optimus Prime's powers to clobber Biotron, his captives were freed; though Karza escaped through a nearby portal, Optimus caught him as he left, and the two wound up near a Cobra base. Karza promptly teamed up with the human supervillains, who defeated the Autobot leader and reprogrammed him into a Cobra warrior, and thanks to the temporal distortion between Microspace and the regular universe, the Micronauts arrived too late to stop him. Aw Yeah Revolution! #2
Though Rom, G.I. Joe and the Micronauts took on Optimus and were able to restore him to his senses, Karza used the Orbsah Gem to grow to a colossal size, unaware that this new shape put him directly in the path of an oncoming asteroid full of Dire Wraiths, knocking him flat on his back. Acroyear took advantage of this to seize the gem and return Karza to normal, and though Karza attempted to battle his foe they were both banished back to Microspace by Destro, who had taken control of the Orbsah Gem in the interim. Aw Yeah Revolution! #3
When Worlds Collide
Baron Karza was one of the many villains who joined Megatron when the Decepticon leader stole the Matrix of Leadership, facing off against Acroyear. When Worlds Collide
Toys
Revolution
- Revolution Set (SDCC Gift Set, 2017)
- Released as part of a San Diego Comic-Con 2017 exclusive set, Baron Karza is one of the nine tiny non-articulated Micronauts mini-figures, along with Acroyear, Quin-Tillus, Phenolo-Phi, Oberon, Biotron, Xant, Betatron, and Gammatron.
- They were packed with several other Hasbro Universe action figures: Jetfire, Matt Trakker of M.A.S.K., Action Man, Visionaries' Leoric, Roadblock of G.I. Joe, and Rom and a Dire Wraith.
