TDKPH villain of the month -- KGBeast

In light of his movie debut, the boys of The Dark Knight Ph decided to give KGBeast the spot light that he deserves. Our Villain of the Month is none other than The Beast himself, Anatoli Knyazev!

Anatoli Knyazev played by Callan Mulvey

Many people were wondering who was that Russian henchman assisting Lex Luthor Jr. in Batman v. Superman. No need to do some research! Bruce Wayne already tagged him as Anatoli Knyazev. Those who've read Ten Nights of the Beast will be familiar with the name. But for those who missed that 4-issue mini-series, Anatoli is KGBeast.

Anatoli is a highly skilled assassin trained by The Hammer, a top secret cell of the KGB. Just like Batman, Anatoli, or better known in the KGB as "The Beast," is a master of numerous martial arts. With his strength and mastery of many weapons, The Beast is considered to be one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Not to mention, his strength was further enhanced through cybernetics. It is said that The Beast is as strong as four healthy men and is able to literally tear a person in two with his bare hands.

There came a point that the Russian government shut down the KGB division for safety reasons. But before the division was dissolved, The Beast was given a last mission--to kill nine people who are crucial to America's Strategic Defense Initiative called The Star Wars Program. Upon entering Gotham, the CIA tagged him as KGBeast.

To Batman's misfortune, these nine targets came to Gotham City. KGBeast has no regard for human life. He showed that he is a ruthless assassin. Despite Batman's involvement in stopping KGBeast, he was successful in killing seven of the nine targets. In their first confrontation, KGBeast was able to out class the Dark Knight.

In another confrontation, Batman was able to catch KGBeast's left hand with a noose. To insure his escape, he chopped off his hand and replaced it with a prosthetic gun with a bayonet.

Ten Nights of the Beast ended with Batman not wanting to fight KGBeast. The only take away that the Dark Knight got was that he was able to outsmart KGBeast and trapped him in the sewers. Instead of surrendering him to the officials, he decided to let him rot in the sewers since KGBeast has diplomatic immunity being a secret agent for Russia. 

From that time on, KGBeast was considered to be a supervillain that Batman does not want to battle with. But after some time, he was demoted to an assassin for hire. He, once, became a paid assassin for The Penguin but was later on killed by The Great White Shark. In The Blackest Night, he was chosen by the black lantern ring as part of the black lanterns.

So there you go! Anatoli in Batman v. Superman might be a different incarnation of the comicbook character, but at least you know his origin. And here's a little prize for reading until the end of this article. NKVDemon is his protégé.