Mr MXYZPTLK!

A practical joker from the fifth dimension, Mxyzptlk (MIX-yez-PIT-lick) has made it his chief mission in life to annoy the Man of Steel. His visits are marked by strange goings-on in Metropolis, from walking buildings to living, breathing mannequins, to events which just plain break the normal laws of physics.

Every time this mischevious imp arrives, Superman has to trick him into saying his own name backwards: "KLTPZYXM!" When he does, the magical effects of his visits are undone, and life returns to normal, as though nothing had happened.

Because of this, for a long while Mxyzptlk was little more than a regular annoyance. Even Lex Luthor found the imp relatively easy to banish, using deceit and treachery.

Mr Mxyzptlk caused some mayhem in Hollywood (a town much like his home, he thought), forced the Man of Steel to run a race with the Flash to determine who truly was the fastest man alive, and even created some red kryptonite designed to take away Superman's powers.

But Mxy did not alway act villainously towards the Man of Steel. When Lois Lane broke off her engagement to Clark Kent, Mxy intervened, trying to get the two of them to realize that they were meant to be together. Although he was unable to bring the two together himself, Lois and Clark were eventually married. Mxy did pop in at Clark Kent's bachelor party to wish the Man of Steel luck.

Being an extradimensional character, Mxy naturally had only a limited understanding of certain human concepts-- specifically, death. Mxy "consulted" Superman and Lois Lane in an effort to find out just what death meant--in the process, creating the most terrible fiend he could imagine, the invlunerable, bone-studded menace known as BADDABINGBADDABOOMSDAY! And although Superman had his hands full dealing with the monster, eventually it was Mxy who was able to destroy the beast, dying himself in the process. Of course, being a creature of the fifth dimension, Mxy's death was even less permanent than Superman's had been!

Bored with his game of pestering Superman until the Man of Steel tricked him into saying his magical name backwards, thus banishing him to the fifth dimension for 90 days, Mxyzptlk went looking for a new distraction. He found it in the Joker, the psychotic maniac who is the Batman's chief nemesis. Mxyzptlk wanted to give the Joker just a small fraction of his power, to see what would happen; but his overconfidence in his own abilities and intelligence led Mxy to inadvertently give the Joker almost all of his magical power, which the Joker immediately used to rewrite reality, setting himself up as Emperor of the World. Unfortunately, the Joker's insanity led him to constantly recreate all reality as he saw fit, bringing him dangerously close to destroying it.

Realizing too late what had happened, Mxyzptlk attempted to contact Superman, to break through the magical spell that the Joker had cast. When he was finally able to do so, and when Superman was finally able to defeat the Joker, Mxyzptlk used his regained powers to bring things more or less back to normal.