A former student of Granny Goodness on Apokolips,[3]Iluthin is accused of stealing weaponry from Darkseid's then-master assassin Kanto 13 and is exiled to Renaissance-era Earth. Subsequently, he trains under Italian teachers and falls in love with a woman named Claudia before Kanto 13 kills her. After Darkseid kills Kanto 13, Iluthin returns to Apokolips and takes on the latter's name and job.[4]
As a member of the New Gods, Kanto is functionally immortal and possesses superhuman physical abilities. He is additionally resistant to psychic powers and is a trained athlete and a fine hand-to-hand combatant. He is renowned as a master of weapons, being equally adept in Apokoliptian and Earth weaponry. Except Darkseid himself, Kanto is unequaled on Apokolips as a cunning strategist in devising methods of hunting and assassinating victims
Introduced in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Tools of the Trade", voiced by Michael York, this version is an associate of Intergang who supplies them with Apokoliptian weaponry.[8] After Intergang's defeat, Kanto retreats back to Apokolips, taking Bruno Mannheim with him.
Kanto appears in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Alive!", voiced by an uncredited Corey Burton. Following Darkseid's death in the preceding DCAU series Justice League, he and Mantis serve as lieutenants for Virman Vundabar in his power struggle with Granny Goodness, which ends after Darkseid's resurrection and return to Apokolips.
Kanto appears as a playable character and boss in Lego DC Super-Villains, voiced again by Corey Burton.[10]
References
^Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 164. ISBN978-1-4654-5357-0.
^Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2004)
^Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 167. ISBN978-1-4654-8578-6.
^Greenberger, Robert; Pasko, Martin (2010). The Essential Superman Encyclopedia. Del Rey. p. 150. ISBN978-0-345-50108-0.
^ abc"Kanto Voices (Superman)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved July 17, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.