Luciphor

Luciphor aka The Cobra
First appearance:	"The Cobra"
Created by:	Lee Falk and Phil Davis

Luciphor aka The Cobra is a character from the Mandrake the Magician comic strip that first appeared in "The Cobra", the very first Mandrake story.

Fictional Character Biography

The Phil Davis Era

The Cobra

The Cobra was a fanatical leader of a powerful secret society that sought control of the world. The first time Mandrake talks about the Cobra, he describes him as his archenemy - and a powerful magician as well.

When Mandrake came face to face with the Cobra, he learned that the Cobra had enslaved thousands of men to work in his gold and diamond mines. The slaves appeared faceless as the Cobra had mentally erased the faces of his slaves and controlled them mentally and physically. The gold and diamonds he used for his inventions, powerful weapons of mass destruction such as; explosives, deadly gases and death rays.

Mandrake put an end to the Cobra's plans to rule the world when he destroyed his hideout and laboratory and magically transformed the Cobra into a real cobra.

The Cobra

The Cobra had managed to become himself again and returned powerful and strong, with a new hideout and laboratory.

This time he had developed a method for producing gold using lead, zinc and copper. And a deadly gas that lowered the oxygen level in the air so that the victims suffocated. With the help of these two powerful weapons, he aimed to become emperor of the world. With the gold he could bribe most people, and those who would not be bribed he could use the deadly gas on.

Mandrake managed to find the Cobra in his hiding place and during the fight that followed, the Cobra fell off a high cliff - a fall no one could survive.

The Fred Fredericks Era

When Mandrake was asked who the Cobra was, he told that he had met the Cobra when he was a young boy. He had spent a few years at the College of Magic and Luciphor was one of the teachers there, a brilliant magician. One day Luciphor robbed the college, fled and turned his vast powers to criminal use. By the time Mandrake had grown up and left the college, Luciphor had become the Cobra - Mandrake's first and most deadly opponent. Mandrake battled the Cobra for several years before the Cobra died in a fire in his own lab.

The Cobra

But the Cobra had survived and fled to a secret island where he spent several years recovering from his injuries. Even after numerous plastic surgeries, his face was still disfigured and he began wearing a silver mask. During these years, he, together with his assistant Udd, had also managed to build a large organization that took on many criminal missions.

The way the missions were carried out made Mandrake track him down. Mandrake won the battle of wills, but the Cobra managed to escape in a rocket while his hideout was blown up.

Since no one found any trace of the rocket ship, Mandrake believed that the Cobra had died, either in outher space or burned up during its return to Earth. But then strange things started happening in Cockaigne, things reminiscent of those done by the Cobra.

Mandrake tracked down the Cobra who was building an underground city beneath an abandoned castle on a mountaintop in Cockaigne, where he made evil plans to take over as ruler of the country, with Narda at his side as queen. When Mandrake and the Cobra finally met, the Cobra realized he was going to lose the battle. He set a trap for Mandrake in a cave beneath the castle. And when they met for the final decisive battle, Mandrake was unaware that he was facing a puppet through which the Cobra spoke using a microphone and loudspeaker. Then the Cobra blew up the castle and the underground city in the hope that Mandrake would perish - and the Cobra had once again disappeared without a trace.

When Luciphor left the College of Magic he stole the college's treasures. He also tried to steal the crystal cube, which that night was in use by Mandrake, and almost killed Mandrake in the attempt. Derek, Mandrake's twin brother showed up to relieve Mandrake at the cube and together, the brothers managed to prevent the Cobra from taking the cube.

Now Theron contacted Mandrake and told that the Cobra's men had laid siege to the College of Magic, to seize the crystal cube. Theron said that the man Mandrake knew as the Cobra was actually Mandrake's old teacher at college, Luciphor. Since the attempt to steal the crystal cube had failed that time, he was now back to make another attempt.

This time, the Cobra was smarter and from his secret hideout he controlled his men via camera, microphone and speakers. His faithful assistant Udd sat in a shark-like super sonic helicopter that acted as a signal amplifier outside the College. The Cobra's men fail in their attempt to steal the crystal cube, and the Cobra's last words to Mandrake were that the next time he and Mandrake met, Mandrake would die.

In his laboratory inside a large cave in a mountain far away, the Cobra had managed to create a replica of a crystal cube. Although this was a pale copy of a real crystal cube, he had used it to find out that Mandrake at Xanadu had a twin cube - identical to the one Theron had at the College of Magic. He realized that Xanadu, with its many obstacles, would be difficult to break into and devised a plan. He had parts sent to the prison so that the Mole could rebuild his laser-beam suit, under the guise that the parts were for a 3-dimensional color TV. Then he forced the Mole to work with Udd, Weasel and Krud where the plan was to break into Xanadu and steal the crystal cube.

First, he lured Mandrake and Lothar into a room, where the doors were closed and the room filled with cyanide gas. Then the Mole took action and made a tunnel from the gates of Xanadu up to the mansion so that he and his assistants could bypass all the obstacles on the way up. Mandrake and Lothar managed to escape the deadly trap and hurried back to Xanadu where the burglars were searching for the crystal cube.

Inside Mandrake's study chamber, they discovered that a wall was protected by laser beams and the Cobra understood that the cube must be hidden inside the wall. The villains tried to get through the deadly obstacle, but Mandrake and Lothar had returned and managed to overpower the burglars.

Udd escaped in the shark-like supersonic jet and from his hiding place the Cobra had to realize that he also this time was also unable to get hold of one of the amazing crystal cubes.

Story References

Family

Mandrake learned that The Cobra's true identity was Luciphor, Theron's oldest son — thus making The Cobra Mandrake's half-brother.

Notable appearances

The Cobra has appeared in these stories:

Year	Daily/Sunday	Title	Comments
1971	Daily	"The Rogues"
1974	Daily	"The Cobra and the Cube"
1974	Daily	"The Search for the Cobra"
1975	Daily	"The Frame-Up"	just a glimpse at the end
1979	Daily	"Mandrake's Gangster Gallery"
1981	Daily	"Mandrake's Family"	Mandrake's half brother
1984	Daily	"Behind Death's Door"	without the silver mask
1989	Daily	"King Kered"
1992	Daily	"The Book of Criminals"
1995	Daily	"Pursuit of the Cobra"
1997	Sunday	"Mandrake Marries Narda"
1997	Daily	"Mandrake's Wedding at the College of Magic"
1998	Daily	"Mandrake's Wedding at Xanadu"
1999	Daily	"Siege at Xanadu"	first time in the strips, Luciphor and Derek meet each other as adults
2007	Daily	"Dangerous Music"
2012	Daily	"Melody of Doom"
2013	Phantom Sunday	"Mandrake's Bon Voyage"