We continue our tour through the alphabet, with a different cool comic book item each day, from A to Z!

Today we look at a character created as a joke that turned out to have a pretty long life as an actual character.

L-Ron first appears in the pages of Justice League International #14, as the servant of Manga Khan, a supervillain and intergalactic trader, who sees Earth as a great source of intergalactic bartering.



The character, right down to his name, is clearly intended as a joke.

Here are some of his choice bits from JLI #14 and 15...











However, at the end of the storyline, L-Ron is left behind on Earth as the new assistant to Maxwell Lord, head of Justice League International.

Over the next 40 plus issues, L-Ron does continue to serve as comedic relief, but also as a strong member of the series, and as a good sidekick to Maxwell Lord.

Eventually, L-Ron makes a heroic sacrifice of sorts when he uses his consciousness to take over Despero.



Now in charge of Despero, he becomes a member of Justice League Task Force.





As you might imagine, such a change to the status quo did not last long, and eventually, Despero returned to his normal self.

L-Ron, though, popped up again in the pages of Formerly Known as the Justice League, as Maxwell Lord "put the gang back together again."



L-Ron has only made a cameo appearance or two since the revelation that Maxwell Lord was a bad guy. That's too bad, he'd be a neat supporting character in a number of superhero books.