KLAUS KRUGER

Real Name: Klaus Kruger

Identity/Class: Human technology user;
   citizen of Lichtenbad

Occupation: Duke of Lichtenbad, dictator

Group Membership: Leader of his army of robot guards

Affiliations: Was on somewhat friendly terms with Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson

Enemies: Daredevil (Matt Murdock), Dr. Van Eyck

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "Your excellency" (as called by Foggy Nelson)

Base of Operations: Castle Kruger in Lichtenbad

First Appearance: Daredevil I#9 (August, 1965)

Powers/Abilities: Although he possessed no superhuman abilities, the wealthy Kruger had a brilliant mind and was an inventive genius; he created a robot army, and had an invisible force shield which surrounded his throne.

Highly athletic, he claimed to be "the greatest hand-to-hand fighter in Europe", but tended to rely more on the force shield. In physical combat, he wore a suit of medieval armor and carried a shield, sword and/or mace. Even in civilian clothes, he still wore a protective bulletproof vest under his suit.

Height: Unrevealed (7'; by approximation, see comments)
Weight: Unrevealed (290 lbs.; by approximation, see comments)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed

History:
(Daredevil I#9 (fb)) - Several years ago, Duke Klaus Kruger, hereditary ruler to the throne of Lichtenbad, attended an American law school as a foreign exchange student; among his classmates were Foggy Nelson and Matt Murdock.

(Daredevil I#9 (fb) - BTS) - At some point after returning to Lichtenbad, Kruger retro-fitted his medieval castle with complex electronic equipment powered by a nuclear reactor, and created a robot army to enforce his rule. He was a ruthless dictator, and his oppressive monarchy made Lichtenbad a slave state; but there was great unrest among the citizenry, who despised him, and they secretly plotted to revolt and overthrow the tyrant.

   Kruger eventually began kidnapping "the best brains in all the world" and confined them to his castle's dungeon, so that they might serve him in building a legion of robots which could conquer the world.

(Daredevil I#9) - After returning to the U.S. for a brief visit, Kruger learned of Matt Murdock's loss of vision (see comments), so he went to the office of Nelson and Murdock; he offered to take Murdock back to Lichtenbad with him, where the specialist Dr. Van Eyck might be able to restore his vision. Murdock's powers revealed to him that Kruger was lying, but he decided to go along with him, to learn what his real reason was for wanting him in Lichtenbad.

   Upon their arrival at the Lichtenbad airport, Kruger was shot by an assassin, but his bulletproof vest protected him (Lucky thing they didn't try shooting him in the head); Kruger rendered the would-be assassin unconscious with a karate blow, then ordered him thrown into his castle's dungeon. Murdock began to feel uneasy about his one-time classmate, seeing how others hated him.

   That night, Murdock began surreptitiously investigating the situation as Daredevil; wherever he went, he heard people plotting to revolt against the Duke. While he spied upon a meeting of some of the underground revolutionaries, Daredevil sensed them being taken into custody by Kruger's robot knights, so he invaded Kruger's castle and confronted him. Kruger, now clad in his armor, assumed that Daredevil was the leader of the underground, and set his robots upon him. Daredevil tried to defeat Kruger with a gas pellet fired from his billy club, but Kruger protected himself with his force shield, while his robots overwhelmed Daredevil, bringing him down.

   When Daredevil awoke, he found himself in the dungeon of Kruger's castle, along with the other abducted prisoners. Kruger decided not to unmask Daredevil, claiming that "Your identity means nothing! NO revolt can ever succeed against ME!" Kruger revealed that his great plan was to have all the great thinkers of the world work for him in creating a robotic army, which he would use to conquer every nation and make himself ruler of the world.

   However, Daredevil managed to escape the dungeon, and led the underground revolt (for real) against Kruger. Daredevil took the fight to Kruger himself at his castle, and in the course of their battle,  he destroyed Kruger's robot control panel. Seeing his forces being crushed, Kruger pulled a lever that caused the castle's nuclear reactor to reach critical mass--as he reengaged Daredevil in battle, Kruger claimed that within seconds, all of mankind would die when the resultant explosion caused a radioactive cobalt cloud to sweep over the earth; but as the two fought, Dr. Van Eyck heroically prevented the reactor's explosion, at the cost of his own life.

   Atop a parapet of his castle, Kruger engaged in final combat with Daredevil, but fell from the castle when Daredevil dodged his attack--he did not survive his fall.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Wally Wood, and Bobby Powell.

So, wait...Matt and Foggy went to law school with the daughter of a Greek ambassador, AND the hereditary ruler of a European country. Any chance the Black Panther, Baron Zemo, and Dr. Doom were their classmates as well?

There's a slight continuity glitch in Kruger's word balloon: Matt Murdock was already blind when he attended law school with Kruger, yet Kruger speaks as if Murdock were blinded afterward.

Originally, this profile gave Kruger's height as only 6', but he appears to be about a head taller than Murdock, and the 6-foot tall Murdock himself  described Kruger as "a giant of a man".

It was unclear what Kruger's motivations were for taking Murdock to Lichtenbad--what use would a lawyer be for creating a robot army ? (...unless Kruger was planning to get a patent for them)

An armor-clad European dictator with robots and force fields? Sounds like this "Doctor Doom-Wannabe" was inspired by the Latverian tyrant.

And in the (unlikely) event that they ever adapt this story for the Daredevil TV-series, I'd suggest getting WWE wrestler Gunther to play the role of Kruger.--Ron Fredricks

New and additional images by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by Prime Eternal.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Klaus Kruger should not be confused with:

Kruger's robots

An unspecified number of semi-sentient automatons, they were created by Klaus Kruger; they were dressed in medieval knightly attire, and bore shields, maces, swords and the like in combat.

Directed by a control panel on Kruger's throne, they were strong, bulletproof, able to talk, and relentless.

But Lichtenbad's underground revolutionaries were able to destroy the deactivated robots after Daredevil smashed the controls on Kruger's throne.

--Daredevil I#9

Dr. Van Eyck

Van Eyck (first name unrevealed) was an American doctor who specialized in ophthalmology; Kruger regarded him to be "the world's greatest eye surgeon". Van Eyck was tricked into going to Lichtenbad by Kruger, then he was used as bait to lure Murdock into going to Lichtenbad as well, on the pretense that Van Eyck could cure his blindness.

During the examination, the doctor warned Murdock of Kruger's intentions; Van Eyck was subsequently arrested by Kruger's robots and confined to the castle's dungeon.

The citizens of Lichtenbad finally revolted against Kruger, and in the midst of Daredevil's clash with Kruger, Van Eyck was released by the destruction of the machinery controlling the dungeon.

Watching Daredevil battle Kruger, Van Eyck realized that Daredevil was truly Matt Murdock, because they had the same physique! However, Van Eyck never related this information to another soul, because he died from radiation poisoning when he prevented Kruger's nuclear reactor from reaching critical mass.

--Daredevil I#9

images: (without ads)
Daredevil I#9, p10, pan3 (main image - Klaus Kruger, protected by invisible force shield)
Daredevil I#9, p4, pan1 (headshot - newspaper photograph of Klaus Kruger)
Daredevil I#9, p6, pan2 (Klaus Kruger survives assassination attempt)
Daredevil I#9, p10, pan6 (Klaus Kruger speaks to Daredevil in dungeon)
Daredevil I#9, p4, pan3 (Foggy Nelson, Matt Murdock, Klaus Kruger, Karen Page; Kruger's two bodyguards [background])
Daredevil I#9, p4, pan4 (in memory flashback, Matt Murdock recalls Klaus Kruger in school)
Daredevil I#9, p15, pan1 (Kruger's robot army)
Daredevil I#9, p10, pan4 (Kruger's robot army battles Daredevil)
Daredevil I#9, cover (Dr. Van Eyck examines Matt Murdock)
Daredevil I#9 , p18, pan6 (Dr. Van Eyck enters nuclear reactor room, as Daredevil battles Kruger [background])
Daredevil I#9, p19, pan2 (Dr. Van Eyck deactivates nuclear reactor)
Daredevil I#9, p19, pan4 (Dr. Van Eyck dies from radiation poisoning)

Appearances:
Daredevil I#9 (August, 1965) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Wally Wood (layouts/inks), Bob Powell (pencils), Sam Rosen (letters)
U.S.Avengers#4 (May, 2017) - Al Ewing (writer), Paco Medina (pencils), Juan Vlasco (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers Assemble III#4

First posted: 05/14/2002
Last updated: 04/11/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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