A magical imp and troublemaker from the fifth dimension.
Description
Mister Mxyzptlk is a small caricature of an old man - like a gnome or dwarf - with a head that is relatively bigger than his tiny body and limbs. He wears an orange suit with blueish-purple boots, gloves, and bowler hat, and his head is almost bald with a long nose and jug ears. What is left of his hair sticks out from behind his ears like two small wings as though to suggest that this is how he is able to fly. He speaks with a broad New York accent and by temperament can be impulsive and angry.
Mxyzptlk, near the beginning of an episode, will suddenly appear out of nowhere, particularly if Superman is present (but not always), and then takes a delight in causing mischief and mayhem just for his own amusement. He seems to practise magic and there appears to be no limit to what he can do, but Batman tells us that his powers are "beyond human understanding" which would suggest that it is not magic but just the ways things are done in the fifth dimension. Mxyzptlk can fly, create objects from nothing, cause large objects to move, cause personalities to move from one person to another, grant super-powers to a person, and even change history.
Superman and Supergirl tell us that, if he says his name backwards ("kltpzyxm"), he will disappear. This will cause all his mischievous works to be undone and can be achieved by exploiting his impulsive temperament.
Appearances
Links
- Mr. Mxyzptlk at Wikipedia.
Notes
- Mr. Mxyzptlk is voiced by Gilbert Gottfried who previously voiced him in Superman: The Animated Series and Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. Interestingly, in the former, Mxyzptlk was designed to match his Golden Age counterpart while in both the latter and this, his design is closer to his Silver Age design.
- Gilbert Gottfried did Mr. Mxyzptlk in the Superman animated series, but when he says his name backwards, it's pronounced Kl-Tp-Zy-Xm. But in this version it's pronounced Kl-Tp-"Zyx"-M. Possibly because since it's difficult to say his name correctly, they often change his pronunciation.
- The fifth dimension (a place with five dimensions?) presumably has an extra dimension that we cannot perceive from our four dimensions of space and time.