Khan

Wonder if he ever crossed paths with the Kingpin.

Thank your deities that you are beneath the notice of the man known only as Khan. This self-styled crime lord has a finger in every pie, even though few are aware he even exists. His influence and intelligence are so great that even a verbal dressing-down is enough of a threat to make a mobster shudder.

Sequestered on the fortified airship Xanadu, Khan lives as a hedonist, surrounded by dancing girls, food, and ten million dollars' worth of the finer things in life. Khan does as he pleases, and what Khan wants, he always gets.

Unfortunately for Khan, this life of luxury has had its toll on his physical form. Unable to move without the aid of a thought-controlled wheelchair, Khan seeks the perfect body into which he can transfer his superior intelligence so that he can achieve immortality. Perhaps this so-called "Machine Man" could prove to be a valuable asset...

"Everyone wants what Khan has. But no man has ever lived to take them from me.

No man ever will."

—Khan, Byte of the Binary Bug!

Fiction

As soon as Khan became aware of Machine Man, he created an earthquake in an attempt to destroy him. It failed, so Khan moved on to more important concerns.

Days later, while Khan was cutting Mr Gianelli out of the profits of his own territory, he was accosted by the Binary Bug, who was targeting Delmar Insurance's highest-valued clients. In what he considered an amazing coincidence, he was rescued by Machine Man. As the Binary Bug made his escape, he considered how, despite not taking any action, Khan had held the upper hand in their confrontation.

Afterwards, Khan told Gianelli that Machine Man's fate seemed to be intertwined with his own. He declared his intent that Machine Man would serve his will. Byte of the Binary Bug!

At some point, Khan kidnapped Anton Gregarian, the finest sculptor in Vienna, and forced him to make a statue of the powerful warrior Khan felt he should have been.

Khan prepared a series of trials to test Machine Man's abilities and intellect, beyond what he could glean from the stolen journals of Abel Stack. One such test involved trapping Machine Man in an elevator shaft, with the lift rapidly descending towards him. Khan was impressed by Machine Man's magnetic solution. As Machine Man escaped the building, he was confronted by some of Khan's mercenaries, though Khan had the explosive devices implanted in their necks detonate to prevent Machine Man gleaning any clues as to the identity of his antagonist.

Later, Khan used a painful sonic blast to communicate directly with Machine Man's delicate audio sensors, promising to bring an end to the agony only if Machine Man followed his instructions. Following a sonic trail, Machine Man found himself in a junkyard, where Khan tested his strength and reflexes by attacking him with a wrecking ball and flying derelict cars that shot laser beams. Satisfied with Machine Man's durability, Khan trapped him in an artificial maze in the Catskill Mountains, where he was pursued by tracer missiles. After Machine Man escaped by spinning fast enough to drill through the maze's earthen floor, Khan decided he was a suitable body for his own intelligence, and he lured Machine Man to Xanadu, finally revealing his identity.

Machine Man arrived, and was confronted by Khan's new henchman, Tong. Apparently subdued, Machine Man was taken to Khan's lab, where the both of them were attached to a mind transferral device. After the transferral process finished, Machine Man feigned its success to get the drop on Tong, while the real Khan lay helplessly on the table. The electronic backlash Machine Man sent into Khan's instruments was enough to cause Xanadu to completely malfunction. With Tong out for the count and Khan's mercenaries fleeing the exploding dirigible without a second thought for him, Khan lay helplessly on the table, madly ranting that he was beyond death, and that he would defy the grave! Xanadu!

The lesson here? Never try to improve yourself.

Related characters

Khan's scantily clad dancers

Khan employed at least three blonde belly dancers to entertain himself and his "business" associates. Byte of the Binary Bug!

Khan's suits

A couple of suited men were present when Khan had his meeting with Gianelli. It is unclear if they were other mobsters, or Khan's security detail. Byte of the Binary Bug!

Khan's mercenaries

Khan had a crew of mercenaries all dressed in the same red and gold robes. Some of them wore turbans!

One team of mercenaries were there to fire on Machine Man after he freed himself from the building with the lift shaft. Khan activated the explosive devices in their necks to prevent Machine Man from tracking him. There were more mercenaries stationed on Xanadu, some of whom helped Khan onto the mind transferral device bed. When Machine Man caused the zeppelin to explode, the mercs fled without returning to help Khan, and they were last seen descending on parachutes. Xanadu!

Notes

Khan on Marvel Database, an external wiki

• The narration of "Byte of the Binary Bug!" claims that "If [Khan] had a first name, it was long ago forgotten." By two issues later, Khan is repeatedly addressed as "Kublai Khan", even by characters other than the Mongolia-themed henchman Tong. Maybe Tong just thinks his name is Kublai Khan, but that doesn't explain the time Machine Man calls him it. Regardless, it's not uncommon to see online comics databases and such call the character "Kublai Khan" without a heavy disclaimer like this one.
• Tong claims to be descended from a warrior of the historical Kublai Khan, but it is never established if Khan, too, has that kind of ancestry.