Origin

Tha-Korr was the son King Immanu of Atlantis. When the city was attacked by Skarka barbarians, his father the king was killed and the city decimated. Rather than rebuild, Prince Tha-Korr decided to abandon the city his forefathers had built upon the ruins of the pre-Cataclysmic Atlantis, and lead his people south, to build Antarctic Atlantis beneath the polar ice cap. From there, he forged a new empire.

Creation

Emperor Tha-Korr was created by Bill Everett in 1939 and appeared in Namor the Sub-Mariner's first published story in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1.

Character Evolution

Golden Age

Emperor Tha-Korr isn't portrayed consistently in this era, either physically or in his treatment of Namor. Sometimes, he is drawn more fish like, with his mustache resembling catfish whiskers and large, black eyes and other times, he looks like an airbreather, except for his skin color.

Silver Age

Emperor Tha-Korr only appeared in flashback scenes or retellings of Namor's origins. He is drawn as a normal looking older man with blue skin.

Modern Age

In Namor the First Mutant it is revealed that Tha-Korr didn't perish when Paul Destine destroyed Antarctic Atlantis, but had been attacked and transformed by the Aqueos the night before, and at some point becoming the Highlord of the Aqueos. Physically, he looks completely different from Emperor Tha-Korr.

Major Story Arcs

In 1920, the Altantean city beneath the Antarctic polar cap was damaged by ice breaking charges set off by the crew of the Oracle. Tha-Korr ordered his daughter, Princess Fen, to pick a reconnaissance team to discover the cause of the destruction, but instead, she went herself and met Leonard McKenzie.

When Tha-Korr discovered what Fen had done, he was furious, but finally agreed she was now the best person for the job, and sent her back to the Oracle. When Fen didn't report back, Tha-Korr sent a group of warriors led by a young Krang to rescue her. Leonard McKenzie was thought to be killed in the raid, and Fen returned to Atlantis and months later, bore his son, and Tha-Korr's grandson, Namor.

When Atlantis was destroyed in 1950s by Paul Destine, Tha-Korr was believed to have perished. Later it was discovered he had actually 'died' the night before in an attack by the Aqueos. He eventually became their Highlord.

In Royal Blood, the Highlord entered into an agreement with Xarus, to hide the head of Dracula in the depths of the ocean. When Namor recovered the head for the X-Men, he broke the Shallow Peace with the Aqueos, and the Highlord led his vampires against New Atlantis. Namor and the Royal Logomancer found a spell to destroy the Aqueos, but they had to do so in the vampire's own hidden city and it required the blood sacrifice of an Atlantean king. When the Highlord revealed his identity to Namor in the hidden city, Namor fought his once grandfather to the death, and used the Highlord's own blood to complete the spell that all but eradicated the Aqueos.  

Powers and Abilities