Perhaps the most persistent pest among the Caped Crusaders' rogues gallery, at least in terms of the non supervillains they typically battled in Gotham, were these two Colonels. On the surface, they would seem to be easy pickings for each Batman, but in fact their methodical tactics and sinister strategies more than once played the heroes and their allies in jeopardy. Consider their parallel timelines of terror:
- Colonel Sulphur first came to the attention of Earth-One's Batman when he blackmailed the MacGuffin family into releasing top secret Pentagon documents, only to be defeated by his foe during a sunrise confrontation. Colonel Von Stauffen was similarly seeking the scientific papers of Professor Herzen relating to uranium research, only to be pinned down by Earth-Two's Batman and the Unknown Soldier.
- Sulphur resurfaced to accost a World War II sailor who hid a valuable gem aboard an aircraft carrier, only to be vanquished again by Batman. Von Stauffen attempted to utilize some nerve gas hidden in wine bottles to eliminate Allied soldiers, only to be outmaneuvered by Batman and Sgt Rock's Easy Company.
- The next scheme Sulphur engages in was far more grandiose, as he kidnapped S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Fred Danvers in order to procure an experimental rocket fuel, not knowing that Danver's adopted daughter Linda was also Supergirl... who with Batman tracked the Colonel to his submarine. A different Von Stauffen* who was a count had escaped the embassy he had hidden within in order to reach the latin American country of San Marco, there orchestrating the assembly of a bomber with a mission to level Washington DC, though the Unknown Soldier halted these plans.
- Finally, Sulphur joined fellow military madmen General Scarr, Major Disaster, and Captain Cutlass in obtaining a Duranian time bomb and other weaponry from the Metropolis underworld, this time defeated by Batman with his buddy Superman. As for Count Von Stauffen, he resurfaced decades after his last appearance attempting to steal a golden statue, and nearly succeeded in ridding himself of recurring foe Bruce (Batman) Wayne, until an older Rock who had tracked Von Stauffen to the museum put the drop on the Nazi.
* As there were two Unknown Soldiers on each Earth, there were also two REAL Black Knights aka Count Klaus Von Stauffen on both worlds (who was also a Colonel). On Earth-Two, it was revealed that there were two “Von Stauffens”, one labeled the "phony knight" but who nevertheless may well have been the recurring foe of the Soldier's when the "real" Stauffen was busy with Batman and Rock.
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