Jun Kun

The Iron King (real name Jun Kun) is a Mobian Ox who works alongside the Iron Queen, an Overlander Magitek sorceress. Both of them are enemies of Monkey Khan. The Iron King has an affinity for collecting weapons. Sonic and Tails encountered the Iron King and Queen during their quest for Ixis Naugus, who fled across all of Mobius. Sonic and Tails learned during their trek that the Iron King and Queen crowned themselves ruler of a Mobian settlement in the Dragon Kingdom. With help from the settlers, the Iron King and Queen were defeated, with the Iron King being blown away by the magical Fan of Fen Xing. The Iron King later moved to the ruins of New Megaopolis along with the Iron Queen to take over the Eggman Empire, unaware of his wife's plans to cut him out of the picture and rule alongside her new love, Snively Robotnik.

Warlord
Years ago, Jun Kun was a warlord in the Dragon Kingdom. At some point in time, the young Regina Ferrum came before him, pledging her allegiance to him, secretly to gain power. Following this, the two worked together for many years, at first employing her Magitek talents to reactivate the Dragon Kingdom's dormant machines in an effort to achieve victory. Unfortunately, the free people they attempted to oppress and the Clans also fighting for control of the region defeated their every effort. It was then that Dr. Ivo Robotnik came to them, and despite Jun Kun's distaste with serving any master, they became his Sub-Bosses over the Kingdom in the First Robotnik War. (StH: #202, #207)

Rule of the Iron Kingdom
Sonic and Tails first encountered the Iron King and Queen during their quest for Ixis Naugus, who fled across all of Mobius. When they arrived at Stormtop Village, they learned that the Iron King and Queen crowned themselves ruler of the village. When the villagers refused to swear loyalty to either, the Iron Queen set Mount Stormtop on fire for over a hundred days and would not lift the spell until the villagers agreed to bow down to them. Sonic and Tails were told by Li Yeun that only the magical Fan of Fen Xing could blow out the flames on the mountain. When the two tried to retrieve it, the Iron Queen cast a spell on renegade cyborg, Monkey Khan, to kill Sonic and Tails before they arrived. They managed to free Khan and he joined them in assaulting the Iron King at his fortress. Sonic and the others returned to Mount Stormtop to blow out the flames, the Iron Queen tried to use her magic to stop them but failed and the flames were extinguished. The Iron Queen left the village swearing vengeance on Sonic. (StH: #60)

New Empire
Nearly two years later, the Iron King served as a Sub-Boss to the Eggman Empire over the Dragon Kingdom. The local resistance there were beginning to keep the Iron King and Queen at bay. After the Iron Queen made romantic connections with Snively Robotnik over in New Megaopolis, the Iron King accompanied her along with the Yagyu Ninja where they arrived at the landing bay of the Eggdome via dirigible, with plans to usurp the Eggman Empire following Dr. Eggman's recent descent into insanity. (StH: #194, #200)

Days after his arrival at the Eggdome, the Iron King showed obvious anger at the fact they had come to a ruined city when they had everything back in the Iron Dominion, and he also took an immediate dislike to Snively as he seemed quite casual around the Iron Queen. The Iron Queen reassured her husband that they would move the seat of power back to the Dragon Kingdom, and Snively suggested the Iron King look through the ruins for weapons to add to his armory, which he did with the help of the Bride of Conquering Storm. (StH: #201)

When both Sonic and Monkey Khan attempted to attack the city, the Iron King himself arrived on the battle field after Sonic and Khan managed to fend off the Yagyu Ninja and Dark Egg Legion. Sonic attacked the Iron King with a spin dash, though it had no effect on the giant ox, and it in fact wounded Sonic. The Iron King then knocked back Monkey Khan with his Tremor Mace. Due to this, the Dark Egg Legion managed to wound both heroes even more, which forced them to retreat. The Iron King canceled Lien-Da's order to shoot them down, insisting they allow them to escape so their humiliation and defeat would instill fear in the Freedom Fighters. (StH: #202)

After Snively and Regina caused trouble in New Mobotropolis, Snively ran into him and told him that Eggman had escaped. The Iron King first thought Snively was betraying him, however, Snively tried to explain himself before they heard a loud boom. The Iron King later accompanied the Iron Queen and the dominion in their attempt to recapture Dr. Eggman from Sonic. Despite the superior odds against Sonic, however, the Iron King and his fellow attackers were defeated by the arrival of the Freedom Fighters, who succeeded in damaging the King's armor. Far from being defeated, the Iron King launched a solo assault against Fort Acorn, defeating Mes Braves Battalion and Amadeus Prower in his efforts to destroy the power source for New Mobotropolis' shield. (StH: #205, #206, #207)

Abilities
The Iron King is a powerful adversary due to being "nigh-invulnerable" and has great strength. He is also able to use various weapons of both the technological and magical which he collects to use against his enemies. (StH: #60, #201, #202)

Personality
The Iron King is a strict ruler with a short temper. He shows no quarter and believes that defeating an enemy is worse than actually killing one, as it means the enemy must live with that defeat and return to his allies in shame. (StH: #60, #201, #202)

Romance
The Iron King's only known romantic relationship is his marriage to the Iron Queen, but it was strictly out of benefit and not romance, which is made all the more obvious by the Iron Queen finding love with Snively. (StH: #60, #194, #201, #202)

Background Information

 * It was stated in the letters page of Sonic the Hedgehog: #71 that the Iron Queen was a Mobian badger. However, Writer Ian Flynn stated that he considered her an Overlander given her character design, adding that the Iron King and Iron Queen's "titles are purely honorary and not romantic. They're together out of benefit, not out of romance" and that "having a human [Overlander] female wed to a animal character might raise some eyebrows." (1)
 * The Iron King, along with the Iron Queen and Coconuts, holds the seventh longest Non-appearance Gap in the main comic series at 140 issues (StH: #60-200).
 * The Iron King seems to be based on the Ox King from Journey to the West.
 * The Iron King's actual name was hinted as Jun Kun in StH #202 and finally revealed to be so in  StH #206.
 * Ian Flynn reported on his forum that he chose the name Jūn Kūn (君坤) because of its Chinese translation, "Ruler of Earth." (2)