Ratsputin was a humanoid rat-man and one of the many genetically evolved experiments conducted by Project Moreau in the 1940s. He resided on an uncharted island called the Wild Lands and was official court seer to the king, Great Caesar of the capital city of Roam.
Ratsputin was the only Furry who was allowed access to the sacred Articles of Faith. The Articles of Faith were in fact just old copies of the Daily Planet newspaper. From these pages however, Ratsputin knew that there was a world outside the Wild Lands – one dominated by humans, not Furries.
When the amnesiac Superboy arrived in the Wild Lands, Ratsputin disbelieved claims that he was actually the prophesied “Mighty One” spoken of in the Articles. Ratsputin was in fact correct in this assessment, as the Mighty One was actually Superman, not Superboy. Regardless, Ratsputin was instructed to put Superboy through a battery of tests to verify whether he was the Mighty One or not. He first had Superboy run a gauntlet through the “Fortress of Solitude” (a bunker outfitted with autmatic weaponry). He then had him test his strength in the trial of the “Daily Planet”. Afterward, he forced Superboy to survive being dropped into the “Doomsday” volcano. Superboy passed all of Ratsputin’s tests, but the seer still believed that he was a false hero.
Ratsputin was also in league with a bat-woman named Nosferata and coveted the throne of Roam, Ratsputin’s true loyalties lied with her and not the king. After Superboy had left the Wild Lands, Ratsputin turned against Caesar and murder him by stabbing him in the heart with a dagger.