he is usually presented as a trickster, in the classical mythological sense, in that he possesses reality warping powers with which he enjoys tormenting superman in a cartoonish way. in most of his appearances in dc comics, he can be stopped only by tricking him into saying or spelling his own name backwards (kltpzyxm - "kel-tip-zix-um"), which will return him to his home in the 5th dimension and keep him there for a minimum of ninety days. however, this specific limitation of the character has been eliminated since the "crisis on infinite earths" reboot, upon which the character leaves only when he willingly agrees to do so after meeting some conditions he sets, such as having superman succeed in getting mxyzptlk to paint his own face blue.