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STORY: "The Coming of Ka-Zar" (20
pages) Investigating reports of an Antarctic "wild man",
the X-Men discover the Savage Land, and help Ka-Zar against
his enemy Maa-Gor.
What you need to know:
It's the debut of Ka-Zar and the Savage Land - both of
which go on to be mainstays of the Marvel Universe. In
fact, Ka-Zar isn't an entirely original creation, but I'll
come back to that. At this stage, the Savage Land is
simply an inexplicable tropical jungle in the Antarctic; some
20 years later, it was explained as a wildlife preserve built
by aliens.
Scott and Jean are still pining for one
another.
There's a really nice panel on page 2 with
Marvel Girl telekinetically dismantling a rifle into an
exploded view. It's not the sort of thing you really
associate with Kirby, but it's great.
A more innocent time:
Ka-Zar happily wanders around Antarctica - outside the Savage
Land - wearing only a loincloth.
In fact, this issue suggests that the
Savage Land is buried beneath Antarctica.
However, if that's the idea, it doesn't make much sense.
For one thing, it's rather unclear why the Savage Land has its
own sky. Maybe Stan Lee had some sort of magical tunnel
in mind. Anyhow, it's certainly not the approach that
was followed in later stories.
Comments:
This is another of those perfectly competent issues which is
remembered more for historical significance rather than for
being particularly exceptional.
Ka-Zar is a revamp of a Golden
Age character of the same name, created by author Bob Byrd.
The character appeared in Marvel Comics #1
(October/November 1939) and Marvel Mystery Comics #2-27
(December 1939 to January 1942). However, he first
appeared in pulp fiction magazines from 1936. The
publisher of those magazines was Manvis Publishing, a sister
company of Timely, which was Marvel's Golden Age forerunner.
Strictly, therefore, Ka-Zar is the oldest Marvel character
still in use that they created for themselves. (There
are, of course, a few older ones - mythological figures like
Thor, and out-of-copyright characters such as Dracula have
been incorporated into the Marvel Universe. But Marvel
didn't create them.)
The original Ka-Zar was a white
jungle hero who fought bad guys in the Belgian Congo, and was
therefore even more obviously a Tarzan clone than Lee and
Kirby's Silver Age version. The Silver Age incarnation
has the oddity of the Savage Land, which helps to distinguish
him somewhat.
Bob Byrd's original Ka-Zar story
("King of Fang and Claw") is now out of copyright, and you can
read it for yourself at
this site.
Of course, this issue begs an
obvious question: what the heck is the debut of Ka-Zar doing
in X-Men? The opening scenes pretty much admit
that he's not a mutant and the X-Men are just going down to
investigate because they've been quiet lately. You'd
have thought Ka-Zar would be more at home in a book like
Fantastic Four, where random exploration is part of the
premise.
FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, the Angel, the Beast and
Marvel Girl I (all last in Fantastic Four vol 1
#36)
GUEST STAR
Ka-Zar (Lord Kevin Plunder; first appearance; last in
flashback in Astonishing Tales #11; next in
Daredevil vol 1 #12)
VILLAIN
Maa-Gor (first appearance; the last surviving Man-Ape;
last in flashback in Astonishing Tales #20; next in
Daredevil vol 1 #12)
GUEST APPEARANCE
Zabu (first appearance; Ka-Zar's sabretooth tiger; last in
flashback in Astonishing Tales #11; next in
Daredevil vol 1 #12)
OTHER CHARACTERS
The Swamp Men (a Savage Land tribe; first appearance; next
in Daredevil vol 1 #12)
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