In the vein of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan, Ka-Zar was a long-haired, loin cloth wearing wild man of the jungle that was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for the original run of the X-Men #10. But unlike his more famous “cousin”, Ka-Zar is fully entrenched in the world of superheroes.
Dubbed “Lord of the Save Land”, Ka-Zar acts as the defender of the Savage Land and goodwill ambassador to the friendly tribes to its all too frequent outside visitors. Ka-Zar has a complicated relationship with technology and is now an Agent of Wakanda, Black Panther’s Avengers support and response team.
10 Little Lord Plunder
Ka-Zar is Lord Kevin Reginald Plunder, second son of Lord Robert Plunder. The British nobleman and scientist were credited with the discovery of the Savage Land and Anti-Metal, which can destroy the molecular bonds of any known metals. Lord Plunder locked away a large amount of the substance and created a medallion, which he broke and gave half to each son as a key.
News of Lord Plunder’s extremely lucrative discovery brought all sorts of unsavory individuals after him to discover its location. Plunder sent his eldest son Parnival away with the trusted family butler and bodyguard, Willis and he took young Kevin with him to the Savage Land.
9 Feral Child
Almost immediately after arriving at the Anti-Metal Mound, Robert and Kevin were immediately set upon by the barbarian Man-Apes, led by Maa-Gor. The Man-Apes killed Robert and were about to kill Kevin until Zabu the Tiger leaped in and saved him.
The boy and the tiger fled into the Land of Mists, an area that the Man-Apes were afraid to go. A legend grew around the story among the Man-Apes and in the story, Kevin became “Ka-Zar” which means “Son of the Tiger.” In the Land of the Mists, Ka-Zar grew to adulthood with Zabu as his protector and constant companion.
8 Big Kitty!
Zabu was the last known living saber-tooth tiger in existence. Having been born in the prehistoric Savage Land himself, his parents and siblings were killed by the tribe of Man-Apes when Zabu was still a cub.
Zabu was adopted by a wolf mother when her mate brought her the young Zabu as food. Having to eventually leave that pack after killing one of its members in combat. Zabu encountered the Man-Ape’s leader Maa-Gor again just in time to save Kevin Plunder. Zabu taught the boy to hunt and forage and the properties of the Land of Mists retarded Zabu’s aging so he was still young and vital when Ka-Zar grew to adulthood.
7 Savage Land (But Worse Outside)
The Savage Land is a tropical prehistoric preserve hidden in the middle of Antarctica. The Savage land was created 200 million years ago by the alien Nuwali for the near-omnipotent Beyonders. It was filled with the indigenous life forms of the time: dinosaurs and the corresponding ecosystem they needed to survive. The Nuwali later added early mammals before disappearing in Earth’s early history.
A 20th Century expose by the Daily Bugle Newspaper brought a steady flux of treasure hunters, greedy villains, and would-be conquerors to the Savage Land and it became Ka-Zar’s job to repel these invaders. Thankfully he often had help from the likes of various incarnations of the X-Men, Spider-Man and girlfriends SHIELD agent Barbara Morse and adventurer Shanna O’Hara.
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The X-Men’s Frequent Visits
Various incarnations of the mutant X-Men were the most frequent visitors to the Land. The original team first ventured there because they believed that Ka-Zar might be a mutant. They were almost immediately captured by the Swamp Men and nearly sacrificed to a Tyrannosaurs Rex but were saved by Ka-Zar and Zabu.
The second team of X-Men has made even more trips to the Land to deal with menaces including Magneto, the Savage Land Mutates, and Sauron, who has been an occasional ally to Ka-Zar. At one point, the Mutate Zaladane took control over the whole Savage Land when Ka-Zar was away.
5 Spider-Man of the Savage Land
Spider-Man has found himself in the Savage Land a surprising number of times. J. Jonah Jameson pushed for an expose on the Savage Land and dragged Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy along with him. Kraven the Hunter and the alien Gog planned to take over the Savage Land. Peter switched to Spider-Man and defeated the monstrous alien by trapping him in quicksand. Ka-Zar defeated Kraven after a prolonged and violent battle.
Spider-Man and Angel by the Savage Land Mutates and Brainchild used them as test subjects that devolved them into primordial monsters. Peter became a monstrous, multi-limbed, man-spider and Warren became a bird-like creature. They attacked Ka-Zar and the Fall People but Peter’s indomitable will allowed him to break free and abandon the fight in horror at what he had become. He and Angel were both cured by scientist Karl Lykos aka Sauron.
4 Shanna the She-Devil
One visitor that became a permanent resident was Shanna O’Hara. Born in Africa and educated in the States, Shanna returned to Africa in the care of two leopard cubs whose mother was killed at the New York Central Park Zoo. She and Ka-Zar gradually fell in love, married and lived in the Savage Land.
When they were prisoners by the alien Nuwali, they found out that Shanna was pregnant. Their relationship had not always been a solid one. Shanna became increasingly annoyed as Ka-Zar began to “pollute” the pristine Savage Land with technology from the outside world. That annoyance turned to rage when a set of walkie talkies were used in a coordinated attack that injured Matthew.
3 Thanos and the Plunderer
The walkie talkies were used by Gregor, Kraven the Hunter’s mentor, to rally the Man-Apes. They were defeated and revealed that Parnival Plunder aka the Plunderer was behind the attacks. Shanna and Ka-Zar went to New York to confront him. Parnival sent the Rhino to stop the pair but they turned him to their side.
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They learned that the Mad Titan Thanos was ultimately in control and they had been attacked to remove them from the Savage Land so the Savage Land terraformers could be stolen. It was brought to Manhattan and turned on, making Manhattan a jungle. Ka-Zar found that Thanos was trapped in a dimension inside the terraformer and drew power from it. Shanna cut the power and SHIELD atomized the terraformer, trapping the depowered Thanos. The powers of the terraformer were transferred to Shanna for a time.
2 Ka-Zar’s New York Adventure
Shanna had to give up her powers over the Savage Land and she felt that loss very deeply. She took Mathew on a pilgrimage to deal with her depression. Ka-Zar returned to New York to tie up loose ends from their prior visit when a gun went off near his ear and he was accidentally maced. Deaf and blind, he tried to apprehend the gunman but accidentally assaulted a policeman. This began a manhunt for his arrest that included the Punisher.
He went to the offices of Nelson and Murdock for help and Foggy Nelson agreed to help him and let him stay at the traveling Matt Murdock’s apartment. Ultimately, government liaison Everett Ross cleared his name and Ka-Zar made his way to Avengers Mansion where Black Panther got him home.
1 The Secret Invasion of the Savage Land
A massive alien ship crashed in the Savage Land. Two teams of Avengers arrived and Luke Cage pried the ship’s door open. 15 heroes including Cage, Sue Storm, Captain America, and Spider-Man emerged. They claimed that they had been abducted years ago. Everyone was suspicious of each other and fights broke out.
The Captain America from the ship attacked Spider-Man and this Cap was hit by a dart that reverted him to a Skrull. Shanna killed him to save them. Spider-Man, Mockingbird, and Hawkeye from the ship were killed. Ka-Zar traveled to New York with the Avengers as the first Skrull shock troops invaded the city. Shanna and Zabu stayed behind to rid the Savage Land of any remaining invaders.