|
080800: BEYOND KA-ZAR: The
Call of the Wild...
By Loki Carbis.
What is it about jungles, even ones located in Antarctica, that makes
men want to dress up in furs and talk to their animal sidekicks? We
may never know, but the theme has remained intermittently popular over
the years. Even in today's politically correct atmosphere, the Jungle
Lord remains a popular character, despite the implicit racism of the
type - the Jungle Lord himself is a variation on the earlier theme of
Great White Hunter, and an intermediate step on the path to the Intelligent
Gorilla charater type (no, really). The original basis of the Jungle
Lord were the writings of the philosopher Rouseau, whose concept of
the "Noble Savage" - a man living in a veritable Eden, untouched
by the corruptions of modern life, cast a long shadow over politics
and literature that remains even today. This month, Beyond takes a look
at the most recent variations on Jungle Lords, and the roots of the
archetype.
 KA-ZAR - Created
by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and first appearing in the pages of
X-Men #10, KA-ZAR is actually Lord Kevin Plunder, an English
nobleman who was abandoned and grew up all by himself in the jungle,
with only his sabre-toothed tiger, Zabu, for company.
Ka-Zar has probably the most unusual jungle of any Jungle Lord - the
Savage Land, a lush tropical area created and maintained by mysterious
alien technology in Antarctica. Over the years, Ka-Zar has fluctuated
back and forth between being a primitive savage and superhero in the
irreverent mode of Spiderman or Hawkeye. with his most recent series,
featuring some excellent work by Mark Waid and Adam Kubert, managing
to strike the best balance between these two personae, showing Ka-Zar
as a man torn between his two worlds.
 TARZAN - Created by
Edgar Rice Burroughs and originally appearing in THE ALL-STORY MAGAZINE,
TARZAN is actually John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, an Englishman
nobleman who was abandoned and grew up all by himself in the jungle,
with only his gorilla adoptive mother, Kala, for company. Sound familiar?
Ah, but TARZAN did it first. Originally a character of the Pulp
Era, his adventures were serialised in The All-Story Magazine, beginning
in 1912, and later collected into novels. But when comics started to
catch on, he quickly made the leap. As the ownership of the trademark
shifted, so did his publishing home. Tarzan has had series of his own
at both Marvel and DC, and is currently published by Dark Horse. In
many ways, he is the purest expression of this archetype - he is literally
both Noble and Savage in every sense of the term. A lot of the characteristics
associated with this sort of character start with him - the heightened
senses, the superior combat abilities, the ability to travel by swinging
on conveniently placed vines (this may actually be the inspiration for
Batman's ropes and Spiderman's webs), the knowledge of animal languages
and so on. Tarzan is one of the most enduring icons of the twentieth
century, and has appeared in novels, movies, radio serials, televsion
shows, comics and even a recent animated film from Disney.
 BLACK PANTHER
- First appearing in Fantastic Four #52, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created
the Black Panther to be the monarch of the tiny African nation Wakanda.
Strong, fast and very, very stealthy, the Black Panther also has a few
extra enhancements built into his costume, Batman-style. Back in the
sixties, he was usually just called the Panther, or referred to by his
name, T'Challa, in order to avoid unfortunate associations with the
Black Panther political movement. In these enlightened days, that's
no longer necessary, and the Black Panther's current series, begun under
the Marvel Knights imprint, bears his full name. Writer Christopher
Priest and a selection of fine artists have taken the character to new
heights.
ANTHRO - Technically a cave man
rather than a Jungle Lord, Anthro had his own series from DC many moons
ago, having graduated out of SHOWCASE like so many other Silver
Age standards. From 1968 onwards, he appeared fairly frequently, but
these days he doesn't seem to get much play - in fact, he hasn't been
seen since the CRISIS. Rather unusually for this type of character,
creator Howie Post set Anthro's adventures in an environment where it
was impossible to show the conflict between civilisation and the wilderness
- in the Neolithic era that Anthro's adventure's occur in, there's not
much but wilderness. Perhpas for this very reason, Anthro is a young
man, in whom these conflicts would not be so pronounced. But the lack
of this dimension in the character may have harmed his popularity.
 AQUAMAN - Originally
created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris, the current version of Aquaman's
origin, by Peter David and Kirk Jarvinen is strikingly similar to that
of TARZAN. Abandoned by his family, he was raised by dolphins,
and learned many skills that set him apart from normal men. later on,
he had great difficulty dealing with outside world of humanity, but
was eventually reconciled to his family and origins, and discovered
that he was an hereditary noble. Unlike most of the others listed here,
Aquaman also has some superhuman powers. His ability to communicate
with animals (in his case, telepathic contact with sea life) is very
similar to Ka-Zar's empathic bond or Tarzan's ability to speak with
gorillas. But Aquaman has come a long way from his Jungle Lord roots,
thanks in no small measure to his long membership in the JLA, and the
extensive back-story of Atlantis in the DC Universe. One day, he'll
be the subject of his own Beyond column.
KAMANDI - Created by Jack Kirby, KAMANDI, the last boy
on Earth, was first seen in the first issue of his very own
series back in 1972. He was a Tarzan-like figure raising himself in
a post- apocylpse world, and getting into all sorts of unlikely adventures.
Perhaps the least known of the platoon of characters Kirby created for
DC around this time (others including the NEW GODS and the DEMON),
Kamandi has never really had the popularity of other Kirby creations,
and his alternate future was retconned out of existence during the CRISIS
- leaving Kamandi hanging in comic book limbo.
 B'WANA BEAST - A regular contender
for the "comics' lamest chaacter" awards, B'WANA BEAST is
DC's best known riff on the Jungle Lord concept. Created by Bob Haney
and Mike Sekowsky in 1967, the Beast is originally a white big game
hunter An elderly native shaman gave him a mysterious helmet and a serum
to drink, by means of which he can assume the role of the Beast. He
has the rather unusual ability to fuse any two animals together, by
which means he creates soldiers and helpmeets to assist him in his battles
(the process wears off later). A few years back, he was replaced with
a more politically correct African in the role of B'Wana Beast. B'wana
Beast was never much of a success, and is probably best known to modern
readers for his occasional appearances in Grant Morrison's ANIMAL
MAN series a few years back.
 MOWGLI - The creation of writer Rudyard Kipling,
Mowgli predates even Tarzan, having first appeared in Rudyard Kipling's
THE JUNGLE BOOK in 1894. Without Mowgli, Edgar Rice Burroughs
might well be remembered only as the creator of John Carter, Warlod
of Mars. Mowgli was raised by wolves deep in the Indian Jungle, and
had many of the classic Jungle Lord traits. But the later creation of
Tarzan has almost entirely eclipsed him. Only the Disney version of
The Jungle Book made him at all popular, although his tale was also
translated into comics form, appeaing in MARVEL FANFARE #8-11
in 1983.
MAN FRIDAY - The loyal helpmeet and companion
of ROBINSON CRUSOE, Friday first appeared in the novel of the
same name by Daniel Defoe. Friday is not so much a Jungle Lord as he
is a Noble Savage. But his treatment in this work established a lot
of the precedents that would later influence Mowgli and Tarzan's creators.
Friday is also notable for being the only character on this list not
to be white man.
 GEORGE OF THE
JUNGLE - A blatant, straight-up parody of the Jungle Lord archetype,
especially Tarzan. Probably best known for his catchphrase "watch
out for that tree", GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE began life
as a cartoon character in 1967. His creator/s are unfortunately lost
in the mists of time (and copyright suits, one imagines) but like any
other obstacle, this has not stopped George for long, and he recently
made the jump to a live-action movie. George is everything one would
expect a Jungle Lord to be - except that he's an utter incompetent.
George regularly crashes into things while swinging from vines, is incapable
of recognising danger, and tends to need his animal sidekicks to do
his thinking for him. But he is also genuinely funny - and he has the
coolest theme song of any Jungle Lord.
That wraps up this month's BEYOND. Though we may have missed a few notable characters, like the Greystoke homages in League of Extrordinary Gentlemen and Planetary, the essence of the jungle lord lives on, and will be constantly explored in the comic medium. Next month: Beyond Planetary.
Loki Carbis is a regular contributor to PopImage.
PopImage Forum - Discuss this article at the PopImage forum.
|
