This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog continues on from when Astonishing Tales became Ka-Zar’s title alone after Dr. Doom’s departure.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #9 (Dec 1971)
Title: The Legend of the Lizard Men
Villains: Queen Iranda and her Lizard Men
NOTE: The next part of the Neu Deutschland/ New Brittany storyline was not completed in time for publication, so this pre-prepared fill-in story was used instead.
Synopsis: Men and women are disappearing from various tribes across the Savage Land. Ka-Zar and his saber-tooth tiger Zabu investigate. He traces the disappearances to Queen Iranda and her army of Lizard Men.
Ka-Zar fights his way through Iranda’s guards and manages to steal the queen’s crown. This causes her to turn into her true lizard form and reverts all of her Lizard Men to their human forms as the missing villagers.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #10 (Feb 1972)
Title: To Die in Flames
Villains: Heinrich Draco and his forces
Synopsis: This story picks up from issue # 8’s cliffhanger about Ka-Zar, Zabu and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Bobbi Morse (the future superheroine and wife of Hawkeye called Mockingbird) being caught in the middle of two armies of dinosaur-riding people.
It’s all happening on an island in the Savage Land’s Lost Lake, where stranded Brits and stranded Germans from World War Two have been leading separate villages in a continuation of their enmity from that war.
With neither side willing to listen to reason about how the war ended decades ago, our heroes wind up having to stop the opposing sides from destroying the large island via a previously dormant volcano.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #11 (Apr 1972)
Title: A Day of Tigers
Villains: The Man-Apes
Synopsis: While guiding Bobbi Morse and scientist Paul Allen through the Savage Land (Marvel’s prehistoric jungle in the middle of Antarctica) Ka-Zar has to save them from a gigantic anaconda. They then resume their journey to one of the U.N. bases which strive to preserve the vast jungle heated by geo-thermal sources.
Ka-Zar privately reflects on his origin and his first meeting with Zabu in more detailed form than previously show in X-Men #10 and assorted Daredevil issues. Ka-Zar is really British Lord Kevin Plunder, whose father was killed by the Man-Apes while showing Kevin (as a child) around the jungle and his vibranium mining operation. NOTE: Before Wakanda, the Savage Land was Marvel’s sole locale for vibranium.
Zabu protected little Kevin as he grew into Ka-Zar, Lord of the Hidden Jungle. The adult Ka-Zar and Zabu defeated the war-like Man-Apes. Back in the present day, our heroes reach a U.N. station and fly to the U.S. where S.H.I.E.L.D. needs Ka-Zar’s help.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #12 (Jun 1972)
Title: Terror Stalks the Everglades
Villains: A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics)
Synopsis: In the Florida Everglades, Ka-Zar learns that S.H.I.E.L.D. needs his tracking skills to locate missing scientist Ted Sallis, who was transformed into the swamp monster called the Man-Thing while experimenting with a means of making super-soldiers.
NOTE: This is only the SECOND appearance of Man-Thing.
Ka-Zar, Zabu, Bobbi Morse and Paul Allen search for Ted Sallis in the swamps and fight off alligators. Marvel’s paramilitary group of villains called A.I.M. is also after Sallis and the super-soldier formula. A.I.M. clashes with our heroes, Ka-Zar and Zabu are captured and wind up in a pit with the Man-Thing.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #13 (Aug 1972)
Title: Man-Thing
Villains: A.I.M.
Synopsis: Ka-Zar and Zabu survive their clash with the Man-Thing, then free themselves from the pit and drive off all of the A.I.M. troops on hand. Bobbi and Paul catch up with Ka-Zar, Zabu and Man-Thing.
The assembled heroes search for the hidden A.I.M. base in the Everglades. When they find it, Paul reveals he is really working for A.I.M. and he betrays Ka-Zar and the others.
In the resulting battle, Man-Thing kills Paul Allen, the others defeat the A.I.M. soldiers and the hidden base blows up, causing Ka-Zar and Bobbi to conclude that Man-Thing/ Ted Sallis died in the explosion.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #14 (Oct 1972)
Title: The Night of the Looters
Villains: Carla and Ralph
Note: Once again, the new Ka-Zar story was not ready by the deadline, so this filler story was run instead.
Carla and Ralph (no surnames ever given) pilot their high-tech vessel that serves as a submarine or a tank as needed to penetrate into the jungles of the Savage Land. Ka-Zar and Zabu wind up having to save the duo from dinosaur attacks.
At length, the couple reveal their true nature. They are out to steal as much vibranium as their vessel can carry but are opposed by Ka-Zar and Zabu. In the end, the high-tech craft is destroyed and Carla & Ralph’s plans to double-cross each other lead only to death.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #15 (Dec 1972)
Title: And Who Will Call Him Savage?
Villains: The Pusher and his gang
Synopsis: Ka-Zar, Zabu and Bobbi Morse linger in Atlanta to take care of an ill scientist friend of Bobbi’s, Wilma Calvin. Agent Morse and Ka-Zar take their romance to the next level.
Ka-Zar and Zabu take to exploring the late-night Atlanta streets and get caught up in a turf war between competing gangs of drug pushers. The more ruthless gang is even led by a punk calling himself “the Pusher.”
As the gang war continues over consecutive nights, one of the youths involved turns out to be Wilma’s own son.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #16 (Feb 1973)
Title: To Stalk a City
Villains: The Pusher and his gang
Synopsis: With Wilma Calvin at last in better condition, Ka-Zar and Zabu hit the nighttime streets again to settle things with the Pusher and his gang.
On the black market, the Pusher has purchased supervillain gear in the form of a harness which increases his strength severalfold. This makes him more capable of fighting our hero and his saber-tooth tiger, but they still win and Wilma’s son goes straight and quits the defeated Pusher’s gang.
Ka-Zar and Bobbi share some more tender moments.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #17 (Apr 1973)
Title: Target: Ka-Zar
Villain: Gemini
Synopsis: Now in New York City, Bobbi Morse tries to show Ka-Zar some more positive aspects of civilization, but he remains unconvinced. As a follow up to their Everglades adventure a while back, Agent Morse, Ka-Zar and Zabu are brought to the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier to observe the end product of the super-soldier serum that Bobbi salvaged from Ted Sallis’s notes.
Gemini, a member of the supervillain team Zodiac (recurring foes of the Avengers) has infiltrated the helicarrier. He sabotages it, causing chaos which he uses to steal the serum and fight his way out past Ka-Zar, Bobbi, Nick Fury and others.
Piloting an aircraft to the New Jersey forests, Gemini meets with his new partner in crime – the Plunderer, Ka-Zar’s evil half-brother and archenemy. Beside him, the Plunderer has Gog, a giant alien from the Savage Land and the trio menaces the arriving Ka-Zar.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #18 (Jun 1973)
Title: Gog Cometh
Villains: Plunderer, Gog and Gemini
Synopsis: The evil trio battle Ka-Zar, who seems doomed until Bobbi Morse and Zabu arrive in a S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft. The Plunderer reveals in a Villain Rant that he rescued Gog from the quicksand it fell into during its battle with Ka-Zar and Spider-Man long ago.
The villain thinks he has complete control over Gog, but the alien proves him wrong when it teleports away to the Statue of Liberty with Zabu. In a running battle to reach Gog at the statue, Ka-Zar and Bobbi try to recover the super-soldier serum from Gemini and the Plunderer.
At length, our heroes recover the serum but the two villains escape. For his part, Gog teleports himself to outer space to at last be free of the Earth. Meanwhile, in England, an A.I.M. agent named Victor Conrad survives a S.H.I.E.L.D. attack by using the recently rediscovered super-soldier serum which made Steve Rogers Captain America.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #19 (Aug 1973)
Title: And Men Shall Name Him … Victorius
Villain: Victorius
Synopsis: Victor Conrad, driven insane by using the super-soldier serum without the subsequent bombardment of Vita-Rays that Steve Rogers received long ago, has become the costumed villain Victorius (sic). He abducts Bobbi Morse to try getting information out of her about S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new variation of the serum.
Nick Fury helps Ka-Zar infiltrate the Upstate New York A.I.M. facility where Victorius is holding Bobbi. Ka-Zar encounters Gemini and the Plunderer inside and defeats them both.
Next, our hero battles and downs Victorius and frees Bobbi Morse. Victorius isn’t quite finished, however, and attacks from behind.
ASTONISHING TALES Vol 1 #20 (Oct 1973)
Title: The Final Battle
Villain: Victorius
Synopsis: Ka-Zar continues fighting Victorius while Bobbi takes down some A.I.M. agents. Zabu shows up, having somehow trailed Ka-Zar to the villain’s hideout.
Bobbi and Zabu deal with the rest of the A.I.M. baddies while Ka-Zar tears off Victorius’s helmet to reveal that the super-soldier serum he used was flawed and it is accelerating his aging to an incredible degree. The villain dies in a plunge down into the moat far below.
A few days later after a passionate farewell with Bobbi Morse, Ka-Zar returns to the Savage Land with Zabu. The next issue of Astonishing Tales kicked off a tryout period for Marvel’s kaiju hero It, the Living Colossus.
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