Ka-Zar the Savage

Ka-Zar the Savage, born Kevin Plunder, is a man known as the Lord of the Jungle in the Savage Land. Born a British noble, Ka-Zar is a simpleminded but powerful and valiant hero who protects the creatures in the Savage Land from the other primitive humans within, and from invading threats without. He fights alongside a sabertooth-tiger sidekick named Zabu.

Biography

Origin

In Kevin's youth, his father, the first Lord Plunder, found the Savage Land and took from it a huge piece of ore. In experimenting with it, he found that when struck it would produce vibrations that destroyed nearby metal objects. Lord Plunder managed to break off a small piece of it, and broke that into two pieces, granting each half to his sons Kevin and Parnival. He stored the ore in a large metal shaft that could only be opened by the vibrations of the completed medallion. Foreign agents seeking the ore forced Lord Plunder to retreat, and he flew back to the Savage Land. His arrival there was evidently catastrophic, as he perished and Kevin suffered near-complete memory loss. Kevin grew up in the jungles of the Savage Land, befriending the saber-toothed tiger Zabu and adopting the name Ka-Zar. He would not see Parnival again for decades.

Journey of the X-Men

In early 1965, an expedition party to Antarctica lost a member of their team somewhere in the icy wilderness. Through unclear means, Ka-Zar happened upon and rescued the man, bringing him back to his team alongside Zabu. The tiger sent a panic into the explorers, who captured the event on camera and broadcast it to the world. This footage caught the attention of the X-Men, who soon came to investigate this strange occurrence. They made their way into the Savage Land, and Angel and Marvel Girl were soon kidnapped by native swamp-men. Ka-Zar and Zabu helped the mutant heroes rescue their friends, bearing no love for the swamp-men, but Ka-Zar afterwards insisted that they remain on the surface and leave the Savage Land alone.

Plunder family reunion

Later in the year, Ka-Zar witnessed the swamp men of the Savage Land attacking Skull Island as a display of revolt against his de facto rule. Soon after, a submarine led by the pirate known as the Plunderer arrived and began unloading supplies onto Skull Island after the swamp men had left. Ka-Zar and Zabu fought them off, not realizing that one of the men present was a hostage, the heroic Daredevil. Daredevil tried to convince him that he wasn't an enemy, but the musclebound Ka-Zar beat him down all the same. Ka-Zar used a rock to knock the Plunderer's blaster shot astray, striking and detonating a cache of explosives and forcing Ka-Zar and Zabu to flee. Daredevil was injured in the explosion, and Ka-Zar took him back to his cave for treatment. He left to retrieve some healing ju-ju berries from a ravenous plant creature. Ka-Zar successfully retrieved the berries, but was soon captured by the Plunderer and his men, who also had Daredevil in tow. The Plunderer showed Ka-Zar his half of the medallion, revealing that he was his long-lost brother Parnival. Ka-Zar held onto his half of the medallion tightly, even as Parnival trapped him in a metal cage. Ka-Zar threw Daredevil the ju-ju berries, and the hero felt his powers returning to him as he ate them. The Plunderer took both men back to his castle in England, where he held Ka-Zar in a dungeonous pit and threw Daredevil into it, encouraging him to use Ka-Zar's trust for him to retrieve the medallion, for Parnival feared his brother's ferocious might. The enraged Ka-Zar instead attacked Daredevil, who bounded off Ka-Zar's back to attack the Plunderer and help Ka-Zar escape as well. The two were attacked by Parnival's underling Slagg, who was soon betrayed and killed by the butler Feepers, whom the heroes took down easily. The simpleminded jungle lord dove from the nearest window, intending to flee back to the Savage Land. Daredevil ran after him, knowing he would only get into trouble on his own. The Plunderer called the police and reported Slagg's murder, accusing Ka-Zar of the crime in an attempt to get him back under his control.

The fleeing Daredevil and Ka-Zar were attacked by an agent of Feepers' named Boswell, who blasted them with a grenade rifle and stole the medallion half from Ka-Zar's body. The police soon arrived and took Ka-Zar away as well, and he was soon put on trial in London. Daredevil, secretly the New York lawyer Matt Murdock, secured his partner Foggy Nelson to defend Ka-Zar. As it turned out, Ka-Zar raged as the trial began and had to be subdued by gas. In the meantime, the Plunderer combined the medallion halves and used them to access his father's ore, which he dubbed the Plunderstone. He crafted a new costume and a special vibra-ray gun to harness the Plunderstone's power. He and a group of henchmen with plastic weapons assaulted a missile base in the north Atlantic, but Daredevil infiltrated his submarine and attacked. With the help of nearby reinforcements, Plunderer was apprehended and confessed that Ka-Zar was innocent of Slagg's murder. Following his exoneration, Ka-Zar was held in a hospital as he recovered from the gassing.

See also

• Ka-Zar the Great