In 1984, not long after I'd turned 27, the second Ka-Zar solo series folded with its 34th issue--lasting fourteen issues longer than its previous bimonthly title published from 1974-77, whatever that statistic is worth. (I'll assume we're not counting the three issues published between 1970-71 as an official volume, given that they comprised reprinted material drawn from other titles where Ka-Zar was a guest-star.) If my count is correct, Ka-Zar has had five volumes of his own series to date. Volume Three, published monthly from 1997-98, lasted a whopping nineteen issues; while I leave it to you as to whether Volumes Four and Five qualify as bona fide volumes, since at the time Marvel was publishing a number of its regular series as "numbered arcs" (at least that's what I'm calling them), each numbering five issues and resetting back to issue 1 to presumably whet the interest of readers who were on the lookout for a title's First Issue. I don't know how many first issues Marvel released between 2011-2021, but heaven only knows.
My overall point being this:
The character of Ka-Zar is not, nor has he ever been, a bankable enough draw to sustain his own series.
And I single out issue #34 from '84 because its story is bookended by two virtual admissions of the fact--each written by Mike Carlin, who scripted the series' last seven issues and who will in the end arrange to present Ka-Zar himself with a dubious award that puts the character above all others in such a self-deprecating category.
First up, in "The Last Ka-Zar Picture Show," we catch Carlin in his office, commiserating with others in the Bullpen--the only problem being that he's a party of one in that respect, since it's clear everyone else at this shindig is of one mind in practically advising Ka-Zar not to let the door hit him on the way out.
Obviously Ka-Zar has become the furthest thing from Carlin's mind at this heady moment. Now why don't you pour yourself some punch, buddy?
As for Ka-Zar himself, his issue has ended with the splendid news that his wife, Shanna, is pregnant. But with his book's cancellation, Carlin has an epilogue to write--and Ka-Zar a journey to make before keeping his promise to his family, a destination that by now he's become all too familiar with.
Upon arrival, however, he must run the gamut of others who have faced the same humiliation he finds himself revisiting--but finally, he arrives to find himself Guest of Honor, in light of this land's raison d'être.
Pfah, Mr. Carlin. Mark Gruenwald would have provided a comprehensive "guest list" to us.
Ka-Zar's undaunted closing words may not have his readers (what's left of them) doing cartwheels, but there is a positive note to them: he'll end up boomeranging back to this place so often that he'll likely never be in danger of being demoted.
13 comments:
The first Marvel comic I ever bought was Marvel UK's Planet Of The Apes No.5 which also featured Gullivar Jones (Warrior Of Mars)...and Ka-Zar but only Ka-Zar had actually been created by Marvel so he was the first genuine Marvel character I ever encountered!
And Ka-Zar is also one of the oldest Marvel characters - he first appeared in 1939.
The Land Of Cancelled Heroes reminds me of The Island Of Misfit Toys in the TV Christmas Special 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer'. There was a happy ending for all the misfit toys in 'Rudolph' which is not always the case for Marvel's cancelled heroes.
Ka-Zar turned up briefly in "Avengers" several years ago (maybe during Bendis' run?) but has had very little time on stage otherwise since the cancellation of his last ongoing series. He has however worked well as a supporting character when a title's main players have found themselves in the Savage Land, such as Marvel Fanfare (1982) #1-4.
Partnering Ka-Zar up with Shanna was an excellent try at making him more than a Tarzan clone. Apparently without notable success.
As charliedogg says, Ka-Zar shines when other characters visit the Savage Land. (Doesn't matter where a character enters the Savage Land, Ka-Zar pops up like a customs agent. Sort of like Namor where no matter where one takes a dip in the Earth's oceans, you'll meet the Sub-Mariner)
I did like Ka-Zar being one of the "on call agents" in Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda. He didn't get a lot of appearances, because, well, the title ended at issue #8. Do comics actually get "cancelled" any more? As they did in the 1990's, it seems they reboot/renumber a series after the main creative team leaves.
A little earlier than '39, actually, Colin--you can get a glimpse of those early appearances from the link above. :)
Thanks for bringing up the Fanfare stories, charliedogg, I've been meaning to dig into those early issues more than the brief thumbing-through I gave them a few years ago for an earlier post. As for Avengers appearances, you may enjoy Ka-Zar as a guest-star during the team's confrontation of Terminus (though the Savage Land itself unfortunately didn't fare well at all).
Murray, your mentioning of Shanna reminded me of the big question mark I've always had concerning Ka-Zar--namely, when (and how) was his "me, Ka-Zar!" way of communicating ditched for a more colloquial manner that made him converse more readily with Shanna (as well as the Avengers during the Terminus crisis). That was some turnaround for this character.
Pretty meta, I guess. Is that the word? Heck, I dunno...
All these forgotten characters, I mean, breaking the fourth wall.
Morrison already did this with Animal Man. Did Carlin just rip off the idea?
What a cheese-ball.
M.P.
One problem with Ka-Zar is that being the "Tarzan" in the Marvel Universe just is not that impressive. That's not a death knell for a character. Many heroes are low powered, but the successful ones have something that elevates them. And being a derivative character does not help with that.
Another problem is that Ka-Zar's only real viable setting, the Savage Land, while awesome for other heroes to guest star is very isolated from the rest of the Marvel titles. So you don't get the synergy you other Marvel titles can have with guest stars and cameos that are easy to justify.
Ka-Zar is also hurt in that for most of this period, the most obvious thing for him to be in the Savage Land is a Conan-like hero, but Marvel already had Conan! If you got the real thing, why go for a lesser version of the same kind of stories?
Lastly is a problem a lot of failed series have - the failure to create an adequate supporting cast that grounds the character, and a failure to establish a long term interesting rogues gallery. Few creators are like Kirby and Ditko that just spit out classic villains and supporting casts. So there is relatively few existing characters to build on. You need to do a lot more work to really build a world where you get excited about Ka-Zar, and most comics creators aren't just that good to do so, the best they can do is some effective maintenance while introducing the occasional mediocrity.
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M.P., Ka-Zar ended in 1984 and Morrison's Animal Man would not begin until 1988. So Carlin was not ripping him off.
Chris
I stand corrected!
M.P.
Chris, that's a pertinent point about the Savage Land isolating Ka-Zar, to an extent--and not only from other titles, but from the majority of the world where he can come into conflict with anyone but native tribes and evil priest(esse)s. How many heroes or villains have cause to traipse down to Antarctica on even a semi-regular basis, other than on expeditions to harvest resources of the Savage Land?
You also raise a point about Kirby being proficient in dreaming up supporting casts, but I wonder--just who were those people in mags like Fantastic Four and Thor? Wyatt Wingfoot and Alicia Masters are fair game, but who else? Are we including the behind-the-scenes Yancy Street Gang? The Black Panther, all the way over in Wakanda? Johnny Storm's date of the month? The (very) occasional appearance by Willie Lumpkin? Does Sue have friends? Does Reed, outside of the occasional visiting scientist? And on Thor's side, do we count Jane Foster? The Asgardians, who generally take a hike during Thor's extended stays on Earth? Did Donald Blake have anyone in his orbit that he rubbed elbows with outside of office hours? By comparison, the supporting casts of Iron Man and Captain America (who led a lonely, solitary existence during Kirby's tenure) would put them to shame.
So Ka-Zar wasn't really created by Marvel which I should have known as I'd read that post you linked to, CF, and I'd even left a comment. I think my memory must be deteriorating as I approach old age! But, in my defence, Marvel did create the more familiar version of Ka-Zar with Zabu and the Savage Land.
Colin, we're pleased to welcome you to the ranks of the memory impaired! Your gift basket will include some lovely chocolates as well as a generous assortment of Ka-Zar back issues. (Which were a bargain, I must say.)
You can practically hear the bitter mumbling coming from the back row...
"...Morbin' time... grumble grumble"
The FF, like any team book, won't have much of a supporting cast because you are already dealing with the dynamics of the team members. You only have so much air time. Alicia and Wyatt are probably all you need as supporting cast. But let's not forget that if you expand it to additional super powered people you had Franklin (not quite super powered during Kirby's era), Crystal, and later Agatha Harkness.
I think early on Kirby intended Thor to have a mainly mortal supporting cast with Jane and Harris Hobbs. But the allure of Asgard proved too much and so besides Odin we got Balder, Sif, and the Warriors Three who would appear on Midgard more often than you remember. As Thor became more cosmic in scope than earthbound, it's hard to argue with that approach.
But I agree that Thor probably had one of the weaker supporting casts. Ditko's Spider-Man was clearly above everyone else's. And strangely Daredevil also had a strong supporting cast albeit with Karen and Foggy despite having the worst villains in comics.
I think Cap was neglected because neither Lee or Kirby really figured out what Steve Rogers would do when he wasn't Cap in a post-WWII setting. That was never settled which is why Cap's title has been reinvented several times with new groups of supporting cast that never became classic. In the end, Cap's supporting cast was really just Sharon Carter, Nick Fury, and Falcon which meant Steve really never had anyone normal with him. This became a noticeable problem during Gruenwald's run when Steve was essentially a super-hero 100% of the time.
Having said that, I don't think you really need a large supporting cast to have a great one. Batman just really needs Gordon, Alfred, and Robin. Recurring characters like Lucius Fox, Leslie Thompkins, Harvey Bullock, etc. are nice to have, but aren't essential.
Chris
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