Issue(s): Uncanny X-Men #10
Cover Date: Mar 65
Title: "The Coming of... Ka-Zar!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Jack Kirby - Penciler
Chic Stone - Inker

Review/plot: The X-Men go exploring and find a world that time forgot, where dinosaurs and cave men and saber-toothed tigers all live together.

The Savage Land is accessed by descending into a deep tunnel in Antarctica. I'm not clear on whether or not it is underground. I think it's supposed to be because Ka-Zar tells the X-Men that their world is "above". Eventually it will be clarified that it's not, but heavy steam from volcanoes hide it from the modern world. I think.

The X-Men initially think Ka-Zar is a mutant (based on... no evidence), but he's not.

Ka-Zar is speaking in Cave-Man speak. He will later reveal that he was faking.

I love the Axe Beaks that the Swamp Men ride.

Scott and Jean are still pining hopelessly for each other.

One could argue that the Savage Land has absolutely nothing to do with the mutant theme (and they'd be right), but there's no denying the importance of the setting that's being introduced here.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 9 - first Savage Land, first Ka-Zar, first Zabu

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: X-Men: The Early Years #10

This Ka-Zar has nothing to do with the 1936 pulp Ka-Zar, the 1940s Timely Ka-Zar, or the 1950s Lo-Zar. (Why Lo-Zar wasn't called Ka-Zar I can't understand, both were Marvel properties).

I know it's silly to try to make sense of something like the Savage Land, but if it's underground, how is it sunny all the time? How is there all that plant life? And even if it's just hidden by clouds, the question remains.

in the early 1900s, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a series about a place called Pellucidar inside a hollow earth. it had a miniature sun and was populated by primitive people and animals.

to continue in the "influences from Burroughs' fiction" vein, Ka-Zar uses a shouting call to bring animal help ala Tarzan. but why is it always elephants?

Kirby's rejected original cover appeared in Alter Ego #120.

Ka-Zar was apparently brought back by request of Martin Goodman. I'm guessing he didn't care if it was the original character as long as the name was used.

Note that Ka-Zar was originally a teen hero. I think that explains why he debuted in X-MEN.

The reason that the X-Men thought he might be a mutant is that he rescues a scientist lost in the Antarctic and carries him back to his base camp. When he does this, he is wearing his loin cloth and the X-Men considered that he might be a mutant because he seems to be unaffected by the cold. The reasons that plants grow and all that is that the place is secretly being maintained by alien technology set up by the Fortiscuans who established it as a game preserve millennia ago.

This whole story just seems so out of place when compared to the previous 9. If X-Men were a television show, I would have assumed this episode was a backdoor pilot for some other series.

(And did anyone notice how when Jean and Warren are about to be attacked by the T-Rex, Jean calls Warren "Scott"? A genuine writer's mistake, or a portrayal of how Jean's thoughts are elsewhere?)