“This editorial is full of spoilers for all three issues of Empyre: Avengers. If you haven’t read them or had your fill of modern comic book plots that have been beaten to death, go read the comics and come back when you’re done. Or, if you’re indifferent like I am at this point, read on. The resolution of this story fundamentally changes a major character and points out more problems in today’s comic industry than you might imagine.”

By WALLY MONK – PM Library Editor

Ka-Zar the Savage is dead. Long live Ka-Zar the Savage!

Wait a moment, monk. What are you talking about? Kevin Plunder is alive and well, now plugged full of the magical power of the Savage Land! How can he be dead?

I suppose you’re correct. Kevin Plunder is indeed alive, but he’s not the savage that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created – the one who jumped off the pages of X-Men #10 with a roar of “Ka-Zar Kill!” I’d venture to say he’s not even the savage that Brent Anderson and Bruce Jones worked hard to mold, one that was a genuine “evolution” of Lee and Kirby’s creation.

Now, thanks to Marvel editorial and one tremendously talented but misguided writer, Ka-Zar is just like all the other guys. In the pages of Empyre: Avengers, we first saw him “killed” (sigh) and then brought back to life courtesy of a magical blade and the life-saving waters of the Savage Land. Not only is he back, but now he’s a scion – one with the land itself – sort of, I would imagine an Earth Mother (father) version of Doctor Strange. And don’t fret, my activist friends and readers, Shanna has the same powers too, so that’s another thing the jungle duo has in common.

Now before anyone gets their drawers in a twist, I understand that our favorite heroes evolve. They learn. They change. I’ll never object to the genuine personal growth of a character. But at the heart of a person or hero is their origin; the thing that makes them tick at the basest level survives.

Let me explain by example. I have always been Wally. From the time I was young, I loved the church and comic books. I was the youngest kid in Sunday School to read; I was buying comics off the rack when I was 6 and actually “reading” most of them. I loved dinosaurs, Ka-Zar, Conan and eventually the X-Men and the Avengers. In my teenage years, I discovered girls and groups of friends and comic books took a back seat, but the love of the medium was there. As an adult, I’ve embraced my love of the Church through active ministry AND held fast to my love of comics and collecting in my spare time. You can see the Wally of “yesterday” in the Wally of today.

So, too, can we look at Ka-Zar. He was a boy saved by a sabretooth, learning to live off the land and survive in a hostile environment. Eventually, he would grow up, meet many different women (Bobbi Morse and Shanna, most notably) and start a family. At his core, he was a normal man, battling both his longing for civilization and love of the Savage Land where he grew up. The key word is normal – he was never super-powered, and therein lay the appeal of the character. Up until this story line, you could see the Ka-Zar of the 1960s through the eyes of his modern incarnation.

But the House of Ideas has scrapped that. Now, he’s imbued with the powers of the land itself. He’s not a normal man. With the typing of some keys and editors nodding in approval, Ka-Zar has become yet another hero with weird powers, suitable for a few story lines and unsuitable for others. Ka-Zar, as we know the character, is still dead. Perhaps he’ll be a better fit for the Agents of Wakanda now that he’s another member with superhuman abilities?

We see the same problems with Marvel’s latest iteration of Conan. While the company churns out reprints of Conan classics in Epic Collection form, they struggle to tell new (or good) Conan stories in his Hyborian environment. What’s the solution? To have him fight along with the Savage Avengers, and introduce him to the regular Marvel Universe.

It’s not difficult to tell a good story. And while I don’t have the big writing gig at Marvel that Jim Zub does, many of these creatives have the skills and the tools to write competently while respecting the history of the characters that have built Marvel’s legacy.

Or the company can keep letting sales slide while assuming that readers are too dumb to know the difference between gimmicks and storytelling. Did I mention that the upcoming Eternals #1 is rumored to have over twenty different “variant” covers? I’m sure The Mouse is hoping readers “buy them all” as the cash register drawers open over and over again.

At the risk of speaking for other vintage comic fans, I have always believed telling real stories with real characters that have stood the test of time is the only solution to a sales or marketing slump. It’s easy to keep the readers engaged looking for a top-notch run of issues like Frank Miller’s time on Daredevil or Walt Simonson’s Thor epic.

Maybe it’s just easier to rehash the same worthless summer story lines or create holofoil-chromium-vibranium-enforced variant editions. I refuse to believe that the next Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore or Chris Claremont aren’t out there somewhere. Hopefully, they will show their face one day in the form of something new and exciting that doesn’t mean destroying what’s already been done.

Ka-Zar the Savage is dead. Long live Ka-Zar the Savage!

As always, I am – Wally (AKA Paint Monk)