Ka-Zar to the extrrreeeeme!

It's hip! It's edgy and cool! It's the 90s! It's-- actually not that bad. This month's First Issue on the First is Ka-Zar #1 (1997), written by Mark Waid and drawn by Andy Kubert.

If you can set aside Waid's basic misunderstanding of Ka-Zar's personality, this issue flows pretty well. I feel like if Ka-Zar read more like Ka-Zar, I would have taken to this more strongly when it was new on the shelf. Artwise everything is on point. There are still touches of EXTREME 90's art here and there, mostly the fingerless gloves and pouches added to Ka-Zar's costume, but Kubert is too competent an artist to sacrifice composition and clarity on the altar of style, especially in the panel to panel storytelling.

The story takes place in the recently recreated Savage Land. The hidden continent had been destroyed by Terminus for some stupid reason in the pages of The Avengers, but Claremont happily returned it to life in X-Men Annual #12 via the genius of the High Evolutionary and the power of Garokk the Petrified Man. Other writers, such as Bill Mantlo in Alpha Flight Annual #2, had also started to reverse the short-sighted decision almost as soon as it happened, but that is another review entirely.

By this time, Ka-Zar and Shanna the She-Devil have a son, Matthew, so they are pretty settled, which (in my book) is never a great thing for a hero, especially a jungle hero. Tarzan, in either books or movies, didn't really get more interesting once he had Korak (books) or Boy (movies) tagging along. Burroughs himself once tried to kill Jane to free up Tarzan for other romantic possibilities, but apparently brought her back due to fan outcry. I would not have been one of those fans. Anyway, Ka-Zar is a family man now, I can accept it. Happily ever after family life never tends to last too long in comics.

But can I accept cavemen playing baseball? Ka-Zar expressing a fondness for pizza and The Kinks? It's a stretch for me. Don't get me wrong, I love pizza and listening to The Kinks as much as the next jungle lord, but this doesn't read like Ka-Zar. By now, he has spent more of his life in the Savage Land than in the civilized world. This Ka-Zar reads like a guy pretending he yearns for the civilized world, because someone told him that is his character-- more an actor reading lines than a hero you can believe in. Maybe Waid thought this made Ka-Zar more relatable somehow? Personally, I don't read comics about jungle lords in secret dinosaur-ridden biomes just so they can pine for and talk about how great it is to live in my world. If my world was all that great I'd stop reading comics and get back to work. The issue sets up two primary antagonists, an evil unnamed mastermind and his hired gun, Gregor. It seems Gregor had formerly trained the now-dead Kraven the Hunter, which is mentioned to presumably establish his bonafides as a credible physical threat to Ka-Zar. Not much else is shown or revealed about them this issue. I plan to follow up on this by reviewing further issues, but the stack of Ka-Zar comics I bought while out of town all looked like they were from the same series/volume, but seem to be separated by quite a few years of publication. Some further digging/purchases will be required.