In an effort to expand their publishing line, Marvel started-in the second half of 1970-overproducing their comics. Here we get a reprint anthology series about Ka-Zar with one original tale by Allyn Brodsky (ironically, no relation to publisher Sol Brodsky).
It’s got early art by Frank Springer, too.
But it’s not very good. And the only original material has nothing to do with Ka-Zar. Instead, it’s a solo Hercules story where he is being chased by The Huntsman of Zeus, which is concluded in Sub Mariner #29.
The rest of Ka-Zar volume 1 is all reprints and won’t be covered on my site.
The primary tale in this issue is a reprint of 1964’s ‘Uncanny X-Men’#10, which featured the first modern appearance of Ka-Zar’s legendary Savage Land, which I think is fascinating, and worth noting due to the fact that there are a lot of people in our world today-notable people, I may add- who have gone on the public record as saying that our world never had any dinosaurs in it. ( ???-!!!-??? ) Every single year, hundreds of thousands of new dinosaur bones and fossils turn up on all seven continents, so where does all this crack-head nonsense come from-??? I also enjoyed the ‘Hercules’ story, as it showed that there was somebody at Marvel in 1970 who cared about Hercules ( like myself ) and wanted to see his story at Marvel continue. I absolutely hated when Roy Thomas wrote him out of the Avengers in 1968 after having worked so hard to lay the groundwork for putting him in there. Prior to the Vision joining the team that year, the Avengers were down to only four members- Goliath, the Wasp, Hawkeye, and the Black Panther- and they needed some muscle! Hercules would have provided it. I like the Vision just fine, but NOT at the expense of Hercules- no way, no-how, not ever. Hercules is, of course, not just a great comic-book character, or a great Avenger, he is one of the greatest heroes of historical fiction, PERIOD. He needs to be with the Avengers, because, down here, on this tacky, money-grubbing world, even a god needs a job! And since Hercules is so determined to serve Mankind, how could a guy with his particularly-impressive skill-set do it better than as an Avenger-??? Exactly! Finally- So- there’s no relation between Allyn Brodsky and Sol Brodsky, eh-?? I wonder, just what are the mathematical odds of two men named “Brodsky” both turning up to work at the same company, at the exact same point in time- and NOT being related to each other, somehow-??? Like ol’ Arsenio Hall used to put it- things that make you go “Hmmmmmmm……..”