Ka-Zar and his family bite off more than they can chew as the mystery deepens regarding the Polyscion in Ka-Zar: Lord of the Savage Land #2, written by Zac Thompson, drawn by Germán García, colored by Matheus Lopes and lettered by Joe Caramagna.
Chris Eddleman: What’s that? It’s another installment of our eco-mystery? I’m pretty interested to see how this invasive species-centric epic continues, Zack. I feel like I dug into this one a little hard the last time, and I’m honestly delighted by what’s been added in this issue. To save the world, sometimes we must be the world. Let’s get into Ka-Zar.
Zachary Jenkins: RAWR! [Ed. note: That means “I’m very excited to dig into this comic” in dinosaur.]
What It Means to Be Invasive
Zack: The summer I turned 13, I went on a missions trip with an evangelical focus. I truly believed that I was going to do great work spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the strange and distant world of Reynosa, Mexico. As I have gotten older and realized that Mexico is a country that is 83% Catholic, it dawned on me that I, in my white, American arrogance, wasn’t actually doing any good. I racistly assumed that people who were different than me needed my help, even though no one has ever needed the help of a 13-year-old boy in the history of existence.
I say all that to say this, Ka-Zar, buddy, I understand you mean well, but let’s think about what you’re doing here.
Chris: I think it’s a deft choice to start off every issue with a flashback to Kevin’s childhood with his dad, who is literally a Lord Plunder. Subtlety, thy name is not comic books. Anyway, I think this provides a pretty cool contrast. As it’s rapidly becoming evident as we make our way through this comic book, Ka-Zar has turned from the son of a pillager to kind of a “well-meaning guy” in that he is still deciding he knows what’s best for the Savage Land, but his excuse is his Animal Man-esque mandate given to him by superpowers rather than a sort of Kipling excuse. I think it’s pretty neat that we’re getting into the nuances of the detrimental effects different outsiders have on an environment. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and a well-meaning man can still be a problem.
Zack: You mention subtlety, and brother? Zac Thompson is not having any of that. This is a book about invasive species, a book about colonization, a book where a native tribe tells Ka-Zar directly that they have to live with his mistakes, not him. It is, however, walking an incredibly fine line of keeping Ka-Zar sympathetic without absolving him of his sins. He truly does want what is best for the Savage Land. He may be in that world, but he is not of it. Thompson isn’t telling folks not to help others, he’s communicating a stronger message, ask others what they need help with and don’t assume you know what they need.
Buckwild that we are getting this in a story about invasive tree spiders and technology that brings extinct fauna back to life.
Chris: But specifically, Ka-Zar’s is another “great power” sort of scenario. It’s just that in the context of the very inhabited Savage Land, having great power from outside of it does not necessarily grant you the responsibility that Ka-Zar has decided only he (and his family, I suppose) can take on. Given his new power set, I think we need to dig in just a little bit.
The Dinosaur Man
Zack: Ka-Zar is struggling to comprehend the breadth of his new powers. He feels the Savage Land coursing through his blood, but he can’t channel it correctly. People may not recall, but Ka-Zar is just a dude who lives with dinosaurs and once fought Thanos. He doesn’t know how to be an avatar of The Red or whatever is happening to him post-resurrection. Sometimes things work and he pretends to be a dinosaur and murder tree-sized spiders, other times he does a nuclear explosion?
Chris: I really like this development. Ka-Zar has some new incredible powers that he doesn’t fully understand, which means that García gets some incredible stuff to work with. I loved the way he portrayed Ka-Zar in his hybrid normal forms. I think the portrayal of him losing his humanity through integration with the Savage Land is well portrayed. Shanna kind of has to talk him through everything, which is frankly kind of cool. He seems like a bit of a dope in this comic, and I think that’s important to his character, who is in fact a big ol’ dope. I think an important bit as well is that through this transformation, he feels some kind of ownership or kinship with the land, that while literal, is very artificial. He is NOT the Botor, and they realize this. And when this culminates (after the very cool spider fight) in some kind of ecological explosion, they simply do not trust him. Zack, I had to sit with this explosion for a bit. What do you think it represents?
Zack: Plotwise I feel like we may learn more about this as it progresses, however as a message the book is sending, it is a rejection of Ka-Zar’s heroics. He goes to the Botor because he thinks something might be wrong, dives headlong into it and makes everything worse. García does a mind-shattering job here with lush figurework and exciting action. The desolate aftermath he draws is phenomenal. There is a slow, creeping feeling of blight, true ecological blight, in the Savage Land, and Ka-Zar’s recklessness is accelerating it.
Chris: Before I seek to portray this man as a completely irredeemable crap person, I do want to stress that I think this character arc is VERY interesting. The fact that this man feels the entire land, but simply can’t fully control his power over it, and feels this deep primal need to help but keeps messing it up. That’s chef-kiss. I think you can see his frustration in every moment, none more clear than after vaporizing the Moldwood. Imagine feeling what he feels innately, but somewhat incorrectly, and being told that he is, in fact, not a champion. Truth hurts, buddy.
Zack: He’s not irredeemable. In fact, the story is better because he’s a good dude trying to do a good thing. He just needs to take that next step of allyship. He’s one read of the Savage Land version of How to Be an Anti-Racist away from actually getting it. Especially with the ecological themes in this and most of Thompson’s work, it reads as a critique of the white liberal activist mindset where you have a lot of people who want to do the right things but aren’t listening to the right people.
The flipside to all this is that there is something and someone darker creeping into the land. If Ka-Zar’s intentions are pure, is that enough to stand against Polyscion?
What Can Polyscion Do for You?
Chris: So we finally get a name for this most invasive of species, the biotechnological Polyscion. Much like a drone can look like a bird (birds are real), these creatures form a simulacrum of a real creature, trying to edge the real inhabitants of the Savage Land out of their niche, and instead replace them. Colonize them, as Shanna says. And in this issue, they’re given a voice, specifically that of the little caterpillar at the end who explains his whole deal to us. Prior to that, though, Matthew kind of tells the audience why he likes “The Weaver,” which is the incredible work he’s doing with biotechnology. So I think the obvious parallel here, especially in bringing back extinct species, is with Jurassic Park, but also it calls to mind for me the bio-engineering that is already being talked about to combat climate change, such as shooting sulphur particulate into the air to deflect sunlight (and probably cause acid rain). I think the Polyscion represent the people who think nature can be saved, controlled, solved by increasing use of technology, through a capitalistic lens. The caterpillar already tells us he’s going to be rendered purposefully obsolete, and laments having no money or ability to communicate. It’s an interesting little envoy.
Zack: By education, I am an engineer. In that field of study, you are led to believe that technology can solve everything. Archimedes is famously quoted as saying “Give me a fulcrum and a place to stand — and I will move the world.” The tools of man are the path to a perfect future, or so we were told.
Chris, you and I worked closely on coverage of House of X, and in this new mutant world the conflict shifts from human vs. mutant to something more resonant to me personally. The core conflict is natural adaptation vs. unnatural, man-made advances. I see Polyscion as a continuation of that conflict. We believe we know so much more than the frankly unknowable world of biology. Who can comprehend it? Declare, if thou hast understanding.
Chris: So the leader of Polyscion, maybe, is an entity by the name of Domovoy. A domovoy, at least in the Slavic tradition, is a house spirit. Kind of a guardian, if you will? I’m wondering if that’s any kind of clue. From the caterpillar’s little speech, it seems like Domovoy is some kind of High Evolutionary, maybe? He is supposedly the creator of the Savage Land, even though I’m sure we’ll find that’s revisionist. He also maybe made Ka-Zar. Probably not. I think the usage of a guardian spirit for what seems to be a malevolent force is a cool naming convention. Paternalistic, very “father knows best.” And while I’ll not completely discount advances made in science — I’m no Luddite after all — I’ll certainly proclaim scientific advances are tools, and can be made for good or ill. That being said, please get that human-made vaccine.
Zack: Oh please, yes. The over-reliance on “science” and the tools of man only become an issue when you do dumb stuff like spending billions to fly into the lowest legal limit of “space” or pretending a speculative asset with no inherent value is worth causing the greenhouse gas emissions of a moderate country.
This revelation about the history of the Savage Land is revisionist. In Ka-Zar the Savage #34, we were shown that an alien named Nuwali created the savage land around 200,000,000 BC as a planetary game preserve for, you guessed it, the Beyonders. Do I think Thompson is going to tie all of this into the Jonathan Hickman Avengers epic? No, but these little connections are funny, aren’t they? The Savage Land has a long history of having rewritten founders, including the Eternals and the Atlanteans.
End of the day, I am excited to see where the team takes us as we now have a map to Domovoy. Things are coming to a head here in one of the most unique comics Marvel is putting out right now.
Marvelous Musings
- I think it’s important to note that Matthew knows that the Botor prefer to be called that whereas Ka-Zar does not.
- “They’re trying to colonize us” — a line from someone also ostensibly doing that.
- He’s been doing it for years, but shoutout to Joe Caramagna’s letters that just feel different than the standard Marvel fare.
- Ka-Zar knows what Krakoan technology looks like, which implies that he’s cool with their farming operation.
- Matheus Lopes’ colors, specifically on our little caterpillar friend, are stellar. The contrast between the wildness of the Savage Land and the ghostly ethereality of the Polyscion is well done.
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
Chris Eddleman is a biologist and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.
