This article contains spoilers for Empyre: Avengers #3.
Marvel's "Empyre" event has just given Ka-Zar the ultimate Savage Land update. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Ka-Zar is one of Marvel's oldest superheroes. Styled as Marvel's own "Lord of the Jungle," he lives in the Savage Land, a prehistoric environment concealed in the depths of Antarctica, perfectly preserved by ancient alien technology. Ka-Zar made his first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #10, when the X-Men heard reports of the Savage Land and decided to check them out, and since then he and his wife Shanna have been mainstream Marvel characters.
Unfortunately, Marvel's "Empyre" event has seen Ka-Zar fall afoul of the alien invaders known as the Cotati. They were naturally able to bond with the Savage Land, and they used Shanna's own innate connection to this realm to corrupt her and turn her into their slave. The battle that followed was utterly chaotic, and it culminated in Ka-Zar being stabbed through the chest - dealt an apparently fatal injury. Fortunately, the circumstances were reminiscent of a similar "death" in the Savage Land in 2013's Savage Wolverine #1-4, and readers immediately suspected he would be brought back - more powerful than ever.
This week's Empyre: Avengers #3 proves those readers right, as Ka-Zar is resurrected through a fascinating process. He is bathed in the mystical green blood of the Savage Land's Man-Thing, which binds his life force to that of the Savage Land itself - the same process Shanna herself underwent several years ago. Making matters rather more complicated, though, Ka-Zar had been stabbed with the Black Knight's Ebony Blade, which meant the sword had actually feasted upon his soul. Scarlet Witch and Shanna are able to combine their powers to draw Ka-Zar's soul out of the Ebony Blade, and implant it back within his body, as the magic of the Man-Thing heals him.
Ka-Zar and Shanna are now bound together with the Savage Land itself in a mystical union like nothing ever seen before in Marvel Comics. The power of the Savage Land - ill-defined but phenomenal - is now Ka-Zar's to draw upon. He is truly Lord of the Savage Land, able to draw all the jungle's creatures to his aid, summoning an army of dinosaurs that sweeps through the Cotati horde. Apparently he is also tireless, his body perpetually replenished by the life-energy of the Savage Land. It's reasonable to assume both he and Shanna will also be functionally immortal, living as long as the Savage Land remains.
Ka-Zar has just received a phenomenal power-up, and it essentially means he and Shanna should now be counted as two of the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel Universe. It will be interesting to see if their lives are bound to the Savage Land in another way, though; can they ever leave their home and travel the world, or are they now unable to do so without dying? Only time will tell.
