| Savage Land | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | X-Men #10 (March 1965) |
| Created by | Stan Lee Jack Kirby |
| In story information | |
| Type | Region |
The Savage Land is a hidden prehistoric land within the fictional Marvel Comics Universe. It is a tropical preserve hidden in Antarctica. It was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in X-Men #10 (March 1965). Throughout time it has served as a basis for many story arcs in Uncanny X-Men as well as in related books.
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The Savage Land was created by the alien Nuwali at the behest of the other-dimensional, nigh-omnipotent aliens known as the Beyonders (not to be confused with "the Beyonder of the Secret Wars"). The Beyonders sought to observe the process of evolution under relatively controlled conditions and had the Nuwali set up a number of game preserves on several planets. One of these planets was Earth during the Triassic period where the Nuwali chose a valley in Antarctica surrounded by active volcanoes, where they installed a number of advanced technological devices in order to maintain a tropical climate. The aliens then stocked the area with all manner of Earth life over the following several millennia. They also brought over the Man-Apes, earlier hominid ancestors of "Homo sapiens."
The Beyonders eventually grew bored with the experiment, and the Nuwali stopped maintaining the Savage Land during the Late Pleistocene (the Ice Age era). However, the self-maintaining technology that allowed the pocket of tropical climate was left running, and many species which became extinct in other areas of the Earth continued to thrive within.
Later on, a group of human survivors from Atlantis sailed to Antarctica before the "Great Cataclysm" which sank their continent. There, they discovered a cavern where they found an immense climate-controlling device and harnessed the technology used to keep the Savage Land's volcanoes working. They named their location "Pangea", which is Atlantean for "paradise".
They mastered genetic engineering, which had been used on the Man-Apes when the Nuwali were still maintaining the Savage Land area. They used their genetic engineering techniques to transform other Savage Land inhabitants, like the Tubanti Fish People and others, who they then forced to work for them until these animal people revolted. After a time of war, the animal people demanded civil rights and the Atlanteans used technology to expand the Savage Land's surface area for the animal people to live in. When the Great Cataclysm struck, the Atlantean empire fell and thanks to the machines, the Savage Land locations were spared from sinking into the sea.
In more recent years, the Savage Land was rediscovered by Lord Robert Plunder, who took back a sample of the metal known as "anti-metal" or "Antarctic vibranium" with him. This mysterious metal had the ability to produce vibrations which would liquefy all other metals. Fleeing from those who sought to steal this discovery, Plunder took his eldest son Kevin with him for a second trip into the Savage Land. Unfortunately, the elder Plunder was killed by a local tribe of Man-Apes.
Kevin survived, thanks to the timely intervention of the orphaned sabretooth tiger later known as Zabu. He grew to adulthood in the Savage Land, becoming the adventurer known as Ka-Zar. Ka-Zar had many team-ups with the X-Men, who first revealed the Savage Land's existence, Spider-Man, and many other superheroes who had visited the Savage Land. He later met and married Shanna the She-Devil.
The Savage Land's existence is common knowledge throughout the world. At one time, there were press junkets, sponsored by the oil company Roxxon. Daily Bugle photographer Peter Parker was sent and helped uncover Roxxon's unethical and dangerous manipulation of the local resources.
At one point, Spider-Man teamed up with Ka-Zar to save Gwen Stacy from Kraven the Hunter and Gog at the time when her class and J. Jonah Jameson were visiting the Savage Land.[1]
Many villains have threatened the Savage Land, including Garokk, Magneto and Thanos.
At one point, the Savage Land was decimated by an evil alien named Terminus (or one of his pawns) when he destroyed the machines that maintained the tropical climate. Many of the Savage Land's native people were saved from the ensuing destruction by M'rin: The Warlord of The Skies who took them into her own native dimension to safety. Ka-Zar, Shanna, and Zabu wandered until the High Evolutionary (with help from the X-Men, M'rin and Garokk) restored the region and its creature allowing them to return to the Savage Land with their newborn son. The other natives who had taken refuge in M'rin's dimension returned as well.[2]
Evidence in the pages of the New Avengers suggests that S.H.I.E.L.D. is operating in the Savage Land, mining vibranium while using the indigenous population as slave labor, but these operations have been classified, and the operation was apparently decimated by a missile strike from the Helicarrier during an attack by the New Avengers; the team only survived thanks to Iron Man's force field.
The Savage Land is featured in the limited series Claws, serving as a place of revenge for Wolverine and Black Cat on Arcade and White Rabbit. After defeating the two villains, the heroes left them stranded.
In X-Men: Divided We Stand, Cyclops and Emma Frost were vacationing there until Archangel contacted them about San Francisco looking like the 1960s.
Alyosha Kravinoff fled to the Savage Land after Punisher sabotaged his zoo.[3]
In the Secret Invasion storyline, Ka-Zar and Shanna discover Skrulls mining for vibranium. The New Avengers and the Mighty Avengers head toward the Savage Land where a downed Skrull ship was sighted. Luke Cage opens the downed Skrull ship and a large group of Marvel superheroes with older appearances and costumes come out, speaking as if they believe themselves to be authentic. They soon break out into a fight where the Spider-Man from the ship is killed by a Tyrannosaurus and regresses to a Skrull. The Hawkeye from the ship is killed by Ronin and regresses to a Skrull. This causes the superheroes from the ship to scatter into the jungle. The New Avengers' Spider-Man is knocked away by a Tyrannosaurus and ends up confronting Ka-Zar, Shanna, Zabu, and Sauron as well as some of the other locals. At the point where Spider-Man accuses Ka-Zar and Shanna for being Skrulls, the Captain America from the ship attacks who thinks the same thing for Spider-Man. When the Captain America is hit by a dart coated in some type of poison, it regresses to a Skrull named Pit'o Nilli and is then killed by Shanna. The ship's Beast is trapped underground with Wonder Man. The two try to escape together, but Beast betrays Wonder Man as the two are about to return to the surface. During this, Iron Man uses an abandoned scientific facility nearby to try and recreate his original armor. When it came to the confrontation with both Avengers teams, the Savage Land natives, and the heroes from the ship, Mister Fantastic and Abigail Brand used a laser to identify the heroes from the ship as Skrulls. Ka-Zar joined the Avengers teams into fighting the Skrulls in New York while Shanna and the other Savage Land natives hunted down the remaining Skrulls hiding out in the Savage Land.
After the events of Second Coming during the Heroic Age storyline, Cyclops takes some time off to go hunting in The Savage Land during which he encounters Steve Rogers. Steve Rogers suggests to Cyclops that he brings the X-Men out of the shadows and into the light as heroes. Steve Rogers also arranges to have the president award Scott the Presidential Medal of Freedom which sways the people of San Francisco to welcome the X-Men back.
Around the same time following their defeat after the hunt for "spiders" in the Grim Hunt storyline, the Kravinoff Family are also currently residing in the Savage Land.
It is later revealed that Miek and the other Imperials and Natives from Sakaar that came with Hulk back in World War Hulk had settled in the Savage Land constructing a village called New Imperia.[4]
The United Nations of the Marvel Universe considers the Savage Land an international wildlife preserve, and forbids any commercial exploitation of its resources.[5]
A number of superhumans are living or have lived in the Savage Land, notably:
In Marvel 1602, the "New World" is depicted with many similarities to the Savage Land, most notably its population of dinosaurs.
In the alternate future depicted in Marvel 2099, an alien attack floods much of the earth rendering the Savage Land the only inhabitable space. Thousands of refugees, including Miguel O'Hara and most of X-Nation and X-Men make new homes here. It is not without its own dangers.
In the Age of Apocalypse reality, the Savage Land houses Avalon, a secret haven for humans and mutants. A method to reach it exists, but it will only cost the refugee everything they own and even then, there is no guarantee of arriving alive. It is led by Destiny, a pacifist Juggernaut and Douglas Ramsey, the latter of whom provides a field that allows everybody to understand each other despite speaking different languages. Avalon was eventually found by Apocalypse forces and destroyed by the Shadow King who mind-controlled its inhabitants into killing each other. He was defeated, but casualties were high.
In the House of M reality created by an insane Scarlet Witch, the Savage Land was known as "Pangea." It is also known that Kevin Plunder has been granted political asylum in the United States for his human rights activism in this prehistoric land.
In the Transformers Marvel comics continuity, shortly after the Ark's crash on earth, the computer aboard the spaceship detected Shockwave landing on the prehistory Savage Land. The Ark used the last of its capabilities to revive the five Autobot warriors by scanning the Savage Land's dominant lifeform: dinosaurs, and rebuild them into the Dinobots. The Dinobots fought Shockwave, a battle that ended in permanent stalemate when Snarl brought down the mountain that Shockwave stood upon, knocking all of them into a tar pit. They remain deactivated until the year 1984.
In the Ultimate Marvel comics, the Savage Land is a large island somewhere in the southern hemisphere. It was originally said to have been created by Magneto, using theories and methods developed by Professor X, as the site for genetic experiments. Magneto's goal there was to create a new human race who would be less trouble to rule than the current one, that he decided to re-start evolution from scratch, and control the process to his own specifications. As a result of this, at its current level of advancement, it has dinosaurs and that Magneto has shown no further interest in advancing the evolution of the Savage Land. It has remained in its dinosaur state since the departure of Professor X. This story is later revealed as false (see below).
Magneto's original base was on the Savage Land. When it was destroyed in the first arc of Ultimate X-Men, the computer controlling the base gained self-awareness, and hijacked the genetic experiment project to create an army of nanotech-enhanced, zombie-like thralls. It planned to take over the world, but was stopped by Wolverine, Cyclops and Kitty Pryde.
The Savage Land is now the home of Longshot, who managed to get there in a small boat which launched from Genosha. Longshot recently aided Magneto in breaking out of prison, and the two may be planning something.
In Ultimates 3, it is revealed that the dinosaurs were conjured by Scarlet Witch as a result of her reality warping abilities and not by Magneto's creation. The aboriginal inhabitants were wiped out and only a small tribe of survivors including Ka-Zar and Shanna remain. The inhabitants help the Ultimates remove the last of Magneto's forces as of Ultimatum.