The superhero fever that had been accelerated by the surprise success of the Batman TV show in January 1966 was already starting to break, but delirium had apparently set in.
Ads in the early 1967 Showcase issues featuring a new “Jungle Master” promoted the new feature Dial H for Hero (featuring a superhero who becomes everybody) and Mattel’s Captain Action doll (featuring a superhero who becomes everybody).
The two issues spotlighted B’wana Beast, a new character concept created by writer Bob Haney and artist Mike Sekowsky that had late-night coffee stains and cigarette ashes all over it.
Take Tarzan, slap a gaudy superhero helmet on him and give him the power to telepathically command animals and — to make it all just a little weirder — to COMBINE animals into OTHER, LARGER animals.
Give him a secret hideout on top of Mount Kilimanjaro and a purple gorilla pal, Djuba. Shrug off any uncomfortable feelings you may have about yet another white jungle god, and ignore the fact that “B’wana” is an East African term meaning “master, or boss.”
And for good measure, wrap things up with a James Bond clinch in which a beautiful girl moans, “Beast … you beast!”
“B’wana Beast started out as game warden Mike Maxwell, who got stuck in a cave on Mount Kilimanjaro,” noted comics historian Don Markstein. “First, he drank water that had reached the cave by being filtered through rock, which made him suddenly bulk up like Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk, ruining the clothes he’d been wearing. Then his pal Djuba, a gorilla, gave him a helmet that enabled him to order beasts around like the Jaguar, or like the Fly could command insects. He's frequently been compared to Aquaman, who did that with underwater fauna.”
“B’wana Beast was apparently scheduled for the usual three (tryout issues). But reportedly Sekowsky quit after two, citing racism in the concept as his reason for wanting no more to do with it."
Mark Engblom said: Definitely one of DC's strangest Silver Age characters, and THAT'S saying something! It was like, once DC editorial decided to embrace the nuttiness of the era, the bizarre (and often just BAD) ideas just kept coming. Ultra the Multi-Alien, Brother Power the Geek, and the superhero Blackhawks immediately spring to mind.
ReplyDeleteAnthony Tollin weote: Dan Hagen I seriously doubt that B'WANA BEAST was ever scheduled for a three-issue tryout, because two issue SHOWCASE tryouts had been the "usual" for the previous couple years. Around the same time, TOMMY TOMORROW, CAVE CARSON, I-SPY, G.I. JOE, DR. FATE & HOURMAN, ENEMY ACE, THE SPECTRE, INFERIOR FIVE and THE MANIAKS all only received two-issue SHOWCASE initial tryouts, and it had been several years since three-issue tryouts were the norm. BTW, shortly after he was fired as a DC editor in 1971, Mike Sekowsky ghost-penciled another jungle hero, THE PHANTOM, for Sy Barry and his assistant Joe Giella in "The Vultures" storyline.
ReplyDeleteTom English wrote: It wasn't just comics that were affected. The Batman series' camp contagion spread to the 3rd season of The Man From Uncle in late 1966. The second half of Season 3 was so stupid that viewership drastically dropped. The producers soon realized they'd goofed in emulating the silly tone of Batman, and for Season 4 they returned Uncle to its more serious, slightly tongue-in-cheek formula. But it was too late: the show never got back it viewer numbers and Uncle was cancelled mid-season. So, in a way, Batman killed the Man from Uncle.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Lenius said: Back then did I wanna B'Wana Beast? No friggin' way. And it was beastly for sure. But I inexplicably bought
ReplyDeleteVincent Mariani said: That is a B'Wana Fide second rate series.
ReplyDeleteIra Henkin said: DC was really flailing around at this point. Showcase, once a favorite of mine, was slipping
ReplyDeleteJohnny Williams said: Yeah, I'm with Mike Sekowsky on that one. Even as a youth I was bothered by aspects of this title.
ReplyDelete