Savage Land | |
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![]() Location of the Savage Land in Antarctica. | |
First appearance | The X-Men #10 (March 1965) Marvel Mystery Comics #22 (August 1941, retroactive) |
Created by | Stan Lee Jack Kirby |
In-universe information | |
Type | Prehistoric Earth |
Race(s) | Aerians Ape-Men Awakilius Bhadwuans Cat People Cliff Forest People Disians Durammi Ethereals Fall People Golden People Gondorans Gorankians Gwundas Hauk'ka Hill-Forest People Jeriens Kantos Karems Klantorr Lemurans Lizard Men Locot Man-Apes Neo-Men N'Galans Nhu’Ghari Nowek Palandorians Pterons Reptile Men Rock Tribe Saurians Snowmen Sun-People Swamp Men Sylandans Tandar-Kaans Tokchis Tordon-Naans Tree People Tribe of Fire Tubanti Uruburians Waidians Water People Zebra People |
Locations | Antarctica |
Characters | Ka-Zar Shanna the She-Devil Zabu Sauron Garokk Zaladane Savage Land Mutates Devil Dinosaur Moon-Boy Chtylok Dinah Soar |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
The Savage Land is a fictional prehistoric land that features in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is a tropical preserve, hidden in Antarctica. [1] It has appeared in many story arcs in Uncanny X-Men as well as other related books.
Savage Land makes a brief appearance in the 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe live-action film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness .
The Savage Land first appeared as 'The Land Where Time Stands Still' in Marvel Mystery Comics #22 (Aug. 1941), in the tale "Khor, the Black Sorcerer" by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Syd Shores. [2] It gained its familiar form and moniker in X-Men #10 (March 1965), courtesy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
![]() | This section describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style.(October 2009) |
In the X-Men series of comics, the Savage Land was created by the alien Nuwali at the behest of the other-dimensional, nigh-omnipotent aliens known as the Beyonders who sought to observe the process of evolution under relatively controlled conditions. In order to accomplish this, they 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. They proceeded to install 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 such as dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals. 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 era (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 the Savage Land.
Later on, a group of human survivors from Atlantis sailed to Antarctica before the "Great Cataclysm" which sank Atlantis into the ocean. 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 Golden People, the Lizard Men, the Reptile Men, the Tubantis, and others. The Atlanteans then forced them 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. 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. [3]
Many villains have threatened the Savage Land, including Sauron, Garokk, Magneto, and Thanos.
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 creatures, 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. [4]
Sometime after that, Spider-Man had Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy emigrated to the Savage Land after rescuing them from Ringmaster. [5]
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. [6]
Alyosha Kravinoff fled to the Savage Land after Punisher sabotaged his zoo. [7]
During 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. [8] It is later discovered that Skrulls have replaced several heroes, with Shanna and the Savage Land natives working to hunt them down. [9]
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. [10]
It is later revealed that Miek and the other Imperials and Natives from Sakaar that came back with Hulk in "World War Hulk" had settled in the Savage Land. There they constructed a village called New Imperia. [11]
During the "Avengers vs. X-Men" storyline, Captain America ends up fighting Gambit in the Savage Land. [12]
As part of the "Marvel NOW!" event, some of The Garden's evolution seeds had fallen into the Savage Land. While working to get it under control, the Avengers find that A.I.M. is also there where they test the extracted formula from one of the pods and tests it on their intern Dr. Jema. The formula puts a strain on Dr. Jema just as the Avengers arrive. [13]
As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel", Magneto led a new team of X-Men to protect mutant-kind at all costs with their base in the Savage Land. [14]
During the "Empyre" storyline, the Cotati have invaded the Savage Land. [15]
The United Nations considers the Savage Land an international wildlife preserve and forbids any commercial exploitation of its resources. [16] Areas of the Savage Land are tame enough that the X-Men visit for recreation, including having a vacation home there. [6]
There are some famous locations in the Savage Land:
The fauna of the Savage Land consists of prehistoric creatures which are extinct in rest of the world. The Nuwali created the Savage Land and stocked it with many kinds of extinct animals from the Triassic to the Pleistocene until they stopped maintaining the Savage Lands.
The following in this section are dinosaurs:
Each of the Saurischians and Therapods have been sorted into their respective families:
Each of the Sauropods have been sorted into their respective families:
The following dinosaurs are in the Ornithischia category:
Each of the Cerapods have been sorted into their respective families:
Each of the Thyreophora have been sorted into their own families:
The following marine reptiles have been sorted into their own categories:
This section lists the known sea turtles:
This section lists the known Ichthyosauria:
This section lists the known Pliosauridae:
This section lists the known Mosasaurs:
This section lists the known Plesiosaurs
The following are known prehistoric crocodilias:
There are many types of races in the Savage Land and Pangea. The Nuwali transported primitive man now known as the Man-Apes, which unlike the rest of the world thrived until the 21st century. The next arrivals were the Ancient Atlanteans who added the region as part of their empire. They used the Nuwali technology to mutate the Man-Apes into various Beast-Men to perform certain tasks. These slaves rebelled after the great Cataclysm and made Pangea their home. Many Atlanteans remained and their descendants became the various human tribes, with some clinging to the old ways and technology but most forget and resort to more primitive hunter-gatherer societies.
It was mentioned in Torran's narration that there are at least 1,000 races living in the Savage Land. [18]
Since then, the different races of the Savage Land have been sorted between the human tribes, the early hominids, the Beast-Men, and the miscellaneous.
The following are the human tribes of the Savage Land:
The following are the primitive hominids of the Savage Land:
The following are the Beast-Men of the Savage Land:
The following don't fit in the categories above:
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.
During the "Age of Ultron" storyline, the superhero resistance against Ultron had relocated to the Savage Land to come up with a plan to defeat Ultron. [52]
In Marvel Zombies Return , the Savage Land, like everywhere else on Earth, has been eaten by the superhuman zombies, with the surviving zombies musing that the Savage Land was their 'number one' meal in the aftermath, as it contained such an abundance of food that they were actually full for a full hour after eating there, as opposed to the usual ravenous hunger they feel. It is also the location of the final battle between the zombies and 'New Avengers' - three zombies who have beaten their hunger and the cyborg James Rhodes - at the storyline's conclusion, with Rhodes using one of his fingers to lure the zombies into an ambush.
In the Earth X universe, the Savage Land is where Magneto built his sanctuary called Sentinel City.
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 alternate future depicted in Marvel 2099, an alien attack floods much of the earth rendering the Savage Land the only habitable 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 Transformers Marvel comics continuity, shortly after the Ark spacecraft crashed on Earth 4 million years before the present day, the computer aboard the Ark detected Shockwave landing on the prehistoric Savage Land. The Ark used the last of its capabilities to revive five Autobot warriors and rebuild them into the Dinobots, based on scans of the Savage Land's dominant lifeform: dinosaurs. The Dinobots fought Shockwave, a battle that ended in stalemate when Snarl brought down the mountain that Shockwave stood upon, knocking all of them into a tar pit. They remained deactivated until the year 1984. Since the Dinobots' alt-mode forms resemble creatures that were long-extinct by 4 million years ago, the Savage Land provided author Bob Budiansky a way to explain this within the canon timeline.
During the "Spider-Geddon" storyline, an alternate unidentified Earth has a version of Spider-Man that lives in the Savage Land and was raised by a tribe of giant spiders following an airplane crash. It was mentioned by Ka-Zar the Hunter to Wilson Fisk that his father killed the last of the Man-Apes. [53]
In the Squirrel Girl reality, the Savage Land was created by an unknown race of aliens that created dinosaurs as an experiment on earth biology. Eventually, the experiment was abandoned, and all dinosaurs, except the ones in the Savage Land were left to die. In modern times it belongs to scientists, who protect it as a Nature Reserve. The Savage Land harbors no other intelligent creatures, except Ultron, who has rebuilt himself in the form of a dinosaur and resides in the Savage Land.[ citation needed ]
In the Ultimate Marvel universe, the Savage Land is a large island somewhere in the southern hemisphere. It was originally stated in Ultimate Origins 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. He decided to restart 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, but Magneto has shown no further interest in advancing the evolution of the Savage Land. [54] It has remained in its dinosaur state since the departure of Professor X. This story is later revealed as false.
Magneto's original base was on the Savage Land, but when it was destroyed in the first arc of Ultimate X-Men , [55] 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 were alluded to be planning something, but Magneto later killed Longshot. [56]
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. [57]
The inhabitants help the Ultimates remove the last of Magneto's forces as of Ultimatum .
An alternate universe variation of the Savage Land from Earth-6160 appears in the Ultimate Universe imprint. In The Ultimates (vol. 4), the Roxxon Energy Partners harvested much of its natural resources, turning it into a polluted wasteland and causing an extinction event. [58] Additionally, they are stated to have taken it over during the 1970s. [59]
In Ultimate Spider-Man (vol. 3), it is implied that an untouched part of the Savage Land is connected to Subterranea and under Mole Man's rule. [60]
The Savage Land appears in a What If story where the Savage Land was terraforming and has taken over New York. Both Ka-Zar and Parnival sacrifice themselves to return New York to normal, with Shanna the only survivor of his "family". [61]
Additionally, in the What If issues involving alternative outcomes to the Age of Ultron, a group composed of Wolverine, the Hulk, Peter Parker and a Ghost Rider venture to the Savage Land in order to prevent a Master Mold under the control of a future version of Ezekiel Stane from unleashing a wave of Stark armors on the world. [62]
The Savage Land makes a cameo appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). This version is an alternate universe that Stephen Strange and America Chavez pass through while falling through the multiverse. [63] [64]