LIZARDMENLIZARDMEN
Classification: Humanoid reptilian extraterrestrial race
Location/Base of Operations: Mars (circa 1 billion years ago)
Known Members: Ar-Hap, Jen-In,
others; possibly Ra-Kar (see
comments)
Affiliations: None; only loose forced
alliances with
others, such as Gret
(briefly) and Hath
Enemies: Gullivar
Jones, Hither
People (Chea, Heru,
others), Wing-Men
(Chak,
others)
First Appearance: Creatures on the Loose I#16/1 (March, 1972)
Powers/Abilities: Lizardmen are the tallest
and most aggressive of the ancient Martian races. They use their
increased height and brutish frame to domineer and bully the other
races. They are the strongest of the ancient Martian races (but
generally outmatched by the Earthman's Gullivar Jones' strength, which
was enhanced in Martian atmosphere). Lizardmen arm themselves with
swords, maces and pistols. Lizardmen also use small dinosaur-like
creatures a steeds.
Traits: Lizardmen are aggressive and bullying
toward other sentient beings. They have a strong militaristic type of
hierarchy of subservience and following orders, yet also ambition and
plotting among the middle ranks. Despite an overall peace treaty
between the races (where Lizardmen benefit), Lizardmen are fractured
with encampments that keep separate from each other. No sign of
weakness or compassion is tolerated. There is nothing to suggest
females in their population, so it may be that Lizardmen survive by
using tribute wives whereby dominant Lizardmen genes result in new
offspring (or else females and young Lizardmen are kept elsewhere
and/or isolated in camps).
Type: Reptilian humanoid
Eyes: Two (on head)
Fingers: Five (with opposable thumb)
Toes: Unrevealed
Skin color: Red
Average height: 7'6"
History:
(Creatures on the Loose I#18/1 (fb)) - Over a billion
years ago on Mars existed The Golden -- an advanced human-like race
with
golden-hued skin. But cataclysms struck, devastating civilization over
decades amidst a vastly
changed landscape. Little scientific knowledge remained and
superstition was rife. Migration away from irradiated cities into a
hostile world led to eight new
tribes that, over thousands of
generations, evolved into new humanoid forms, such as the bestial Noltoi,
the brutal warrior-like and tailed red-skinned Lizardmen, the
beaked and winged gray-skinned Wing-Men, while the Golden became the
superstitious and poor Hither People; each population had different
laws and
customs. Any mutations within a race were scorned. Originating from the
Golden, the small Technics
Guild rose and guarded scientific knowledge, morphing it into their
protected religion.
(Monsters Unleashed I#8/5 (fb) - BTS) - Noting radiation's effects on the living and its resulting mutations, the Technics Guild conducted genetic experiments, manufacturing hybrid creatures to find the perfect species to survive in the deteriorating environment and incorporated cybernetics (see comments).
(Creatures on the Loose I#18/1 (fb) - BTS) - Mutual
deities were worshiped across several races, including the giant
monster Phra.
(Creatures on the Loose I#16/1 (fb) - BTS) - Corpses of the revered dead were sent down the River of the Dead to be frozen in the polar region.
Conflicts arose between tribes. The taller and more aggressive Lizardmen dominated and ensuing peace relied on treaties that established regular payments. One condition was an annual tribute wife from the Hither People for the Lizardmen's ruler.
(Creatures on the Loose I#19/1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, the Wing-Men and Lizardmen entered into a peace treaty, but both races still disliked the other. The Lizardmen held "Wingmaidens" as hostages to ensure peace.
(Creatures on the Loose I#16/1)
- The Lizardman
warlord Ar-Hap demanded Hither People princess Heru as his tribute
wife. The Lizardmen expedition took the tribute and the unwilling Heru,
but this was interrupted by the time-lost heroic Earthman Gullivar
Jones, whose different physiology gave him greater strength in Martian
conditions. Jones quickly overpowered the Lizardmen to rescue Heru.
Ar-Hap later sent two Wing-Men minions to retrieve Heru, now in
love with Jones, who tried to fight the Wing-Men off, but fell onto a
funerary barge.
(Creatures on the Loose I#17/1) - Slowly recovering,
Jones recalled his fight against the Lizardmen.
(Creatures on the Loose I#18/1) - In the den of the
monstrous Phra and having befriended the outcast Wing-Man Chak, Jones
discovered the hidden history of Mars, and the diaspora and evolution
of its people.
(Creatures on the Loose I#19/1) - The Wing-Men
delivered Heru to Ar-Hap's encampment, where she was exchanged for
Wingmaiden hostages the Lizardmen had held. Jen-In, who was Ar-Hap's
minister lackey, took brutal custody of Heru first and kicked her into
a cell with Ar-Hap's previous year's wife Chea.
(Creatures on the Loose I#20/1) - Telepathically
guided to Heru, Jones (along with Chak) journeyed over days, sometimes
raiding Lizardmen encampments, on their way to rescue her. Meanwhile,
Chea had sacrificed herself to let Heru live. Jen-In dragged Heru and
threw her at Ar-Hap's feet, who welcomed her beauty as a wife and
slave. Disliking Jen-In's brutal treatment of her, Ar-Hap ordered
Jen-In be flogged. Suddenly weakened by his secret mutation of a
smaller secondary head, Ar-Hap ordered that Heru be taken away and
readied for the wedding. Meanwhile, collaborator Wing-Men found and
captured Jones and Chak, and took them to Ar-Hap's camp, expecting more
hostages would be freed in compensation. Chak was caged while Jones was
forced to fight Ar-Hap's monstrous Bloodpet. Defeating the beast, Jones
chose to follow Jen-In who intended to usurp Ar-Hap, who had since
fallen asleep in his tent as his second head, with more honorable
traits, had taken over. Outside, Jen-In called soldiers, claiming Jones
had killed Ar-Hap.
(Creatures on the Loose
I#21/1) - Jen-In and several
soldiers confronted Jones and the inert form of Ar-Hap in the tent.
Jones defiantly fought back; Jen-In escaped as more Lizardmen soldiers
arrived and Ar-Hap's usual vicious side began to wake, forcing the
benevolent side to fall asleep. Jones escaped and freed Chak, then set
fire to the Lizardmen camp to sow confusion. The pair confronted
Jen-In, who held Heru hostage to stop Jones' advance, but taunted that
he would force Heru to be mother of a "red soldier horde" (presumably
Lizardmen with a recessive Hither People gene). Angered, Jones killed
Jen-In. Meanwhile, Ar-Hap rallied his soldiers and demanded that the
Wing-Men join him in pursuing and killing Jones, who had since ventured
into the plains with Chak and Heru. On superior mounts, the Lizardmen
caught up with the trio, who gave a good fight against the Lizardmen.
But near defeat due to overwhelming numbers, Jones was saved by
wrathful Wing-Men and the remaining Lizardmen were destroyed--only
Ar-Hap remained and Jones condemned him to exile on the plains as he considered the
Lizardman a courageous foe.
Comments: Created by Edwin L. Arnold. Adapted by Roy Thomas, Gil Kane and Bill Everett.
The lone character Ra-Kar,
who fought Gullivar Jones and Chak in Creatures on the Loose I#19/1,
looked similar to the Lizardmen, and Jones suspected he may have been
an outcast. Furry, but otherwise Lizardman in appearance, perhaps
Ra-Kar was a mutation or the
result of interbreeding with a Noltoi.
If the story of Gullivar Jones had been allowed to continue, it's easy to guess how Ar-Hap could've survived by finding another Lizardmen encampment and insinuating himself into the command structure.
While unconfirmed in-story, it's very likely the Lizardmen were among those experimented on by the Technics Guild and incorporated into the hybrid creatures shown in Monsters Unleashed I#8/5.
The story of Gullivar Jones comes from the 1905 novel Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation by Edwin Arnold (predating Burrough's John Carter of 1917, which has many similar concepts). Arnold's original version of Ar-hap and his people were the "woodmen": large, burly, hairy, copper-hued men who seemed to almost resemble gorillas in stature according to his description. However, Marvel's Thomas and Kane changed the aggressive and brutish people to Lizardmen.
Interestingly, Marvel's Gullivar Jones stories also
predate DC's John Carter stories, if only by months. Edgar Rice
Burroughs created Tarzan as well as John Carter; in 1972, Western
Comics refused to expand the number of Edgar Rice Burroughs comic books
being published (focusing only on Tarzan titles), so Edgar Rice
Burroughs, Inc. sold the rights to DC Comics, who were willing to
publish more comics so long as they sold (at that point, it seems the
last time John Carter had been published was 1964 by Gold Key Comics (and those were reprints). DC
began publishing Tarzan comics in April 1972 and John Carter comic
stories in September 1972 in the anthology series Weird Worlds. It's as
if Roy Thomas knew of the deal and wanted Marvel to get the jump on DC
by initiating the very similar Gullivar Jones stories in March 1972
(coincidentally in an anthology book too). At any rate, Marvel's Jones
and DC's Carter both finished about the same time... until Marvel
published John Carter, Warlord of Mars as a dramatic standalone title from 1977
to 1979.
Profile by Grendel Prime.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Lizardmen have no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Creatures on the Loose I#21/1, p1 (main image)
Creatures on the Loose I#16/1, p4, pan2 (headshot, pair)
Creatures on the Loose I#18/1, p6, pan6 (ancient Martian evolutionary
tree, tags added)
Creatures on the Loose I#16/1, p4, pan1 (back view, showing tails)
Creatures on the Loose I#16/1, p6, pan1 (riding dino-steed)
Appearances:
Creatures on the Loose I#16/1 (March, 1972) - Roy Thomas (writer), Gil
Kane (pencils), Bill Everett (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Creatures on the Loose I#17/1 (May, 1972) - Roy Thomas (writer), Gil
Kane (pencils),
Sam Grainger (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Creatures on the Loose I#18/1 (July, 1972) - George Alec Effinger &
Gerry Conway (writers), Ross Andru (pencils), Sam Grainger (inks), Stan
Lee (editor)
Creatures on the Loose I#19/1 (September, 1972) - George Alec Effinger
(writer), Wayne Boring & Gil Kane (pencils), Jim Mooney (inks), Roy
Thomas (editor)
Creatures on the Loose I#20/1 (November, 1972) - George Alec Effinger
(writer), Gray Morrow (pencils/inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Creatures on the Loose I#21/1 (January, 1973) - George Alec Effinger
(writer), Gray Morrow (pencils/inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
First Posted: 03/01/2025
Last updated: 03/01/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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