BAXU

Real Name: Baxu

Identity/Class: Human (Netherworld) technology user

Occupation: General of Netherworld's military forces, advisor to Kala

Group Membership: Netherworld's army

Affiliations: Kala

Enemies: Iron Man (Tony Stark)

Known Relatives: Kala (wife)

Aliases: "Baxi" (as called by Kala; see comments)

Base of Operations: Netheria, Subterranea

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense I#43/1 (July, 1963)

Powers/Abilities: None, but as general of the Netherworld's military, the burly Baxu was in command of troops armed with such weapons as disintegrator rays, imper-sonic flame throwers, and magnetically-directed machine-guns that fired atomic bullets.

Baxu himself was armed with a ray pistol.

History: (Tales of Suspense I#43/1) - Baxu's past is unknown, but he eventually attained the rank of general in the Netherworld's military.

  Queen Kala formulated a plot to conquer the surface world, although Baxu was quite apprehensive about going through with an invasion and thought the idea to be sheer folly. Realizing that they didn't have the power to get their devastating weapons to the surface, Kala had America's greatest inventive genius, Tony Stark, transported to her subterranean kingdom so that he might build "transistor-powered machines" to blast a path to the surface world.

  After Baxu gave Stark a tour of their armaments, Kala revealed her invasion plans to Stark and coerced his cooperation. As Baxu escorted Stark to a lab to begin his work, Stark questioned him about his disapproval of the invasion, and Baxu voiced his concerns -- first, he wasn't sure the Netherworlders would succeed because he didn't know what they might encounter on the surface; second, Baxu hated taking orders from a woman!

  Stark asked Baxu why he didn't just overthrow the arrogant Kala, but the worldly-wise playboy also suspected that Baxu secretly loved her -- the gruff Baxu begrudgingly admitted his feelings for his queen, then ordered Stark to work in the lab.

  But Stark spent his time building a duplicate of his armor, then burst from the lab and grappled with Baxu. After crushing Baxu's ray pistol, Iron Man threw him to the floor. Baxu was prepared for Iron Man to slay him, but the golden avenger told Baxu that he found him to be a man of courage and intelligence, and he believed that Baxu should be ruler of the Netherworld instead of the beautiful and vain Kala.

  Iron Man told Baxu to stand aside as he took on Kala and her troops, and his power proved to be superior to the Netherworlders' weaponry. Iron Man then seized Kala and flew her to the earth's surface, where the vastly different atmosphere had a deleterious effect on the queen, causing her to take on an aged appearance -- "The instant your Netherworld army hits the surface, they would also age and grow weak as old men!"

  Seeing the error of her ways, the tearful Kala called off the invasion and implored Iron Man to return her to her kingdom.

  When they returned to the Netherworld, Kala's beauty was restored, and she invited Iron Man to stay to rule the underground empire with her. Flattered by her invitation, Iron Man nonetheless declined the offer, telling Kala that there were other men more suitable than he to become king, and suggested Baxu.

  Iron Man told Baxu that he should marry Kala and rule wisely; Baxu thanked the golden avenger for teaching his queen a well-deserved lesson, and said that Iron Man would always be welcome in their kingdom.

(Fantastic Four I#127 (fb) - BTS) - Baxu apparently died under unrevealed circumstances.

(Fantastic Four I#127) - When the Thing (Ben Grimm) was captured by the Mole Man and Kala in the tunnels of Subterranea, Kala revealed that "Baxi" was deceased.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Don Heck.

Kala referred to him as "Baxi" in FF I#127 -- probably a mistake on the part of the writer... or maybe "Baxi" was a pet name that Kala gave him.

To avoid confusion -- Netheria is just another name for Netherworld. Before the Great Cataclysm Netheria was an Atlantean city.
--Markus Raymond

Profile by John Kaminski

CLARIFICATIONS:
Baxu has no known connection to:

• any other characters with similar names or powers

images:
Tales of Suspense I#43/1, p7, pan2 (body shot)