DR. MARTIN LIVINGSTONE

Real Name: Martin Livingstone

Identity/Class: Normal human (WWII era)

Occupation: Explorer and scientist

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Captain America, Human Torch, the Young Allies

Enemies: Black Talon, Baron Boche, Savages of New America

Known Relatives: Dora Livingstone (daughter)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile in the USA and throughout the world, especially New America (including the Haunted City)

First Appearance: Young Allies#2 (Winter, 1941)

Powers/Abilities: Dr. Livingstone was a normal human. He appeared to have been quite wealthy owning what appeared to be a huge mansion in New York. It was never revealed what his doctorate was in so he may have had one or more degrees in possibly medicine or science. He was an accomplished explorer and very patriotic in his pursuit for new lands that he could claim in the name of America. He was able to live off the land and survived for a year on his own without aid and was also smart enough to build a cabin by himself. He was also a very capable sailor and knowledgeable of nautical measurements.

History:

(Young Allies#2 - BTS) - On an expedition to discover new lands for America, Dr. Martin Livingstone and his ship encountered a violent storm near the Sargasso Sea in the mid-Atlantic ocean. Taking a mighty beating, the ship crashed into the cliffs of a mysterious island not on any maps. Dr. Livingstone, although badly injured, was the only survivor. Making his way to the beach, he learnt that his compass refused to work and then decided to claim the island, planting a US flag upon the shore and calling the island New America. He began to further explore his surroundings and to his surprise learnt that the very island was a treasure trove of rich minerals and gold. He found some seashells on the beach and hypothesized that the island had recently risen from the ocean. Venturing further inland, he came across a village of weird-looking savage fish-men who chased him back toward the beach. Finding a gun among the wreckage of his ship, he defended himself from attack and during a lull in the action, wrote a message to his daughter and tossed it in a bottle out to sea. A year passed and he had built a cabin high at the top of a small mountain from which he could defend himself from the weird inhabitants of the island.

(Young Allies#2 (fb) - BTS) - From atop his mountain, he watched as a complement of German soldiers landed ashore and set up camp.

(Young Allies#2) - Fearing an attack from the savages or the Nazis, he started a rockslide to defend himself and shortly after learnt that the approaching humanoids were none other than the Young Allies. The Young Allies told him that they and his daughter, Dora, were here to find him but that she had been taken prisoner by the Black Talon and was now a "guest" at the Nazi camp. To save his daughter, Dr. Livingstone gave himself up and walked into the camp with the Young Allies following closely behind. He and the young group of heroes were quickly captured and he was taken away to be interrogated by the Black Talon and the Nazi, Baron Boche. The Young Allies escaped their confinement and rescued Dr. Livingstone and Dora while sabotaging the enemy base. Escaping on a German plane, he flew back to the USA following the Black Talon who had escaped before the Nazi camp exploded. Back in America, he and his daughter were taken prisoner at gunpoint by the Black Talon while his pet giant octopus attacked the Young Allies. In his underground lair, the Black Talon began to threaten to harm his daughter with a vat of molten lava unless he divulged the latitude and longitude of the island of New America. Just as he was about to reveal this information, the Young Allies, Captain America and the Human Torch arrived and defeated the evil Black Talon and his henchmen.

Comments: Created by Joe Simon (writer?), Al Gabriele (pencils) and George Klein (inks).

Dr. Martin Livingstone is not the famous explorer Dr. David Livingstone (1813-1873) who traveled and explored much of the continent of Africa. There was a line in the story that made a joke about this: when meeting the Doctor for the first time, Bucky asked “Doctor Livingstone I presume?”, a subtle joke based on the words allegedly spoken by the British-born explorer Henry Stanley when, in 1871, he finally found the long-missing explorer and missionary David Livingstone in Africa.

The strange fish-men savages remind me of a race of beings called the Deep Ones who were minions of the Elder God, Cthulhu, as written by the author H.P. Lovecraft. The Deep Ones were a race of immortal amphibians who lived in cities dotting the floor of the Earth’s oceans and were described as being predominantly green-gray with white bellies. Their skin was shiny and slippery, with a scaly ridge down their back. Their forms vaguely suggested anthropoids with the head of a fish with prodigious, bulging eyes that never closed. Palpitating gills lined the sides of their necks and their long paws were webbed. Go read his books or collected short stories; very creepy but well written.

The island of New America is also based on fictional writings and historical accounts of the west Atlantic Ocean region called the Sargasso Sea. This island region is also reminiscent of the writings of Charles Hoy Fort (1874-1932) in his second book titled, New Lands.

Profile by AvatarWarlord72.

CLARIFICATIONS :
Dr. Martin Livingstone has no known connections to:

• Laurie Livingston, only female member of the Deadly Dozen @ Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos#98
• any other "Martin" or "Livingstone" characters

Dora Livingstone

Dora Livingstone was the daughter of the American explorer, Dr. Martin Livingstone. One day, the Young Allies were out fishing on the docks around New York City when they found a message in a bottle addressed to her and went to deliver it in person. While meeting them at the docks, she was accosted by the Black Talon and his goons who were there to get information on her father’s whereabouts and discoveries. She was rescued by the Young Allies and escaped. The next day, the Black Talon again tried to abduct her and forced her inside his car, but the Young Allies once again saved her. The Young Allies then escorted her back home and agreed to watch over her till the morning. In the middle of the night, the Black Talon entered her house by way of the sewers and made off with her. Once again, the Young Allies rescued her. The next day, she decided to hire a crew of sailors to help in rescuing her missing father and much to her surprise, the captain turned out to be none other than the Black Talon. As in previous attempts, he was thwarted by the Young Allies who again liberated her. They agreed to act as her crew along with Captain Weatherbee (secretly the Black Talon) who volunteered to lead the ship over the Atlantic. Later, a violent hurricane battered their ship and nearing the mysterious island, their boat ran aground on the jagged rocks surrounding the beach and they were washed ashore. Soon after, Dora and the Young Allies were attacked and captured by weird humanoid fish-men who captured them. Dora and the Young Allies were rescued by Toro and then they started to search for her father but she was captured by the Black Talon who trapped the Young Allies inside a pyramid tomb in a lost city deep in the jungle. She was taken to the beach and confined by the Nazi Baron Boche who had set up camp and was waiting for the Black Talon’s arrival. She was soon reunited with her father and escaped captivity as the Young Allies sabotaged the Nazi camp and boarded a German plane to fly back to the USA. Back in America, Dora and her father were captured once again by the Black Talon who proceeded to torture them into revealing the island's longitude and latitude so he could return there. She and her father were then saved by the combined actions of the Young Allies, Captain America and the Human Torch.

Savages of New America

The origin and history of this weird race of fish-men remain a mystery. The savage fish-men discovered that Dr. Livingstone, a human outsider, had violated their island and took up weapons and chased him to the beach. They were held back as Dr. Livingstone, using a rifle he had found, successfully repeled their repeated attacks, killing several of the natives in the process. A year later, the Black Talon approached their village and using sign language, convinced the savages to hunt down and capture the Young Allies and Dora Livingstone. The overwhelming force of the fish-men captured the young heroes and they began to cook them in large boiling pots. Toro arrived just in time and caused a stampede of elephants to distract the fish-men, saving his fellow allies from certain death.

The fish-men were amphibious with gills, and lived in a tribal community ruled by a chief. They may or may not be the descendants of the ancient Haunted City deep in the jungles of the island. They had a rudimentary and primitive form of English and used spears and cooking cauldrons (of unknown origin). Given they were called cannibals in the story, they may well be directly linked to humans.

--Young Allies#2

Haunted City

The mysterious island, hidden and unchartered in the Sargasso Sea, was named New America by Dr. Livingstone. The island held many secrets, the foremost being an ancient city built by unknown people deep in the jungle. This city had a number of ruined buildings, pyramids and burial chambers. The outskirt of the city was a large graveyard that contained a few visible human skeletons.

The largest building was a pyramid that housed a huge number of shrunken and petrified heads, some of which seemed to have fangs, which the fish-men worshiped and which was discovered by the Young Allies. The inside of the pyramid had many huge rooms that were accessed by levers and secret tunnels plus many coffin-like boxes within a centralized room. The Black Talon trapped them inside the tomb and then kidnapped Dora Livingstone, but the teenaged heroes were nevertheless able to escape.

The Haunted city was listed as the description in the story but no one ever called it as such. It may be that the city once belonged to Ancient Atlantis at the time of the Great Cataclysm although pyramids as tombs and elephants suggest a historical link to northern Africa.

--Young Allies#2

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Young Allies#2, p4, panel 5 (standing with flag)