ZOKAE & OKZIK

Real Name: Zokae; Okzik

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrials (race unrevealed)

Occupation: Scouts

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Other members of their race

Enemies: Ahmend, Egyptian gods (via the animated Sphinx; see comments), "Hubert Weisskopf"

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile throughout the universe; originally from another unidentified galaxy

First Appearance: Strange Tales I#70/5 (August, 1959)

Powers/Abilities: Vaguely humanoid with orange skin, and having two antennae on their heads (see comments), the aliens were about 60 feet tall. They were equipped with a spaceship and carried multi-functional hand-guns, which could dispense knock-out gas or fire energy blasts. They were apparently unable to survive in Earth's atmosphere, as they wore bubble helmets and breathing apparatuses.

History: (Strange Tales I#70/5 (fb) - BTS) - Zokae and Okzik studied Earth from afar, then separated from their invasion fleet to make a closer inspection of the planet.

(Strange Tales I#70/5) - Landing on Earth in Egypt, near the site of the Great Sphinx, the giant aliens disembarked from their ship and encountered Ahmend and "Weisskopf". Seeing how tiny Earthlings were compared to them, the gargantuan invaders thought that the planet would be ripe for conquest. They sprayed the humans with a gas that immobilized them and would eventually put them to sleep.

  But Ahmend's faith in the power of his ancient gods brought the statue of the Sphinx to life. Seeing that their weapons were useless against the supernatural might of this foe, Zokae and Okzik fled to the safety of their spaceship and decided to call off any further invasion attempts. They took off just as the Sphinx bit off a chunk of their ship with its jaws.

  Ahmend and "Weisskopf" eventually awoke, and at first "Weisskopf" thought the whole experience to have just been a hallucination -- but when the chunk of the aliens' ship dropped from the jaws of the Sphinx, "Weisskopf" began to have second thoughts.

Comments: Created by an unknown writer and Steve Ditko.

I'd speculate that the antennae on Zokae and Okzik's heads emitted anti-gravitons, which would enable them to support the vast bulk of their bodies (similar to the Vegans).

This story featured the first mention of Atum (see Demogorge).

Note that "Hubert Weisskopf" was never named in this story, I just gave him that name to identify him, so it's subject to change -- Ahmend only addressed him as "effendi".

I only estimated the aliens' height compared to humans, but the size of the Sphinx in this story seems to be much larger than it is in "real life" -- for more information on the Great Sphinx of Giza, see HERE.

Since the Hulk fought the Sphinx in Incredible Hulk II#145, we all know that it was actually built by the Horusians ...or was it the robot Shagg from the Third Galaxy? ...or Kang's time machine?
--Markus Raymond

And a big THANK YOU to Dennis Giansante for scanning this story for me!

Profile by John Kaminski

CLARIFICATIONS:
Zokae & Okzik have no known connections to:

• any other characters with similar names

Ahmend has no known connections to:

• Ahmed, of the Revolutionary Jihad @ Punisher II#6
• any other characters with similar names

"Hubert Weisskopf" has no known connections to:

• any other characters with similar names

Ahmend & "Hubert Weisskopf"

Ahmend was an Egyptian local and a direct descendant of King Khalf-Re, the pharaoh who had been called upon by "Amon-Re"(Ammon Ra aka Atum; see comments) to build the Great Sphinx four thousand years earlier. One day, while Ahmend was giving his friend a tour of the area and telling him of the legend of the Sphinx, two giant alien invaders landed nearby and planned to conquer the planet. But still having faith in his land's ancient gods, Ahmend called upon them for help, which they sent by animating the Sphinx to drive away the aliens.

"Hubert Weisskopf" was a visitor to Egypt who doubted the old legends that Ahmend spoke of, but his experience with the aliens and the Sphinx left him with second thoughts.

--Strange Tales I#70/5

Spaceship

A huge vessel capable of interstellar travel, it carried Zokae and Okzik to Earth. It was slightly damaged when the Egyptian gods brought the Sphinx to life and the Sphinx bit off a chunk of the craft.

--Strange Tales I#70/5

images:
Strange Tales I#70/5, p3, pan2 (main)