MAN-KILLER

Real Name: Kativa

Identity/Class: Human (African; see comments)

Occupation: Scavenger

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: His former tribe-mates (including M'Tuba), Lorna

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile somewhere in Africa

First Appearance: Lorna, the Jungle Girl#7/2 (May, 1954)

Powers/Abilities: Kativa wielded two razor-sharp knives. Clad in the pelt of a hyena, Kativa used his fearsome appearance to strike terror into the hearts of his victims.

History: (Lorna, the Jungle Girl#7/2 (fb) - BTS) - Kativa's past is unknown, but during a time of famine, he stole from his tribe's meager supplies to feed himself.

  (Lorna, the Jungle Girl#7/2) - Because of his crimes, Kativa was banished from the tribe by the decree of Lorna. As Kativa wandered the jungle, he ran into another outcast who also roamed the wilderness--Huki the hyena. The beast had much in common with the man: Both were scavengers, both hid from the eyes of their fellows, and both were cowards. Each thought he was trapped by the other, and even a coward will fight when trapped, so man and hyena--Kativa and Huki, brothers under the skin--fought each other for their lives. But when his knife proved deadlier than the hyena's fangs, the man eventually stood in triumph over the body of the scavenger beast. Kativa found he liked the thrill of killing, so after skinning the hyena, he wore its pelt and decided to prove himself a better hunter than any of his former tribesmen by hunting the deadliest prey of all: Man.

  One night, Kativa attacked a former tribe-mate, and the weird legend of the Man-Killer was born: Seemingly supernatural, this beast that walked like a man stalked only humans, then would run off into the night, its wild hyena-laugh ringing above the screams of its dying victims.

  A worried M'Tuba met with Lorna and told the jungle queen that some of her frightened subjects thought the Man-Killer was a god of evil, wreaking his anger on her through her people. But Lorna told M'Tuba they were just being superstitious and she intended to expose the truth.

  Lorna was swinging through the trees with Mikki (her monkey), when Mikki's keen senses warned her of danger--hungry for revenge, the Man-Killer hid perched in a tree ahead, awaiting his prey. Lorna paused on a branch and tossed a piece of wood past the concealed murderer, as a distraction; the Man-Killer (mistakenly thinking it was Lorna swinging by) leaped out to attack with his knives. Lorna immediately recognized the Man-Killer as the exiled Kativa. Swinging on a vine, Lorna kicked the Man-Killer from his perch, knocking him to the ground. As he lay in the jungle underbrush, Kativa feigned unconsciousness while Lorna approached. He gripped his knife, waiting for the jungle girl to get a few steps closer...

  But as the traitorous Kativa raised his weapon for the sudden kill, he froze in horror at the weird laughter that filled the jungle air. A whole pack of hyenas--snarling and laughing savagely--leaped out of the brush, straight toward the terror-stricken Kativa! Lorna sprang against the onslaught, stopping those she could reach with her knife, but many other hyenas jumped past her, toward the man who had disguised himself as one of them. The Man-Killer's dying screams were lost in the unearthly laughter of the attacking pack.

  Then, as suddenly and mysteriously as they appeared, the pack of hyenas scattered and vanished. The only thing Lorna could find afterwards was the skin of a single hyena--the disguise formerly worn by Kativa. Lorna inferred that this was the grim justice of the jungle animals--in their own way, they took care of the creature in their midst who was the betrayer, the one who disgraced even the shameful ways of the hyena.

  That night, Lorna took the hyena skin back to the tribal village. The pelt was hung as a trophy, and the entire tribe celebrated the victory over the strange marauder. But even Lorna's brave heart trembled a little when she heard the distant echo of the laughter of the hyena pack...(Zoiks!)

Comments: Created by Don Rico and Werner Roth.

You can read more info on Lorna here.

The exact location in Africa where this story took place is unrevealed.

And a BIG Thank You to Pappy's Golden Age for the scans!

Profile by John Kaminski

CLARIFICATIONS:
Man-Killer (Kativa) has no known connection to:

• Hyena (Henry Mortonson), Golden Age Human Torch villain @ Human Torch Comics#30
• Hyena (Creed H. Quinn), Amalgam of Sabretooth + Joker @ Legend of the Dark Claw#1
• Katinka, vampire hunter @ Tomb of Dracula III#2
• Katinya, of Ultraverse, familiar of Archimage @ Mantra#1
• Man-Killer, Hydra robot @ Captain America I#111
• Man-Killer (Katrina Luisa Van Horne), Masters of Evil/Thunderbolts member @ Marvel Team-Up I#8
• any other character with a similar name

images:
Lorna, the Jungle Girl#7/2, p2, pan8 (main)