griffin

Real Name: Unrevealed; if any

Identity/Class: Unrevealed; likely genetically engineered, but possibly a descendent of the mythological griffin or other griffin creatures

Occupation: Predator

Group Membership: Formerly part of the Pangean menagerie (which included a minotaur, a unicorn, and at least one other creature)

Affiliations: Possibly the rest of the menagerie (though they may have fought if they had been allowed access to each other)

Enemies: Aerians (including Buth, Delphine, & K'lm Fhet), Ka-Zar (Kevin Plunder; Lord Plunder), Pangean Atlanteans, Shanna the She-Devil (Shanna O'Hara Plunder; Lady Plunder), Zabu; numerous beings serving as its prey

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Atlantea, Pangea

First Appearance: Ka-Zar the Savage#9 (December, 1981)

Powers/Abilities: Possessing the body of lion and the wings and head of an eagle, the griffin was a powerful creature. It's beak and talons could rend flesh and bone (and possibly even denser materials at its larger size). It could fly, though apparently not as fast as the Aerians or even the flying apparatus designed by the Aerians (likely, the larger it got beyond a certain point, the slower it became). A savage fighter, the griffin could slaughter a full-sized mammoth well before achieving the massive size shown in the top panel.

    It is unrevealed whether the griffin was originally the size it reached before its apparent death (or perhaps even larger!), or whether it was originally closer to a lion in size but the reversion of the artificial shrinking process caused it to progressively enlarge.

Height: Varied (perhaps 30-40' at the shoulder and 96' long at the largest demonstrated size).
Weight: Varied (perhaps 200 tons at the largest demonstrated size, assuming it to be 30 times the size and weight of an adult lion; obviously, its bones may be lighter, etc.)
Eyes: Red sclera, black pupils
Hair: Orange on the body, golden feathers on its wings, and a white head

History:
(Ka-Zar the Savage#9 (fb) - BTS) <Presumably prior to the Great Cataclysm <18,000 BC)> - Dherk participated in, witnessed, or otherwise knew of efforts to capture griffins (or perhaps just this one griffin) at the base of the volcano Mt. Flavius, with over 25 men being slaughtered in the process.

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9 - BTS) - The griffin, along with other mythological-type creatures, including at least a minotaur, unicorn, and one other, were part of a zoo in Pangea, the amusement center designed by Atlanteans. At some point, the griffin and at least three others were shrunken down to doll-size an kept within glass-covered chambers, the magnetic field within each keeping them both small and virtually immortal.

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9) - After a steam pipe explosion revealed a previously hidden chamber, Dherk, along with Ka-Zar and Shanna, found a number of tiny mythological creatures held in chambers, including a griffin, unicorn, minotaur, and at least one other creature. Shanna was intrigued with the tiny griffin, despite Dherk telling how many people had been slain trying to capture a griffin. Dherk didn't get the reference when Ka-Zar suggested the griffin's name was probably Merv, and Shanna lingered to watch the griffin.

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9 - BTS) - Intrigued, Shanna stole the tiny little griffin and put it in her knapsack after Dherk was out of site.

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9) - Ka-Zar and Shanna left the Pangean machinery behind.

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9 - BTS) - Dherk did some research and learned that the scientists who had built the climate control machine had experimented with a shrinking technique, that the tiny animals they had seen were once full-sized beasts in Pangea's zoo, and that the magnetic field within their glass kept them small and virtually immortal.

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9 (fb) - BTS) - Dherk discovered that the griffin was missing and headed out after Ka-Zar and Shanna.

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9) - The morning after their departure, Dherk caught up to them and demanded to know where the griffin was. Shanna admitted to her theft, but when she went to her knapsack, she found the griffin had torn its way free and escaped. After Dherk explained what he had learned, they heard a small creature cry and then saw the larger griffin flying into the air with a small dinosaur's corpse. Shanna tried to convince Dherk to head back to his machines while she and Ka-Zar would try to catch the creature when it next stopped to feed to prevent it from getting larger. He refused, noting they would get killed trying to stop the griffin and would need his power; he further noted he had no idea how big the griffin would get.
    Dherk, Ka-Zar, Shanna, and Zabu tracked the griffin for the next three days, running through the underbrush and finding progressively larger slaughtered prey, eventually including a mastadon (or mammoth, I can't tell). Finally, Shanna collapsed in fatigue, and Ka-Zar agreed that they needed a rest, hoping that since the griffin had recently fed, it would rest, too.

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9 (fb) - BTS) - Figuring the griffin would return to the site where it had been captured, the android Dherk headed there, to the base of Mt. Flavius, Pangea's only active volcano.
    (Presumably) hours later (at least after Dherk was out of earshot), the Griffin discovered the sleeping Ka-Zar, Shanna, and Zabu and alighted by Zabu, screeching as it pounced on the saber-tooth.

 (Ka-Zar the Savage#9) - Ka-Zar and Shanna awakened to the screeching, and Zabu fought back. Grabbing Zabu by the scruff of his neck with its beak, the griffin took to the air; but, guided either by Ka-Zar's coaching or his own instincts, Zabu latched his front claws into the griffin's neck and tore at the base of its right wing with his back claws. The griffin spiraled to the ground; the impact knocked the wind from Zabu, causing him to release his grip, and the griffin flew off to heal its injuries and search for easier prey.

 

 

 

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9 (fb) - BTS) - After reaching the base of Mt. Flavius, Dherk dug a deep pit, covered it with a net, and then covered the net with grass to conceal it; he apparently intended to use himself as bait, figuring he was safe and that the griffin wouldn't recognize him as non-organic until it was too close.
    Meanwhile, the griffin preyed on other creatures, continually growing, as it headed toward Mt. Flavius before arriving at Aerie Shalan and assaulting the Aerians living there.
    Ka-Zar, Shanna, and Zabu followed the griffin's path.

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9) - As the griffin battled a number of Aerians, snatching Delphine's wings in its beak, Ka-Zar, Shanna, and Zabu approached Aerie Shalan and observed the struggle. The Aerians hurled spears at the griffin, causing it to release Delphine (whose helpless fall was arrested by the Arian warrior Buth), before flying off towards Mt. Flavius.

(Ka-Zar the Savage#9 - BTS) - After Shanna told the Aerians how the griffin had come to plague them, the Aerian K'lm Fhet gave Ka-Zar and Shanna each a set of wing frames, allowing them to join Buth in the Aerians in pursuing the griffin. They caught up to the griffin as it was flying straight towards Dherk. Explaining his reasoning, Dherk tackled Shanna -- who had flown ahead to warn him -- away from inadvertently landing on his trap, then held her as the griffin indeed crashed into the pit; but then the griffin flew back out of the trap, dragging the net with it. The griffin tore apart the net as it flew, but its distracted flight also brought it directly above the volcano; Ka-Zar shattered the creature's eye with a rock launched from his sling, and, paralyzed by pain, it fell into the volcano and was destroyed. Ka-Zar flew away with Dherk before the volcano erupted and opened a fissure at its base, where Dherk had stood, exposing an entrance to a deeper chamber from which emerged sinister laughter (presumably Belasco).

 

 

 

 

Comments: Created by Bruce Jones, Brent Anderson, and Carlos Garzon.

    Thanks to MarvellousLuke for cleaning up the images!

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The griffin of Pangea should be distinguished from:

images: (without ads)
Ka-Zar the Savage#9, pg. 5, panel 2 (miniaturization/storage chambers);
        pg. 6, panel 1 (Shanna & miniature griffin);
        pg. 13, panel 1 (Zabu vs. griffin);
        pg. 15, panel 1 (Aerians vs. griffin);
        pg. 20, panel 5 (death)

Appearances:
Ka-Zar the Savage#9 (December, 1981) - Bruce Jones (writer, co-plotter), Brent Anderson (penciler, co-plotter), Carlos Garzon (inker; misspelled Garron in this issue), Louise Jones (editor)

First Posted: 06/05/2014
Last updated: 06/22/2014

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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