WITCHES OF ENDOR
Membership: Several unidentified witches
Purpose: To capture and forcefully recruit trespassers
Aliases: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Princess Eve, Tanir, Tuk
Base of Operations: Valley of Mist/Valley of Endor circa 50,000 BC
First Appearance: Captain America Comics#2/4 (April, 1941)
History:
(Captain America Comics#2/4 (fb) - BTS) - The Witches of Endor lived in a valley between the kingdom of Crete and Atlantis. Due to unrevealed causes (possibly their own doing) the valley was filled with a special gas that caused anyone who breathed in the vapors to fall asleep. Appropriately calling these gases "the Mists of Sleep,"
the Witches used them to capture anyone who succumbed to their effects. The Witches of Endor themselves wore protective vapor masks under their black robes to stay awake. After taking a
traveler prisoner, the Witches scarred them with an acid liquid, figuring that they were now so disfigured they would never leave the valley and
would instead join the "witches."
(Captain America Comics#2/4 (fb) - BTS) - The Witches of Endor captured Princess Eve, the former ruler of the kingdom Atlantis who had recently been banished by her uncle.
(Captain America Comics#2/4 (fb) - BTS) - While on route to the kingdom of Atlantis, Tuk the Caveboy and his friend Tanir the Cro-Magnon made the mistake of traveling through the Witches' valley and promptly fell asleep. They were captured by the Witches of Endor who explained to them they were unable to leave, calling them their "permanent guests." Just then one of the witches tried to burn Princess Eve's face with the acid liquid. Her screaming attracting Tuk and Tanir's attention. Before the Witches could harm the princess, they were stopped by the young heroes who rescued Eve. Tuk and Tanir fought and defeated the remaining witches, using their vapor masks afterwards to make their escape.
Comments: Created by Al Gabriele and unknown (possibly Pierce Rice (pencils), Arthur Cazeneuve (inks); see comments)
The Witches of Endor, where to start? For one thing, they didn't exhibit any magical powers, so calling them witches might be a bit of a stretch to start with. As for their recruiting strategy: how eager would you be to join an organization that captured and scarred you for life? Also, it's never been explained why the witches' valley was covered in a sleep inducing gas. It could be a natural phenomenon, but that would have made building their outpost there a real pain in the vapor mask. They probably rigged up the mists themselves through a combination of alchemy and naturally occurring sleep inducing elements. That would sufficiently look like witchcraft to the uneducated eye, and would also explain the biggest weapon the Witches wielded were a few pointy daggers.
Before MARVEL UNIVERSE (short lived, seven issue marvel series from 1998) was canceled, I had plans to reintroduce Tuk the Caveboy. -- Roger Stern.
Here's how the Golden Age Captain America Omnibus HC credits the Tuk stories in Cap Comics #1-5 (information courtesy of Jeph York):
#1 - by Jack Kirby
#2 - art by Al Gabriele* & unknown
#3 - art by Mac Raboy*
#4 - art by unknown with Al Gabriele*
#5 - title page pencils by Jack Kirby, title page inks by Joe Simon, pencils by Al Avison*, inks by Al Gabriele** It was not industry standard in the Golden Age of comics to provide detailed credits for each strip. The artists worked with an ever-changing studio of assistants and secondary artists, while writers often did not sign their name to their work. The stories in this volume were produced by the Simon & Kirby studio and may have included varying levels of work by the creators cited as well as others:
Al Avison, Fred Bell, Martin Burstein, Reed Crandall, Howard Ferguson, Harry Fisk, Al Gabriele, Fred Guardineer, Ernie Hart, Chu Hing, William Clayton King, Bernard Klein, Mort Meskin, George Roussos, Gustav Schrotter, Syd Shores & C.A. Winter
Profile by MarvellousLuke
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Witches of Endor have no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Captain America Comics#2, p51, pan3 (main image)
Captain America Comics#2, p51, pan4 (base)
Captain America Comics#2, p52, pan5&6 (fight)
Appearances:
Captain America Comics#2/4 (April, 1941) - Al Gabriele and unknown (possibly Pierce Rice (pencils), Arthur Cazeneuve
(inks); see comments)
Last updated: 07/05/14
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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