SIR LEPARD
SIR LEPARD
Real Name: Presumably Lepard
Identity/Class: Terrestrial fauna (leopard) mutate (New Men)
Occupation: Knight, warrior
Group Membership: Knights of Wundagore (notably Sir Gote, Sir Hogg, Sir Lyan, Sir Ossilot, Sir Ram, Sir Ursus; and Count Tagar, Sir Porga), New Men (presumably including Bova Ayshire)
Affiliations: Jonathan Drew, High Evolutionary (Herbert Wyndham), Magnus, Thor Odinson
Enemies: Chthon, Hulk (Bruce Banner), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Man-Beast and his New Men, Rigellians (notably Arcturus);
formerly High Evolutionary
Known Relatives: "Lady Panthera" (wife; presumed widow);
possibly Sir Lepard (successor; possible son or other descendant);
the High Evolutionary is his figurative father and the other New Men are figurative siblings
Aliases: Possibly Sir Leppard (in X-Men I Annual#12/3, if that was him)
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
perished in space near Wundagore II (allegedly the 5th planet in the Sirius star system, Milky Way galaxy);
formerly Wundagore II;
formerly High Evolutionary's citadel atop Mount Wundagore, Transia, Europe, Earth
First Appearance: Thor I#134 (November, 1966)
Powers/Abilities:
A leopard evolved and mutated into humanoid conformation, Sir Lepard
presumably had enhanced human strength, speed, and reflexes. He
presumably had enhanced olfactory and auditory senses, as well as
enhanced nocturnal vision.
As a Knight of Wundagore, he was trained and experienced in armed and unarmed combat, wore armor, wielded a sword and possibly a lasso-launching hand-weapon and/or a bola.
He flew atop an atomic steed, upon which he wielded some sort of energy sword
He was also experienced with the space suit and energy blasters.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 6')History:
.
. (X-Men I Annual#12/3) - Soon after, the Knights were called forth to battle the Other, the elemental host of the demonic Elder God Chthon, summoned by the Chthon-pawn Gregor Russoff via Chthon's tome, the Darkhold. While they fought valiantly, the battle was only won when Magnus possessed Russoff and recited the spell of binding, trapping Chthon within Mount Wundagore. Over half of the Knights of Wundagore perished in that battle. |
(Thor I#134) - As Thor arrived approached Mount Wundagore, investigating Jane Foster's disappearance via a Rigellian tracking device, the Knights of Wundagore -- including Sir Lepard, Sir Lyan, and Sir Ossilot -- detected and approached him via their atomic steeds, after which they lassoed him.
Certain they would bring him to Jane, Thor allowed them to bring him into the High Evolutionary's Citadel, after which he tossed the Knights around when they refused to release him. One of the other knights specifically noted Thor was spinning Sir Lepard about as if he were but a toy (two knights were shown being spun).
The Knights soon agreed to stop fighting and discuss matters, and -- at Thor's request -- one of them removed his helmet, revealing his true nature. When Thor forced his way in to confront the High Evolutionary, the distraction caused the Evolutionary's wolf-subject to be over-exposed to Isotope C.
After the energies around the wolf caused an explosion, the High Evolutionary noted how the wolf would be evolved farther than he had ever dared to go before. Sir Ossilot asked if the Evolutionary could not halt the machine, but the Evolutionary noted that the rays were now deadly to him and that it was too late.
(Thor I#134 - BTS) - Rendered both mad/malevolent and uncontrollably powerful, the wolf (identified as the Man-Beast) plotted to destroy those around him.
.
(Thor I#135 - BTS) - As at least one Knight, possibly Sir Ossilot, watched, the Evolutionary throw some object against the wall to demonstrate that the Man-Beast had created an anti-matter barrier to prevent them from breaching his vault. By the time the Evolutionary used his induction device to force the Man-Beast to confront them, the Man-Beast had already created a number of his own New Men, who then engaged Thor and the Evolutionary. (Thor I#135) - Donning his cathode gloves, Count Tagar led the Knights of Wundagore to engage the New Men. After Thor subdued the Man-Beast, the Knights forced the rest of the New Men into the Evolutionary's Star Chamber, which then transported them to the "galaxy Dromisana." |
.
(Thor I#135 - BTS) - Deciding that they would continue to endanger mankind if they remained on Wundagore, the High Evolutionary instructed Thor and Jane Foster to depart. With his citadel in the form of a starship, the Evolutionary piloted it to depart Earth.
(West
Coast Avengers Annual#3/3 (fb)) - Sir Lepard was one of 38 Knights of Wundagore aboard the
Evolutionary's Citadel-turned-ship.
Eventually -- after traveling through hyperspace --the Evolutionary's
ship...
(West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3 (fb) - BTS) - The Evolutionary sent forth his Knights to explore this planet, and they discovered and reported an abandoned city.
(West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3 (fb)) - One of the Knights (presumably Count Tagar), officially claimed the world in the name of the High Evolutionary.
(Tales to Astonish I#95/2 (fb) - BTS) - They named the world Wundagore II...(Tales to Astonish I#94/2 (fb) - BTS / West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3 (fb) - BTS) - ...and they (re)built the city, adapting it to their use.
(Iron Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - The Evolutionary and his Knights encountered the giant praying mantis-like creatures apparently native to this world..
As these creatures made no use of the world's riches, the High Evolutionary banished them to the swamps.
(West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3 (fb)) - Meanwhile, the High Evolutionary used the menagerie of animals contained in his citadel to evolve a female of each species he had already evolved for his knights.
(West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3 (fb)) - The High Evolutionary presented the women to his knights to become their wives.
The Evolutionary told the couples to go forth into the new city and to be fruitful and multiply; he further advised them that he had exhausted his stores and that from then on, they would be responsible for replenishing their numbers.
(Tales to Astonish I#94/2 (fb) - BTS) - Their little civilization thrived and flourished in peace and prosperity initially.
(West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3 (fb) - BTS) - The High Evolutionary left his charges to their own pursuits as he remained in his laboratory and devoted himself to his research.(Tales to Astonish I#94/2 (fb) - BTS) - Eventually the High Evolutionary had the Hulk transported to Wundagore II.
(Tales to Astonish I#96/2) - The maddened New Men / Knights of Wundagore then broke into the High Evolutionary's base.
High Evolutionary assaulted the maddened Knights, but he was mortally wounded and then subjected himself to his
Genetic Accelerator.
(Iron Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - The Rigellians serving the rogue Arcturus believed themselves to have found a new home when one of their space probes discovered Wundagore II.
The Rigellians found traces of a once-thriving civilization, but they saw only wild beasts foraging in it cities. The Rigellians were overjoyed, and they considered that this world would be New Rigel.
When the Rigellians' exploratory craft landed, the wild beast fled, but cosmic radiation born by the ship from its journeys through space somehow caused the beasts to re-evolve back into the forms of the New Men, bereft of the savagery that had previously afflicted them.
Speaking and clothing themselves, the New Men returned to their cities to see if they could recall what had caused them to devolve.
Whether they learned what had happened to them, they recalled that they were the Knights of Wundagore and that they had returned to their home.
(Iron
Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - Although there was
plenty of room on the planet for them all, the Rigellians were
unwilling to live with beasts, and the Knights of Wundagore were
willing to fight to keep their world and drive off the invaders.
(Iron
Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - Prior to any actual war being declared, the Rigellians allegedly attacked and wounded a number of the New Men. The Rigellians also allegedly tortured some of the New Men for information.
(Iron Man I#110) - Wearing space suits and astride their atomic steeds as well as dragonfly-like ships, the Knights of Wundagore -- including Sir Lepard, Sir Lyan, Sir Ossilot and many others -- assaulted Arcturus' fleet.
Although the Rigellians were caught by surprise and initially reeling, the Knights considered that the Rigellians would recover and counter-attack; however, win or lose, they vowed they fight for the realm as true sons of the lost creator.
(Iron
Man I#111 - BTS) - The Rigellians in the ship carrying Iron Man and
Jack of Hearts called an alert to battle stations as their space
shields had been breached.
(Iron Man I#111) - Sir Lyan exhorted the other Knights to slay the invaders, and other knights noted that their power-lances ruptured the ship's hull, and they hoped that they might destroy the command ship
When a blast hit a fuel storage cell, the explosion hurled Iron Man from the Rigellian ship into the middle of the attacking Wundagorians.
Sir Lepard announced this to Sir Ram, and what appeared to be Sir Lyan advised that this might be a destruct drone and ordered the others to attack it.
Seeking only to defend himself, Iron Man pulled the approaching Sir Lepard and Sir Ossilot from their atomic steeds.Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby , and Vince Colletta.
Which one is Sir Lepard?
In Thor I#134, the armors shown in the fully-armored Knights don't
match those shown when they aren't wearing their masks, so it really
hard to tell who is whom.
Neither knight being spun about seems to be
wearing armor similar to that worn by Sir Lepard as seen in his
helmet-less form a few pages later.
And none of them are identified with their helmets off...their faces are first identified in the Official
Handbook of
the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition) #15: Wundagore entry (March,
1987)
There are two guys in Thor I#134 who appear to be very similar:
The pale guy who face is not seen when they getting knighted here has the same uniform as the guy who looks most like Sir Lepard in the other panels.
However, the
more orange guy to the far right of the panel when they are getting
knighted also looks more like Sir Lepard in that panel. Who knows for
sure...
Although not identified, one of the guys in Tales to Astonish I#96 is suspicious for being Sir Lepard (see the left and right images here)...longer hair, but then he'd gone savage...
I'm going with the assumption that the Sir Lyan, Sir Lepard, and Sir Ossilot in the Iron Man issues and X-Men Annual#12/3 were the same as the ones from the Thor issues, and the various Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries on the New Men and Knights of Wundagore supports that, as do the Official Index to the Marvel Universe entries for the relevant issues.
That being said, if the battle with the Other took place in 1958 (both Marvel and real time...although that may have been retconned...), and we know that over half of the 42 extant Knights of Wundagore perished in that battle, it doesn't seem unreasonable that the Sir Leppard seen in X-Men Annual#12/3 might have been a precursor of the Sir Lepard encountered over 50 years later in Thor I#134.
Being different incarnations would explain the different New Men being knighted alongside Sir Lepard in various issues, and it might also explain why Sir Hogg did not have the pig snout of the Sir Hogg in the Iron Man issues.
However, that is also problematic, as there were not female New Men (besides Bova) prior to the arrival on Wundagore II, so the Evolutionary would have had to created a new successor, rather than any sort of reproduction/succession.
Going purely by Marvel Time (which is roughly one year per 4-5 years of real time), the devolved New Men were present on Wundagore for close to 3 years before being re-evolved. It's anyone's guess how quickly those animals would have reproduced vs. how many were consumed by predators, and it is further unknown if when the radiation from the Rigellian ship re-evolved the New Men if their offspring were then evolved for the first time.
Leopards are of the species Panthera pardus, one of the five existing species of the genus Panthera.
Thanks to David Zuckerman and Loki for providing me with higher-quality images from Tales to Astonish I#96 and the OHotMU.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Sir Lepard should be distinguished from:
 (West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3 (fb) - BTS) - After arriving on Wundagore II, the High Evolutionary used the menagerie of animals contained in his citadel to evolve a female of each species he had already evolved for his knights. (West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3 (fb)) - The High Evolutionary presented the women to his knights, and Sir Lepard (or another leopard New Man) accepted the leopard woman to take as his wife. The Evolutionary told the couples to go forth into the new city and to be fruitful and multiply; he further advised them that he had exhausted his stores and that from then on, they would be responsible for replenishing their numbers. (Tales to Astonish I#94/2 (fb) - BTS) - Their little civilization thrived and flourished in peace and prosperity initially. (Tales to Astonish I#94/2 (fb) - BTS) - The New Men began reverting back to their bestial heritage, and they savagely attacked each other. The process began so gradually that the High Evolutionary did not notice right away. (Tales to Astonish I#96/2 - BTS) - The Evolutionary eventually subjected himself to his Genetic Accelerator, became a being of psionic energy, and devolved all of his Knights/New Men back into purely animal form. --West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3Note: The leopard woman was only seen in a single panel of a flashback in West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3. If she did not perish in or before the savage battles on Wundagore II, she would have been turned back into a conventional leopard by the High Evolutionary, and assuming she continued to survive, she would most likely have been re-evolved into humanoid biped form by Rigellian radiation circa Iron Man I#111 (fb). She may or may not be the mother or earlier ancestor of the Sir Lepard seen in Thor I#422. We have no name for her...she would likely have the title Lady or perhaps Dame, and then she could Panthera, Pantha, Leopardess, Leoparda, Parda, or something along those lines... |
Appearances:
Thor I#134-135 (November-December, 1966) - Stan
"The Man" Lee (writer/editor), Jack "King" Kirby (penciler), Vince "The
Prince" Colletta (inker)
Tales to Astonish I#94/2 - 96/2 (August-October, 1967) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Marie Severin (penciler), Herb Trimpe (inker)
Iron Man I#110-111 (May-June, 1978) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Keith Pollard (penciler), Fred Kida (inker), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Iron Man I#112 (July, 1978) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Keith Pollard (penciler), Fred Kida (inker), Jim Shooter (editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#6: Knights of Wundagore entry (June, 1983) - Mark Gruenwald (editor/head writer/designer), Peter
Sanderson, Mark Lerer, Dan Fingeroth, Lou Mougin (writers), Joanne Harras, Bob Harras, David Cody Weiss, Fred Baumana, Roger Stern, Bob Simpson (researchers), Mike Mignola (penciler), Josef Rubinstein (inker),
Eliot R. Brown (technical advisor/typesetter), Michael Carlin (associate editor/designer)
X-Men I Annual#12/3 (October, 1988) - Mark Gruenwald (writer),
Ron Lim (pencils), Tony DeZuniga (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
West Coast Avengers Annual#3/3 (October, 1988) - Mark Gruenwald (writer),
Ron Lim (pencils), Tony DeZuniga (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition) #15: Wundagore entry (March, 1987) - Mark Gruenwald (writer/producer), Peter Sanderson (writer/researcher), Cynthia Martin (penciler), Josef Rubinstein (inker), Howard Mackie (assistant editor), Marc Siry, David Wohl, Marc McLaurin (editorial assistants), Gregory Wright (assistant editor)
All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z#8 (August, 2006) - Jeff Christiansen (head writer/coordinator), Sean McQuaid, Stuart Vandal, Ronald Byrd, Michael Hoskin, Mark O'English, Chris Biggs, Eric J. Moreels, Mike Fichera, Al Sjoerdsma, Barry Reese, Chad Anderson, Madison Carter, Anthony Flamini & Rich Green (writers), Michael Short (assistant editor), Jeff Youngquist & Jennifer Grunwald (editors)
Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#8 (July, 2009) - Jeff Christiansen (head writer/coordinator),
Stuart Vandal, Mike Fichera & Madison Carter (coordination assistants), Sean McQuaid, Michael Hoskin, Stuart Vandal, Ronald Byrd, David
Wiltfong, Madison Carter, Mike Fichera,
Chad Anderson, Chris Biggs, Eric J.
Moreels, Mark O'English, Al Sjoerdsma, Jacob Rougemont, Gabriel Shechter, Anthony Flamini, Rich Green, Markus Raymond, Andrew Goletz, Rob London, Mike O'Sullivan & Jeph York (writers), Brian
Overton (copy editor), Alex Starbuck (editorial assistant), John Denning & Cory Levine (assistant
editors), Mark D. Beazley (editor, special projects), Jeff Youngquist
&
Jennifer Grunwald (editors)
First posted: 01/21/2023
Last updated: 01/29/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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Thor I#132-134
.
(Thor
I#135) - After the
Man-Beast attacked Thor, the High Evolutionary told his Knights -- including Sir Lepard -- to
stand back as he attempted to destroy the Man-Beast with his sub-sonic
discordion. Only pained, the Man-Beast fled out of range and locked himself within the
Evolutionary's genetic laboratory, which contained his evolutionary ray.