Not all heroes wear capes. Or shirts. Or pants, apparently. No, this hero is a wild flurry of misunderstood conceptions. This hero stalks the jungles unleashing the strength of the animal kingdom upon the world. Today's Z-Lister is DC Comic's B'wana Beast. Oh, and Freedom Beast. It's a two-fer.
Created in 1967's "Showcase #66" by Bob Haney and Mike Sekowsky, B'wana Beast is one of DC Comics more bizarre superheroes. Formally a park ranger who lived atop Mount Kilimanjaro, Micheal Maxwell and his gorilla companion Djuba found a pair of magical items. A red helmet and a magic elixir. Upon donning the helmet and drinking the elixir, Maxwell developed an odd control over animals. Now as The B'wana Beast, Maxwell could create chimeras. In Mythology, a Chimera is a creature with the parts of other animals. B'wana beast can fuse any animals together no matter what size or type, as he puts it "putting the best of both of them into one creature". He can then control this chimera to help him fight crime and later undo the fusion. He can do up to four animals and-with concentration-even include humans in the mix. Along with these outlandish powers and his gorilla friend, B'wana Beast is also a master tracker, wrestler, telepathic control of animals, enhanced senses, and enhanced strength, speed, and agility.
In his first adventure, B'wana Beast and Djuba fight Hamid Ali "The Man Who Never Dies". He dies, by the way. While B'wana Beast would make rare appearances here and there, he became more prevalent in Grant Morrison's "Animal Man" series in the 1980's. Animal Man-in short detail-is a character who can mimic the powers of animals through a force called "The Red", he also has knowledge that he is a fictional character. Thanks, Grant. Animal Man helps B'wana Beast go to Africa to find Djuba, only to find Djuba's been tested on and given a new form of Anthrax. Djuba sadly dies, and B'wana Beast is infected next. Luckily, Animal Man uses his powers to enhance B'wana Beast's white blood cells to a point where they can fend off the infection. In a later story arc, Maxwell retires from being The B'wana Beast and passes the helmet and elixir to a South African activist named Dominic Mndawe. Maxwell would reappear, however, corrupted by an evil entity called Antagon and renamed The Shining Man. Animal Man is forced to kill Maxwell to free him from Antagon's control.
Max's successor Dominic would take the name "Freedom Beast" and use his new powers to battle The South African government. Adamant about his political beliefs, Freedom Beast's motto was "Tomorrow's Mythology is Today's Politics". Freedom Beast would team up with B'wana Beast (before his death) and Animal Man often before he would be murdered by the minions of Prometheus in "Justice League: Cry For Justice" and later avenged by Green Arrow who kills the aforementioned villain.
DC Comics has a deep history of "animal" characters and day-by-day more of those characters are getting more light. Beast Boy, Vixen, Animal Man, B'wana Beast, Freedom Beast, Congorilla, there are plenty of interesting characters within this category. Now that I think of it, a team book with all these characters where they fight for animal rights would be pretty awesome. I'm no PETA member, but protecting animals is a pretty great hero motivation. B'wana Beast has shown up in a few cartoons so I've seen him before and really liked his powers. Yeah, they're weird and so is he, but I like that kind of weird. He's from Africa and has magic animal powers, that's refreshing in a world where most heroes are from space or live in the USA. So I'd like to see B'wana Beast and Freedom Beast reappear somewhere, they'd be quiet the duo. Not so dynamic. But very dramatic.
Thanks for reading!
If you could fuse two animals together, which would they be? Comment below or tell me on "The Panel Biter" Facebook page!
In his first adventure, B'wana Beast and Djuba fight Hamid Ali "The Man Who Never Dies". He dies, by the way. While B'wana Beast would make rare appearances here and there, he became more prevalent in Grant Morrison's "Animal Man" series in the 1980's. Animal Man-in short detail-is a character who can mimic the powers of animals through a force called "The Red", he also has knowledge that he is a fictional character. Thanks, Grant. Animal Man helps B'wana Beast go to Africa to find Djuba, only to find Djuba's been tested on and given a new form of Anthrax. Djuba sadly dies, and B'wana Beast is infected next. Luckily, Animal Man uses his powers to enhance B'wana Beast's white blood cells to a point where they can fend off the infection. In a later story arc, Maxwell retires from being The B'wana Beast and passes the helmet and elixir to a South African activist named Dominic Mndawe. Maxwell would reappear, however, corrupted by an evil entity called Antagon and renamed The Shining Man. Animal Man is forced to kill Maxwell to free him from Antagon's control.
Max's successor Dominic would take the name "Freedom Beast" and use his new powers to battle The South African government. Adamant about his political beliefs, Freedom Beast's motto was "Tomorrow's Mythology is Today's Politics". Freedom Beast would team up with B'wana Beast (before his death) and Animal Man often before he would be murdered by the minions of Prometheus in "Justice League: Cry For Justice" and later avenged by Green Arrow who kills the aforementioned villain.
DC Comics has a deep history of "animal" characters and day-by-day more of those characters are getting more light. Beast Boy, Vixen, Animal Man, B'wana Beast, Freedom Beast, Congorilla, there are plenty of interesting characters within this category. Now that I think of it, a team book with all these characters where they fight for animal rights would be pretty awesome. I'm no PETA member, but protecting animals is a pretty great hero motivation. B'wana Beast has shown up in a few cartoons so I've seen him before and really liked his powers. Yeah, they're weird and so is he, but I like that kind of weird. He's from Africa and has magic animal powers, that's refreshing in a world where most heroes are from space or live in the USA. So I'd like to see B'wana Beast and Freedom Beast reappear somewhere, they'd be quiet the duo. Not so dynamic. But very dramatic.
Thanks for reading!
If you could fuse two animals together, which would they be? Comment below or tell me on "The Panel Biter" Facebook page!
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