Ka-Zar is a comic series about the eponymous Marvel Comics adventurer and superhero. The Ka-Zar name has been used by two different characters over the years, with the second version far better known.
The original Ka-Zar was created in 1936 by writer Bob Byrd. David Rand was an American boy who grew up in the Congo, becoming a Jungle Hero who's friends with an elephant (Trajah) and a lion (Zar). Byrd's initial Ka-Zar tales were first published as text stories in the eponymous Ka-Zar pulp magazine, then adapted into comic form and continued with sequels from 1939 onwards, by which point the original pulp magazine had been cancelled. In these stories, Ka-Zar initially avenges his father's murder by the villainous Paul de Kraft and then goes on to assist the Allies against Axis forces during World War II. This version is not considered canonical to the modern Marvel Comics Universe.
The second Ka-Zar (Lord Kevin Plunder) was introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1965, appearing in an early issue of X-Men. This version of the character went on to become an established part of the Marvel Universe and star of several solo comics. Like his predecessor, he's a Tarzan-style Westerner who's been raised in the jungle (and like Tarzan — and unlike his predecessor — Plunder is British nobility). However, instead of the jungles of Africa, Ka-Zar becomes lord of the Savage Land, an artificially created hidden jungle in the Antarctic. The Savage Land contains dinosaurs, humanoid tribes and superhuman threats.
Plunder eventually settled down with another jungle adventurer, Shanna the She-Devil, and they now have a son, so more recent Ka-Zar stories have tended to focus on them as a family, not just on Ka-Zar as a solo hero.
For the most part, the Ka-Zar comics have used the Savage Land as their setting, with Ka-Zar himself as a Badass Normal hero in that environment. However, some stories have taken a very different approach, taking the cast to an urban environment or turning him into an Empowered Badass Normal.
