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Wednesday, August 12, 2015

ADVENTURES OF THE JAGUAR - MASTER OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM !!!


"I am the Jaguar, Master of the Animal Kingdom.! My magic powers, given to me the animal world, qare as great as yours...perhaps greater!"

One of the early Archie Adventure Series was Adventures of the Jaguar. It ran fifteen issues with Robert (Green Arrow, Blackhawk) Bernstein scripts with John (The Fly, Lady Cop) Rosenberger & John (the Fly, NoMan) Giunta artwork. 

Zoologist Ralph Hardy stumbles on an ancient Incan temple while fleeing from a dinosaur awakened by an earthquake. Discovering a nucleon energy filled jaguar-skin belt, Hardy becomes The Jaguar! He has the power to fly through space with the strength of a million elephants.

Key issues in the series included #1, obviously, for the origin & first appearance of the Jaguar. His origin is retold in issue #13. Issue #3 contained the first appearance of Kree-Nal, the Sea Circe from Space who also appeared in issues #6 & 7.  Cat Girl, a favorite, appeared in issues #4-#6, #13 & #14.
  

Adventures of the Jaguar #1
"Menace of the Inca Serpent" 
The Jaguar happens upon the lair of a hostile scientist, and learns he is helping an alien race with an invasion of the Earth. 
The origin of the Jaguar by creators Robert Bernstein, writer & John Rosenberger, artist.

"The Invaders from Kordu"
"The Monster Mouse"
The Jaguar must deal with a mouse turned into a giant by radiation.
Story reprinted in Archie's Super Hero Special #1 digest. 
 



  Adventures of the Jaguar #2
"The Gulliver of the Jungle"
The Jaguar is captured by a band of tiny invaders from space, who intend to conquer the Earth and wipe out the human race.
"The Battle of the Bacteria Brutes"
The Jaguar is shrunken to microbe-size by a scientist’s ray and must battle a host of hostile bacteria creatures.
"The Sinister Space Whale"
In the far north sea, the Jaguar runs afoul of a giant mechanical whale. 
 

Adventures of the Jaguar #3
"The Fourth Dimensional Force" 
As the Jaguar tries to stop an invisible force from destroying buildings on earth, he is recruited by aliens to stop an animal invasion on their planet.
"The Sea Circe from Space"
The Jaguar meets Kree-Nal, an alien who distains ugliness and has the ability to change men into monsters.
"The Nightmare from 2261 A.D."
After inhaling some gas, the Jaguar falls unconscious. When he wakes up, he finds out that he's been asleep for 300 years. He also discovers that the Jaguar is revered in this future world.
Reprinted in Laugh Comics Digest #26.  

Adventures of the Jaguar #4
"The Monster of the Mystery World"
The Jaguar and an Asian prince are taken on a rocket sled to a distant planet, where they learn the secret to an ancient mystery. 

"The Return of Cat Girl"
Art by John Giunta.
Reprinted in Laugh Comics Digest #27.
"The Secret of Jaguar Junction"
The inhabitants of a town which was renamed Jaguar Junction in honor of the hero’s aid have turned into hostile mutants, and the Jaguar must learn the reason why.
Reprinted in Laugh Comics Digest #25
  
Adventures of the Jaguar #5
"The Death-Ray from Space" 
The Jaguar is tricked into bringing a healing ray from an alien world that, in Earth’s environment, turns into a death ray. 

Reprinted in Archie Super Hero Comics Digest #2.
"Champion of the Doomed"
The Jaguar is sent back in time to ancient Greece, where he must perform the twelve labors of Hercules.
"The Jaguar's Future Wife"
The queen of an alien world lands on Earth and tries to brainwash the Jaguar into becoming her consort. 

The Jaguar meets Cat Girl again!


Adventures of the Jaguar #6
"The Cat Girl's Rival"
The Cat Girl, having fallen in love with the Jaguar, tries to employ an ancient Egyptian love potion to gain his favors, but hallucinates that there is another woman in his life...which turns out to be true. 

"The Scourge of the Jaguar"
Cat Girl changes her outfit and appearance to try and win the Jaguar’s heart, but finds it tough going.
"The Fire from Space" 
The Jaguar encounters an animated meteor from space against which his powers seem useless. 



Adventures of the Jaguar #7

"The Day the Jaguar Stopped Fighting"
The Jaguar should be trying to catch rampaging gangs of thieves, but instead all he does is laugh, or eat, or sleep on the job. 

Rosenberger pencils with John Guinta inks. 
"The Jaguar is Missing" 
When the Jaguar appears to be missing in action, Jill Ross calls together Kree-Nal and Cat Girl to take over his duties until he is found.
"Great Outer Space Hunt"
An alien hunter lures the Jaguar to his world to make him the quarry of a hunt.
This story is patterned after Richard O’Connell’s short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”.  
  
Adventures of the Jaguar #8
"The Jaguar's Sixth Sence"
Cat Girl reduces the Jaguar’s senses to merely human standards while activating a rampaging robot, hoping to become a heroine by defeating it...but doesn’t count on the robot bollixing her plans. 

"...A Day In the Life of Ralph Hardy"
The Jaguar must spend an entire day disguised as Ralph Hardy and stopping crimes and disasters without Jill Ross becoming aware of his double identity (which she already knows). 

"A Date With the Jaguar"
Jill Ross (love that name) enrolls in a charm school to try and attract the Jaguar, not knowing it’s run by a pair of swindlers.
 
Adventures of the Jaguar #9
"Time Out for Terror"
The Jaguar encounters a group of weird beasts who have their origins in the future. 

"The Jaguar's Last Stand"
A metallic alien who is out to consume all the iron on Earth strikes down the Jaguar with his cold-vision power, leaving the Jaguar Rescue Team to handle him. 

"The Lady Godiva of Elephants"
Jumbo the elephant appears to have a crush on Jill Ross, but it’s all a scheme of the Jaguar’s.  



Adventures of the Jaguar #10
"The Menace of the Space Pirates"
The Jaguar is summoned by interstellar police to solve the mystery of pirated cargo spaceships.
"The Prehistoric Menace"
Ralph Hardy and two other scientists come upon an island inhabited by dinosaurs and the Jaguar goes into action to protect his friends.
"The Curse of the White Tiger"
The Jaguar teaches a lesson to a rajah who slaughters tigers for sport. 



Adventures of the Jaguar #11
"The Man-Hating Jaguar"
The Jaguar mysteriously turns into an enemy of humanity, and Cat Girl must learn what has caused his personality change.
"The Jinx of Juno"
Ralph Hardy is invited by his cousin aboard a ship voyage intended to mime that which brought their family ancestors to America, defying a supposed curse on the original vessel.  But when it starts to come true, the Jaguar must make an appearance.
"The Monkey In the Moon"
The Jaguar is asked to take a crew of apes to the moon for scientific purposes, and learns that his simian friends have an agenda–and powers–of their own. 

Adventures of the Jaguar #12
"The Girl Who Knew Too Much"
Story continues in the next sequence.
"The Jaguar versus the Mind Monster"
Ralph uses a memory ray on Jill to make her forget about his secret identity. But that ray changes a common thief into a deformed human with massive psionic abilities after being exposed to it for hours.
"The Black Hood Teaches Karate"
Love these instructional articles (like Charlton Comics used to do with JudoMaster.)
"The Giant Jaguar Greeting Cards"
The Jaguar comes to thank a greeting card company for making gigantic cards of him for each holiday. But the cards are a trap set for the hero by an alien race.


Adventures of the Jaguar #13
"Birth of the Cat Gang"
The Jaguar and Cat Girl review their lives and the turns they've taken lately. And a group of cat burglars don cat masks and become The Cat Gang.
Story is continued in the next sequence.
"Jaguar versus the Cat Gang"
Jaguar suspects Cat Girl of being the brains behind the Cat Gang. To prove her innocence and to gain the Jaguar's trust, she puts a plan into effect to capture the would-be cat burglars.
"The Black Hood Teaches Karate"
Feature page on karate with Rosenberger art.
"The Menace of the Winged Bull"
The Jaguar journeys to Iran to investigate a band of marauding Black Knights who use a winged bull to rob the townsfolk.

Adventures of the Jaguar #14
"Kick of the Month Club"
Lydia Fellin convinces Ralph Hardy to come join a jet-setters club called "Kick Of The Month" -- a group dedicated to foolhardy and life threatening stunts
"The Jaguar's Sinister Safari"
As Ralph and Lydia begin a relationship while on a safari with the "Kick Of The Month" Club, Ralph -- as the Jaguar-- is determined to break up the club once and for all.
"Black Hood Teaches Karate"
Feature page on karate by Bernstein & Rosenberger.
"The Teen-Age Jaguar"
After being turned into a teenager for 24 hours by a youth ray, the teenaged Jaguar stops a gang of young hoods from going bad.

Adventures of the Jaguar #15
Nice John Giunta cover for the final issue.
"Mutiny on the  Doomsday"
The Jaguar must protect a crew of actors from the life-threatening demands of a tyrannical movie director. 

"Prisoner of the Prehistoric Gangsters"
The Jaguar is stranded in prehistoric times with a gang of crooks. 

"The Jaguar vs the Human Octopus"
The radiations of a giant black pearl change a crook into a Human Octopus with the power of all sea life, with which he challenges the Jaguar.

Art by John Giunta.



You will also want to check out Pep #140-150 & Laugh Comics 127-144, which featured short 6-pagers of the Jaguar, the Fly and Fly Girl.

This is what the Silver Age was all about. I hope you enjoy The Adventures of the Jaguar! Fun stuff!


Live Large My Friends!

Thank You!


1 comment:

  1. Now THOSE are comic book super hero stories! What fun. What a wild origin and set of powers.

    ReplyDelete