Humans are social beings, and living in isolation is extremely difficult for us. It is unthinkable for humans to exist alone for the rest of their lives or to live in a world without other humans. Kamandi is a young child who must survive as the last man on Earth in a planet populated by hybrid creatures.
‘Kamandi: the last boy on Earth,’ created by Jack Kirby, chronicles the adventures of a young boy as he navigates a planet filled with frightening animal hybrids who have taken over as the dominant species.
Buddy Blank, a Global Peace Agency officer who was one of the first to stop this hybrid takeover from happening, raised him. Let us take a look at Kamandi’s first appearance in a comic book and discover more about the Earth’s last boy!
The comic book introduction explored
The very first issue of the Kamandi comics book was published in 1972 and was titled ‘Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth. It was divided into three segments, namely, ‘The Last Boy on Earth,’ ‘A Wolf,’ and ‘The Royal City Kennels.’
In the first segment, a sixteen-year-old Kamandi travels on a raft in a post-apocalyptic world as he assesses the damage to life and property all around him. After traveling for days, he finally comes across other human survivors of the Great Disaster, but they all shun him and run away. The Great Disaster was an event in the future that destroyed human society and left all humans as mindless beings while animals became the dominant species. Kamandi is supposedly the lone survivor- ‘the last man on Earth who can still survive in this post-apocalyptic world.
As Kamandi stands and observes the world around him that has been destroyed, he hears an explosion in the direction of their bunker compound known as ‘Command-D.’ He had lived in this bunker with his grandfather, Buddy Blank, for his entire life and was even born in the same place. Buddy Blank was one of the humanoids who had traveled to this parallel Earth years before the Great Disaster in order to prevent it from taking place. However, in the current scenario, Buddy had retired to live in an army compound with his grandson, Kamandi, who was named after the compound ‘Command-D’ where they lived.
In the second segment of the story titled ‘A Wolf’, Kamandi rushes to their bunker after the explosion, when he comes across two wolf-men. The intruders were going through their belongings and stealing vital documents from their bunker. He also comes across his grandfather, who lies dead on the bunker floor. He points his gun at the intruders and while one of them escapes, Kamandi realizes that he is now facing to face a Wolf Man.
The Wolf Man is shocked to come across a human who can understand words and even wield a gun, while Kamandi launches into an attack on his grandfather’s murderer. The two struggle for quite some time, but Kamandi finally kills him off by electrocuting him in water. After avenging his grandfather’s death, he decides to leave the bunker and never return.
However, this is only the beginning of his troubles as he soon ends up in a fight between Tiger-Men and Leopard-Men on his journey. Kamandi ends up getting caught by the Tiger-Men, who hold him hostage in a kennel and bring him to the Royal City. He passes through this city of tigers and watches in silence as the other human hostages around him fight each other for some food in the kennels. He eventually loses his cool and gets into a fight with Great Caesar, the leader of the Tiger-Men. Kamandi then breaks out of the kennels and comes across a gathering in the city, where the Tiger-Men have gathered to honor ‘Doctor Canus.’
Doctor Canus was a dog-man who had been taking care of a nuclear weapon that was salvaged during the great disaster. Canus also conducts experiments for the Tiger Men and helps them take care of their hostages. Kamandi initially tries to attack Canus, but the dog-man gets a hold of Kamandi and offers to help him out. Canus promises to do all he can to save Kamandi and even asks the Tiger-Men to let the young man stay. He further makes a case for Kamandi and says that he just needs to be trained and requests to take Kamandi as his subject for ‘animal behavior study.
Canus takes Kamandi to his laboratory, where he introduces the young man to ‘Ben Boxer,’ a mutant whose body has been modified to perform superhuman tasks. Ben’s outer body is radioactive and can glow in the dark, and he even has a mechanical heart that also functions as an atom smasher. Kamandi immediately warms up to Ben and is relieved to know that he is not alone now that he has found someone who at least looks human.
In the second issue of Kamandi, titled ‘Year of the Rat,’ Kamandi fights the Tiger Men who captured him and brought him to the Royal City. Can then has no option but to send him away, and the dog-man also sends Ben Boxer to accompany Kamandi. The two men leave Royal City and soon run into a group of Rat Men who imprison the duo. Eventually, they fight the Rat Men and manage to break free.
Over the next few issues, Kamandi becomes friends with Canus and Ben Boxer, and the trio goes on many adventures together. They also face many different hybrid animal species, ranging from Gorilla Men to Rat Men.
Jack Kirby created the Kamandi comics after DC’s editor ‘Carmine Infantino’ could not get a license to make a ‘Planet of the Apes comic series. Infantino wanted to release a comic with a concept similar to ‘Planet of the Apes,’ and Kirby had a storyline for Kamandi in his drafts that could be edited to create such a comic. All these things finally combined to create the ‘Kamandi: Last Boy on the Earth’ comics.
Kamandi’s appearance in Batman: the Brave and the Bold
Kamandi was also written into the ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’ animated TV series, where he was voiced by American actor Mikey Kelley. In season one, he was first introduced in an episode titled ‘Dawn of the Dead Man,’ where Batman travels to the future and comes across Kamandi.
Batman seeks Kamandi’s and Dr. Canus’s help to create a vaccine that could prevent the Great Disaster. This incident had caused many animals to mutate into hybrid forms and take over the Earth, and Batman was looking for a vaccine that could undo the crisis. While they worked on the vaccine, Batman was attacked by a group of hybrid Rat Men, and Kamandi helped Batman escape the hybrid monsters.
In the episode titled ‘Last Bat on Earth,’ Kamandi rescues Tuftan from the midst of yet another conflict caused due to the Great Disaster. He then worked with Batman and Tuftan to resolve the military conflict between the Ape Men and Tiger Men.
Kamandi also appeared in the second season’s finale episode titled ‘The Malicious Mr.Mind’, where he gets into a fight with the infamous mutant ‘Misfit.’ Kamandi and Dr. Canus used the extremely powerful 5-5 Module as an energy source to defeat Misfit, which resulted in them traveling through time and ending up in Gotham City in the 21st century. They meet Batman here, while Misfit also shows up in the 21st century in search of Kamandi.
Finally, Kamandi goes up against the Joker in the episode ‘Joker: The Vile and the Villainous’ when Joker sides with Misfit to attack Kamandi.
The last survivor as seen in the DC Showcase
Kamandi does not have many storylines that only focus on him, and he mainly was included as a side character as seen in series such as Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Finally, ‘DC Showcase: Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth’ animated short was released in 2021, and there was a story that focused solely on the last survivor on Earth. The short managed to capture the essence of Jack Kirby’s works in the Kamandi comics and was quite an entertaining watch.
Right from the opening scene that paid tribute to the comic’s cover, the movie incorporated all elements of the Kamandi comics that take the viewers for a nostalgic ride back to the 1970s. The story focuses on Kamandi in a world where the Great Disaster has already occurred, and the young man seems to be searching for his friend, Prince Tuftan. Kamandi manages to locate Tuftan and even rescue him from his captors, only for the duo to fall right into the path of a gorilla cult that kidnaps them both.
The gorillas throw them into a carriage and take them to their leader when Kamandi finds his friend ‘Ben Boxer’ among the other hostages in the carriage. They finally reach the cult’s base and are taken to their leader, Golgan, who is in search of ‘The Mighty One.
Here, Kamandi and the rest of the hostages are made to participate in a series of trials to test their survival abilities. Finally, Kamandi has to fight a mighty beast, and upon succeeding, he is named the ‘Mighty One’. He is also given Superman’s cape, and Kamandi refuses to wear the cape or accept the title of the Mighty One. Instead, he sets out on his own to look for Superman and find a way to restore the world.
What makes him so special?
Kamandi has many special powers and abilities, but what makes him special is his incredible survival instinct. He has the ability to survive in just about any condition, no matter what universe or timeline he shows up in. He also grew up in a military compound and was trained in military combat as well as karate.
Moreover, Kamandi is also quite handy with technology and has a lot of knowledge about the workings of mechanics, electronics, or heavy machinery. He is one of the most knowledgeable humans in the world and is always curious about the world’s workings. Along with his inquisitive nature, Kamandi is also very intelligent and decisive. Kamandi has commendable physical strength, and he can even defeat a gorilla with just his hands. He is also well-trained in physical combat and can fight anyone without any use of weapons.
Conclusion
As a lone boy in a world full of dangerous animals, Kamandi is a kind-spirited hero who navigates the Earth alone and makes allies on a lonely planet. He has been on many adventures, and Kamandi always looks out for others who are in need of his assistance. He has a lot of fighting spirit, and he always keeps going forward regardless of the conditions!