GOLDEN PEOPLE

Identity/Class: Terrestrial (Savage Land), presumptive human variants

Known Members: Nuba, Sagyr

Affiliations: Brainstorm (Valeria Richards), Dax, Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Woman/Susan Storm Richards, Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm), Ka-Zar (Kevin Plunder), Matt Plunder, Powerhouse (Franklin Richards), Shanna the She-Devil (Shanna O'Hara)

Enemies: Plunderer, Prah'd'gul, Quor, Reptile-Men, Swamp Men (Rojash, others)

Aliases: Possibly the Mordrees (or that may be a tribe within the Golden People)

Base of Operations: Savage Land, Antarctica

First Appearance: Marvel Super-Heroes II#19 (March, 1969)

Powers/Abilities: Having a hunter/gatherer society, the Golden People wore light body armor and used energy weapons (apparently given to them by Ka-Zar).

They possessed golden skin (...or they could just be wearing body paint), but demonstrated no superhuman powers.

History:
The Golden People may be one of the races mutated by the Atlanteans who once ran Pangea (prior to the Great Cataclysm), but there is no evidence to support or refute this.

(Marvel Super-Heroes II#19 (fb) - BTS) - The Golden People and their chieftain Sagyr were longtime friends of Ka-Zar, who apparently gave them advanced technology and weaponry from an unrevealed source.

   After the extraterrestrial Quor arrived in the Savage Land, he sent the Reptile-Men to drive the Golden People from their village, so that the Reptile-Men could claim their stores of Anti-Metal (Antarctic Vibranium) for Quor.

(Marvel Super-Heroes II#19) - Lookouts for the Golden People reported to Sagyr that more outsiders (Plunderer, Vanessa, Mr. Marlowe) were entering the Savage Land. They planned to capture these invaders, assuming them to be responsible for the unwarranted attacks on their tribes.

   Some of the Golden People found Ka-Zar after he had apparently been beaten by the camouflaged Reptile-Men (see comments), and they brought him to Sagyr to recover. Sagyr told Ka-Zar of the attacks by the Reptile-Men, so the jungle lord went to investigate.

   Meanwhile, Sagyr unwittingly welcomed the Plunderer as a friend of Ka-Zar, and he and others of his tribe were blasted by a stun ray for their hospitality.

   However, Ka-Zar defeated Quor and drove off the Reptile-Men, presumably allowing the Golden People to return to their land.

SECRET WARS III HAPPENED

(Fantastic Four: The Prodigal Sun#1) - Ka-Zar and Shanna allied with the Golden People to stop the Swamp Men and their new powerful extraterrestrial ally Prah'd'gul, who was looking for a spaceship to leave Earth again, to reach the High Evolutionary's tower and the technologies within it. While Prah'd'gul aided the Swamp Men in battle, the Swamp Men's own chieftain Rojash abandoned them to steal one of the High Evolutionary's weapons. The Fantastic Four, alerted to the situation by Ka-Zar, arrived to aid Ka-Zar and the Golden People, but Prah'd'gul became annoyed and trapped allies and enemies alike in a hurricane created by him. Matt Plunder and Valeria arrived on the former's flying dinosaur Dax to tell Prah'd'gul that there was no spaceship inside the tower, which Prah'd'gul confirmed by reading Valeria's mind. Shortly after realizing that Rojash had lied to him, Rojash turned up with a high-tech weapon he had found inside the tower and fired it at Prah'd'gul, who was saved by Ka-Zar. Rojash then killed two Golden People before turning his attention to the Fantastic Four. He fired at them, but Invisible Woman's force field deflected the beam and Rojash got killed by his own shot. The remaining Swamp Men fled and the battle was over.

Comments: Created by Arnold Drake, Steve Parkhouse, George Tuska, and Sid Greene.

It really wasn't made clear if it really was the Reptile-Men who attacked Ka-Zar -- Sagyr himself told Ka-Zar that it may have been some overzealous Golden People--put on the defensive by the recent attacks--rather than the Reptile-Men.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Golden People have no known connection to:

Nuba should not be confused with:

Sagyr has no known connections to:

Nuba

Apparently a traitor to his people, Nuba was more than willing to act as a guide for the Plunderer so that he could rob the Golden People of their supply of Anti-Metal.

Either he was overthrown by Sagyr, or he was chief of a separate tribe--the Mordrees--within the larger Golden People.

(Comment: The Plunderer first referred to Nuba as "chief of the Mordrees"; but immediately after, he then stated that Nuba's tribe was the Golden People, so Mordrees may be another name for the Golden People. And if you look closely by his mouth, Nuba seemed to have the habit of smoking cigars.)

--Marvel Super-Heroes II#19

Sagyr

Chieftain of the Golden People, he had become somewhat defensive after a series of attacks from the Reptile-Men.

Still, he welcomed Ka-Zar as an old friend, but made the mistake of doing the same with Ka-Zar's brother, the Plunderer, who blasted him and his tribe-mates into unconsciousness.

--Marvel Super-Heroes II#19

Sagyr is also pictured centrally in the main image

images: (without ads)
Marvel Super-Heroes II#19/1, p12, pan5 (main image - Sagyr [center] and other Golden People)
Marvel Super-Heroes II#19/1, p18, pan1 (Sagyr and Golden People, being blasted by Plunderer's ray)
Fantastic Four: The Prodigal Sun#1, p14, pan1 (allied with Ka-Zar and Shanna)
Marvel Super-Heroes II#19/1, p10, pan1 (Nuba)
Marvel Super-Heroes II#19/1, p10, pan2 (Nuba)
Marvel Super-Heroes II#19/1, p14, pan5 (Sagyr)
Marvel Super-Heroes II#19/1, p17, pan5 (Sagyr [left] speaks with Plunderer; unidentified Golden People tribe-mate [background])

Appearances:
Marvel Super-Heroes II#19/1 (March, 1969) - Arnold Drake & Steve Parkhouse (writers), George Tuska (pencils), Sid Green (inks), Sam Rosen (letters), Stan Lee (editor), Roy Thomas (associate editor)
Fantastic Four: The Prodigal Sun#1 (September, 2019) - Peter David (writer), Francesco Manna (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 12/27/2003
Last updated: 03/27/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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