HUSU KO

Real Name: Husu Ko

Identity/Class: Human madman (Post-World War II era)
   citizen of North Korean

Occupation: Madman;
    former spy, hermit

Affiliations: None; formerly Mairavian Secret Police (see comments)

Enemies: Gow Tuh, Mairavian Secret Police

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: A Man Alone

Base of Operations: Tai-Pen, Laiguo;
    formerly a shack in the mountains of North Korea

First Appearance: Journey into Mystery I#16/3 (June, 1954)

Powers/Abilities: Husu Ko was completely mad, but he still possessed a good deal of cunning. He knew how to utilize different types of poisons and was armed with a knife.

History: (Journey into Mystery I#16/3) - Husu Ko lived for years as a hermit in North Korea. One day the Mairavian Secret Police showed up at his cottage and drafted him into a spy mission. Ko was chosen to spy on Tai-Pen because he resembled that village's local idiot Gow Tuh, and thus his presence in the village would go undetected. The Secret Police's psychiatrists put him through a battery of tests to teach him to look, act and think like an idiot. Once Husu Ko replaced Gow Tuh he was truly mad, no longer feeling responsible for his actions. He killed any Mairavian agents he caught stranded in Tai-Pen and began sending erroneous intelligence to the Secret Police. When the Secret Police came to Tai-Pen to check on him he drugged and murdered them.

Comments: Created by an unnamed writer and Al Eadeh.

This story was reprinted in Tomb of Darkness#10.

The original story, printed in Journey into Mystery I#16 (June, 1954), did not mention Mairavia, only North Korea. Presumably the reprint in Tomb of Darkness I#10 (September, 1974) substituted "Mairavia" for "North Korea," much like other Atlas era reprints substituted Bodavia for USSR/Soviet Union/Russia.
--Ronald Byrd

The Marvel Atlas' entry for Korea confirms this story as 616.
--David A. Zuckerman

PROFILE BY FUTURE

CLARIFICATIONS:
Husu Ko, aka A Man Alone has known connection to:

Gow Tuh

Village idiot of Tai-Pen. The Mairavian Secret Police murdered him, and put Husu Ko in his place.

--Journey into Mystery I#16/3

 

 

Mairavian Secret Police

They needed a spy in the village of Tai-Pen, so they recruited Hosu Ko and put him in the place of that town's local idiot Gow Tuh. The intelligence Husu Ko sent them led to disastrous campaigns, so they returned to Tai-Pen to see what the problem was. The now insane Husu Ko drugged and murdered them.

--Journey into Mystery I#16/3

 

 

 

 

images:
Journey into Mystery I#16/3, p3, pan4 (main)
Journey into Mystery I#16/3, p4, pan2 (Gow Tu)
Journey into Mystery I#16/3, p1, pan3 (Mairavian Secret Police)

Appearances:
Journey into Mystery I#16/3 (June, 1954) - Al Eadeh (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Tomb of Darkness#10 (September, 1974) - reprint

First Posted: 09/20/2004
Last updated: 09/22/2015

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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