Miles Keston (pre-modern character; "Bast" character)

MILES KESTON

Real Name: Miles Keston

Identity/Class: Human magic-user, circa 1953;
UK citizen

Occupation: Bookstore owner/partner

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: "Bast" (see comments);
formerly Walter Prelle

Enemies: "Bast," Walter Prelle

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: London, England

First Appearance: Uncanny Tales#14/6 (November, 1953)

Powers/Abilities: Miles Keston demonstrated no skills beyond knowledge of rare books. He studied the Black Book of Bast and obtained some experience in sympathetic magic ( using a "voodoo doll").

History:
(Uncanny Tales#14/6 (fb) - BTS) - For 20 years, Miles Keston shared an apartment and co-owned a musty little bookshop in a London side street with Walter Prelle. Walter was senior partner, and Miles came to resent him for taking care of the money and forcing them to live below their means. The resentment grew to hatred, and Miles even wished to kill Walter, but feared getting caught too much to ever go through with it.

(Uncanny Tales#14/6 (fb) - BTS) - Walter knew of Miles hatred, but he hated Miles even more so. Knowing how Miles' mind worked, he hired a stranger to sell Miles the Black Book of Bast.

(Uncanny Tales#14/6) - Miles was impressed with the book, but Walter dismissed it as worthless, as most people didn't believe in the occult. Walter convinced him to keep the book himself since no one else would want it, and Miles angrily agreed to take it, to touch it up and mend it, and then to sell it.
    As they walked home that night, Miles dwelled on how much he hated Walter. That night when he touched the book while wishing he could kill Walter with impunity, the Book suddenly opened by itself. Miles saw that the open page was -- unlike the rest of the book -- made of human skin, and he read its passages, which told of how to kill a man by making a doll in his image. Fascinated, Miles read the book all night long, then tested it out with a minor spell in which he held one of Walter's socks over a dying candle and muttered an incantation. A foul wind swept through the room and Miles seemed to see a crocodile head in the shadows. When Walter got up, he complained of a terrible pain in his foot, and sent Miles to open the shop without him.
    Pleased with his success, Miles began assembling a doll, using bits of Walter's clothing, fingernails, hair, etc., and each day it began to look more like Walter. When the doll was completed, Miles followed the next instruction to find a pin in darkness (the only kind of pin that could inflict and exchange the pain of death). After three nights of searching, he found a pin in the filth of a Soho alley at midnight. Wishing to torture his enemy before killing him, Miles scratched the pin across the doll's arm, and Walter cried out and came out of his room holding his bleeding arm.
    Waiting until Walter fell back to sleep, Miles then grabbed the doll, ran into Walters room, called on Bast for power, and then began plunging the pin into the doll. Walter, however, then arose and revealed that he had controlled Miles the whole time, controlling his every move, his feelings, his mind, and his sight. The doll had actually been made in Miles image!
    Miles collapsed as pain lanced through his vital organs, and he fell screaming. The last thing he saw before dying was the image of his partner's face...the face of a crocodile.

Comments: Stan Lee is credited as editor for the book, and Joe Sinnott as penciler and inker, according to the Grand Comics Database, but I'm not sure if Stan or someone else would have written it:
http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=10905

The Uncanny Tales story was reprinted in Tomb of Darkness#17.

WTF is up with Bast?

As seen here: Bast was a cat god, and was never really involved in black magic. More recently, Bast has been revealed to be Wakanda's Panther God.

The easiest explanation would be considering it an error, in which the writer just didn't do good enough research. But that's not the No-Prize method!

I think this being was more likely the offspring of Set-spawn Damballah. Once worshipped, perhaps, by a cult of Wakandans dwelling near Serpent Valley (African equivalent of the Savage Land). Only to have those cultists driven into exile by the Panther and White Gorilla cults, way back in time immemorial.
--Carycomic

Some sources say that Bast was revered by practitioners of witchcraft, but I have never seen a reference to Bast being crocodile-headed or of being associated with black magic.
There are a few other Egyptian gods associated with crocodiles

Ahemait (possibly the Devourer) was the most malevolent of these and may be the most likely suspect.
From this site: http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/egyptian-mythology.php?deity=AMMIT
AMMIT: Also known as AMMAM, AMEMAIT, AMMUT, AHEMAIT The Devourer of Souls. She's a demonic Goddess who is part hippo, part croc and part lion, a scary combination that's put to good use when a soul's judgment day comes.She lurks under the Scales of Justice while OSIRIS, THOTH and MAAT weigh up the evidence. If your soul is deemed unworthy, she pops out and gobbles it up.

Sobek/Sebek was the crocodile god. He was fed the hearts of sinners. The Greeks called him Suchos. Sobek was basically for crocodiles what Bast was for cats. Worshippers of Sobek mummified crocodiles and buried them in his sanctuaries.
From: http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/egyptian-mythology.php?deity=SEBEK
SEBEK: Also known as SOBEK, SOCHET, SUCHOS Crocodile God of Might and Power. But only where pharaohs are concerned. The rest of us have to fight our own battles. SEBEK is depicted as a large crocodile, and has all the dangerous attributes you might expect: cunning, treachery, deceit and sharp pointy teeth.
His biggest shrine was located in the city of Crocodilopolis.

Taweret - only had the tail of a crocodile, not the head
from: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/taweret.htm
TAWERET (Taueret, Taurt, Toeris, Ipy, Ipet, Apet, Opet, Reret) - The Great Female - was the ancient Egyptian goddess of maternity and childbirth, protector of women and children. Like Bes, she was both a fierce demonic fighter as well as a popular deity who guarded the mother and her newborn child. She was depicted as a combination of a crocodile, a pregnant hippopotamus standing on her hind legs with large breasts and a lion. Unlike the composite demoness Ammut, her head and body were that of the hippo, her paws were that of the lion, and her back was the back of a crocodile. All of these animals were man killers, and as such she was a demoness.

Zen Harawada notes that Sekhmet was noted as "one of great magic" so maybe it was a frame job?

In addition, the "voodoo" aspect of this would fit more with the Loa, such as Dam-Ayido (Damballah) or his twin brother, Sagbata (Baron Samedi). Perhaps a god from another pantheon impersonated Bast (and took on an inaccurate appearance)

I vote that it was Ahemait, possibly in an alliance with Sagbata, who took advantage of Bast's good name to draw others into black magic

Thanks to Zen and Will U for help on some myth information on this one.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:

other spite old British coots who try to use black magic to kill their business partners

"Bast"

The apparent power behind the Black Book of Bast, it was allegedly an ancient god with the head of a crocodile. It may or may not have actually possessed Walter Krelle, or actually taken his form.

See comments

--Uncanny Tales#14/6

Black Book of Bast

An ancient text printed on papyrus, it contained at least one page made of human skin. This page of how to kill a man by making a doll in his image. Under some circumstances, the book would respond to the touch of its holder, for instance opening to the above page when its holder wanted to secretly kill someone.

It presumably drew power from "Bast" (see comments)

--Uncanny Tales#14/6

Walter Prelle

The senior partner of Miles Keston in ownership of a bookstore, knew of Miles hatred, but he hated Miles even more so. Knowing how Miles' mind worked, he hired a stranger to sell Miles the Black Book of Bast. He controlled Miles the whole time, controlling his every move, his feelings, his mind, and his sight. While Miles made a "voodoo doll" to kill him, Krelle actually duped Miles into making a doll of himself. He seemed to suffer injuries from Miles use of the doll, but when Miles made the fatal stroke and unwittingly killed himself, Krelle revealed his involvement. As Miles died, Krelle's face took on the crocodilian appearance of "Bast."

--Uncanny Tales#14/6 (14/6 (fb) - BTS

images: (story (not including framing) pages, without ads)
Uncanny Tales#14/6, p1, panel 1 (Prelle)
    p2, panel 2 (Keston)
        panel 4 (Book)
    p4, panel 6 (doll)
        panel 8 ("Bast")

Other Appearances:

First Posted: 11/20/2006
Last updated: 11/19/2006

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters