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RHAYA

Real Name: Rhaya

Identity/Class: Possibly Inhumans (see comments); pre-Cataclysmic era (circa 50,000 BC)

Occupation: Unrevealed (possibly royalty, see comments)

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Ak

Enemies: Gholla, Gru, Kadir, Kag

Known Relatives: Tuk (son), Phadion (husband)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Prehistoric wilds of 50,000 BC
formerly: Attilan of 50,000 BC

First Appearance: Captain America Comics#1/6 (March, 1941)

Powers/Abilities: It's very well possible that Rhaya possessed superhuman powers, however she did not displayed any.

Height: Unrevealed (see comments)
Weight: Unrevealed (see comments)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Black

History:
(Captain America Comics#1/6 (fb) - BTS) - Rhaya and her husband Phadion had been banished by Kadir from Attilan (known as the Island of the Gods) for unrevealed reasons.

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(Captain America Comics#1/6 (fb)) - Rhaya, Phadion and their baby were dropped off by a boat in the wilds of the mainland, and they forced to fend for themselves. Phadion cursed Kadir and swore that they would get back to Attilan. While still on the shore, the couple was attacked by Gholla, a wooly rhinoceros. After an intense battle, Phadion was killed by the dying animal. Grief stricken, Rhaya was surprised by the attack of the lion-wolf Kag. But before the animal could get to her and the baby, they were whisked away by Ak, one of the ancient Shaggy Ones. Using a vine to swing the mother and child to safety, Ak brought Rhaya and her baby to the rock country beyond the forest where they sought refuge in a cave.

    Ak treated the beautiful Rhaya like a goddess, as he took care of her and the baby. When Ak was away on one of his food runs, the lion called Gru discovered their cave and killed Rhaya. Horrified when he returned, Ak mustered all his strength to push a boulder on Gru that killed him. He then decided to raise the baby, which he called Tuk.

Comments: Created by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon (writers), Jack Kirby (pencils) - see comments

    Captain America Comics#1/6 called Attilan the "Island of the Gods", and that Tuk would search for it to reclaim a lost throne. That's enough to make one believe Rhaya and Phadion were of royal descent and possibly overthrown by Kadir. As Rhaya and Phadion were believed to be gods, they would likely be bigger than normal humans, Tuk's profile in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe states his height and weight as 5'9" & 129 lbs, which seem rather big for the average human child.

    Before MARVEL UNIVERSE (short lived, seven issue marvel series from 1998) was canceled, I had plans to reintroduce Tuk the Caveboy. -- Roger Stern.

    The reference to Attilan as the place from which Tuk, Phadion and Rhaya had been banished has led to speculation that they were Inhumans. The big problem is that the Inhumans were first developed by the Kree roughly 25,000 years ago, or 23,000 BC ...which would be 25,000-27,000 after the time of Tuk's adventures. Maybe they were banished backward in time? -- Snood.

Here's how the Golden Age Captain America Omnibus HC credits the Tuk stories in Cap Comics #1-5 (information courtesy of Jeph York):

#1 - by Jack Kirby
#2 - art by Al Gabriele* & unknown
#3 - art by Mac Raboy*
#4 - art by unknown with Al Gabriele*
#5 - title page pencils by Jack Kirby, title page inks by Joe Simon, pencils by Al Avison*, inks by Al Gabriele* 

* It was not industry standard in the Golden Age of comics to provide detailed credits for each strip. The artists worked with an ever-changing studio of assistants and secondary artists, while writers often did not sign their name to their work. The stories in this volume were produced by the Simon & Kirby studio and may have included varying levels of work by the creators cited as well as others:

Al Avison, Fred Bell, Martin Burstein, Reed Crandall, Howard Ferguson, Harry Fisk, Al Gabriele, Fred Guardineer, Ernie Hart, Chu Hing, William Clayton King, Bernard Klein, Mort Meskin, George Roussos, Gustav Schrotter, Syd Shores & C.A. Winter

Profile by MarvellousLuke

CLARIFICATIONS:
Rhaya has no known connections to:

Kag


    Kag was a pre-historic lion-wolf that was attracted by the scent of blood that came from Phadion's and Gholla's bodies after they battled to the death. When seeing Rhaya and her baby the lion-wolf attacked the woman in the hopes of an easy prey. She, however was saved from Kag's jaws by Ak, the last of the Shaggy Ones.

--Captain America Comics#1/6 (fb)

 

 

Gru


    Gru was a lion much feared by the pre-historic tribes, Ak, the last of the Shaggy Ones was one of these creatures who had always feared Gru. The lion was seen attacking and killing Rhaya who had sought refuge in a cave. When Ak returned from a food run to find Rhaya's dead body, he gathered all his strength and courage and faced Gru. He killed him by dropping an enormous boulder on him.

--Captain America Comics#1/6 (fb)

 

images: (without ads)
Captain America Comics#1, p59, pan2 (main image)
Captain America Comics#1, p59, pan3 (closeup)
Captain America Comics#1, p61, pan4 (dies)

Appearances:
Captain America Comics#1/6 (March, 1941) - Jack Kirby & Joe Simon (writers), Jack Kirby (pencils) - see comments

Last updated: 07/05/14

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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