GREAT BEAST OF THE DEVIL

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Unrevealed (see comments)

Occupation: Predator

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Balu, Trojak, unidentified African tribe

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Belgian Congo

First Appearance: Daring Mystery Comics#3/6 (April 1940)

Powers/Abilities: The Great Beast is exceptionally large and presumably exceptionally strong. It has huge fangs and a sharp nasal horn which it can use to attack enemies. It also has extremely thick, stone-hard scales that render it impervious to most human hand-held melee weapons.

Height: 12'
Length: (without tail) 24'; (with tail) 36'
Weight: 48000 lbs. (by estimation) (see comments)
Eyes: Green
Hair: None
Scales: Green (see comments)

 History:
Daring Mystery Comics#3/6 (fb) - BTS) - A massive predator dubbed by the natives of the Belgian Congo as the Great Beast of the Devil, began preying on a local village. Making its lair in a cave nearby, each morning it would steal into the village to take away a villager to devour; when the natives tried to attack it, it easily killed its assailants. In desperation the natives sent for their friend Trojak the Tiger Man. 

(Daring Mystery Comics#3/6) - A few weeks later Trojak arrived. The next morning, when the Beast came to the village for its meal, it found the adventurer and his tiger friend Balu lying in wait. The Beast lunged for the man, but he dodged aside, and while Balu held the Beast's attention by roaring at it, Trojak leapt onto the monster's back and attempted to stab it with his hunting knife. However the blow glanced harmlessly off the creature's thick scales, as did Balu's teeth and claws. Though uninjured, the defiance perturbed the Beast, who elected to abandon its breakfast hunt, and sloped off back to its cave.

   While the Beast started to slumber, Trojak and his native allies tracked it to the cave. Leaving the natives outside to prepare a trap of his devising, Trojak entered the cave to confront the sleepy animal. Spotting it, Trojak let out a deafening yell, briefly startling it before it realized it was facing only a single human. Angered by having its home invaded, the Beast began lumbering after Trojak as he fled outside, following him as he ran past a giant tree whose base the natives had partially cut through. As the Beast passed the tree, the natives heaved on several ropes they had tied round the tree higher up, causing it to topple onto the Beast and crushing it to death.

Comments: Created by Joe Simon.

   Given no formal name in the story, the name here, the Great Beast of the Devil, is how the natives it was preying on described it. The nature of the creature is uncertain; the story's text narration describes it as a prehistoric mammal, but it also has scales, which are more commonly associated with reptiles or dinosaurs. I'm guessing it's either a dinosaur species that survived in the region (we've seen evidence of other dinosaur species in the area in titles such as Punisher War Journal), or it might be Deviant mutate, as with so many monsters round the world.

   Though the creature's scales are definitely green in the Masterworks reprint, in the original comic they look closer to a muddy brown. In terms of estimating its dimensions, we have a couple of shots where it is standing facing off against Trojak, who is 6'2", and it look at least twice his height (see lower left image); the only full body image (see above left) seems to show a body twice the length of its height, with a thin tail about half that. In terms of bodily proportions, though an imperfect match, the closest real world animal I can think of would be a hippo. Using the measurements I can find for hippos' average height and weight then provides a weight estimate for the Great Beast. However, with all these estimates being used one on top of the other, it should be remembered that the final figures above are very much speculative.

   This profile was completed 09/04/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Great Beast of the Devil has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Daring Mystery Comics#3/6 , p3, pan1 (main image)
Daring Mystery Comics#3/6 , p4, pan2 (full body)
Daring Mystery Comics#3/6 , p5, pan4 (death)
Daring Mystery Comics#3/6 , p5, pan2 (size comparison shot)

Appearances:
Daring Mystery Comics#3/6 (April 1940) - Joe Simon (writer, art), Martin Goodman (believed to be editor)

First Posted: 09/08/2021
Last updated: 09/06/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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