History
Emperor Kamuu was a human who lived and died about 20,000 years ago. He was the last ruler of the Empire of Atlantis and ruled from the domed capital city also known as Atlantis.[1]
Little has been revealed about Kamuu's reign, including how he came to the throne. It is known that his wife, Queen Zartra, was a Lemurian[1] from the Lemurian Isles who had come to Atlantis as a refugee[2] after her homeland fell to the military forces of the Deviants who ruled the Lemurian continent. Atlantis was the last stronghold of human freedom and the Deviant Empire was determined that it too would fall before them.[3]
At some point after Kamuu married Zartra, the sorceress Zhered-Na began to prophesy that the continent of Atlantis would soon sink beneath the ocean. The emperor twice warned her to cease her "mad" preachings or face exile but Zhered-Na refused and so was brought to trial before Kamuu for the crime of blasphemy. Although Zartra advised her to recant so that her husband would spare his wrath, Zhered-Na insisted that her words were true so the enraged Kamuu banished her from Atlantis. Set adrift in a small boat with little food, Zhered-Na spent weeks at sea before reaching the Thurian continent where she established a temple and gathered a cult of followers.[4]
Sometime later, three strangers (Son of Satan, Katherine Reynolds, and Byron Hyatt) who had appeared from out of nowhere on the deck of an Atlantean fishing boat were brought before Emperor Kamuu and his court. When one of them revealed that they were seekers from a faraway land who had come to ask the counsel of the seeress Zhered-Na, Kamuu informed him that Zhered-Na was a traitor whom he had banished for her blasphemous prediction. Zartra stated her opinion that the strangers were as mad as Zhered-Na and suggested that they should be immediately banished since the Atlanteans could not afford such people among them during their war with Lemuria. Kamuu agreed and ordered them to be set adrift in a boat without provisions but, when he attempted to retain possession of the trident that had been taken from one of the prisoners, Hellstrom reclaimed his trident and used it to create a wall of flames that enabled he and his companions to escape from the Atlantean guards and the domed city of Atlantis.[5]
Only hours later, the capital city was attacked by Deviant airships manned by human mercenaries from the Lemurian Isles while the Muvian navy waited outside the city's harbor. As Kamuu spoke of how the attackers gave them no rest, Zartra assured him that her sword and her heart would ever be as one with his. Just then, a Lemurian airship carrying a small group of mercenaries entered the tower, shattering a window as it did. Kamuu was attacked by Tsobor but he swiftly killed the Lemurian and hurled his body out of the tower, then aided Zartra against the rest of the mercenaries and quickly slew them. However, the philosopher Ocar then drew their attention to a weirdling machine that another team of invaders had set up that was meant to shatter the city's great dome. Realizing that the destruction of the dome would ensure that the realm fell, Kamuu decided to use the Serpents' Heads against them. Zartra reminded him of the danger but Kamuu insisted that they had no other choice and activated the mechanisms that redirected magma from beneath the city upwards and out through the jaws of the Serpents' Heads and onto all of the invaders on and around the dome. With all of the enemy forces swept away on a tide of hellfire, the city appeared to have been saved but then the scientist Zapal revealed that the magma had destroyed the city's sea wall and the ocean had already begun to flood their shores.[1][6] Additionally, the release of the magma had triggered a seismic upheaval within the continent of Atlantis. Earthquakes of ever-increasing strength began to shake the capital city and volcanic eruptions within the city added to the magma that flowed through the streets. When told that the city had perhaps an hour left before it was destroyed, Kamuu dismissed his council and sent them home to be with their loved ones before the end. Left alone within their tower, Kamuu and Zartra prepared to spend their final moments together but they only had time to share some words and a kiss before Zartra was suddenly stabbed in the back by a knife thrown by one of the mercenaries, Nolem of Lemuria, who had hidden away and waited for a chance to strike. Kamuu quickly dispatched the assassin but Zartra, knowing she was dying, asked him to bring his sword to her so that she could give him a final gift. Zartra then plucked a glistening jewel from behind her eyepatch and placed it on the hilt of the sword, saying, "The Eye of Zartra...evermore one with Kamuu..." Zartra then died and Kamuu gently laid her body to rest on a plush velvet cushion, with her sword at her side and roses adorning her lifeless form. Accepting his imminent death, Kamuu dragged Nolem's body away from Zartra, then sheathed his sword in the scabbard on the side of his throne, chained himself to the throne and sat down to wait for the end, saying "All I lived for -- the glory of Atlantis, the beauty of my queen -- all have been taken from me...Thus I am quite dead even now -- for life is not measured in breaths nor in heartbeats -- and a body, a hollow shell, cannot live -- when a soul has long since decayed. Yes. It is time" As Kamuu closed his eyes, a mammoth pyre of boiling magma surged up through the heart of the city, shattering the dome and the palace tower. As the tower fell, Kamuu cried out, "VALKA! BISHRU! SUMARR! LUMA! I AM YOURS!" before dying. As the island continent sank into the sea, the water that flooded the throne room pulled Kamuu's dead body upwards but the chain kept the corpse bound to the throne.[7][6]
By releasing the flaming magma from beneath the city, Kamuu had unwittingly caused Atlantis to be affected by the nuclear cataclysm through which the alien Celestials soon afterwards sank the Deviant-controlled continent of Lemuria.[8] As a result, both Lemuria and Atlantis sank during this worldwide disaster known as the Great Cataclysm.[9][6]
About 12,000 years later,[10] two rival tribes of nomadic water-breathing Homo mermani barbarians went to war over who would possess the sunken ruins of the capital city of Atlantis. After the army from the Eastern Sea won the initial battle and claimed the city, Kamuu, the boy who was the son and heir of the fallen king of the North Sea tribe, was sent alone to scout the ruins by his ambitious uncle Orrek who secretly hoped that the boy would die there.[11] During his mission, this Kamuu encountered the living skeleton of Shabarr who chased him into the flooded throne room where he found a sword sheathed on the side of the throne.[12] Kamuu succeeded in drawing the Sword of Kamuu from its scabbard, causing many-colored stars to fly from the enchanted blade's tip. As Shabarr mistook the young merman for his old monarch and ceased his attack, the stars made Kamuu feel dizzy and he collapsed into unconsciousness, only to awaken to find that everything that had been around him had vanished and he was facing the giant phantom forms of a man and a woman (Kamuu and Zartra). As the living Kamuu commented on the fact that the man looked like him, the spirit of Kamuu called forth the Sphere of the Ages and proceeded to tell the "son of my spirit" about the realm he had once ruled and which Kamuu would inherit. The spirit Kamuu then told the living Kamuu that he was to found a city called Atlantis on the ruins of the old Atlantis and revealed that this new Atlantis would have a brave and noble destiny and would rule all the waters of Earth. After viewing some scenes from this future history, Kamuu was impressed by the glory and the grandeur of what he had seen. As the vision concluded, Zartra told the young Kamuu that the task of rebuilding an empire was in his hands and those of his queen. The spirit Kamuu then added that he had a bold future ahead and a grand legacy left to him, then told him to honor the heritage of the past Atlantis before bidding him farewell. Once this spiritual encounter ended, Kamuu awoke back in the throne room and prepared to fulfill his destiny. He soon met Zartra, the daughter of Queen Elanna who now ruled Eastern Sea tribe. Zartra revealed that her mother was a seeress who knew of Kamuu's destiny and had sent her there to make peace with him. Kamuu was surprised to find that the thought of a truce with the slayer of his father was not so unthinkable as he might have supposed.[13]
About 8,000 years later, in the Modern Age, the then-current king of Atlantis, a severely-wounded Prince Namor, experienced a dream in which Kamuu appeared to him and revealed some of the history of Namor's then-current foe, Morgan Le Fay, and the fact that she was planning to soon sacrifice Namor's friend Triton in order to raise Atlantis to the surface.[14]Attributes
Abilities
Paraphernalia
Weapons
Notes
- In the Tales of Atlantis stories that appeared in Sub-Mariner #62-63, all of the people, both Atlantean and Lemurian, including Kamuu, were incorrectly depicted as being blue-skinned like the water-breathing Atlanteans. An editorial reply in the letters page of Sub-Mariner #66 revealed that this was a colorist's error that had not been caught in time to be fixed. Oddly, the Book of the Vishanti back-up story in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #33 that recapped the fall of Atlantis again depicted Kamuu, Zartra and even Zhered-Na as having blue skin.
- Although in most stories Kamuu is depicted as having brown (or reddish-brown) hair, Namor, the Sub-Mariner #62 and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #23 both show him with black hair.
- As the ruler of the Empire of Atlantis, Kamuu was an emperor and Zartra was his empress, and in several stories they are referenced as such in dialogue or in Omniscient Narratives. However, for some reason the Official Handbooks prefer to refer to them as "King Kamuu" and "Queen Zartra." Why they chose to use the lesser-ranked titles has not been revealed.
- How responsible Kamuu was for the sinking of Atlantis was varied over the years:
- When the story of how Atlantis came to sink was first told in those Tales of Atlantis mentioned above, Kamuu's decision to release the magma from beneath the city was presented as the sole cause of the earthquakes and other seismic upheavals that caused the island continent to sink.
- However, when the time-travelling Son of Satan spoke with Zhered-Na in Marvel Spotlight #17, she revealed that the Earth itself was highly responsive to the psychic emanations of those creatures who inhabited it and that the planet would rebel when those vibrations grew overly violent.
- After Jack Kirby's Eternals series was integrated into the continuity of the Marvel Universe, the story of how the Celestials had sunk Lemuria became canon. The Atlantis entry in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #1 stated that Kamuu's actions had triggered a seismological cataclysm that caused first the capital city and then the entire continent of Atlantis itself to be wracked by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. However, the entry also stated that it was the combination of those local geologic convulsions and the shockwaves that were the aftereffects of the Lemurian cataclysm that caused the entire continent of Atlantis to fragment and vanish beneath the Atlantic Ocean.
See Also
- 8 appearance(s) of Kamuu (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Kamuu (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 1 minor appearance(s) of Kamuu (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) of Kamuu (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Kamuu (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 1 invocation(s) of Kamuu (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 3 image(s) of Kamuu (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Kamuu (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 1 victim(s) killed by Kamuu (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 1 item(s) used/owned by Kamuu (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Sub-Mariner #62
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #7 ; Appendix: Lemuria
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man Annual #26
- ↑ Fear #15
- ↑ Marvel Spotlight #17
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Amazing Spider-Man Annual #23
- ↑ Sub-Mariner #63
- ↑ Eternals #2
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #1 ; Atlantis entry
- ↑ Saga of the Sub-Mariner #1
- ↑ Sub-Mariner #64
- ↑ Sub-Mariner #65
- ↑ Sub-Mariner #66
- ↑ Namor, the Sub-Mariner #62