Posted in: Avengers, Comics, Comics, Comics Publishers, Heritage Sponsored, Marvel Comics, Sponsored | Tagged: atlas, Gorilla-Man

1954 Debut of Ken Hale, Gorilla-Man of the Avengers, up for Auction

1954's Men's Adventures #26 from Marvel/Atlas is the debut of Kenneth Hale, who in recent years has been an Avengers associate and much more.

Published Thu, 06 Jul 2023 06:22:12 -0500

by Rich Johnston

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The character of Kenneth Hale, Gorilla-Man, first appeared in Men's Adventures #26 in 1954 by Robert Q. Sale. From the time when Marvel was known as Atlas, it started as a war comic, then horror, and the last two issues featured the original Human Torch.

This particular story saw Kenneth Hale as a man plagued by nightmares of a Gorilla Man in Africa.

He travelled to Kenya, where he tracked down the mythic beast and fought it to death. But in killing the Gorilla Man, Ken Hale was transformed into a new Gorilla Man.

The character was revived by modern-day Marvel Comics in the series Agents Of Atlas in 2006 and given a long Marvel Comics history. Gorilla-Man is revealed to have been a guide for the original X-Men, working with the 1950s Avengers, joining S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Howling Commandos and Agents of Atlas.

Agents of Atlas was the series that reintroduced him to Marvel for the first time in over fifty years and spun off his own Gorilla Man series. He also joined Domino's incarnation of the Mercs For Money and Black Panther's Agents of Wakanda.

Recently he returned to the Avengers, running their frozen wasteland headquarters of a seemingly long-dead Celestial in Avengers Mountain. But he then betrayed the rest of the Avengers by allowing the Red Widow and the Winter Guard to infiltrate Avengers Mountain and kidnap She-Hulk. Dracula promised Gorilla-Man that Red Widow would kill him, something Ken Hale had longed for.

But he did not get it. He is later seen helping Ka-Zar and Blade fight Roxxon's Berserkers.

But this is where it all began, his very first appearance. And a copy of Men's Adventures #26 is up for sale from Heritage Auctions — you know, if Gorilla-Man makes it into the upcoming movies, this is quite the bargain. And you don't often get a first appearance of one of Marvel's Avengers a decade before the Avengers was published.

Men's Adventures #26 (Atlas, 1954) Condition: VG-. Russ Heath cover. Dick Ayers, George Evans, and Gene Colan art. All horror format. Piece missing from back cover, 4" tear on back cover, 1.5" tear on front cover through four pages. Overstreet 2022 VG 4.0 value = $86.