The Five Best Elephants in Comics
This week we celebrated Elephant Appreciation Day, that one day a year where people across their [...]
This week we celebrated Elephant Appreciation Day, that one day a year where people across their globe and show their undying adoration for the world's largest land mammal. Elephants are pretty awesome animals, whether they're helping Hannibal cross the Alps, confusing blind men in traditional Indian parables or fighting Batman in the pages of Detective Comics (more on that later). Since an elephant never forgets, it's a good thing that we here at ComicBook.com are commemorating Elephant Appreciation Day in style, by talking about a few of our favorite elephants and elephant-related characters in comics. So grab some peanuts and enjoy this slideshow of the five best elephants in comics:
Tantra
Tantra was a young mutant who looked like an anthropomorphic elephant that attended the Xavier Institute in the early 2000s as part of the then rapidly growing student body. In addition to his elephant like appearance, Tantra also had the ability to manipulate the emotions of those around him, which he usually used for mischievous purposes. Chris Claremont created Tantra and used the young elephant mutant as a background character during his X-Treme X-Men series. In his most notable appearance, Tantra used his powers to make Bishop make out with a tree. Tantra lost his powers and form during M-Day, thus robbing the world of an X-Men story in which a mutant elephant boy saves the world by having Apocalypse make out with his hand. Curse you, Scarlet Witch!
prevnextElephant Man
Elephant Man is a Z-list DC villain created by Geoff Johns and Tony Daniel during their Teen Titans run. We know literally nothing about Elephant Man, other than that he's a walking, talking elephant that's presumably male. Elephant Man was a member of the Brotherhood of Evil and fought Cyborg to a standstill (because elephants are tough!) during his first appearance. In the New 52, Elephant Man joined other man/beast hybrids like Zebra Man, Lion-Mane, Hellhound and Cheetah to form the Menagerie. Unfortunately, Killer Frost froze Elephant Man and the rest of the Menagerie (save for Cheetah) during Forever Evil, so we never got more than a tease of Elephant Man awesomeness. Rest in peace, Elephant Man, we hardly knew ye.
prevnextMammomax
Another mutant who looked like an elephant, Mammomax was a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants that fought the X-Men during the Chuck Austen era. In addition to all the perks of being an elephant/man hybrid, Mammomax also could regurgitate his stomach acid and spit it as a projectile attack. Mammomax somehow survived M-Day and became a refugee at the Xavier Institute, before he was captured by a Weapon X offshoot and fed to the mutant hunting artificial organism Predator X.
prevnextElephantmen
This entry isn't really about elephants, per se, but rather a species of animal/human hybrids collectively called the Elephantmen. The Elephantmen (as shown in Image's ongoing Elephantmen series) are artificially created hybrids trained as elite soldiers by the evil MAPPO Corporation. After waging a brutal war against MAPPO and the Elephantmen, the United Nations liberated the creatures and tried to integrate them into society, although neither the humans nor the Elephantmen really trusted one another. The Elephantmen series actually follows a hippopotamus hybrid named Hip Flask who works as an advisor to law enforcement. Elephantmen is a consistently underrated series with amazing artwork and a poignant look at class differences and post-war trauma.
prevnextTrajah the Elephant
Hey, it's an actual elephant on this list! Trajah the Elephant was a friend and ally of Marvel's first Ka-Zar (not to be confused with the modern Ka-Zar), a Tarzan-esque Jungle Lord that appeared in several Golden Age Marvel comics. Trajah helped the jungle lord protect the Congo from hunters, poachers and assorted other human threats for years and often rescued Ka-Zar from precarious situations. The elephant had a rather brutal sense of justice, as many of Ka-Zar's foes ended up trampled to death by Trajah or his herd. When World War II broke out, Trajah helped with the war effort, destroying Nazi bases or disrupting supply lines running through Africa as part of an animal army led by Ka-Zar. Marvel never revealed what happened to Ka-Zar and Trajah, but they could be still alive and hiding in the Congo, waiting for Nick Fury to recruit him to a new version of the Avengers.
prevnextHonorable Mention: Batman Fights Elephants
Although none of the elephants in the story particular stand out, it's impossible to write a story about elephants in comics without talking about Detective Comics #333, in which Batman and Robin actually fight a herd of elephants. Written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Carmine Infantino, Detective Comics #333 saw the Caped Crusader and his sidekick travel to Africa in search of a missing explorer. During the course of their search, Batman and Robin are attacked by an entire herd of elephant, which Batman staved off by kicking them in the face. The story also featured the explorer's fiancée asking Batman and Robin for aid by posing as "Gorla, the Goddess of all Elephants", presumably because Batman would never leave Gotham City unless asked by an actual deity. If you want to see just how much Batman knows about elephants (hint: it's A LOT), buy Detective Comics #333 on Comixology today.
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