CAVE-MAN BEAST

Real Name: Dr. Manning

Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Scientist, monster

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile

First Appearance: Challengers of the Unknown I #10 (October-November, 1959)

Powers: The Cave-Man Beast possessed rudimentary intelligence as well as superhuman strength and durability.

History: (Challengers of the Unknown I #10) - June Robbins went to the jungle to study with Dr. Manning, who was working to understand the language of animals. She ran into an enormous Cave-Man Beast who'd been wounded with a gunshot, treated his injuries, and watched him wander off. The hunters that shot him berated her for letting him get away, saving the Beast had been spotted in town, and was clearly a danger. June found Manning's lab wrecked, and summoned the Challengers of the Unknown. She pursued the Beast with Rocky and Ace, finding him at an airfield. Rocky and Ace attacked, but were easily repelled, but the Beast recognized June as the one who treated his wounds, and refused to harm her friends, wandering off. Prof. and Red flew over the jungle and employed a local tracker, but caught no sight of Manning. They had a collapsible cage to trap the Beast, which Red demonstrated on Rocky, making him want to punch his teammate. They found the Beast at the waterworks drinking, and when they tried to capture him he wrenched free a pipeline, blasting them with water. June wondered if Manning's notes could solve the mystery, and learned he'd developed a serum to use to talk to animals, and she deduced that it had turned him into the Cave-Man Beast. She convinced the Beast to drink the antidote, returning him to normal, and told him she'd already destroyed his notes because his project was too dangerous.

Comments: Created by Arnold Drake? & Bob Brown.