Kala (comics)

Kala
Kala,Queen of the Netherworld from her first appearance in Tales of Suspense #43 (July, 1963). Art by Jack Kirby.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Tales of Suspense #43 (Jul 1963)
Created by	Stan Lee Robert Bernstein Jack Kirby
In-story information
Species	Atlantean human
Place of origin	Netheria, a city of Atlantis
Partnerships	Mole Man

Kala is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Kala is the Queen of the Netherworld, which is another name for the city of Netheria. Netheria was once a city on the continent of Atlantis, which was enclosed in an airtight dome to protect itself from the Deviant empire based in Lemuria. The people excavated the foundations beneath the city to expand it below the ground, and discovered a way to recycle their air supply. When Atlantis sank in the great cataclysm, Netheria remained intact. Netheria sank to the bottom of the sea and further through it every year, in a huge cavern beneath the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, in part of what is now known as Subterranea. Its people renamed their kingdom the Netherworld, and themselves Netherworlders.

Queen Kala sought to use her armies and highly advanced weaponry to conquer the surface world, and sought a means to transport them to the surface. Tony Stark became encased in a crystalline substance that sank into the Earth, transporting him to the Netherworld, after a guard and a scientist were teleported before him. Kala demanded that Stark create a means for her to bring her armies to the surface or else she would execute him and his two friends. It is revealed her General Baxu loves her due to her beauty, though he hates taking orders from a woman. Stark claimed he would help her, but needed a lab and solitude, which he was granted. Stark instead used the Netherworlders' laboratories to create a duplicate of his Iron Man armor and claimed Stark escaped and summoned him, using the armor to defeat the armies, capture Kala and fly to the surface. Exposure to the surface world's air caused Kala to age rapidly into an elderly state. Realizing that her people could not live on the surface world, she renounced her plans of conquest, and was returned to the Netherworld where she regained her youth.

Kala then planned to gain control of the Mole Man's realm in Subterranea by pretending to fall in love with him. Mole Man had captured his greatest rival for rulership, Tyrannus, and Kala actually fell in love with Tyrannus instead.

Kala first appeared in an issue of Fantastic Four #127 where she first met Thing, who "saved" her from a creature called the Kraawl -- or at least he thought he did. In this scene, Thing beat up a giant worm he thought had been attacking Kala when really, the Kraawl was Kala's pet which she was using to travel to Subterranea. The thing is, the only one who can control the Kraawls is Kala, and in order to do so she must sing to them. In issue #127 Kala explains to Ben Grim that she is journeying to meet Mole Man and that she must marry him in order to preserve Netherworld, descendants of the "once mighty Atlantis" (not Namor's Atlantis, by the way). Thing agrees to journey to Subterranea to escort Kala to Mole Man, but quickly discovers that the two had been plotting to destroy the world above. Eventually, Kala betrays Mole Man but she is still evil and Mole Man is still in love with her.