| Auro | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
"Auro" Hardwich |
|
First Appearance |
Planet Comics #1 (1940) |
|
Original Publisher |
Fiction House |
|
Created by |
Malcolm Kildale |
Golden Age Origin
Some time in the 21st century, Professor John Hardwich was flying on an interplanetary cruise ship with his wife and son. Their journey came to a tragic end when their ship was pulled off course by Jupiter's gravity and crashed. Only the professor's son survived the disaster.
A local version of the saber-toothed tiger named Tara picked up the unconscious boy and nursed him back to health and then helped him to learn how to hunt and protected him from predators as he grew older, with Jupiter's greater gravity making him superhumanly strong as he matured.
When he reached adulthood he set off to explore the planet and soon discovered a primitive tribe of hairy ape-like humanoids that were apparently Jupiter's native sentient species. Attacked, the young human was easily able to beat them back, and the leader of the brutish brown-furred Jovians dubbed him "Auro" -which meant "unconquerable" in their language.
Shortly afterward, a Terran transport ship on the Earth-Saturn run was attacked by pointy-headed Neptunians who boarded it and took it's crew as slaves. Assistant pilot Martha Gale managed to escape in an emergency "lifeboat" in hopes of getting aid, only to be pulled in by Jupiter's gravity. Luckily for her, she managed to crash not far from where Auro was at the time, and the Jovian jungle lord was more then happy to help her.
He allowed himself to be captured by Neptunian slavers, only to overpower his captors once they reached Neptune. He single-handedly defeated the Neptunian army (after all, he was even stronger on Neptune then he was on Jupiter) and forced it's despotic ruler to release the Earthlings and their ship. They arrested the ruler and took him back to Earth for trial.
Now, most would assume that Auro would use this opportunity to finally return to Earth. They would be wrong. In his next appearance, Auro was a ruler of a city populated by hundreds of much more human-like Jovians. He protected his people and clashed with the local warlords who sought to oppress anyone anywhere. In issue 11, he left the city to explore Jupiter. For the rest of his appearances, he was a roaming adventurer who lived off the land and righted wrongs he encountered along the way.
Golden Age Appearances
- Planet Comics #1-7, #11-29
Notes
Auro, Lord of Jupiter is the name used by two different characters that appeared Planet Comics. The first was a Tarzan-like character who adventured sometime in the 21st century, while the second version was a costumed character, a hero more akin to Flash Gordon, who adventured in the 1960s. Aside from the name and the primary setting of their adventures, the characters aren't related to each other.