Whenever something becomes popular, many people will inevitably try to make something similar to cash-in on their success. So far this series has seen superpowered flying men made to cash-in on Superman, as well as flag-clad American crusaders designed to cash-in on Captain America, but there also exists a wide variety of bare-chested white jungle swingers made to cash-in Tarzan (and I might even cover some of them if I really run out of ideas).
On the surface, Tabu should be yet another one of these - he certainly nails the aesthetic... but also, if you read the title, you may notice he's a wizard? Yes, he possesses magical powers thanks to being gifted a sixth sense by a Witch Doctor (let's not forget that these comics were often at least a bit racist), which naturally gave him the ability to fly, cast magic. and transform into various animals - powers that he'd use to exact cruel justice on people who wronged the jungle, saying that he'll give the villains "a Jungle Fate"... that sounds a bit familiar...
Yes, Fletcher Hanks fans may remember a similar phrase being said by Fantomah. This isn't entirely coincidental, since Fletcher Hanks created both characters, and Tabu really ends up functioning as a proto-Fantomah (since his comic predates Fantomah's first issue). Unlike Fantomah however, he faded into obscurity after one issue (despite the promise of further escapades by Tabu being gifted a seventh sense)...
Or did he?
I've been a bit sneaky here, since one of the pictures of "Tabu" I included isn't from Tabu's only comic, but rather a Fantomah story. This one deals with an unnamed jungle man who is rescued by a snake as a baby and raised by them into adulthood. He lives peacefully until, one day, he eats some bad berries and turns very very evil, prompting him to paint himself in blotchy blue paint and terrorise the nearby village. Unlike most Fantomah comics, she doesn't directly punish him. Instead, she guides him to some herbs that would cure him and then sort of banishes him and his snake, saying "FROM NOW ON, YOU BOTH SHALL DWELL ENTIRELY ALONE!"
While Fletcher Hanks probably intended this to be a different character and was just reusing art, I like to think that they're the same character. We learn nothing about the characters that would contradict anything (Tabu's backstory is unspecified, and obviously we don't know the name of the Fantomah character). We don't know where the giant snake is, but it's not like they're joined at the hip, they can do their own things. Perhaps the most compelling bit of evidence is a magic phrase they both sort of share. In Tabu, Tabu says "Alla ka tabu nee paph en yal!" to cause a minor earthquake. In the Fantomah comic, they say "Ali kah bab loo ne paph en yah!", which you may notice is spelt differently but mostly pronounced the same way. This might also imply that the unnamed one's name is "Bab Loo". For this theory, maybe it also means he got the name Tabu at a later point (maybe in response to his actions in the Fantomah comic - it's a bit nonsensical to think of the name in relation to the English word it sounds the most like, but I don't think Fletcher Hanks would've considered that).
Now, obviously, the more likely reason for these similarities is just Fletcher Hanks being lazy and racist, but still.
