The Disney Villains comic series has been providing fans with key details, digging into the past of the company’s iconic tyrants and heels. The series has detailed Maleficent’s history, setting the stage for Sleeping Beauty. Hades will also have his series out in August, while Disney Villains: Scar has been exploring the ground walked by Mufasa’s brother before the critically-acclaimed 1994 animated movie.
Disney Villains: Scar has already that Scar couldn’t be saved, no matter how much Mufasa believed in him and how Rafiki misjudged Scar, making a huge error by ignoring the game of thrones in Mufasa’s and Simba’s future. However, Issue #3 (by Chuck Brown, Trevor Fraley, Chiara Di Francia, and Jeff Eckleberry) looks into the origin of Scar’s hyena pack that would support him when he took over the Pride Lands.
The Lion King’s Scar Manipulated the Graveyard
The Lion King didn’t spend much time inspecting Scar’s hyena troops. The film focused on three hyenas, Shenzi, Ed, and Banzai, who worked as his principal pawns. Granted, they thought they were Scar’s generals, but he looked down on them from the start. This prequel comic paints the full picture, as the sinister vultures, Kabeer and Krass, taking Scar to the Elephant Graveyard. They promised he’d find allies there, making a bargain that when Scar takes over, he’ll get them plenty of bodies to feed on. Since they love a good carcass, the vultures are easily swayed by his forked tongue.
Scar ends up making a deal with the queen of the hyenas, Zuhour, in the Elephant Graveyard. He promises her starving clan fresh meat, as long as they serve him. Scar requires three assistants, though, and picks Shenzi, Ed, and Banzai as his hunters. Scar’s plan is to win over the hyenas by bringing them meat, then use them to capture Mufasa’s throne. However, Scar’s taking notes of who he can manipulate. He wants Shenzi because of her rivalry with the queen. As for Ed and Banzai, they’re her loyal “cousins,” so Scar begins by picking a small cult of followers, slowly building towards his larger goal.
The Lion King Prequel Emphazises Scar’s Political Mind
From the start, Scar obviously prefers Shenzi to Queen Zuhour. The Hyena Queen is very traditional and tradition has never been kind to Mufasa’s younger brother. The starving hyenas have been reduced to a terrible ancient ritual where the hyenas sacrifice on of their own as food, and it’s only Scar’s intervention that saves Shenzi from becoming the pack’s dinner. Even though she’s feasted on her fellows in the past, Shenzi has always been a vocal opponent of the ritual, and that gives Scar the information he needs to act.
Scar calculates quickly that some hyenas are just like Shenzi, afraid that they might become the pack’s sacrifice, while others believe in their heritage and old ways, like the queen. Seeing two factions, Scar picks Shenzi’s side while still hedging his bets. It’s a lot like his previous attempt to recruit Rafiki in Mufasa’s coup. Like Rafiki, Scar’s new hyena allies don’t see his manipulation for the red flag it is.
For the hyenas’ part, they don’t care if he’s a discarded prince; they just want their famine to end. Though it ends badly for Scar, at this point in the story, he’s successfully playing all sides against each other. Of course, it’s only a matter of time before he engineers a coup and kills off Zuhour, a sort of practice run for his takeover of Mufasa’s throne.
Disney Villains Confirms Scar Doomed the Hyenas
Of course, Scar’s destiny is well-known. He gets Shenzi, Ed and Banzai to support him but they all presume that Simba died when his uncle drove him into the wilderness. Scar rises to the Pride Lands’ throne for a time but he’s a lazy ruler and the hyenas never get the food he’d promised. In the end, they see Scar for the contemptible snob he is, and devour him after Simba critically injures him. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell if their clan survived Simba’s rise to power or died out.
Regardless, the hyenas walked a haunted, blighted path after they struck their Faustian bargain with Scar. Of course, Queen Zuhour’s reign wasn’t exactly a golden age for their tribe but hitching themselves to Scar’s wagon was an epic error. He underestimated the hyenas’ worth and never cared for them personally, and by meddling in the lions’ business they made themselves the enemies of the Pride Lands. While it’s hard to see the hyenas as heroic or even decent, it’s also hard not to feel some sympathy for their plight.
All the Lion King‘s hyenas wanted was to avoid suffering, but between their cannibalistic traditions and Scar’s manipulations, they never had any good options. They were exploited and used for others’ profit and never found their own hero or voice. That left them vulnerable to Scar’s empty promises. It’s always a mistake to back a manipulative murderer but they wouldn’t have made this blunder if they weren’t already desperate outcasts. In many ways, Mufasa sowed the seeds of his own death by not taking care of the hyenas the way he did his other people.