Nula
Nula the Jungle Queen, or simply Nula, was the heroic alias of Lady Catherine Maxwell, Third Baroness of Sherrinford, (COMIC: The Danger, the Diamond, and the Dowager) later Lady Catherine Maxwell-Hopkirk, who was the protector of the Naked Jungle in Reality Z-25 31-H before Kaza and Gwenna.
Biography
Halcyon days as Nula
Born in Britain as Catherine Maxwell, she adventured in the jungles of Buranda as Nula the Jungle Queen, alongside young sidekick Smedley — whom she nicknamed “Glumpy” or “Glompy”. The latter harboured romantic feelings for her, which were unrequited, although she did care more deeply about him than he realised. The trio of adventurers was completed by Captain Hollister, a “famous explorer” who more often than not ended up as a dude-in-distress for Nula to rescue. Also in this era, she became a friend to the Koravi. (COMIC: The Danger, the Diamond, and the Dowager)
Retirement and return to Buranda
Eventually, Nula, Glumpy and Captain Hollister retired from adventuring as age caught up with them. Smedley stayed in Buranda, becoming the Commissioner, while Catherine and Hollister each returned to England, with the latter getting a knighthood to cap off his adventuring career, much to Nula's wry amusement.
Three decades later, however, she returned to Buranda; Solomon's Diamond had some time before come up for auction at Boothby's, and she had made up her mind to return it to the Koravi Temple. She was followed to Buranda Pass by mercenary Mitchell, now working for the Skull, who believed that she must have returned to Buranda in order to use the diamond to find a mysterious “treasure”. Oblivious to these shadowy machinations, she reunited with Smedley, who was still silently carrying a torch for her, and was entertained to meet her “replacements” as the jungle's European-descended “protectors”, Kaza and Gwenna. The following night, feeling the heat getting to her, she decided to go for a midnight swim in the river, only to realise that she was being spied upon by Mitchell. She knocked him out easily and took his rifle for herself, but returned to the village too late, finding it already aflame as the Skull's men began their raid. (COMIC: The Danger, the Diamond, and the Dowager)
She soon crossed paths with a band of survivors led by Kiana and George Wimberley, who were trying to get to the Koravi village. She revealed to them that she had known that the Skull's men were after the Diamond, which was really the legendary Philosopher's Stone, but thought she had managed to “lose them” in Istanbul. Shortly after capturing the unarmed Mitchell, however, the group were ambushed from above by the Skull's airship brigade, led by Professor Morag. Taking them to the “old Kaitaran Temple” where they'd made their lair, the Professor had Nula taken to the laboratory even as the others were placed in holding cells, with him explaining that he was curious to see if her decades of exposure to the Stone had had any effects on Nula. He added that the Skull was keen to see if she could be used for “the secondary project”. (COMIC: Nula! Naked and Alone!)
