Well . . this series has the whole 'sword & sorcery' thing in spades. But now . . now we seem to be going off in a bit of a science-fiction direction. Last issue Skartaris experienced the 'torched earth', when something seemed to come through the opening from the outer world and crash landed, literally, in their backyard. Upon investigation, what they thought was a dragon, turned out to be an extraterrestrial that upon landing has activated a message back to his home. In thier brief encounter, it also says something to Morgan . . er, sorry . . Tinder, that baffles him. It said . .'We expected you to be more civilized . . more useful.' Whatever that means. Were we put here to be their future slaves? Anyways, scientists on the outside of the Earth . . our side of the Earth, have witnessed the signal and are tracking it. It appears to be a message to the Orion cluster. It originates on four spots on Earth, and all are directed at those stars. We also find out that with their interpretation of the Mayan calendar . . it still ends on Dec 21st, 2012. But it then has the annotation . . 'They return'. And finally, after decoding the signal, it seems to be a message relaying some coordinates. 'These particular coordinates pinpoint a location north of Green Bay, Wisconsin . . halfway between the North Pole and the Equator . . roughly 800 miles below the Earth's surface.' However, they view the whole 'inner-Earth' thing as . . well, a world within a world. Literally . . a ball floating within a ball. While we know that it's more like a hallow ball. With Skartaris located on the inside of the outer layer. The atomic engine at the Earth's core being the sun for this inside world. Needless to say we get a whole lot of information about UFOs, the theory's of how interstellar travelers affected the knowledge of the Earth's inhabitants as well as other related stuff. Meanwhile, in Skartaris, time seems to have taken another leap forward. Tinder meets his new sister, Morgana. Now about 6 months old. And his half sister Jennifer informs him that Morgana is a being of pure magic. 'She is magic. Magic in it's purest form . . untouched . . unchanged. Magic like this hasn't existed in the world since the beginning.' Tinder also has a little adventure where he gains a new pet . . a Hippogryph. Basically, a flying horse. But as they're flying back towards Skartaris, they see the area where the alien landed. From the air they can see lines like those in Nazca. From the air they look like air strips. And he and Alysha come to the conclusion that it's preparing for an invasion. Which means . . it's time to get out the big guns . . literally. He gets his father's pistol out of a box and asks McBane to show him how to use it. I don't know yet that I buy this whole Tinder/Joshua thing as the new Warlord. He just doesn't have the same intensity as his father. He seems so much more naive, and innocent. But I guess experience comes with time. Right? But with this storyline he seems to be facing something not even his father faced. I guess his true test of character will be when we see how he comes through all of this. Mike Grell is doing a terrific job. He does the art as well as the story this issue. It's a sight to behold. The new direction is . . interesting. We'll just wait and see how far it goes . . if it gets to far-fetched. But I have to give it the benefit of the doubt. It is Mike's work, afterall.
Friday, June 18, 2010
the Warlord #15 - DC
Well . . this series has the whole 'sword & sorcery' thing in spades. But now . . now we seem to be going off in a bit of a science-fiction direction. Last issue Skartaris experienced the 'torched earth', when something seemed to come through the opening from the outer world and crash landed, literally, in their backyard. Upon investigation, what they thought was a dragon, turned out to be an extraterrestrial that upon landing has activated a message back to his home. In thier brief encounter, it also says something to Morgan . . er, sorry . . Tinder, that baffles him. It said . .'We expected you to be more civilized . . more useful.' Whatever that means. Were we put here to be their future slaves? Anyways, scientists on the outside of the Earth . . our side of the Earth, have witnessed the signal and are tracking it. It appears to be a message to the Orion cluster. It originates on four spots on Earth, and all are directed at those stars. We also find out that with their interpretation of the Mayan calendar . . it still ends on Dec 21st, 2012. But it then has the annotation . . 'They return'. And finally, after decoding the signal, it seems to be a message relaying some coordinates. 'These particular coordinates pinpoint a location north of Green Bay, Wisconsin . . halfway between the North Pole and the Equator . . roughly 800 miles below the Earth's surface.' However, they view the whole 'inner-Earth' thing as . . well, a world within a world. Literally . . a ball floating within a ball. While we know that it's more like a hallow ball. With Skartaris located on the inside of the outer layer. The atomic engine at the Earth's core being the sun for this inside world. Needless to say we get a whole lot of information about UFOs, the theory's of how interstellar travelers affected the knowledge of the Earth's inhabitants as well as other related stuff. Meanwhile, in Skartaris, time seems to have taken another leap forward. Tinder meets his new sister, Morgana. Now about 6 months old. And his half sister Jennifer informs him that Morgana is a being of pure magic. 'She is magic. Magic in it's purest form . . untouched . . unchanged. Magic like this hasn't existed in the world since the beginning.' Tinder also has a little adventure where he gains a new pet . . a Hippogryph. Basically, a flying horse. But as they're flying back towards Skartaris, they see the area where the alien landed. From the air they can see lines like those in Nazca. From the air they look like air strips. And he and Alysha come to the conclusion that it's preparing for an invasion. Which means . . it's time to get out the big guns . . literally. He gets his father's pistol out of a box and asks McBane to show him how to use it. I don't know yet that I buy this whole Tinder/Joshua thing as the new Warlord. He just doesn't have the same intensity as his father. He seems so much more naive, and innocent. But I guess experience comes with time. Right? But with this storyline he seems to be facing something not even his father faced. I guess his true test of character will be when we see how he comes through all of this. Mike Grell is doing a terrific job. He does the art as well as the story this issue. It's a sight to behold. The new direction is . . interesting. We'll just wait and see how far it goes . . if it gets to far-fetched. But I have to give it the benefit of the doubt. It is Mike's work, afterall.
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Cool comics blog you have going here. I noticed in the sidebar you have an image labeled Warlord #1. I have a fair/good copy of that issue and have been researching it. Turns out it is not an issue of Warlord at all. It is from a short-lived series DC put out called "1st Issue Special." You'll notice in the upper right corner it is labeled as issue 8 of that series. Although it reprints Warlord #1, it has a different cover entirely.
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow reader and collector, I thought you might like to know.
You might also be interested in a site I order from called MyComicShop.com. Thay have an affiliate program which gives you store credit there when people purchase comics through your affiliate links. Just a heads up. Keep up the great work here.
Yes, the interesting thing about the First Issue Special series is that none of the other characters featured really amounted to much. Don't get me wrong, there's some good characters in there . . Metamorpho, Manhunter, Creeper, Dr Fate, Starman, the New Gods, and I believe the first group called the Outsiders, but . . I don't think there was anything that stemmed out of this series in particular. Except for Warlord. Well . . obviously the New Gods had some success, and following. But isssue #8, featuring the Warlord, came out in Nov of 1975. While the first issue of his own series is dated Jan/Feb 1976. I don't think it was a reprint, per-se of the first issue. I think it was more of a prequel. The stories are very similar. As I'm sure Mike didn't want anyone to miss anything just because the didn't get the First Issue Special copy. But the First Issue Special is the first appearance of the Warlord. Which puts your copy of First Issue Special at about $20 to $25. With the 1st issue of Warlord worth just slightly less.
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