Epic Illustrated #9 (December 1981) Story & Art by James Starlin
Synopsis: Vanth and Aknaton are close to being overwhelmed by the onslaught of the Zygotean mercenaries. The Zygotean forces fight so fiercely because they know what is going to happen and they're trying to save their own lives.
Things look grim for our protagonists. Aknaton gets his forearm shot off. Still, they fight on, but the Zygotean mercs begin to flank them. Why don't the others blow the horn? They can't. Not until the forces are properly aligned. Soon now.
Within the skull building, the three approach the strange horn. As they take their places, Juliet asks if it's going to hurt. Za believes it probably will; change always does.
They blow into the three mouthpieces on the weird device. A force from a higher plane breaks into their lesser reality. Aknaton pulls Vanth to his side, and then, it all explodes:
The Milky Way touches the infinite and is destroyed. Only five beings survive. Three (Juliet, Za, and Whis'par) are beings of a new form, of pure energy. They linger for a moment in shock at their own birth, then they are off to begin a new world. The other two are Vanth and Aknaton.
They drift through space and time in a bubble of energy. They land on a planet named Caldor, 500,000 light-years from the Dark Sector--what was (a million years ago) the Milky Way.
Things look grim for our protagonists. Aknaton gets his forearm shot off. Still, they fight on, but the Zygotean mercs begin to flank them. Why don't the others blow the horn? They can't. Not until the forces are properly aligned. Soon now.
Within the skull building, the three approach the strange horn. As they take their places, Juliet asks if it's going to hurt. Za believes it probably will; change always does.
They blow into the three mouthpieces on the weird device. A force from a higher plane breaks into their lesser reality. Aknaton pulls Vanth to his side, and then, it all explodes:
The Milky Way touches the infinite and is destroyed. Only five beings survive. Three (Juliet, Za, and Whis'par) are beings of a new form, of pure energy. They linger for a moment in shock at their own birth, then they are off to begin a new world. The other two are Vanth and Aknaton.
They drift through space and time in a bubble of energy. They land on a planet named Caldor, 500,000 light-years from the Dark Sector--what was (a million years ago) the Milky Way.
Things to Notice:
After all the chapters of build-up, Aknaton's grand plan goes off so easily, it almost seems a bit disappointing. Of course, Starlin's tale was perhaps never one about blowing up the galaxy but about how one decides and then convinces others to blow up the galaxy.
- Aknaton suggested before that he would die with the Milky Way. That does not appear to have happened.
- Vanth's future is known to us thanks to the follow-up series Dreadstar, but we don't know what becomes of the transformed Za, Juliet, or Whis'par.
After all the chapters of build-up, Aknaton's grand plan goes off so easily, it almost seems a bit disappointing. Of course, Starlin's tale was perhaps never one about blowing up the galaxy but about how one decides and then convinces others to blow up the galaxy.
2 comments:
It's a classic big finish...but what happens to Aknaton? It has been quite a while since I read this series. Does he just walk away into the sunset, or what?
@Jim - You'll have to wait for the last chapter for that answer. :)
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