Wednesday Comics: Storm: City of the Damned

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: City of the Damned (1982) (part 1)
(Dutch: Stad der Verdoemden)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Kelvin Gosnell

Following the events of the last chapter, Storm and Ember are riding the moving energy bridge across the Antarctic landscape. They hope it will take them to the location of the time machine. That hope is at least temporarily dashed as the bridge seems to dead in into a mountainside. The two jump to safety in the snow beneath and luckily enough find a door in the mountain before they freeze to death.

There is warm(er) clothing on the inside, some supplies--and a frozen body! The dead man has a letter in his hand. He was the last worker on Project Aleph. They tried to warn the outside world about something, but got no response. Storm had heard vague rumors of Project Aleph on his time, but he doesn't know what it was about.

Leaving that mystery behind, Storm and Ember ski into others. First the sky gets strange and there is a pink snow storm. Then, they see this:

They approach the base of the structure, but they can't get the doors to open. Ember just knocks, and an armored warrior on back of some dragon creature accosts them. Storm realizes the thing is a robot, and is able to deactivate it by cutting through the mount's tail. Suddenly, a beam of blue light strikes them. They are transported inside the city.

They are greeted by a man who welcomes and apologizes for the antiquated robot that threatened them. He reveals that the city has been following their progress. He knows they have come to find the time machine, but if they return to the past they will die in a few weeks. Rather than eleborate further, he leads them to their quarters that he has the computer furnish in late twentieth century.

Storm has had about enough delays and demands answers. The man tells Storm that he and his people are the descendants of those who fled the barbarians and their wars. They built this city as a safe haven. The isn't what Storm wants to know about: He wants to hear about the 25th Century. The man says its too horrorific to repeat, but he gives Storm a helmet where he can see the events directly from the central computer.

TO BE CONTINUED