Warlord Wednesday: Justice League

Here's another installment of my examination of  the adventures DC Comics' Travis Morgan--The Warlord.  The earlier installments can be found here...

"Doomed" / "Sword of the USAF" / "Godwar!"

Justice League Task Force #34-36 (May-July 1993)

Written by Priest; Pencils by Ramon Bernado, Inks by Anibal Rodriguez

Synopsis: Returning from an adventure in space, the stolen shuttle carrying the Justice League Task Force (like the Justice League but 90s EXTREME!) crashes in Skartaris. They accidentally disrupt the attack of a group soldiers working for a wizard named Eballum. The soldiers need to collect talismans for the wizard to save their people from the hordes of Devvar.

The Justice League just need a way back to Earth since their shuttle exploded. Martian Manhunter figures a new arrival can help them with that:

The next issue begins with most of the League helping Morgan defend the village from raiders. They don't agree with Morgan's bloody tactics, but tells them things are different in Skartaris and they wouldn't be having to do this if they hadn't killed the barbarian leading the search for the talismans with their shuttle. Morgan also settles up with the Ray, for trying to keep him from killing a guy:

The Ray flies off to find this guy Quantum who is the leader of the bad guys his own way. Meanwhile, the Manhunter acquires the "Eye of the USAF." It turns out there's an ancient technology cache beneath the village that Quantum wants to get his hand on, and the "Sword of the USAF" Eballum plans to use to save the village is actually an ICBM that fell into Skartaris.

Eballum fires the missile and Ray (tricked and then possessed by the evil sorceror) attacks leading Quantum's hordes!

While the rest of the our heroes are in battle Triumph flies after the missile to try and stop it. He doesn't seem to be able to, until Martian Manhunter clues him in about Skartaris's sun being just a "ball of flame" held in places by strong magnetic forces. Triumph is able to fly closer and harness those magnetic forces to bolster his powers. The MIRV releases it's warheads. Triumph stops all but one!

Manhunter manages to use his telepath to force Quantum to change back into matter from Ray's light-form. Morgan comes in swinging a sword at Ray's throat scaring Quantum into fleeing back to his on body. It was a ruse, though, and the sword just touches lightly on a bewildered Ray's neck.

The one warhead doesn't explode. It turns out their were all dummies. Eballum, however, loaded them with "tainted fertilizer" which only serves to make Quantum and a few dinosaurs really nauseated.

Morgan takes them to the underground sub-shuttle station.The Justice League bids the Warlord good-bye and heads back to the surface.

Things to Notice:

• Morgan recognizes Martian Manhunter. Perhaps from their participation in Crisis?
• This is the only Warlord-containing comic with a blatant reference to a Janet Jackson song.

Where it Comes From: 
Priest seems to have read some old issues of Warlord--or at least done his research before writing the story. He has Martian Manhunter and Morgan discuss Grell's hollow earth explanation versus the later "alternate dimension" retcon. He utilizes the sub-shuttle to Peru to get the Justice League home that first showed up in issue #5.

Unfortunately, the artists don't seem to have seen any of them. Morgan wears much more elaborate armor than he ever wore in the series. The Atlantean sub-shuttle looks more like an urban subway train, complete with graffiti.

The Gates of Shamballa

In list nights WaRP Weird Adventures game, the gang made it through to the gates of Charles Ranulf Urst's estate--wherein a treasure supposedly lies. The snow globe, they discovered, made the otherwise unopenable front gate open. The swirl of the "snow" inside seemed to point toward the main house.

First, they decided to check out another closer structure, though. It was a pool house, like some sort of ancient Imperial bath. It was tiled from head to floor and arrayed with six marble statues of ancient gods and goddesses. The group looks around the place and doesn't find anything dangerous, which really only serves to heighten their anxiety.

On the way out, Jacques notices one of the statutes seems to have moved slightly. They quickly leave, but once safely outside they begin to wonder if they should investigate further. LaRue, their resident medium, tries to consult the spirits and detects a single, powerful presence, but it's not specific.

After some debate, they decide to go back in to mess with the statues. As Rob is moving one (to see if there's something underneath), the ever observant Professor Po notices another change the direction it's looking!

For a short adventure, this one seems to have got the players' interest. How a little bit of preternatural detail gets the player's animated. Is fear or curiosity the primary reaction? Sometimes, it's both.

A Good Map

Yesterday on Google+, Cole expressed his appreciation for a good map. I certainly understand their appeal: A good map really seems to conjure a sense of place, making the fantastic a bit more tangible. Here are some from fantasy literature. Maybe you can find some inspiration in them.

Pellucidar is Edgar Rice Burroughs's land within the hollow earth. Here's another map of the same setting:

Poictesme is a mythical French province, appearing in a series of novels by James Branch Cabell:

Lemuria is the stomping grounds of Thongor, Lin Carter's barbarian hero of the forgotten prehistoric past:

Stop for Refueling

I'm too tired to write a full post today, so that means you guys get a chance to catch up on any Strange Stars posts you might miss because I have updated the archive.

Check it out if you're curious as to who the Wizards of Rune are, what the bomoth might be smoking, why even the ssraad might fear the xann hunters, or just how do all these species communicate, anyway?

It's all there.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Interstellar

Pictured above are two attendants to the Starlight Fantastique's diamond (naturally) anniversary gala in the Fortuna system. Lamorak Uldra, Smaragdine synthasthete (his "Nostalgia for A Love Affair Whose Ending Neither Really Wanted version 2.5" was downloaded over 12 million times legally) and notorious recluse kept his face hidden in simulated shadow but actually showed up in the real rather than sending a simulation. He was dressed in a phoenix fur cape, an iridescent, ultra-fine "scale mail" over spider silk tunic (Arachne, 1800 cred), and an individually sculpted Smaragdine psi-net interface.

Uldra was escorted by his hyehoon bodyguard, Rukh Ysola Ahawi. Rukh was dressed in a vintage nano-tubule strengthened, liquid leather jumpsuit (Kokrum, 2500 cred) able to go from the club to the combat zone--and look stylish in both places. She accessorized her outfit with a chrome-finish particle pistol (Nova Heat, please inquire for price).

Warlord Wednesday: Ballad Part 6

Here's another installment of my examination of  the adventures DC Comics' Travis Morgan--The Warlord.  The earlier installments can be found here...

"Ballad Part VI"

Warlord (vol. 2) #6 (June 1992)

Written by Mike Grell; Art by Dameon Willich and Tim Burgard

Synopsis: The army of Shamballah, led by the Warlord, is at the walls of Thera. They’re soon taking heavy casualties from Deimos’s undead hordes—and every time one of the Shamballans falls, they rise to fight for the other side!

Deimos, in his statue form, strides forth into battle. He unhorses Petrus and grabs him. Morgan shoots Deimos, but the bullet ricochets off. He can only watch in horror as:

The old veteran is dead.

Realizing there’s no way they can win, Tara orders a retreat. In their camp they notice that the land around them is dying as Deimos’s power rises. A column of troops arriving at the camp raises their spirits a bit: It’s the combined armies of Kiro and Kaambuka, led by Machiste, Mariah, and Ashir.

Morgan greets his old friends warmly, but tells them there’s nothing they can do. His army of thousands was winnowed down to a handful. Everyone expects him to do something, but he doesn’t want to lead more people to pointless deaths. Morgan leaves the tent, but Tinder follows him. “You can’t turn these people away,” the minstrel says. “They came for you.”

Morgan walks off alone. As he stands brooding, Jennifer appears. She tells him there is a way to defeat Deimos, but he has to be willing to sacrifice himself. For a daughter, she speaks a bit unkindly, telling him “it ought to be an easy choice” and since he’s never been one for hearth and home “surely it will be no loss.” Morgan says he’ll do whatever must be done.

Later, when he tells the others, Mariah and Tara protest, but he convinces them it’s the only way. Tinder is sent as a messenger to Deimos, who agrees to meet Morgan at the appointed place.

Morgan and his troops arrive at the place beside a lake looking defeated. When Morgan presents himself, Deimos gloats that the weakness of mortals—their fear of death—makes them eager to surrender Morgan, even as before they had been eager to follow him.

Morgan dives into the lake. Enraged, Deimos orders his troops to slaughter Morgan’s friends, but before they can act:

The battle is rejoined, but this time the outcome is different. Morgan buries the hellfire blade in Deimos’s chest:

Deimos’s troops quickly decay to dust. Our heroes are victorious.

Sometime later, Tinder is playing his lute in a garden, when Queen Tara approaches. Tinder says he came looking for Warlord the legend and found the man—but now with the nations united under one banner, everything Morgan spoke of can become a reality. The promise of the legend can be fulfilled.

“I think not, “ Tara replies. “He has already left.”

Tinder smashes his lute in disappointment.

Things to Notice:

• All the characters are wearing more armor than they used to wear.
• Ashir returns to the Warlord saga for the first time in about 7 years (issue #96).

Where It Comes From:
And so the limited series ends the way everyone but Tinder seems to know it would with Morgan running out on responsibility once again.

The use of the hellfire sword here suggests again that Grell may be ignoring events in the original title after he left, but as before it's inconclusive. Worried about the effect that wielding the hellfire sword was having on him, Morgan tossed it into a lake(apparently the lake in this issue) back in issue #43. That was the last we saw of it until the Cary Burkett penned Warlord Annual #4. There, Morgan is forced to reclaim it from the Lady of Lake in order to use it against the Evil One.

Jennifer is last seen with the sword at the end of that story so we don't know what became of it. Perhaps, she tossed it back into the lake at some point? If so, Morgan had a lot easier time regaining the sword this time around than he did when he was forced to fight the King of the Undead in annual #4.

Labor Day Labors

Labor Day is a good time to take a look at the Labors of Hercules (the link their will refresh you on the background) through a science fantasy Gods, Demi-gods & Strangeness lens:

1: In the first labor, Hercules killed the Nemean lion. Given the Olympians penchant for genetically reviving extinct species, this was probably a cave lion of some sort. Perhaps a specimen of Panthera leo fossilis as big as Panthera leo atrox, the America cave lion: something like 8 ft. long and 4 ft. tall at the shoulder. The being invulnerable thing is probably just fanciful exaggeration--or is it?

2: Next, Hercules and Iolaus took on the Lemaean Hydra. A multiheaded serpent is the sort of creature spawned by Echidna.

3: Hercules only captured the Golden Hind of Artemis (the Cerynitian Hind). This was one of a group of specialized genetically engineered deer of genus Eucladoceros kept by Artemis. They were engineered so (like modern reindeer) the females had antlers.

4: Next Hercules captured the Erymanthian Boar. I've written about these "giant boar" previously.

5: The stables of Augeas were really, really disgusting. Why were his livestock immortal?

6: After that, Hercules slayed a group of Stymphalian birds--which of course aren't birds at all.

7: Hercules captured the rampaging Cretan Bull. As previously established, this creature wasn't the father of the Minotaur. Instead, it was a large auroch as enraged and violent as that big buffalo in White Buffalo (1977).

8: Capturing the Mares of Diomedes was difficult because they were carnivorous. They must have been some mad creation of Olympian science.

9: Next Hecules stole the belt of the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. This belt was a gift of Ares and a symbol of her authority, but didn't have any particular powers. Probably.

10: For his next labor, Hercules does a little cattle-rustling. He goes to an island of Erytheia far the the West (probably modern Spain) and steals special cattle (like bioengineered to produce something for the Olympians--perhaps a component of nectar or ambrosia?) from Geryon. Geryon is said to have three bodies, which probably means his consciousness runs in three duplicates. He also had a 2 headed dog.

11:Returning to the far west and still messing with Olympian pharma, Hercules stole the Golden Apples of the Hesperides. He had to kill a dragon (or a guardian of some sort) and dealt with Atlas, who was the artificial intelligence of an installation that protected against threats from space.

12: Finally, he captured Cerberus. This guardian of Hades is a nanite swarm often taking the vague form of a large three headed dog.

Have a good Labor Day!