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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Warlord Wednesday: Let My People Go

Let's re-enter the lost world with 2012's first installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Let My People Go"
Warlord #77 (January 1984)
Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Dan Jurgens; Inked by Dan Adkins

Synopsis:
A black cat (Shakira, of course) sneaks into the New Atlantean camp and steals a set of keys. Transforming into human form, she moves to free Ashir from a cage. Unfortunately, she’s caught by a goat-headed beast-man and some soldiers.

Or is she? At that moment, Scarhart drops out a tree above the New Atlanteans and attacks. Our three heroes make their escape into the woods.

Meanwhile, in the secluded Valley of the Lion, Morgan and Tara frolic in a pond. Morgan’s gunbelt and the silver mysterious cassette sit on the ground nearby. At least for a while:


A tender moment between Morgan and Tara is interrupted by Graemore. He tells them Captain Trogero has just returned with yet more refugees. Morgan emerges from the pond to go meet Trogero. He notices the cassette is missing and begins to get suspicious of Graemore.

Elsewhere, a bear-headed Brood Brother and a contigent of Atlantean soldiers prepare to storm Castle Deimos. The sudden appearance of large and terrifying monsters from the castle routs the New Atlantean force. These horrors are illusions created by the magic of Castle Deimos’s mistress, Jennifer Morgan. She decides she needs to find out just who this army is that's disrupting the countryside.

Meanwhile, Scarhart, Shakira, and Ashir capture a warrior that turns out to be a Shamballan soldier. When he realizes who Ashir is, he quickly leads them to the camp in the valley.

Reunited with his friends, Ashir tells Morgan and Tara about the fall of Kaambuka. Now his people are being led away in chains to be slaves in New Atlantis. Krystovar reminds Morgan that the New Atlanteans will have to march their captives to the seacoast for transport. Our heroes have a chance to intercept them.

Morgan and his friends lead a small contingent to set up an ambush. Archers distract the soldiers, while Shakira in feline form sneaks in among their ranks to free the captives. Morgan leads an attack and the Atlanteans are soon fighting a battle on two fronts with Shamballah soldiers and freed slaves.

By putting on their enemy's horned helmets, Morgan and his troops disguise themselves. They lead the captives to the ship awaiting them. Striking with surprise they quickly overwhelm the skeleton force left on guard and seize the ship.


Morgan renames the ship the Wind Shadow. He and Tara plan to take it to the cave of the ancient and secure advanced weapons to put an end to the New Atlantean threat once and for all.

Things to Notice:
  • Tara disses Shakira's fashion sense (despite the fact they're both dressed in sort of fur bikinis).
  • Horned helmets are apparently slaver standard use, as previously seen in issues #2 and 3.
  • Virtually all of the Warlord supporting cast appears in this issue (we're just missing those still in the Age of the Wizard-Kings).
Where It Comes From:
The title of this issue is ultimately a reference to the Exodus 7:16: "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me."

6 comments:

  1. Wednesday is back to normal and all is good in the world...

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  2. The cell pic with the ship christening is priceless! I don't think I would mess with her!

    That series seems to borrow from several mythologies... how cool!

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  3. I love Warlord. I briefly collected it when I was a kid. About 10 years ago, I bought Warlord #1 and that's the only one I own. Obviously, it's not a collector's item since I got it for $10 in great condition!

    I seem to remember a dude who had a morningstar for a hand. And I remember that I loved the cover art.

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  4. Mysterious silver cassette? That looks disturbingly like a SIM card to me.

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  5. @Sylvaeon - Yeah, Warlord's pretty promiscuous in its borrowings.

    @George - That's Machiste, king of Kiro, and friend of Travis Morgan. If you check out previous installments of Warlord Wednesday, you can find out how he lost that hand.

    @Chris - It does, doesn't it. The artist makes it look a little smaller here that it has previously. It's kind of a SIM card the size of a whole smartphone, really.

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