Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Warlord Wednesday: The Forgotten (part 2)

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

"The Forgotten" (part 2)
Warlord (vol. 4) #8 (January 2010) Story & Art by Mike Grell

Synopsis: The beast-men attack. Morgan tries to scare them off with a shot fired into the air. That only cows them briefly. Morgan is forced to fight them with sword and pistol.

The scene cuts to Morgan and a group of warriors (some of whom look familiar: like members of the group he fought to save the woman) on a balcony overlooking the ruins of the city.

They enter a great hall, lined with alcoves containing statues that Morgan figures are gods. The warriors joke about the half-ruined statues, but one of them, Garn, gives a warning: Gods have power so long as a single person believes in them.

One of the men asks Morgan what he believes. The Warlord finally replies:


Morgan tells them that most people where he comes from believe in a god, but they have many names for him or her and they fight about who's right. One of the men suggests that men don't need a reason for war. As if to prove his point, another man suddenly takes an arrow in the throat. Brigands are attacking!

Morgan goes into a rage and starts killing. A peal of laughter feels the air. Morgan turns:


The woman or goddess pronounces him her champion. She tells him he has always served her, and she has always been at his side. Through Vietnam, through the slave rebellion he led, his defeat of Deimos. Every violent deed. She made him the Warlord.


As she presses her blood-stained lips to his, she promises that when he dies it will not be "feeble from the infirmities of age but blood-spattered in the glory of battle" with his name shouted in the hall of heroes.

Morgan hears his name being called--but it's Shakira shaking him awake. He asks what happened. She suggests maybe it was an ambush while she was off hunting. Morgan says, "no, it was only a kiss." Shakira thinks he's hallucinating.

She hands him his sword, saying he'll need it. Morgan agrees.

They mount Morgan's horse. He asks Shakira if she believes in the old gods. She says "no." Morgan responds:



Things to Notice:
  • It's left a bit unclear (at least to me) exactly how Morgan's men died.
Where it comes from: 
This issue is largely a retread of issue #14. There, the supernatural woman telling Morgan she had always been with him was explicitly Death, rather than a more nebulous goddess. Death is depict as a raven-haired beauty in Skartarian attire with some Indian accessories, whereas this goddess is white-haired and attired in a white tunic, but perhaps they're both different aspects of the same being.

2 comments:

garrisonjames said...

Goddesses, much like their worshippers, can change over time. Morgan has changed a good bit since Issue 14, so it stands to reason that his Goddess might also change as well. For all we know She is part of an entire pantheon that he has access to, or some sort of extended family of death-war-liberty oriented deities.

That was a nice touch there at the end.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

Death makes the most sense to be honest.