Post by rberman on Apr 11, 2019 16:16:03 GMT -5
Marada the She-Wolf (1982, 1984)
Background: Legend has it that Chris Claremont wrote a story for Red Sonja that ended up getting grafted onto a new character, Marada Starhair, a peerless mercenary living in the early days of the Roman Empire after the murder of Julius Caesar. With black and white art by British import John Bolton, she had two stories spread over Epic Illustrated #10-12 (1982). Two other stories appeared in issues #22 and 23, the latter in color. Subsequently the earlier stories were repainted in color by Bolton to make a matched set.
Epic Illustrated #10 “The Shattered Sword” (February 1982): Fighter-mage Donal MacLlanllwyr and his brigands raid a Parthian convoy in the Syrian desert. To his surprise, the guarded treasure is a woman whom he recognizes as famed warrior Marada Starhair, but she’s in bad shape, limp and unresponsive. Donal teleports with her back to his home base in Wales. Marada revives but has lost all her fighting spirit. She tells of how in Damascus she was drugged by the wizard Simyon Karashnur, then chained and raped by the demon Ygaron, who took a piece of her soul, while giving her a piece of his.
Epic Illustrated #11 (no story title. April 1982): Marada befriends Donal’s daughter Arianrhod, a budding fighter-mage like her father. Ygaron sends a spirit in the form of Marada to murder Donal and kidnap Arianrhod. Donal’s mother Rhiannon teleports Marada to face off against Ygaron and Simyon; she kills them both in turn after feigning helplessness to draw the demon in for the kill. Arianhrod teleports herself and Marada away, arriving at a location unknown to either. The Marada-spirit who was so invincible in its initial appearance is curiously absent from the grand finale.
Epic Illustrated #12 “Royal Hunt” (June 1982): In some desert, Marada and Arianrhod are captured while fighting on the wrong side of a civil war. Their captor, “Ashake the Candance” (a black queen likely inspired by Candace, queen of the Ethiopians), protects them from rape by her soldiers and gives them a challenge: She will hunt them. If they can beat her to safe ground, they will be set free.
After some running around in the wilderness, Marada fakes falling to her death off a cliff. This draws the Candance close enough for a melee which Marada wins. The rape-minded soldiers re-appear, intending to assault and kill all three women, but their victims team up and best them. Marada and Arionrhod are set free and provisioned with the Candance’s blessings.
Epic Illustrated #22 “Wizard’s Masque” (February 1984): Arianrhod tries to make a stepping disc to teleport home. Instead she summons a tentacular horror that pulls Marada through, dumping her on a pirate galleon in what seems to be the Indian Ocean. After she kills the pirate captain and several of his men, the others decide that letting her join the crew is smarter. Thankfully they all speak the same language somehow.
After the ship lowers anchor at the Black Isle of Djeriabar, Marada’s pirate buddy is killed by guards, and she’s taken to the palace of the wizard Jaffar. Although the pirates claimed that Jaffar is above sexuality, that proves not to be the case, and he takes a shine to Marada. But his demonic bosses demand that Jaffar kill Marada in payback for her killing of Ygarion back in issue #11.
Epic Illustrated #23 “Wizard’s Masque” (April 1984):
Marada kills a minor demon sent to kill her but then succumbs briefly to Jaffar’s mental wizardry, until she’s able to knee him in the groin and escape. There’s a lot of running around and illusion, but ultimately he recaptures her. He seems to offer her up to a demon who devours her. But no, it was a simulacrum; Jaffar is too enamored of her to let her die. But he can’t keep her either, or the demons will find out, so reluctantly he teleports her back to Arionrhod.
My Two Cents: I am no expert in the sword-and-sandals department and could not really explain the difference between Conan and King Kull. I assume the mojo-stealing rape was what got this series nixed as a viable story for Red Sonja. Teen Arionrhod spends most of all five issues running around in a shift. The rest of it seems pretty standard for what I think of in the hack-and-slash fantasy department. Marada keeps getting bested by mental attacks, then keeps faking out her opponents by pretending weakness. The notable exception is the last story, in which she really would have been eaten by a demon if Jaffar hadn’t decided to protect her.
There’s some confusion about Donal MacLlanllwyr, whose name seems to be a mishmash of Welsh and Scottish origins. The art shows him as black-haired. Some color editions have text that agrees, but at least one printing (including my 2013 Titan Comics first edition) claims he is “red-bearded,” which he is not.
Marada’s story shares plot details and dressing with Claremont’s other work of the period. The Marada/Candace duel recalls the Ororo/Callisto duel in the Morlock tunnels, inspired no doubt by Frank Miller’s balletic fight scenes in Daredevil. Donal’s horse Brightwind has the same name as the Pegasus which Dani Moonstar acquires in Asgard in The New Mutants.
Marada’s half-demon soul recalls one element of Illyana “Magik” Rasputin, while Arianhrod’s ability to make circular teleportation discs to unknown locations recalls another element. Her teleportation powers also make a convenient device to bridge from one story to the next. She even summons a Phoenix at one point to distract her assailants.
Marada also has a habit of calling out “Bright Lady!” as a swear word, which I believe Ororo in X-Men is known to do from time to time.
Claremontism: Mind control, “Body and Soul.”
Bolton’s art is uniformly gorgeous, and I’m torn as to whether the B&W original is superior to the later painted versions. Bolton worked further with Claremont on backup stories in Classic X-Men and also painted the Someplace Strange graphic novel written by Anne Nocenti.
Next up: The Black Dragon!
Background: Legend has it that Chris Claremont wrote a story for Red Sonja that ended up getting grafted onto a new character, Marada Starhair, a peerless mercenary living in the early days of the Roman Empire after the murder of Julius Caesar. With black and white art by British import John Bolton, she had two stories spread over Epic Illustrated #10-12 (1982). Two other stories appeared in issues #22 and 23, the latter in color. Subsequently the earlier stories were repainted in color by Bolton to make a matched set.
Epic Illustrated #10 “The Shattered Sword” (February 1982): Fighter-mage Donal MacLlanllwyr and his brigands raid a Parthian convoy in the Syrian desert. To his surprise, the guarded treasure is a woman whom he recognizes as famed warrior Marada Starhair, but she’s in bad shape, limp and unresponsive. Donal teleports with her back to his home base in Wales. Marada revives but has lost all her fighting spirit. She tells of how in Damascus she was drugged by the wizard Simyon Karashnur, then chained and raped by the demon Ygaron, who took a piece of her soul, while giving her a piece of his.
Epic Illustrated #11 (no story title. April 1982): Marada befriends Donal’s daughter Arianrhod, a budding fighter-mage like her father. Ygaron sends a spirit in the form of Marada to murder Donal and kidnap Arianrhod. Donal’s mother Rhiannon teleports Marada to face off against Ygaron and Simyon; she kills them both in turn after feigning helplessness to draw the demon in for the kill. Arianhrod teleports herself and Marada away, arriving at a location unknown to either. The Marada-spirit who was so invincible in its initial appearance is curiously absent from the grand finale.
Epic Illustrated #12 “Royal Hunt” (June 1982): In some desert, Marada and Arianrhod are captured while fighting on the wrong side of a civil war. Their captor, “Ashake the Candance” (a black queen likely inspired by Candace, queen of the Ethiopians), protects them from rape by her soldiers and gives them a challenge: She will hunt them. If they can beat her to safe ground, they will be set free.
After some running around in the wilderness, Marada fakes falling to her death off a cliff. This draws the Candance close enough for a melee which Marada wins. The rape-minded soldiers re-appear, intending to assault and kill all three women, but their victims team up and best them. Marada and Arionrhod are set free and provisioned with the Candance’s blessings.
Epic Illustrated #22 “Wizard’s Masque” (February 1984): Arianrhod tries to make a stepping disc to teleport home. Instead she summons a tentacular horror that pulls Marada through, dumping her on a pirate galleon in what seems to be the Indian Ocean. After she kills the pirate captain and several of his men, the others decide that letting her join the crew is smarter. Thankfully they all speak the same language somehow.
After the ship lowers anchor at the Black Isle of Djeriabar, Marada’s pirate buddy is killed by guards, and she’s taken to the palace of the wizard Jaffar. Although the pirates claimed that Jaffar is above sexuality, that proves not to be the case, and he takes a shine to Marada. But his demonic bosses demand that Jaffar kill Marada in payback for her killing of Ygarion back in issue #11.
Epic Illustrated #23 “Wizard’s Masque” (April 1984):
Marada kills a minor demon sent to kill her but then succumbs briefly to Jaffar’s mental wizardry, until she’s able to knee him in the groin and escape. There’s a lot of running around and illusion, but ultimately he recaptures her. He seems to offer her up to a demon who devours her. But no, it was a simulacrum; Jaffar is too enamored of her to let her die. But he can’t keep her either, or the demons will find out, so reluctantly he teleports her back to Arionrhod.
My Two Cents: I am no expert in the sword-and-sandals department and could not really explain the difference between Conan and King Kull. I assume the mojo-stealing rape was what got this series nixed as a viable story for Red Sonja. Teen Arionrhod spends most of all five issues running around in a shift. The rest of it seems pretty standard for what I think of in the hack-and-slash fantasy department. Marada keeps getting bested by mental attacks, then keeps faking out her opponents by pretending weakness. The notable exception is the last story, in which she really would have been eaten by a demon if Jaffar hadn’t decided to protect her.
There’s some confusion about Donal MacLlanllwyr, whose name seems to be a mishmash of Welsh and Scottish origins. The art shows him as black-haired. Some color editions have text that agrees, but at least one printing (including my 2013 Titan Comics first edition) claims he is “red-bearded,” which he is not.
Marada’s story shares plot details and dressing with Claremont’s other work of the period. The Marada/Candace duel recalls the Ororo/Callisto duel in the Morlock tunnels, inspired no doubt by Frank Miller’s balletic fight scenes in Daredevil. Donal’s horse Brightwind has the same name as the Pegasus which Dani Moonstar acquires in Asgard in The New Mutants.
Marada’s half-demon soul recalls one element of Illyana “Magik” Rasputin, while Arianhrod’s ability to make circular teleportation discs to unknown locations recalls another element. Her teleportation powers also make a convenient device to bridge from one story to the next. She even summons a Phoenix at one point to distract her assailants.
Marada also has a habit of calling out “Bright Lady!” as a swear word, which I believe Ororo in X-Men is known to do from time to time.
Claremontism: Mind control, “Body and Soul.”
Bolton’s art is uniformly gorgeous, and I’m torn as to whether the B&W original is superior to the later painted versions. Bolton worked further with Claremont on backup stories in Classic X-Men and also painted the Someplace Strange graphic novel written by Anne Nocenti.
Next up: The Black Dragon!
