Showcasing the Essentials 03

Showcase Presents Warlord Volume 1

Story by Mike Grell

Pencils by Mike Grell

Warlord was an attempted by DC to cash in on the minor sword and sorcery fad that was happening in comics in the 70's. Marvel had a huge hit on their hands with Conan. Warlord is Travis Morgan a military man who's plane crashes through and open spot in the earth near the north pole,and he ends up in a world that is inside the Earth. Where the sun always shines. Kinda a cheesy concept,but in the capable hands of one Mike Grell it turned into a very long running series. In his first appearance Morgan meets the lovely Tara,a princess of a society that seems to be the most advanced in all of this world. The first 10 or so issues deal with him meeting people and traveling back to Tara's homeland. Along the way he meets up with Machiste,a King of another society,and Mariah,a Russian scientist that follows Morgan back to this hidden land. Early on he faces what would become his arch enemy Demios,a wizard that also knows about a lot of the tech that is laying around. Seems this world was settled by the remnants of the survivors of the lost island of Atlantis. After many adventures Morgan joins back up with Tara to learn that she is with child. And not too long after the child is born it is kidnapped by Demios. This leads to a multi-issue storyline . When Morgan finally confronts Demios,he ends up having to fight to the death with his rapidly aged son. After a long battle Morgan ends up killing his son,and it seems that Demios is dead. But all is not what it seems. Turns out Morgan only killed a clone of his son and the evil Demios is still alive. This Showcase reprints the first appearance of the Warlord,plus the first 28 issues of his series. Along with the good to great stories,it has some simply breathtaking artwork by Mike Grell. Most issues have a two page title splash that is just amazing.I ended up getting this hefty tome in the mail yesterday and read it all in one sitting. And now I can only hope they publish another soon. Showcase Presents Warlord gets a A.