| Killraven | |
|---|---|
 Amazing Adventures #30 (May, 1975) Left to right: M'Shulla, Killraven, Mint Julep Cover art by P. Craig Russell. |
|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Amazing Adventures #18 (May 1973) |
| Created by | Roy
Thomas Neal Adams |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Jonathan Raven |
| Team affiliations | Freemen |
| Notable aliases | K.R. |
| Abilities | Ability to project consciousness |
Jonathan Raven, best known as Killraven, the "Warrior of the Worlds", is a fictional freedom fighter in a post-apocalyptic alternate future of the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in Amazing Adventures #18 (May 1973), created by co-plotters Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, scripter Gerry Conway, and penciller Adams. The series featured the first interracial kiss in American color comic books.[1].
Contents |
Co-creator Neal Adams' early ideas for Killraven involved the character being the son of a Doc Savage archetype.[2] This conception had been reworked by the first issue, a multiple-creator goulash in which the two originators and co-plotters turned the scripting over to another writer, and in which artist co-creator Adams penciled only the first 11 pages and Howard Chaykin the remaining nine. The second issue was fully written by the debut's scripter, Gerry Conway, followed in the third by Marv Wolfman.
After this, the book became the province of writer Don McGregor for an acclaimed run [3] from #21 (Nov. 1973) to the final issue, #39 (Nov. 1976). Pencillers were Herb Trimpe, Rich Buckler, Gene Colan, and, most prominently, P. Craig Russell from issue #27 on.
Aside from McGregor, with whom the character became as associated as Howard the Duck with Steve Gerber or Tomb of Dracula with Marv Wolfman, other writers include Bill Mantlo (a fill-in Amazing Adventures and a Marvel Team-Up with Killraven and a future-flung Spider-Man); Joe Linsner (a 2001 Marvel Knights one-shot, Killraven, set in 2020 New York City, at odds with the original series' locale by that fictional year); and Alan Davis (also artist), in a 2002 parallel universe miniseries, Killraven vol. 2.
McGregor and Russell, however, remain the series' signature creative team; more than two decades after the original series end, comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that,
| “ | "It was writer Don McGregor who transformed the Killraven saga ... into a classic. Of all of Marvel's writers, McGregor has the most romantic view of heroism. Killraven and his warrior band were also a community of friends and lovers motivated by a poetic vision of freedom and of humanity's potential greatness. McGregor's finest artistic collaborator on the series was P. Craig Russell, whose sensitive, elaborate artwork, evocative of Art Nouveau illustration, gave the landscape of Killraven's America a nostalgic, pastoral feel, and the Martian architecture the look of futuristic castles.[4] | ” |
In the 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy series, Killraven is shown to be a member of the original team while set in the future.
In 2005, writer Jim Valentino said his aborted plans for the Marvel comic Guardians of the Galaxy involved Killraven, in his 50s, joining the team and forming an attraction to Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara). Valentino said he would have established Franklin Richards as Killraven's father.[5]
Writer Robert Kirkman and artist Rob Liefeld said in August 2007 they were creating a five-issue, alternate universe Killraven miniseries planned for release in 2008.[6][7] As of late 2009, the series had not materialized.
On the alternate-future Earth designated Earth-691 by Marvel Comics, the Martians from H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds returned in 2001 for another attempt at conquering the planet. (They were later retconned as extrasolar aliens using Mars as a staging area.) After humanity's enslavement, men not used as breeders or collaborators were trained and forced to battle gladiator-style for the Martians' amusement; women were used as breeders to supply infants, eaten by the Martians as a delicacy. Jonathan Raven, dubbed Killraven as his gladiatorial nom de guerre, escaped with the help of the gladiatorial "keeper", but without his brother, Deathraven. Killraven joined the Freemen, a group of freedom fighters against Martian oppression.[8]
The story follows Killraven and his companions from 2018 through 2020 as they travel across the eastern portion of North America, from New York City to Cape Canaveral while searching for Killraven's lost brother. Pursued by the cyborg Skar, the Freemen encounter various victims of Martian transhuman experiments, as well as emotionally and psychologically scarred survivors. According to writer McGregor, some story ideas that did not make it into the book before cancellation were explored in his graphic novel Sabre.
Killraven was seen alongside his Freemen in most of his adventures and battles. Killraven battled Skarlet and the Sirens in his second appearance.[9] He then first encounters Carmilla Frost and Grok, and alongside his Freemen, he battled the Warlord.[10] The Freemen met Mint Julep, and battled Abraxas, Rattack, the High Overlord, and Skar.[11] Killraven tamed a mutated serpent-horse to use as his mount, and his Freemen battled Pstun-Rage in Battle Creek, Michigan (in this encounter, the antagonists' names are anagrams of the Battle Creek-based Kellogg Company's breakfast cereals).[12] The Freeman met Volcana Ash, who helped them battle Atalon and the Death-Breeders.[13] After learning that his brother Joshua (Deathraven) was still alive,[14] and fighting Martian slaves alongside a time-traveling Spider-Man,[15] the Freeman reach the Everglades, where they encounter Mourning Prey.[16]
The Freemen encounter Killraven's brother, Deathraven, and discover he has become a Martian collaborator in a sequel graphic novel, Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds (Marvel Graphic Novel #7, 1983).
Killraven's Freemen allies included his African American "mud-brother", M'Shulla Scott, and the feisty scientist Carmilla Frost, who shared color comic books' earliest known interracial kiss, in issue #31 (July 1975), page nine, final panel; the cynical and bitter Native American Hawk; the slow-witted strongman Old Skull; the flirty and sensual Volcana Ash; the human/plant hybrid Mint Julep; and Grok, the severely damaged apelike clone of Carmilla's father.
As a youth, Jonathan Raven's physical prowess was heightened thanks to injections of experimental chemicals by Keeper Whitman. He was later given mental powers through Keeper Whitman's psycho-electric experiments, including the psionic ability to project his consciousness into and take over a Martian's mind, and the psychic ability to resist mental assaults and to mask his presence from robot scanners.
Killraven is also a superb hand-to-hand combatant, and a highly skilled swordsman, wrestler, and martial artist. He is a master of most hand weaponry, especially shuriken. He is a master strategist in guerilla warfare. Killraven possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of human history, art, and science predating the Martian invasion of A.D. 2001, implanted in his mind by Keeper Whitman.
Killraven wears bulletproof fabrics and leather. He is armed with various weapons as needed, and usually carried a sword and shuriken. He sometimes rides a mutated serpent-horse, or appropriated Martian vehicles and aircraft.
There have been counterparts of Killraven in several stories:
In the mainstream Marvel universe that the company dubs Earth-616, Jonathan Raven appears in the 2006-2007 miniseries Wisdom. He is the son of Wisdom's MI-13 co-worker and lover, Maureen Raven, and the target of a trans-dimensional Martian Invasion because, as the Martian leader states, "On all Earths! Always! Every one of him is dangerous! Ruling council plan to invade all other Earths. So I urged this first expedition now before he is grown". Wisdom is forced to kill Maureen in order to stop the Martian invasion, while Jonathan is taken to an MI-6 safehouse in Prague and trained by martial artist Shang-Chi.[18]
Hollywood trade stories in 2005 reported plans to adapt Killraven for a theatrical motion picture, with Marvel and Sony Pictures in negotiations with Robert Schenkkan to write a script.[19][20]
The original Killraven's complete adventures, listed here, were collected in the 2005 trade paperback The Essential Killraven (ISBN 0-7851-1777-6):
Alan Davis' series have also been collected into hardcover (ISBN 0-7851-2538-8) and softcover (ISBN 0-7851-2841-7) volumes.
|
|||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
   | "The Masked Bookwyrm" - Graphic Novel Reviews: General_Page 5 |
| | ''Comic Book Artist'' #3 (Winter 1999): Neal Adams interview - Neal Adams: The Marvel Years - Comic Book Artist #3 - TwoMorrows Publishing |
| | Marvel Chronology Project - Killraven & Co. - Marvel Chronology Project - Killraven Mythos |
| | The Warren Magazines Interviews: Don McGregor - Interviews with the creators of the Warren magazines |
| | Killraven, War of the Worlds (1973-2003) - Review and history of the Killraven comic book series |
| | Killraven Appearances in Publication Order - KILLRAVEN, WARRIOR OF THE WORLDS - Appearances in Publication Order |
| | WW Chicago - Robert Kirkman Talks Killraven w/ Liefeld - WW CHICAGO - ROBERT KIRKMAN TALKS KILLRAVEN w/ LIEFELD - NEWSARAMA |
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Misc
Search
