Daily Comic Book Mission #043: The Warlord #5

Welcome back to the ComicBook.Beer daily comic book mission, and today's comic book that you absolutely must read, your mandatory suggested reading, is The Warlord issue number five from March of 1977. Oh, we're so close to Star Wars getting released, just two months away. These are being released bimonthly at this point.

Technically, you could take your copy of The Warlord number five to the theater with you and be unable to quote Star Wars line for line because you haven't seen it yet. Just imagine that. How incredible that would have been, and how much cigarette smoke would have been in the theater. Hmm. Well, okay, I could have done without the smoke, but see, I'm one of these weird people who thinks that cigarette smoke smells good in small doses, but when you're in a cloud of it, it does kind of suck. And also, I can't breathe.

But you know who can breathe? Travis Morgan when he's fighting dinosaurs, because he's so manly. He wears a helmet with hawk wings on it. He rides a horse. And in this issue of The Warlord, he frees his slaves. Well, they're not actually his slaves, his former slave companions and ex-gladiators that he freed in The Warlord #2. So he formed his own army, like his own mercenary army.

And in this issue, they defeat Deimos in The Warlord #4, and he's like, you guys can all go home. And they're like, okay, laters, bye. And they go. But then they're immediately attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex, because The Warlord is awesome. In the lost world of Skartaris, anything is possible.

And maybe you're wondering, you haven't read this series yet, even though you should have since I've suggested that you read them before, but maybe you're wondering how did this world inside the Earth come to be? How did humans populate this place with dinosaurs? Wonder no more, because issue number five gives you the most ludicrous explanation of this backstory possible in a very entertaining way.

I love how this issue starts off. Morgan lets his friends go, and then he and Tara ride off in search of her hometown, Shambhala. They're attacked by dinosaurs. She falls off her horse. He grabs her, and they climb this mountain and push this boulder onto the Tyrannosaurus Rex's head, which then reveals a secret passageway in the mountain.

And they enter this room, which is filled with incredible 1970s mainframe computers, with buttons and levers and swivel chairs that go up and down as well as left and right. And there's a giant Tesla coil there and a huge view screen. And they're just in awe.

And I love how Mike Grell's work is just hilarious here. There's a shot on this one page where Travis Morgan and Tara are looking at this, and they're both just like, oh, that is basically the expression that's on their faces. And then what does Morgan do? He puts his hawk wing helmet down on the control panel, which pushes a button and activates the view screen using 1970, wait, no, Atlantean technology from the future but thousands of years ago.

And it starts to play this documentary. It is like on cue. It tells the tale of Skartaris and Atlantis. Atlantis sank, but then the Atlanteans, who were an advanced race of people, sent ships out in every direction, and one of them sailed into Skartaris, much the same way that Travis Morgan crashed his SR-71 Blackbird into Skartaris.

Discovering this world inside the world with an unblinking eye. Wait, no, sorry, that is Sauron. With an always bright sun. I guess there is never nighttime in Skartaris. This is literally what they took the plot from Godzilla x Kong from, the world inside the world.

And then the Atlanteans form this incredible civilization, but because this is the 70s and it is basically like global thermonuclear war at any moment, being vaporized instantly, and then turning the entire book into Planet of the Apes, but I do not know. Compared to today, I mean, today we are just suffering slowly through social media, so I guess the radiation, which is bad, turned the Atlanteans into monsters and they de evolved.

Which is hilarious, because they talk about de evolution, which is literally what Devo stands for, if anyone is interested. Maybe this is where Devo got their name.

But then we also learned that Deimos, who claimed to have the Scrolls of Blood, Travis Morgan says that he has the Scrolls of Baloney, because he used this. Deimos basically reactivated these computers and figured out how to use them to make that giant monster from the previous issue.

And then they are attacked by wolves. Travis Morgan gets pushed into the next room, where he discovers a futuristic subway system. And does he take it? Well, I will let you figure that one out for yourself.

When you read this fabulous issue of The Warlord, issue number five, and I just put up a video review of issue number four.

The Atlantean Backstory and Devolution

Mark B

I am just tinkering with some video reviews again. If you want to watch that, go watch that. It is good. I am working my way through the series again, writing stuff for the website. It is one of my favorite comic book series, like The Warlord and Shogun Warriors.

I think we are pretty much at the peak of human civilization. Since they canceled The Warlord and Shogun Warriors, we have de evolved as a species and turned into morons, watching reality television and scrolling through nonsense. But he promised me things would get better.

The Atlanteans were smarter than that. They at least knew enough to de evolve into lizard people. You know, lizards are kinda cool.

So what happens with these futuristic computers buried in the mountainside with spinning tape drives and probably a 2400 baud modem? Well, you will have to read this series to find out, so go check it out. They are really cheap and easy to collect. You will love The Warlord, I promise you.

And if you do not, well then you are the problem, not me, because The Warlord is awesome. This is how I think.

See you next time on ComicBook.Beer's Daily Comic Book Mission.