War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells feels like the original dystopia and Marvel was brilliant to adapt the novel to comics form by focusing on the rebellion which might develop when the Martians returned to Earth and succeeded as they had not done in the Wells novel. In the pages of Amazing Adventures we meet Killraven, a gladiator in the arenas of the Martian-Earth of 2018 A.D. (I have lived long) who becomes the Sparticus of his brave dark world and he and his fellow rebels take it to the invaders in fine form.
Neal Adams was involved with the series for the briefest of times when it debuted in Amazing Adventures, producing some of the pages in the debut but the strip was lucky to find other creators of talent like Herb Trimpe and Howard Chaykin to handle the art chores. The writing though would eventually fall to the verbose Don McGregor who with P. Craig Russell made Killraven their own as the years went by.
Unlike other dystopic comics at Marvel and elsewhere, the future of Killraven seemed to stay isolated and so not a proper part of the Marvel mix like Deathlok would do. Nonetheless the series is fondly remembered and is one of the most evocative and most imaginative variations on the themes H.G. Wells developed so long ago.
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"Unlike other dystopic comics at Marvel and elsewhere, the future of Killraven seemed to stay isolated and so not a proper part of the Marvel mix..."
ReplyDeleteThere was Marvel Team-Up #45...
Despite the inherent contradictions due to established dates, Killraven's been integrated into the mainstream Marvel Universe!, much like Kirby's 1970s characters such as The Eternals and Machine Man who were never intended to do so!