Warlord

May 11th, 2006

Filed under: Comics

cover, First Issue Special #8cover, Warlord #1

Somebody please explain the recent Warlord mini-series to me. I can’t be the only one who thinks it’s a complete mess and a disservice to a character with a respected pedigree.

The original Warlord by Mike Grell was great. It was a fun pastiche of Burroughs, Howard, Kane, and Stoker (but mostly Burroughs) that never failed to enterain, particularly the issues drawn and written by Grell himself. Travis Morgan is the epitome of Grell’s über-masculine characters, later seen in his runs on Green Arrow (still my favorite take on the character) and Jon Sable, Freelance. Morgan’s shown up once or twice since the demise of his series, first in Green Arrow (in a classic storyline where everyone tries to kill him because they think he’s Ollie), a second time in a six issue 1992 mini-series, and then more recently in a storyline in Aquaman (Dan Jurgens’ run towards the end of the 1994 series). (And how could I forget Justice League Unlimited?)

The new Warlord, by Bruce Jones and Bart Sears, is wrong on so many levels. The story is paper thin and even that has already been stretched out for too many issues. Characters who were once complex and interesting are now two-dimensional caricatures (oh how I miss thee, fur-clad Tara). Morgan no longer feels lost in this strange new world, but is smugly confident that he can conquer it from his first appearance. To top it off there’s the addition of that cheapest of fantasy plot devices: the prophecy — and one that Morgan just happens to fulfill. It’s like Strange all over again, only without the nice Brandon Peterson art (I normally like Sears’s unique take on human anatomy, but this series just isn’t working for him. The action is messy and hard to understand, and the art is entirely too sketchy. He needs a bold inker; add him to the list of pencilers who should not ink themselves).

I would welcome Jones and Sears working on a Warlord series that builds upon Grell’s, but why start over when the new version offers no improvement upon the original?

cover, Warlord #1

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8 Responses to “ Warlord ”

  1. Chance
    May 12th, 2006 at 2:08 am

    I agree. I flipped through this at my local shop and put it back on the shelf. The writer offers no reason whatever for the fan to be interested.

  2. Johanna
    May 12th, 2006 at 6:39 am

    Why start over? Perhaps to attract new readers like me who didn’t read the series when it first came out THIRTY years ago? I think Warlord’s a hoot, but I wouldn’t bother with it if it was another backward-looking continuity-based retro book.

  3. Scott
    May 12th, 2006 at 8:05 am
    Official Comment

    That’s a valid point Johanna, and one that didn’t occur to me (though probably should have). However, it does make we wonder if there’s some point where publishers alienate more old readers than gain new readers?

    (My problem is not so much with the reboot itself — I’m not opposed to rebooting characters per se, it’s that this reboot is so clumsily done and adds nothing to a previously well-designed character.)

    The continuity in the 100+ issues of the original Warlord may seem daunting, but there’s actually very little backstory there that can’t be covered in a page or two, tops. Take a look at his appearance in Aquaman (I think it was around issue #75), he blends in with a minimum of continuity effort…and where’s my Showcase presents Warlord? It seems he would be perfect for the black-and-white phonebook approach.

  4. Chuck T.
    May 12th, 2006 at 8:25 am

    I first read Warlord in a DC 100-Page Digest, which ran the whole Deimos saga, all killer and no filler. (It was a long time until I saw how much had been cut, but it still reads quite well.)
    The new one, I’m having a hard time judging on it’s own, since I was able to read a bloody ton of the old all at once, which makes the new seem slow. The subplot with the girlfriend and the rival isn’t going to end well either, and I couldn’t believe that Tara would side with…the big evil brute whose name escapes me. And we haven’t even gotten to the helmet yet, which is both a huge redesign, and redesigned to be huge.
    I should quit complaining, though: I’m hoping the series does well enough to get a DC Direct Warlord action figure to replace my He-Manesque Remco one…

  5. Mark Hale
    May 13th, 2006 at 12:01 am

    I’m pretty sure Warlord popped up in Jurgens’ Teen Titans run as well.

  6. Johanna
    May 14th, 2006 at 9:49 am

    Thanks for taking my comments in the spirit they intended, because I fear they might read as harsher than I meant them.

    The risk you point out is a valid one, constantly faced by companies trying to keep old properties and trademarks alive. It’s probably most visible currently, in my opinion, when it comes to Firestorm, which keeps teasing elements of the previous, well-loved series.

    The phonebook is a good idea, although I probably wouldn’t pick it up, because I just don’t care. (Again, I hope that sounds more bemused than mean.) I’m not even sure why I tried the current series, but I liked it. It’s not great comics, but it’s more entertaining to me than DC’s superhero books.

  7. K T
    August 2nd, 2006 at 7:22 am

    I agree that the action is often confusing. The line work also seems too thick and pasty on the whole.

    It’s also disappointing that they’ve dropped so many of the old characters and changed the rest so much. Our hero no longer seems to have a daughter named Jennifer, his love (before he met Tara) is no longer called Rachel, there’s no longer that cat-girl named Shakira… and I don’t think I’ll hold my breath and wait for Deimos to appeaar either. And Morgan’s gear seems to have become very cumbersome in appearance.

  8. Lance
    August 5th, 2006 at 10:46 am

    Hi, I may be a bit older, but I really loved the original series. This new one has me more the a little confused as to its point. I mean the only similarity I can see to the original is the name of some of its characters and a slight (though as you so validly put it “Cumbersome”) resemblance in appearance of its main character. If you are going to change it that much why bother to call it The Warlord at all? Call it something else then you don’t offend fans of the original series and new fans of this series don’t have to put up with or griping about all the changes.

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