Kull and the Barbarians 2 & 3 (Red Sonja)

[StrayLamb]

KULL AND THE BARBARIANS #2/3 (July 1975)

“Red Sonja: She-Devil With a Sword” by Roy Thomas & Howard Chaykin, adapted in part from a story by Robert E. Howard

APPEARANCES:
Red Sonja; a man, his wife, and their son; Ghunthar; his mother; her servant

SYNOPSIS:
While traveling thru the Darkwood, on Nemedea’s eastern border, Sonja comes across an old man who is traveling with his wife and son, and their cow, and asks them about the nearby castle; they refuse to tell her anything, when another man appears, introducing himself as Ghunthar, and fearing for their lives, the family takes off; handing Sonja a brass casket, Ghunthar tells her she will be welcomed at the castle if she delivers it to the lady of the castle for him; Ghunthar mysteriously vanishes and Sonja heads to the castle, briefly encountering a masked figure along the way, who runs off into the darkness.

Entering the castle’s open door, Sonja spies a servant, who locks himself away, then she climbs the stairway toward a lighted room in the tower, where an old woman sits alone in the dark; the old woman tells her to place the box in her hands, then go, but as Sonja does so, the casket falls to the floor from the old woman’s lifeless hands, and she discovers the old woman’s throat has been cut; the masked stranger that Sonja met earlier appears from the darkness behind the dead woman, and she slashes at him with her sword, but finds him to be impervious to her steel; slipping off a glove and his mask, the man reveals himself to be a werewolf, and tells Sonja he’s the second son of Castle Darkwood; he opens the casket, and a spray of silver dust covers him; as he sways near the window, Sonja strikes, and this time he sword rips thru the werewolf, and he falls from the window.

As Sonja heads downstairs to check on the body, the servant joins her, explaining that he was ordered to stay indoors on the night of the full moon; learning that the mistress of the castle is dead, the servant explains that the werewolf was no second son, but Ghunthar himself, who was bitten by a werewolf a few weeks ago, and wanted to be slain; as Sonja walks off, the servant buries the mistress of the castle with her son.

FAVOURITE LINE: “Mitra, father! It’s a maid, with hair as red as sunset… and such clothing as she wears… is all of armor!” “I’ll deal with her, son…”



KULL AND THE BARBARIANS #3/2 (September 1975)

“The Day of the Sword” by Roy Thomas (plot), Doug Moench (Script) & Howard Chatkin (art)


APPEARANCES:
Red Sonja (& in FB); Vartok, a robber; Bayard, a robber; a third unnamed robber; an Hyrkanian mercenary (& in FB); Hyrkanian mercenaries (in FB), including Horvak (in FB); Ivor, Sonja’s father (in FB); Sonja’s mother (in FB); Sonja’s two younger brothers (in FB); Scathach, a goddess (in FB)

SYNOPSIS:
As Sonja continues to ride thru the Darkwood, she encounters a band of robbers who are torturing what she takes to be a Nemedian traveller; Sonja demands they set the man free, but when Bayard, the leader of the robbers, attempts to lay a hand on her, Sonja cuts it off with her sword; Bayard’s companions attack Sonja, but she makes short work of them all; as Sonja approaches the prisoner, she discovers he’s an Hyrkanian like herself, then she realizes he’s the man for whom she’s been searching these past five years.

FLASHBACK:
Three vignettes show Sonja as a young woman with her parents and two younger brothers, her brothers being taught swordplay by her father, and Sonja attempting to lift her father’s sword alone at night.

On an autumn day, five years earlier, a troop of mercenaries approach the farm on which Sonja lives with her parents and two younger brothers; her father, Ivor, orders Sonja to take her brothers into the house, and she watches from a window as her father greets his old second-in-command, now captain, who asks if he will join them for the winter campaign in Khitai; Ivor says he would if he hadn’t lost a leg in his final campaign, but the captain tells him that’s a cowardly excuse, and orders him killed; Ivor’s eldest son rushes from the house, killing the murderer of his father, but is killed alongside his father by Horvak, who then kills Sonja’s mother and remaining brother; as the captain laughs, Sonja tries to lift her father’s sword; Horvak makes to dispatch her, but the captain stops him, suggesting Sonja can provide him with better sport; he then takes Sonja into the house and rapes her; leaving her on the floor, he orders Horvak to torch the house; as the mercenaries ride off, Sonja douses soiled blankets with water from the urn and escapes from the burning house; when she awakens, Sonja has a vision of the goddess Scathach, who tells Sonja that strength born of suffering has been awakened within her, and if she but has the will, she may use her strength to make the whole world her home, becoming a wanderer, and the equal of any man or woman she meets, but first making Sonja swear a vow to never allow herself to be loved by a man unless he has first defeated her in fair battle; as she makes the vow, the goddess touchesSonja with her ethereal blade and vanishes; just then, a straggler appears, having seen her escape from the burning hovel, but Sonja lifts her father’s sword with ease and they fight; Sonja runs her father’s sword thru the mercenary, and raises it above her head in exhilaration.

SYNOPSIS CONTINUES:
Sonja prepares to cut the prisoner’s throat, when she realizes that his mind is gone, and leaving him there, she rides off.


NOTES: This story appears to follow on from Kull and the Barbarians 2/3, as Sonja is still in the Darkwood.

It is said to be five years since Sonja was raped and her family killed, and that she was not yet twenty at the time.

Sonja’s father is said to have been a maimed and retired mercenary in the Hyrkanian army, who had turned to trapping and working the land.


CHRONOLOGIES:

RED SONJA
KULLB 3/2-FB
[COB 23]
[COB 24]
[SAVSCO 1/2]
[SAVSCO 153/2]
[SAVSCO 187/2]
[SAVSCO 1]
[COB 43]
[COB 44]
[RS3 3-FB]
[COB 48]
M/FEA2 1
KULLB 2/3
KULLB 3/2
[SAVSCO 78/2]
M/FEA2 2
M/FEA2 3
M/FEA2 4
M/FEA2 5
M/FEA2 6 (1 - 16)
COB 66 (1 - 16)-VO
M/FEA2 6 (17) ~ COB 66 (17)
COB 67
M/FEA2 7
COB 68
---

SCATHACH
KULLB 3/2-FB

[Somebody]

SCATHACH
KULLB 3/2-FB

Is she called "Scathach" in Marvel stuff, or just in Dynamite? Because she's never named in the M/SSPEC 9/2 & RS2 arc except as things like "the Red Goddess", and IIRC she's even called "nameless" at least once.

[Col_Fury]

"Scathach" is mentioned in the Marvel Zombies handbook, under the demons entry:

the Dark, an enemy of the goddess Scathach summoned by Vassilia to slay Red Sonja

A quick search tells me this is a reference to RS3 13. However, I'm at work at the moment and can't pull RS3 13 out and see if she's named there. BUT, she is named in the handbooks.

[StrayLamb]

Scathach isn't named in Kull & the Barbarians, but according to Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica #1, "Through the Tarim and in alliance with the Celtic goddess Scathach, Erlik arranged for Sonja of Hyrkania to become a mighty warrior."

[Col_Fury]

I'm home now and had a chance to check.

RS3 13, page 4, panel 2:

Scathach, my goddess! Help me!

So there's that.

However, technically, if she's Celtic shouldn't it be Scáthach?

[StrayLamb]

However, technically, if she's Celtic shouldn't it be Scáthach?

You're right - the name is spelled Scáthach in my copy of Kinsella's translation of the Táin Bó Cúailnge.

[Col_Fury]

Re: Red Sonja's chronology:

RED SONJA
……
[COB 48]
M/FEA2 1
KULLB 2/3
KULLB 3/2
[SAVSCO 78/2]
M/FEA2 2
……

Roy's chronology says this:

RED SONJA
……
[COB 48]
KULLB 2/3
M/FEA2 1
KULLB 3/2
[SAVSCO 78/2]
M/FEA2 2
……

Any reason for moving KULLB 2/3 to after M/FEA2 1? She's in the Darkwood in all three stories, right?

Also, fantastic art in these mags.

[StrayLamb]

Ah ha! I missed that, sorry. As you say, Sonja's in the Darkwood in all three tales. Let's stick with Roy's chronology.

[Col_Fury]

Cool.

Also, left to my own devices I would have opted to keep the KULLB stories grouped together as well. I'm sure Roy has his reasons.