Killraven (War of the Worlds) (Marvel)

Killraven is a freedom fighter in several post-apocalyptic alternate futures 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. On the alternate-future Earth designated Earth-691 by Marvel Comics, the Martians from H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds return in 2001 for another attempt at conquering the planet. After humanity's enslavement, men not used as breeders or collaborators are trained and forced to battle gladiator-style for the Martians' amusement; women are 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". Killraven joined the Freemen, a group of freedom fighters against Martian oppression. Co-creator Neal Adams' early ideas for Killraven involved the character being the son of a Doc Savage archetype. 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 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. Two of its characters, Carmilla Frost and the African-American M'Shulla Scott, shared color comic books' earliest known interracial kiss, in issue #31 (July 1975), page nine, final panel. According to McGregor, some story ideas that did not make it into the book before cancellation were explored in his 1978 graphic novel Sabre published by Eclipse Comics. Aside from McGregor 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. 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." The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 states that Killraven and the Guardians of the Galaxy share the same timeline, set on the parallel universe Marvel Comics designates "Earth-691". Released on http://ComicPirates.info

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