This week we dissect a stunning case of cloning a classic concept from the golden age into the bronze age of comics. Now on the surface, it might not seem that these are parallel tales of parallel worlds, but when we dissect them some stunning similarities are revealed!
In November 1975's First Issue Special #8, Travis Morgan was an ace fighter pilot for the United States Air Force, and during a mid-air incident while evading Russian (then Soviet) security, he flew through a hole in the Earth and crashlanded on another world. Reminiscent of Pellucidar from Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous novel, Morgan found himself evidently in the subterranean world of Skartaris. complete with its own internal sun! After meeting a princess named Tara, whom he married, he found for freedom against the minions of Deimos and other villains under the name of the Warlord. He would soon acquire several partners in his crusader for freedom of the oppressed below, including Shakira, Mariah, and his own daughter Jennifer who traveled to Skartaris to recover her father.
Surprisingly, however, this was not the first adventure series from DC Comics to journey to such a world based on this premise. Nor would it be unique in its soldier lead and medieval/science fiction mixture blended into this new realm, for thirty-five years before we saw a similar story unfold!
Surprisingly, however, this was not the first adventure series from DC Comics to journey to such a world based on this premise. Nor would it be unique in its soldier lead and medieval/science fiction mixture blended into this new realm, for thirty-five years before we saw a similar story unfold!
Back in September 1940, in Adventure Comics #54, we are introduced to soldier of fortune Mark Lansing and his sidekick Koda alongside the helpless pair Kit and Tony encounter the evil Vas Onga. Onga, a blue skinned would-be-dictator seeks to enslave Earth, however as it happens he and all his minions save Jada perish and leave Lansing with his fellow humans trapped in the subterranean world of Mikishawm. As with Skartaris, this world has a sky only instead of a sun it has two moons!
Soon, both Morgan and Lansing encounter a grumpy sovereign of these new worlds, Machiste and Mokan, both of darker skin. The former becomes an ally of Warlord, the latter a foe of Mark. While the Warlord series would continue for almost seventeen years and span various lands and times in the scope of its story, Mark Lansing of Mikishawm only lasted for less than a year, leaving the hero's plight unresolved. The tales of Lansing were about the same number as those of his counterpart Mikola Rostov, while Morgan's time traveling tales mirrored those of his doppleganger Brian Kent aka the Silent Knight.
While neither series was tethered to a main stream fictional Earth, during the Crisis there was indications that Warlord's tales transpired in Earth-One's universe, and since Mikishawm was drastically different from Skartaris in its various features... not to mention that Lansing's series was published concurrent with Earth-Two's Hourman, Sandman, Starman and Manhunter, its safe to assume that that is where Mark's world resided as well. Given prevailing evidence from the tales therein, Mark Lansing accessed the parallel version attached to Earth-Two of an inner-world Travis Morgan made his new home, tethered to today's reality in Earth-One's realm of existence.
Another ally was Travis' adult daughter, Jennifer, who arrived in Skartartis attempting to look for her father and as a result obtained tremendous powers. Her counterpart, the wicked Angelica born during the same era as Kent, had similar abilities but instead used them for evil purposes and opposing a man like Morgan in the native-American hero, Arak.
While scores of tales would be told of the Warlord, relatively few have yet been chronicled of Lansing. Nevertheless, the fact that both were men out of time and aliens in the society's they called home, mastering swordplay, and keenly aware of the needs of their fellowman... all point to the traits that bind them as two sides to the same whole.
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