Amazing Adventures #20
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAmazing Adventures #20 (September 1973) is the third chapter of Marvel's Killraven: War of the Worlds saga and a transitional issue of genuine structural importance: it marks Herb Trimpe's arrival as the series' regular penciller, delivering a visual consistency that would carry the book through to Don McGregor's celebrated run beginning the very next issue. The story, 'The Warlord Strikes!', delivers the first appearances of several Freeman team members — M'Shulla, Hawk, and Arrow — who become central to the series' ensemble identity and to one of the Bronze Age's most discussed sociological moments (the interracial kiss in issue #31). Set in Marvel's alternate-future Earth-691, the issue anchors the Killraven saga within a tradition of post-apocalyptic science fiction that H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds inspired, and it represents the last creative handoff before McGregor transformed the strip into what historians and the Smithsonian Institution both describe as a landmark of 1970s visual narrative. As the final Wolfman-scripted chapter before a legendary run, it is the hinge on which the entire Killraven saga turns.
"The Warlord Strikes!" kicks off in Amazing Adventures #20 with a bold, action-packed tale featuring a mysterious warrior whose arrival sends shockwaves through the story’s world. Penciled and inked by Herb Trimpe, the cover captures the intensity of the moment, while the interior—typeset by hand—delivers a classic Marvel adventure from 1973, a 20-cent comic in a year when the company was redefining its lineup with returning titles and new launches.
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Killraven debuted two issues earlier in Amazing Adventures #18 (May 1973), co-plotted by editor Roy Thomas and artist Neal Adams, with scripting by Gerry Conway and art split between Adams (11 pages) and Howard Chaykin (9 pages). Issue #19 kept Chaykin on art with Conway scripting; by #20, Marv Wolfman had taken over scripting duties and Herb Trimpe replaced Chaykin as penciller — with Frank Giacoia on inks and Glynis Oliver-Wein colouring — marking the first issue with a fully stabilised post-launch creative team. Neal Adams had originally envisioned Killraven as the son of a Doc Savage-style archetype, but that concept was reworked before publication; Trimpe also quietly redesigned Killraven's costume from the Adams original, adding chain-mail detailing to the shoulder. The series would find its definitive voice only with Don McGregor's arrival in issue #21, but the groundwork — the core Freeman cast, the arena-combat premise, the post-apocalyptic New York City backdrop — was substantially assembled in this issue.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: September 1973 (Amazing Adventures vol. 2, #20); story title: 'The Warlord Strikes!'
- Writer: Marv Wolfman; Penciller: Herb Trimpe; Inker: Frank Giacoia; Colourist: Glynis Oliver-Wein; Letterer: John Costanza; Editor: Roy Thomas
- First appearances of Freeman team members M'Shulla Scott, Hawk, and Arrow — all of whom become recurring cast members for the rest of the series' run through issue #39
- First (cameo) appearance of Old Skull, though he is not named until the following issue
- First appearances of villain characters the Warlord and Martian Master 4
- Herb Trimpe joins as regular series penciller with this issue, replacing Howard Chaykin; Trimpe's slightly redesigned Killraven costume (adding chain-mail) debuts here
- Plot: Killraven and his Freemen are captured after attacking LaGuardia Airport, handed over to a Martian governing the city, and forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena before Killraven turns the tables
- The issue is set on Marvel's alternate-future Earth-691, where Martians (inspired by H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds) successfully invaded in 2001 and enslaved humanity; it has been reprinted in Essential Killraven Vol. 1 (2005) and the Killraven Marvel Masterworks Vol. 1 (2018)
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Reprinted in Planet of the Apes #27 (1975), Planet of the Apes #28 (1975), Le Fils de Satan #14 (1979), Essential Killraven #1 (2005), Marvel Masterworks: Killraven #1 (2018), Killraven Epic Collection: Warrior of the Worlds #1 (2021), Seriemagasinet solohæfte #13
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