Amazing Adventures #23
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAmazing Adventures #23 (March 1974) is a pivotal chapter in Don McGregor's acclaimed 'War of the Worlds' run — the creative stretch that transformed Killraven from a generic post-apocalyptic gladiator into one of Bronze Age Marvel's most thematically ambitious science-fiction heroes. The issue marks the first appearance of the High Overlord, the imposing Martian authority figure whose cat-and-mouse pursuit of Killraven would drive the arc through the following issues, while also delivering the debut of Rattack, a mutated former government agent who commands an army of rats and represents McGregor's signature interest in grotesque, psychologically layered antagonists. Set against the ruins of Washington, D.C. — with the Lincoln Memorial as a slave market and the White House as Martian command — the issue exemplifies how McGregor used demolished American landmarks as pointed commentary on power, imperialism, and resistance, lending the story a political charge unusual for mainstream comics of the era. The Washington storyline that peaks here was considered important enough that Marvel later devoted an entire framing sequence in issue #30 to retelling and contextualizing the events of #23 and #24 for new readers.
ComicBooks.com Value
This exact issue on ebay
CGC 9.4 ▾ $88–$97.2 2 listings
Raw — FINE ▾ $3.99–$6.5 4 listings
Raw — VERY GOOD ▾ $6.99–$9.99 3 listings
Raw / ungraded ▾ $3.24–$26.99 20 listings
More listings for this title
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
By late 1973, the Killraven feature in Amazing Adventures had cycled through three writers and multiple artists in its first handful of installments, and was by McGregor's own account viewed internally at Marvel as a near-dead property. McGregor was assigned the title simultaneously with Jungle Action — both considered low-priority books — and he deliberately declined to follow his predecessor Marv Wolfman's planned direction, choosing instead to chart an entirely original course. Issue #23, titled 'The Legend Assassins!', was written by McGregor with pencils by Herb Trimpe, inks by Frank Chiaramonte, colors by Petra Goldberg, letters by John Costanza, and edited by Roy Thomas, who had originally conceived the series as a sequel to H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds. The relative commercial obscurity of the title — a bi-monthly book with modest sales — paradoxically gave McGregor the editorial latitude to write with a literary density and moral seriousness rarely seen in genre comics of the period.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: March 1974; on-sale date: December 4, 1973 (Week 49, 1973). Published by Marvel Comics as part of Amazing Adventures Vol. 2.
- Story title: 'The Legend Assassins!' — written by Don McGregor, penciled by Herb Trimpe, inked by Frank Chiaramonte, colored by Petra Goldberg, lettered by John Costanza, edited by Roy Thomas.
- First appearance of the High Overlord (Earth-691), the senior Martian authority who sentences Killraven to a public execution designed to be broadcast across the conquered territories to break human resistance.
- First appearance of Rattack (Earth-691), a former U.S. government agent mutated by biological weapons originally intended to fight the Martian invasion, who now commands a swarm of giant mutant rats from the tunnels beneath Washington, D.C.
- The story is set in a devastated Washington, D.C., with the Martian Masters occupying the White House and staging a slave market at the Lincoln Memorial — a deliberate use of American iconography to frame themes of occupation and resistance.
- The full cast of Killraven's Freemen — M'Shulla, Old Skull, Hawk, Carmilla Frost, and Grok — along with new ally Mint Julep and her band of Freewomen, all appear as they race to rescue Killraven from Martian captivity.
- The issue also contains a backup reprint: the fifth story from Marvel Tales #128 ('The Walking Horror'), providing additional content in the bi-monthly format.
- Pages from this issue were reprinted in Amazing Adventures #30 (May 1975) as part of a framing sequence by McGregor and P. Craig Russell, and later collected in Essential Killraven (Marvel, 2005) and Marvel Masterworks: Killraven (Marvel, 2018).
Full credits
Reprints
↩ Reprints Marvel Tales #128 (1954)
Reprinted in Amazing Adventures #30 (1975), Le Fils de Satan #15 (1980), Essential Killraven #1 (2005), Marvel Masterworks: Killraven #1 (2018), Killraven Epic Collection: Warrior of the Worlds #1 (2021)
Key issues in Amazing Adventures
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.