Warlord #55
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWarlord #55 is the debut of Arion, Lord of Atlantis — an immortal sorcerer and demigod from ancient Atlantis created by writer Paul Kupperberg and artist Jan Duursema — making it one of the most consequential single issues in DC's early-1980s sword-and-sorcery expansion. The Arion backup proved popular enough to graduate from its six-page slot here into its own ongoing series by November 1982, a trajectory that mirrored DC's earlier use of Warlord itself as a launchpad for fantasy talent. Arion's mythology was later woven into the broader DC Universe through Crisis on Infinite Earths and retroactively connected to Aquaman's Atlantis, giving this debut long-lasting continuity weight. The issue also marks the first appearance of Lady Chian, Arion's captain-of-the-guard love interest and a key supporting figure throughout both the backup run and the subsequent series.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
By the time issue #55 arrived, Mike Grell had already stepped back from scripting Warlord — his then-wife Sharon Wright ghost-wrote the main feature from issue #53 onward, with Grell retaining cover duties and billing credit, a behind-the-scenes arrangement later acknowledged in the title's own letter column. Editor Laurie Sutton was seeking a replacement for the Dragonsword backup (which had wrapped with issue #54) and mentioned the opening to Paul Kupperberg in passing; Kupperberg proposed a young Atlantean mage, Sutton requested an Atlantis setting, and Kupperberg adapted a dormant proposal he had originally developed for Charlton Comics in 1978. Artist Jan Duursema — who had already contributed pencils to Warlord's main feature — co-created the visual language of Arion, and it was Duursema who ultimately suggested the final name 'Arion,' replacing the working placeholder 'Tynan' at the last possible moment before publication.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: March 1982 (publication date January 1982); DC Comics, Volume 1, issue #55 of the ongoing Warlord series.
- First appearance of Arion (Ahri'ahn), Lord of Atlantis — an immortal wizard and demigod of ancient Atlantis — created by writer Paul Kupperberg and artist Jan Duursema.
- First appearance of Lady Chian, captain of Atlantis's royal guard and Arion's primary love interest.
- The Arion backup feature is titled 'Atlantis!' and also introduces the ancient Atlantean setting, the Chronicles of Choloh, and the sorcerer Calculha as part of Arion's backstory.
- Main story, 'Have a Nice Day!', is scripted under Mike Grell's name but ghost-written by Sharon Wright (his then-wife), with interior pencils by Mark Texeira and inks by Mike DeCarlo; cover art is by Grell.
- Arion continued as a Warlord backup through issue #62 before graduating to his own ongoing series, Arion, Lord of Atlantis #1 (November 1982), which ran 35 issues plus a special through September 1985.
- The Arion story from this issue was later collected in DC Through the 80s: The Experiments (May 2021), alongside the Arak debut from Warlord #48.
- Both a newsstand edition and a direct-edition variant of this issue exist; a Mark Jewelers advertisement-insert variant has also been documented.
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Reprinted in Arion #1 (1983), Super-Homem #1 (1984), Démon #16 (1987), DC Through the '80s: The Experiments #[nn] (2021), Die großen Phantastic-Comics #22
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