Beyond the Farthest Star: Warriors of Zendar #2 has more adventure with the alien world, Zendar, and our heroine, Victory Harbin involved in a deadly plot! The cover by interior artist, Alessandra Rinaldi, has our hero, Victory, with her golden pistol next to the learge, fanged, white-coated Hucklebuck. The script is by Mike Wolfer. Catch up with the review: http://geektruth.blogspot.com/2021/08/beyond-farthest-star-warriors-of-zendar.html. The beginning has the pyramid-like Keelar Royal Palace which is at Kosaba, the island city. Inside, is the throne room that has the bulky, Keelar guards and ruler, Korvakos, they look like their fanged faces jut from their chests.
A prisoner, a Ki-vaa tribe member, they are green-blue humanoids with black eyes, horns, and white hair, is brought to the throne room. He is asked by the bearded Korvakos about how many are in his tribe. The prisoner can’t answer and is struck by a guard. He answers that Ki-Vaa count every person who ever lived, those who died, so they are beyond numbers. Korvakos rages that the prisoner may not also how many there are of Zo-vaas, protectors. The prisoner answers there is one. Observing the city is Victory Harben, Hucklebuck, and Tii-Laa, the Ki-vaa female ally of Victory. We see royal palace has a drawbridge; a ramp, a rotated platform and a ramp on the other side.
The ERB Universe titles have detailed worlds and people, things are identified, and even villains have a biology and culture. Tii-Laa explains to Victory that the Keelars stay in the palace in the daytime. Victory wonders about a frontal asault on the city while Tii-La leaps off the cliff. The Ki-vaas are also aquatic with gills, so Victory works out a strategy. She debates swimming to the central platform to find the controls. Hucklebuck, now squirrel-size, scampers from Victory’s shoulder and starts to run off. Victory chases after him. Tii-La is swimming while Victory thinks over her journey bouncing from one world to the next one. There are tentacles that reach out for her! It some five tentacled monster that captures her leg, but Tii-La rips it with her claws.
Still, she is drawn in by the beast. The tentacles loosen around Tii-La as another aquatic beast attacks the first one. “There’s always a bigger fish”, as Qui-Gonn said in The Phantom Menace (1999). Hucklebuck reaches the end of the ramp and then enlarges to rhino-size. He angrily blurts at Victory in his singing voice. Victory mounts him and Hucklebuck jumps across the platforms! He goes back to squirrel-size. The palace doors open and Keelar guards rush out! Tii-La emerges from the river water and uses her claws to climb the palace walls. She leaps down on the other side. The guards are confused about Victory and she pulls out her pistol which stuns the guard who has seen its power.
Victory is asked if she is “One from Above.” She agrees and the guards line up and honor her with their right arms lifted up. She is accompanied by the guards who mention another “One from Above” who helped the designs of their city. Victory stops the narrative to go over the eleven planets of the Omos system including Poloda. It was visited by Tangor in the Edgar Rice Burroughs in Beyond the Farthest Star (1964). The special restored version is available from https://edgarriceburroughs.com/store/product/beyond-the-farthest-star-restored-edition/. Victory mentions meeting Tangor, but that is a tale she mentions for another time, hmm, I wonder where will we see that one?
She goes on to think that Poloda developed interplanetary travel, but not the planet Banos so the tech did not reach every planet. Victory tries to ask the guard if the other traveler was Tangor, but the guard says he was like “smoke in the air.” Victory is asked if she is there to see “The Gift.” She is shown a device, a chamber, three Ki-vaa prisoners are lead to the chamber. One enters the chamber and is drained of life! Nice close-up of Victory’s eye with the reflection of the dying prisoner! Victory has her pistol out, the “uncertainity” gun, great action close-up!, and the Keelar guards run. Then, we get a fight with Ti-Laa against several Keelars that she defeats. Ti-Laa asks about the Go-Vaas, we saw in the first issue, that is the bodies of the Ki-Vaa who must be taken to a pool. Beyond the Farthest Star: Warriors of Zendar wanders further into this strange world, what is The Gift?, and what is its connection to the other visitor of Zendar?
Four Gridley Waves out of Five!
#BeyondTheFarthestStar, #WarriorsOfZendar, #Korvakos, #Poloda, #Tangor, #TheOneFromAbove, #TheGift
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