Warning: Taarna is a mature comic
A warrior goddess akin to Wonder Woman from across space and time will be dueling her final space dragon this week, as Taarna, the Last Taarakian prepares to end her fight against Kako, God of Chaos. A peerless warrior of unworldly beauty and even more unworldly battle prowess, this tale of the mysterious battle-goddess kicks into high gear with the newest issue, as Taarna goes after the last of three giant monsters summoned by the formless corruptor Kako, also known as the Loc-Nar. Strong though she is, there’s no guarantee this dispenser of divine justice is going to make it out of this alive.
Originating in the 1981 Heavy Metal animated film, the iconic Taarna flies again in this new 6-issue miniseries written by Stephanie Phillips and illustrated by Patrick Zircher, Al Barrionuevo and Christian Rosado. A retelling of the narrative from the famously psychedelic film, Phillips here imagines Taarna as a guardian goddess of order and light fighting a never-ending battle across the cosmos against monsters, mayhem, and magic. Now having been summoned to the world of Sumuul to stop the forces of chaos from eradicating all intelligent life on the planet, Taarna has been forced to duel three gigantic monsters, a golem-like figure alongside two horrific dragons, with only her wits, her steed, and her sword. While she’s already taken down two of them, the final dragon looks to have her number.
After fighting her way through two seemingly indomitable adversaries, Taarna’s mettle is being put to the test in her hunt to slay the final beast, a venomous snake-like dragon who dwells in what resembles a lake of blood. Rosado’s visceral, yet fantastic art highlights a desperate, bloody battle in the classic blend of sci-fi and fantasy the character of Taarna and the Heavy Metal brand are known for. Yet, even as she struggles to dispatch this final monster, Kako’s forces under the leadership of the corrupted warlord Urcuss lay waste to Sumuul’s people and cities, setting the stage for a dire battle, one which Taarna may not live to see. Phillips’ action sequencing of these heart-pounding battles grants an epic feel to this extra-terrestrial adventure, centered upon one woman’s tireless combat against huge, unstoppable space monsters.
According to the character Shaan, a young woman whose city has just been decimated (and whose loyalties may be in question), the three beasts resemble a myth from the founding of civilization upon the planet Sumuul. In a vein similar to Romulus and Remus of Rome, the legendary founder of the planet, Ascelion, banished his brother for plotting to kill him, and his brother unleashed three mystical beasts in retaliation. Now, thousands of years later, these monsters have come to aid Urcuss in his path of devastation across the planet, but even should they be dispatched, Urcuss’s force of rampaging berserkers have already desolated the planet and killed many of the magical races which populate the land. And Kako, the green orb of pulsating madness which spurs them on, waits in the background.
Phillips writes Taarna as a symbol of empathy, aware that her foes are being possessed by an evil force, but unable to save them from their final fate at the end of her blade. Knowing that she must kill them, even though it brings her no pleasure, Taarna strikes a surprisingly somber figure as a heroine of incredible power, yet burdened with an equally incredible weight upon her, given the harrowing battle she must fight against a godlike force that twists her unwitting enemies into such merciless destruction.
Can Taarna triumph over evil? Taarna, The Last Taarakian #4 is on sale now from Heavy Metal Publishing.