VOID INDIGO #1
MARVEL COMICS
STORY: Steve Gerber
ART: Val Mayerik
COLORS: Val Mayerik
LETTERS: Carrie McCarthy
EDITOR: Archie Goodwin
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Jim Shooter
32pp, Color, $1.50 U.S., $1.95 CAN (November 1984)
Void Indigo created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik
Book Two: “Spikes and Demons;” Part One: “Killing to Be Clever”
Void Indigo was a short-lived and controversial comic book series written by the late Steve Gerber (1947-2008) and drawn by Val Mayerik. It was published by Epic Comics from 1983 to 1984. The series began life as Marvel Graphic Novel No. 11: Void Indigo (1983), also from Gerber and Mayerik.
Void Indigo the graphic novel is set 11,000 years in Earth's past. The story takes place in a kingdom called “Kur,” which is ruled by a quartet of sorcerers known as the “Dark Lords,” whose place of origin is apparently Atlantis. Their names are Koth, Hemuth, Eeoyd, and Zepharr, and they recently conquered the nine “Citadels” kingdoms that had been at war with one another.
In order to gain even more power, the Dark Lords engage in blood sacrifice in service of their demon lord, “Kaok.” The sorcerers slaughter great masses of people, but they don't gain the power they expected. Their focus turns to Ath'Agaar, the fiercest of the barbarian chieftains, and his woman, Ren. Although they kill Ath'Agaar and Ren, their ritual goes awry, and the Dark Lords, Ath'Agaar, Ren, and the entire kingdom is destroyed.
Over the next 11,000 years, the Dark Lords are reincarnated on Earth at different times. Ath'Agaar is also reincarnated, but his reemergence occurs 50,000 light years away as the space warrior, “Jhagur,” from the planet, “Gebura.” “Void Indigo” is the spiritual plane toward which all dead souls gravitate for reincarnation. The Dark Lords magical activities have upset a delicate balance that must be rectified. Jhagur returns to Earth in a spacecraft as the agent who will ensure that this balance is restored. He is a spirit of vengeance from the Void, against the four wizards who had tortured and killed him in his previous life.
Once on Earth, Jhagur rescues a woman named Linette Cumpston, and they travel together to Los Angeles. There, Jhagur finds the first of the Dark Lords and kills him, now a man who had been reincarnated as the Olympic medalist, David Trepper.
Void Indigo #1 (“Killing to Be Clever”) opens as the Void Indigo continues to call for revenge, and Jhagur commits another murder, this time as a warning to the remaining three Dark Lords. Jhagur has also disguised himself as a human named “Michael 'Mick' Jagger,” and he works construction.
Meanwhile, other players have entered this game. One of Mick's coworkers, Pete Mulgrew, found the jeweled spike that had been involved in Ath-Agaar's murder 11,000 years ago. Now, Pete's daughter, Colleen, discovers that she is sensitive to the spike's mysticism. Detective Wallerstein of the LAPD is investigating the second homicide that Jhagur committed. Linette connects with a wild female psychic named “Raka.” Taro is the leader of the Death Guild, a cult that awaits the reawakening of the Dark Lords, and he has begun to make the movies that will permanently remove any obstacles to his plans. And the machinations of the Beyond-World emerge.
THE LOWDOWN: Apparently, Marvel Graphic Novel No. 11: Void Indigo was “Book One” of the Void Indigo saga. The first issue of the Void Indigo comic book series was the start of the second book. I originally only read the graphic novel, and although I had planned to, I never got around to reading the comic book series. Once I heard that it was canceled, I didn't bother to read the two issues that had been published. Still, I often thought about Void Indigo as the years went by. Eventually, I heard that Steve Gerber had planned to make the Void Indigo comic book only six-issues in length – only two of which were published. I think that intrigued me all the more.
Reading Void Indigo #1 and #2, I find it hard to believe that the series was originally only meant to run six issues. Gerber fills the first two issues with numerous subplots and and introduces a large cast of supporting characters. Gerber's synopsis for the remaining four issues is available on the Internet, so, yeah, Gerber, did plan a six issue run for the second book. Would there have been a third book?
I can also see how some people would have been put off by Void Indigo in the mid-1980s. Murder and death are depicted as sudden, brutal, and savage. The depictions of sex are frank, explicit, and lack romantic sentiment. The world of Void Indigo is a hard world, but I think that does one important thing for the narrative. It tempers Jhagur's power over the narrative. By making him somewhat vulnerable to the violence that other characters in the narrative experience and by making him not all-powerful, Gerber leaves space in the narrative for the other characters. The result is a comic book in which the other characters are as interesting and, in some cases, more interesting than the lead.
Val Mayerik, an extremely underrated artist and storyteller, gives Void Indigo a unique graphical look and style. Mayerik's compositions are gritty and edgy, so the story really seems to take place in the natural world, which makes the emergence of the supernatural that much more jarring. Mayerik's storytelling corals Gerber's narrative eccentricities, and his coloring makes the magical elements pop and crackle like wild electricity. Mayerik's covers for this series offer some of the most visually striking cover images published by Epic Comics in the 1980s.
Void Indigo, as Gerber and Mayerik had planned it back in the 1980s, went into the Void long ago. Still, I believe that there is a new life for that concept, a reincarnation or re-imagining that will both celebrate and re-imagine what once was and could have been, but never was. Besides, I think those readers curious about a bygone time in Marvel Comics and in the Direct Market of comic books sales would do well to peek into the Void Indigo.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of 1980s creator-owned comic books will want to try Void Indigo.
A
★★★★ out of 4 stars
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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