Metamorphosis Odyssey
Encyclopedia
The Metamorphosis Odyssey is a lengthy allegorical story told in several distinct parts in several formats, from illustrated magazines
to graphic novels to comic books. It is the work of writer/artist Jim Starlin
. Notably, the story introduces Vanth Dreadstar, who first appears in Epic Illustrated #3.
magazine, which was published in the Spring of 1980. The story was told in fourteen chapters and continued through the first nine issues of Epic Illustrated, climaxing in the December 1981 issue. The stories were initially in black and white but later transitioned into full color. The story continues in two graphic novels and finally a long running comicbook series.
mystic
named Aknaton, whose Osirosian race was the ancestor of all humanoid life in the Milky Way
galaxy. The Osirosians were faced with a terrible threat, a race of destroying conquerors known as the Zygoteans. The Osirosians massed their power and confronted the Zygoteans directly, but failed to defeat them. The Osirosians withdrew to their heavily-guarded world and considered other ways to stop the Zygotean menace.
As the Zygotean power only grew, and the Zygoteans conquered, enslaved, and exterminated more and more of the Milky Way, the Osirosians eventually concluded that they were not capable of stopping the Zygoteans, and that therefore the Milky Way was doomed to a long, slow, horrible death. Aknaton, unwilling to let the Milky Way be slowly strangled by the Zygoteans, evolved a plan to destroy the Zygoteans, whatever the cost. Running the Zygotean blockade of his homeworld, Aknaton set various events in motion to mature over time into the elements he needed for his final plan. The most important actions he took were:
Having done all these things, he returned to his homeworld and waited for the last stand. The Osirosians held out for a hundred thousand years, but in the end the Zygoteans overcame their defenses and destroyed them. Armed with all his race's power and his plan, Aknaton escaped, the only survivor.
Aknaton returned to the worlds he had visited a hundred thousand years previously, taking a single native from each one to fulfill their part in the plan: Za, the first of his cannibal race to achieve intelligence; Juliet, a fifteen-year-old girl from Kansas
; and Whis'Par, the culmination of the artificial life
Aknaton had created on the forest world.
Having gathered the three he needed, Aknaton returned to Byfrexia, where the icy sword had been found by a young Byfrexian named Vanth
, who stumbled across it in the Arctic wilderness after ice bears devoured his family. The power of the sword preserved Vanth's life. In time, he came to find that it had other powers as well; it could absorb energy of almost any type and later redirect it as a destructive force; it gave Vanth great toughness and physical strength; it gave him the gift of tongues; and he was able to merge with the sword in a way unforeseen even by its maker, so the sword became a part of him that he could manifest at will. Vanth became obsessed with revenge, and spent many years hunting his world's ice bears nearly to extinction. The other Byfrexians, who depended on the bears for food, eventually leagued against Vanth and drove him offworld, where he spent some unspecified time as a mercenary. When the Zygoteans attacked Byfrexia, Vanth returned home and led resistance to them, becoming known as "The Cold Man."
Aknaton found Vanth and recruited him to be his pilot and bodyguard. Vanth leapt at the chance that there might be a plan to destroy the Zygoteans; though he was shaken when Aknaton revealed the exact nature of the plan to him and the others.
Aknaton had reasoned that since the Zygoteans were undefeatable, and the death of the galaxy could not be prevented, the only remaining kindness was to make the end as quick and painless as possible. He therefore created the Infinity Horn...whose purpose was to destroy the entire Milky Way. Appalled, but convinced that Aknaton's plan was the only option, Vanth and the others agreed. Fighting their way past an army of Zygoteans and their slaves (who had become aware of the plan and fought desperately to stop it), they returned to the cavern on the planet Dreamsend. As Aknaton and Vanth held off the Zygoteans outside, Za, Juliet, and Whis'Par entered the cavern and sounded the Infinity Horn, destroying the entire Milky Way in an instant.
The three who sounded the Horn were transformed into a new kind of being, carrying with them all that remained of the Milky Way, except for Aknaton and Vanth. Aknaton had used his mystic powers to encase himself and Vanth in a bubble of force and throw them into intergalactic space.
Eons
later they crashed on a planet in another galaxy, where Vanth shot Aknaton in a fit of rage and guilt over the destruction of the Milky Way galaxy. Mortally wounded, Aknaton confessed that he had goaded Vanth into killing him because he could not live with the guilt. As he died, he told Vanth that he had saved him and brought him here because this galaxy was at a point where it might go down the same path as the Milky Way. Aknaton wanted Vanth to change the destiny of this new galaxy, and if he failed, to then locate the Infinity Horn to destroy this galaxy as well.
from Eclipse Comics
called The Price. The novel was originally published in black and white but was colorized for later reprintings. It tells the story of the magician-priest Syzygy Darklock
and his rise to power within the Church of the Instrumentality. Although a part of the Dreadstar mythos, this is a solo story featuring Syzygy Darklock with Vanth Dreadstar
making a brief appearance at the end.
#3, Dreadstar, published in 1982. It was printed in color, from paintings by Starlin.
This graphic novel
opens with Vanth Dreadstar
leading the life of a peaceful farmer. The planet on which he lived was the site of an Instrumentality experiment to create a race of cat-human hybrid
warriors. The experiment was a failure, the hybrids were mild-natured and generally only suited to farming. Dreadstar married a human scientist and lived quietly for some decades, but this ends shortly after the arrival of Darklock when a fleet of Monarchy ships destroys his home village, killing his wife and all his friends.
Part four of the Metamorphosis Odyssey was detailed in the Epic Comics
series Dreadstar in the mid-to-late 1980s.
The comic
series had several differences from earlier parts of the story. Previous parts were glossy-paper reproductions of ink drawings and paintings; the comics were colorized pencil-and-ink drawings on high-quality, acid-free paper known as Baxter paper. Also, unlike the previous stories, the comic series is episodic in nature, involving longer story arcs, subplots, and a fluid cast of characters. The overall story deals with the efforts of Vanth and Syzygy, and a crew of adventurers they have assembled, to force an end to the war.
The ground they gained in the Monarchy is lost when the Monarchy is betrayed from within by a high minister (who turns out to be the last surviving Zygotean, who was in intergalactic space when the Infinity Horn destroyed the Milky Way, and who followed Akhnaton's mystic escape pod in hopes of revenge.) The Monarchy is overthrown, and the war ends, but not in the way anyone wanted. The Instrumentality conquers the galaxy and begins a campaign of extermination, apparently following the will of their evil Twelve Gods. Vanth and his crew escape the ruin of the Monarchy and league with the remains of the Monarchic fleet to oppose the Instrumentality. Eventually, after various victories and defeats and escapes, Vanth and Syzygy destroy the Lord High Papal and overthrow the Instrumentality, confront the Twelve Gods, and destroy them.
over the years:
Science fiction magazine
A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard copy periodical format or on the Internet....
to graphic novels to comic books. It is the work of writer/artist Jim Starlin
Jim Starlin
James P. "Jim" Starlin is an American comic book writer and artist. With a career dating back to the early 1970s, he is best known for "cosmic" tales and space opera; for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock; and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters...
. Notably, the story introduces Vanth Dreadstar, who first appears in Epic Illustrated #3.
Odyssey
The first part of the Metamorphosis Odyssey was printed in the premier issue of Epic IllustratedEpic Illustrated
Epic Illustrated was a comics anthology in magazine format published in the United States by Marvel Comics. The series lasted for 34 issues, from Spring 1980 to February 1986....
magazine, which was published in the Spring of 1980. The story was told in fourteen chapters and continued through the first nine issues of Epic Illustrated, climaxing in the December 1981 issue. The stories were initially in black and white but later transitioned into full color. The story continues in two graphic novels and finally a long running comicbook series.
History
The story begins with an immortalImmortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
mystic
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
named Aknaton, whose Osirosian race was the ancestor of all humanoid life in the Milky Way
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
galaxy. The Osirosians were faced with a terrible threat, a race of destroying conquerors known as the Zygoteans. The Osirosians massed their power and confronted the Zygoteans directly, but failed to defeat them. The Osirosians withdrew to their heavily-guarded world and considered other ways to stop the Zygotean menace.
As the Zygotean power only grew, and the Zygoteans conquered, enslaved, and exterminated more and more of the Milky Way, the Osirosians eventually concluded that they were not capable of stopping the Zygoteans, and that therefore the Milky Way was doomed to a long, slow, horrible death. Aknaton, unwilling to let the Milky Way be slowly strangled by the Zygoteans, evolved a plan to destroy the Zygoteans, whatever the cost. Running the Zygotean blockade of his homeworld, Aknaton set various events in motion to mature over time into the elements he needed for his final plan. The most important actions he took were:
- He visited a world populated only by mindless cannibal beasts and introduced the potential for them to develop intelligence and compassion.
- He visited the planet EarthEarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
and encouraged the evolution of proto-humanityHomininaThe more anthropomorphic primates of the Hominini tribe are placed in the Hominina subtribe. Referred to as hominans, they are characterized by the evolution of an increasingly erect bipedal locomotion. The only extant species is Homo sapiens...
. - He found an uninhabited forest-world and released proto-life of his own creation.
- He created a powerful artifact in the form of an icy sword and left it on the planet Byfrexia.
- He created a mystical device, which he named the Infinity Horn, and hid it in a cavern on a world called Dreamsend, also creating an artificial immortal being to guard it.
Having done all these things, he returned to his homeworld and waited for the last stand. The Osirosians held out for a hundred thousand years, but in the end the Zygoteans overcame their defenses and destroyed them. Armed with all his race's power and his plan, Aknaton escaped, the only survivor.
Aknaton returned to the worlds he had visited a hundred thousand years previously, taking a single native from each one to fulfill their part in the plan: Za, the first of his cannibal race to achieve intelligence; Juliet, a fifteen-year-old girl from Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
; and Whis'Par, the culmination of the artificial life
Artificial life
Artificial life is a field of study and an associated art form which examine systems related to life, its processes, and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American computer scientist, in 1986...
Aknaton had created on the forest world.
Having gathered the three he needed, Aknaton returned to Byfrexia, where the icy sword had been found by a young Byfrexian named Vanth
Vanth Dreadstar
Vanth Dreadstar is a fictional comic book character created by Jim Starlin. According to the new Overstreet Price Guide, Dreadstar was originally introduced in Epic Illustrated magazine #3 . His first "solo" appearance was in Epic Illustrated #15 . Dreadstar's sword's first appearance was in Epic...
, who stumbled across it in the Arctic wilderness after ice bears devoured his family. The power of the sword preserved Vanth's life. In time, he came to find that it had other powers as well; it could absorb energy of almost any type and later redirect it as a destructive force; it gave Vanth great toughness and physical strength; it gave him the gift of tongues; and he was able to merge with the sword in a way unforeseen even by its maker, so the sword became a part of him that he could manifest at will. Vanth became obsessed with revenge, and spent many years hunting his world's ice bears nearly to extinction. The other Byfrexians, who depended on the bears for food, eventually leagued against Vanth and drove him offworld, where he spent some unspecified time as a mercenary. When the Zygoteans attacked Byfrexia, Vanth returned home and led resistance to them, becoming known as "The Cold Man."
Aknaton found Vanth and recruited him to be his pilot and bodyguard. Vanth leapt at the chance that there might be a plan to destroy the Zygoteans; though he was shaken when Aknaton revealed the exact nature of the plan to him and the others.
Aknaton had reasoned that since the Zygoteans were undefeatable, and the death of the galaxy could not be prevented, the only remaining kindness was to make the end as quick and painless as possible. He therefore created the Infinity Horn...whose purpose was to destroy the entire Milky Way. Appalled, but convinced that Aknaton's plan was the only option, Vanth and the others agreed. Fighting their way past an army of Zygoteans and their slaves (who had become aware of the plan and fought desperately to stop it), they returned to the cavern on the planet Dreamsend. As Aknaton and Vanth held off the Zygoteans outside, Za, Juliet, and Whis'Par entered the cavern and sounded the Infinity Horn, destroying the entire Milky Way in an instant.
The three who sounded the Horn were transformed into a new kind of being, carrying with them all that remained of the Milky Way, except for Aknaton and Vanth. Aknaton had used his mystic powers to encase himself and Vanth in a bubble of force and throw them into intergalactic space.
Eons
Aeon
The word aeon, also spelled eon or æon , originally means "life", and/or "being", though it then tended to mean "age", "forever" or "for eternity". It is a Latin transliteration from the koine Greek word , from the archaic . In Homer it typically refers to life or lifespan...
later they crashed on a planet in another galaxy, where Vanth shot Aknaton in a fit of rage and guilt over the destruction of the Milky Way galaxy. Mortally wounded, Aknaton confessed that he had goaded Vanth into killing him because he could not live with the guilt. As he died, he told Vanth that he had saved him and brought him here because this galaxy was at a point where it might go down the same path as the Milky Way. Aknaton wanted Vanth to change the destiny of this new galaxy, and if he failed, to then locate the Infinity Horn to destroy this galaxy as well.
The Price
The second part of the Metamorphosis Odyssey was a graphic novelGraphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
from Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market...
called The Price. The novel was originally published in black and white but was colorized for later reprintings. It tells the story of the magician-priest Syzygy Darklock
Syzygy Darklock
Syzygy Darklock is a fictional character in the space opera comic book series Dreadstar created by Jim Starlin. He first appeared in the 1981 graphic novel The Price, which was originally published in black and white in Eclipse Graphic Album Series #5 . It was reprinted, with colorized artwork, in...
and his rise to power within the Church of the Instrumentality. Although a part of the Dreadstar mythos, this is a solo story featuring Syzygy Darklock with Vanth Dreadstar
Vanth Dreadstar
Vanth Dreadstar is a fictional comic book character created by Jim Starlin. According to the new Overstreet Price Guide, Dreadstar was originally introduced in Epic Illustrated magazine #3 . His first "solo" appearance was in Epic Illustrated #15 . Dreadstar's sword's first appearance was in Epic...
making a brief appearance at the end.
Dreadstar, the Graphic Novel
The third part of the Metamorphosis Odyssey was the Marvel Graphic NovelMarvel Graphic Novel
Marvel Graphic Novel was a series of graphic novel trade paperbacks published from 1982 to 1993 by Marvel Comics. The books were published in oversized format, 8.5" x 11", similar to French albums...
#3, Dreadstar, published in 1982. It was printed in color, from paintings by Starlin.
This graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
opens with Vanth Dreadstar
Vanth Dreadstar
Vanth Dreadstar is a fictional comic book character created by Jim Starlin. According to the new Overstreet Price Guide, Dreadstar was originally introduced in Epic Illustrated magazine #3 . His first "solo" appearance was in Epic Illustrated #15 . Dreadstar's sword's first appearance was in Epic...
leading the life of a peaceful farmer. The planet on which he lived was the site of an Instrumentality experiment to create a race of cat-human hybrid
Werecat
A werecat is a therianthropic creature of folklore, horror, and occultism, described as being a shape-shifter similar to a Werewolf....
warriors. The experiment was a failure, the hybrids were mild-natured and generally only suited to farming. Dreadstar married a human scientist and lived quietly for some decades, but this ends shortly after the arrival of Darklock when a fleet of Monarchy ships destroys his home village, killing his wife and all his friends.
Dreadstar, the Series
Epic Comics
Epic Comics was a creator-owned imprint of Marvel Comics started in 1982, lasting through the mid-1990s, and being briefly revived on a small scale in the mid-2000s.- Origins :...
series Dreadstar in the mid-to-late 1980s.
The comic
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series had several differences from earlier parts of the story. Previous parts were glossy-paper reproductions of ink drawings and paintings; the comics were colorized pencil-and-ink drawings on high-quality, acid-free paper known as Baxter paper. Also, unlike the previous stories, the comic series is episodic in nature, involving longer story arcs, subplots, and a fluid cast of characters. The overall story deals with the efforts of Vanth and Syzygy, and a crew of adventurers they have assembled, to force an end to the war.
The ground they gained in the Monarchy is lost when the Monarchy is betrayed from within by a high minister (who turns out to be the last surviving Zygotean, who was in intergalactic space when the Infinity Horn destroyed the Milky Way, and who followed Akhnaton's mystic escape pod in hopes of revenge.) The Monarchy is overthrown, and the war ends, but not in the way anyone wanted. The Instrumentality conquers the galaxy and begins a campaign of extermination, apparently following the will of their evil Twelve Gods. Vanth and his crew escape the ruin of the Monarchy and league with the remains of the Monarchic fleet to oppose the Instrumentality. Eventually, after various victories and defeats and escapes, Vanth and Syzygy destroy the Lord High Papal and overthrow the Instrumentality, confront the Twelve Gods, and destroy them.
Collected editions
The series has been collected into various trade paperbacksTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
over the years: