Random Happenstance

If you ask me--and you probably shouldn't--comics numbering really went to hell when they changed it for the annuals. Amazing Spider-Man Annual ended with #28 in 1994, the next one would be Amazing Spider-Man '96 two years later. I thought DC had gone with that year-numbering for a while, but instead they went a bit intermittant with theirs. Both of them have probably reset more than once by now, but I think letting the numbering run would've given more of a sense of continuity. Even if the continuity had been jettisoned. Where was I going with this? To a Warlord Annual, apparently! From 1986, Warlord Annual #5, "The Uxmal Encounter" Written by Michael Fleisher, art by Adam Kubert. (All the art, pencils, inks, colors, letters! You don't see that anymore.) Cover by Mike Grell.

In scenic Uxmal, a remarkably tackily-dressed tourist is surprised, and abducted, by what might be an Mayan warrior. Pre-internet, I wonder if it was tough to put together artistic references for something like this. I mean, that outfit is an abomination...anyway, a week later, in sunny Skartaris, Travis takes a brief ride while Shakira puts breakfast together, and is promptly ambushed by "Mayans--?! On flying platforms?!!" Which is weird even for Skartaris, although how Travis recognized them as Mayans is anybody's guess. Travis gets zapped with a ray-gun and captured, taken to a surprisingly robust Mayan city. Even flying overhead, he can spy the tourist's loud shirt, as he catches a bit of the lash in a work gang. Although they had lived in Skartaris for probably generations, the Mayans were just now finishing their tunnel to the surface, for...reasons, I'm sure. After a massive word-balloon/exposition dump (I shouldn't throw any stones, but my god) the head priest-type activates a type of solid holographic projection that Travis recognizes from early issues; this time as Kukulkan, with the tourist as a possible human sacrifice.

Travis has to get his arms, tied behind his back, over his head; which looks painful as all get out. He succeeds, partially because an overseer snags him with a whip and inadverantly helps him. After a brawl, Travis manages to get a ray-gun, and shoots the priest's staff, causing "Kukulkan" to vanish. Travis tells him he could've just as easily shot him between the eyes, but the priest still has the numbers, and tells him if he can survive "the path of penance" anything he might ask for will be his. Travis doubts that, but didn't have much choice if he wanted to save the tourist; but should've trusted his gut: the priest is full of crap, Travis is jumped, and lobbed into a well. The head priest and overseer gloss that over with the rank-and-file Mayans, covering each other; but they seem to be putting something over on them. Back in Uxmal, the cops are still looking for missing tourists, and suspect "Columbian" drug traffickers got them. They are then shot up by the flying platform Mayans: a copter gets a few of them, but is lasered down eventually.

Down in the well, Travis is stuck until someone lowers him a rope: the overseer, who wants the secret of the head priest's staff. The head priest then shows up, pissed at the potential double-cross, and they tear into each other; obviously a grudge match. Travis bails and gets the tourist, but is surprised that the head priest was the winner, and still after them. Stealing a flying platform, they head up the tunnel, although they do laser some rocks down upon their pursuers. On the surface world, the CIA and KGB both peak their ears up at the reports of laser weapons in Uxmal, and send operatives; while Travis swears the tourist to secrecy and sets him on the road to safety. Travis is flying on the platform and considering how to get explosives, when he gets shot down by the CIA. Look, he fit the description, OK?

Probably concussed even with his helmet, Travis is then drugged up and questioned. While he doesn't give them anything, the CIA does find something interesting: he's one of theirs, USAF Lt. Col. Travis Morgan, presumed KIA for maybe ten years, now considered a possible turncoat or defector. Head spook Redmond is only given 24 hours to figure out what's going on, or he's fired; so he has agent Carolyn pretend to free him, to get him to Air Force intelligence, but just to give him some rope. They escape in an F-15; a development greeted with interest by the KGB as "game plan Janus." Travis and Carolyn quickly find the Mayan air force equivalent, now in plane-like fighters instead of just the platforms. Unfortunately, the Mayans were not well trained, nor had they, as Travis notes, "invented the parachute." With missiles and an experimental sonic weapon, he shoots down the lot; but is then threatened with a hypodermic by Carolyn, a Russian double-agent! Travis ejects her, then just manages to land the jet. He's still not out of the woods as the jet is about to catch fire, and the Mayan priest is waiting to blast him if he comes out.

Launching the drogue chute, Travis knocks the priest off the cliff; then repairs the priest's flier enough to get back to Skartaris and Shakira: it's unclear how long he was gone, exactly, but time is sketchy in Skartaris anyway. Meanwhile, the CIA and KGB still don't have all the pieces, but Carolyn manages to keep herself out of the gulag since she could maybe still get the sonic weapon, and Redmond swears to keep following this story. I think he would get to Skartaris eventually, but would be turned into a monster for his trouble. Well, that'll happen, yeah.