Random Happenstance

Writer Jason Aaron caught some flak last week, for King Conan #3, wherein Conan meets a scantily-clad lady who had been cursed to try and keep sailors from reaching her side of the world. Probably would've been fine, except Aaron used the name Matoaka, the birth name of Pocahontas, a name way too loaded with historical meaning for this. Aaron apologized; and hopefully lesson learned. Co-incidentally, we have an Aaron book today: from 2015, Weirdworld #5, "The War of the Weird" Written by Jason Aaron, art by Mike Del Mundo.

Weirdworld got two short series between 2015 and 2016, and this was the conclusion of the first one, part of Secret Wars. Weirdworld was a domain in Doom's patchwork Battleworld, and itself cobbled together from various Marvel properties: this issue guests Crystar, Skull the Slayer, and Jennifer Kale and some Man-Things. But the book's lead had never had his own title before, despite being around for 45 years at that point: smelly barbarian Arkon! Canonically smelly; Morgan le Fey calls him out on it!

Arkon had spent the series searching for his home, Polemachus, which turns out to be under the floating island of Weirdworld. Is...is it inhabited, then? Or did everybody fall off already? Arkon had also apparently rejected the traditional hero's journey to unite the assorted nuts and tribes of Weirdworld against the tyranny of Morgan le Fey; but also inadvertently succeeded in reviving the hero that would: Crystar! Who had been "a bag of rocks" in the first issue; Arkon had thought Warbow was insane to think he could be restored, if he had ever been. The final battle looks pretty cool, with "Eyemazons" and Magma Men and a couple really determined butterflies who seem to be hauling a nuke (!?) but the whole thing is called on account of rain. Or rather, the fall of Doom, and an explosion that seems like the end of everything. More like a reset, as on earth a plane crashes into a floating island in the Bermuda Triangle, then some passengers are saved from an eye-spider creature by the now more-lost-than-ever Arkon.

I've lost track if I have all of both Weirdworld series; I don't think the second was as Arkon-focused. As a locale, Weirdworld would be used in Squadron Supreme and Extraordinary X-Men, but seemed to get forgotten afterwards, possibly in the push to the more 'grounded' Secret Empire. Pity this didn't take off, though; we could've maybe gotten Crystar and Arkon Marvel Legends! Yeah, I'm not holding my breath either. (EDIT: Yeesh, I couldn't even guess how many times I've accidentally called him 'Akron.' About as many times as I've called Peacemaker Peacekeeper, probably.)