A freedom fighter from a post-apocalyptic future, the grim warrior known as Killraven is a Marvel fan favorite and the star of the ‘War of the Worlds’ saga originally adapted by Neil Adams and Gerry Conway in Amazing Adventures vol. 2, issues #18-39 (from May 1973 to November 1976).
Of all the characters introduced in the ‘War of the Worlds’ saga, none caught the popular imagination more than Jonathan Raven aka Killraven.
The Marvel adaptation of the H.G. Wells ‘War of the Worlds’ novel led to a maxi-series that unfolded in the second volume of Amazing Adventures, and was later clarified as not set in the mainstream Marvel universe. None of that stopped this story from being just as exciting and fun as Marvel’s more straightforward superhero and adventure titles. So popular was Killraven, especially after Don Macgregor took over scripts, that in later years his name supplanted the ‘War of the Worlds’ cover tag on related issues of Amazing Adventures. Eventually, Marvel just transported him into the super-hero [616] universe where he fought side by side with the Avengers and was befriended by Bucky Barnes.
Born in 2001, on an alternate Earth, Jonathan Raven was an infant when the Martians attacked. After their initially unsuccessful attack on England, when Killraven was five, the Martians then launched a second, successful, attack on New York. The Raven family (Jonathan, his brother Joshua and their Mother) were caught by the Martians and had to endure life on occupied Earth.
By 2018, after the Earth has lost her final battle with the Martians, with their mother dead, Jonathan has been trained to be a gladiator (adopting the name Killraven) and his brother (later called Deathraven) turned into an Exterminator – a solider used by the Martians to hunt down and kill dissidents.
While still a gladiator Killraven attempted an escape, after which he was caught and subjected to experiments by Keeper Whitman. Because of the experiments, his physical skills were enhanced and he also obtained psychic powers and the subconscious ability to bring forth memories of Earth before the Martian attacks.
Amazing Adventures v2 #18 (May 1973) – First appearance of Killraven
Not that we get any of the backstory in the first issue of Marvel’s ‘War of the Worlds’. What we do get is a jump into an action packed narrative into which we are transported in medias res. We are in Grand central station in a future New York, Killraven is introduced as “Leader of a group of Freemen” and “A man with a mission, a man obsessed”. The Freemen are fighting “the Keepers”. That’s all the reader needs to know for now, and its wall to wall action and adventure from there on, eventually revealing how the Martian domination of the Earth has made the dystopian scenario possible.
Roy Thomas contributed the script, with pencils by Neal Adams and John Romita, this is classic Bronze Age Marvel and sought out by fans even though there’s no film or movie in sight. In a lot of ways the ‘War of the Worlds’ adaptation was similar to the later Marvel John Carter: Warlord of Mars comic.
For one thing, many different writers and artists contributed before the project could find its unique voice. The numbers on this comic compared to John Carter are also interesting. Whereas you can buy John Carter Warlord of Mars #1 (May 1977) in blue label graded 9.8 for around $120.00, obtaining a 9.8 copy of Amazing Adventures #18 in that grade will set you back almost six times as much with its FMV of $700.00.
The CGC data on these two Bronze Age Marvel Martian books might provide some reasons for why AA #18 is more valuable. AA #18 has 155 copies on the census, John Cater, 473. Of the 155 copies of Amazing Adventures #18, only 7 are 9.8 whereas JC has 130 copies in 9.8 grade. But scarcity and lower numbers of high grade copies cannot tell the whole story. Killraven just seems to resonate more with comic fans. Returns on AA #18 over the last two years bear this out. 8.0 graded copies are positive +35.5% after 2 sales and 9.4 grades show positive +82.1% after 7 sales (the last sale of a 9.4 sold on Heritage Auction for $240.00 on April 7, 2019). These positive numbers however, have to be balanced with the negative returns on 8.5 grades- down -50.9%. All in all, Killraven is a valuable Bronze Age book hard to find in high grade. If you have a copy, there’s a market for him. A Marvel Masterworks edition of his collected Amazing Adventures stories was released in 2018. As Bronze Age Marvel continues to attract the interest of collectors, we can expect these harder to find keys to maintain their value.
