—KillravenNot a slave. I am free...free...
Appearing in "John"
Featured Characters:
- Killraven (Raven) (Main story and flashback) (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Freemen (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Martians (First appearance)
- Martian Hunter-Slaves (First appearance)
- Warlord (First appearance; dies)
- Mint Julep (First appearance)
- Marvo (Unnamed) (First appearance)
- Koko (Unnamed) (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- John's mother (Unnamed) (First appearance; dies)
- "Gramps" (First appearance; dies)
- Maureen Raven (Only in flashback) (Unnamed) (First appearance; dies)
- Sewer dwellers (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth-2120 (First appearance)
- New York City
- Manhattan (Destruction)
- 5th Avenue
- underground bunker (First appearance; destruction)
- Martian facility (Destruction)
- Statue of Liberty
- Manhattan (Destruction)
- Chicago (Mentioned)
- New York City
Items:
- Martian Heat Rays
- Martian blasters (energy weapons)
- Black Vapor (First appearance; also in video records)
Vehicles:
- Martian tripod war machines (Also in flashback and video records)
- Martian tripods (personal size)
- Rocket-powered bullet train
Synopsis for "John"
In the ruins of New York City, near 5th Avenue, a young boy, John, and his mother forage for food in the ruins of a grocery store, but flee when they hear a loud noise outside. Running, they see Martian tripod war machines razing the area with heat rays. Hiding, they see through binoculars that the Martian facility by the river is on fire. Running again, John's mother sees that they are being pursued by Martian Hunter-Slaves. John's mom shoots at them with a handgun, but they return fire and gravely injure her. She tells John to run, but he refuses to leave her. As she begs for their lives, the hunters decide that John will be worth a bonus from their keeper, but that his mother is too old to be of value and their leader kills her. Before the leader can do anything else, he's hit between the eyes with a shuriken-like weapon.
The hunters are attacked by Killraven and his Freemen, who soon slay them all. Most of the Freemen are confused about John crying, but Skull knows he is crying over his mother - he is the only one old enough to remember when everyone had mothers. When Hawk asks Killraven why he'd risk himself to save the boy, Killraven remembers his own mother's death under similar circumstances. Killraven asks John if he has any people, and John says his "Gramps" lives nearby.
John takes them to the underground bunker where Gramps lives, now the only survivor apart from John out of seven hundred who used to live there. Gramps confronts the Freemen at first with a gun, and they panic when they see him, thinking his skin is splitting - they have never seen someone old and wrinkled before. When Gramps hears Killraven's name, he is impressed, having learned of his escape from a Martian base near Chicago and of his victories against the Martians by listening in to the Keeper's men's radio communications. Realizing the Freemen's ignorance of the history of the Martian invasion, Gramps uses the computer to show them a video record of the history of the conflict. As it draws to an end, they hear the sound of energy weapons outside. More of the Keeper's hunters invade the bunker, led by the Warlord.
The Freemen attack, and Killraven kills the Warlord with his sword, before the rest of the hunters retreat. The Martians' corrosive Black Vapor starts to flow into the bunker, and the Freemen look for an escape route. Gramps shows them one - a rocket-powered bullet train that can have them out of Manhattan in minutes. Gramps makes Killraven promise to raise and protect John, as he needs to remain behind to activate the escape module manually. Killraven agrees but, just as they are about to leave, a Martian tripod enters. When their stolen blasters prove to be ineffective against the tripod's armor, Killraven realizes that its heat ray projector is probably unshielded and blasts it, causing an explosion that downs the tripod. As more tripods enter, Gramps activates the train and the Freemen and John escape. As the tripods target Gramps, he activates a self-destruct mechanism, and blows up most of the city's remains.
Safely outside and away from the city, the Freemen look back at the burning city, and John cries about his mother and Gramps. Hawk tries to strike him, sick of him sniveling, but Killraven blocks him, saying that he must go up against him if he raises a hand to John. As Hawk continues to complain, he's interrupted by a female voice - they are confronted by the green-skinned bounty hunter Mint Julep and her army, who says they're her prisoners. As the Freemen start to resist, the bounty hunters open fire...
Notes
- Since Killraven spent his entire life as a slave in the Martian Citadel near Chicago from which he eventually escaped, his memory of his mother being killed and him being captured for the slave pits probably took place in the Chicago area, but this isn't explicitly stated.
- Given that New York City will later be described as having been destroyed/vaporized in this issue, it seems likely that the auto destruct that "Gramps" used to destroy the bunker was actually a nuclear bomb.
- Instead of giving the story in each issue a title, writer Alan Davis chose to divide the storyline for the entire limited series into 17 chapters and named the chapters after characters who played significant roles in them. This issue contains the nine pages that make up the first chapter, John; the eleven pages that make up the second chapter, Gramps; and the first two pages of the third chapter, Marvo. Next issue starts with the last seven pages of Marvo before beginning the fourth chapter, Mint Julep.
- Killraven is the only character in this mini-series whose last name is ever revealed, and he prefers it if his allies call him Raven. Carmilla, Hawk and M'Shulla are never identified by anything other than those names, and may not even have family names in this continuity. The bald older Freeman is almost always called Skull, and is only very rarely called Old Skull.
