WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN? Episode #32 – Klarion the Witch Boy By Bruce MacIntosh Each week, DC's weekly series Countdown features characters who may be unfamiliar to some readers. One character who has been helping Mary Marvel down the road to ruin is a young lad with a cat. So - if the identity of Klarion the Witch Boy mystifies you – Fear Not!The Pulse will conjure the answer to which witch is which!
You might be surprised to find out that Klarion the Witch Boy is more than a teenager with an emo obsession for My Chemical Romance. As he appears in Countdown, he is a young magician ("Croatoan") who hails from Limbo Town, a secret society of magical beings under the Island of Manhattan.
His most commonly-used magical power is to communicate with his feline familiar, Teekl, who literally helps Klarion raise hell. (Familiar n.: An animal-shaped spirit who serves for witchery. In addition to helping bewitch enemies, they served their owners as domestic servants and companions.)
Through their psychic connection, Klarion can see, hear and smell from a distance whatever the cat is sensing at the time. He uses Teekl to sense traps and to spy on people.
The Witch-Boy recently learned the spell to merge with the cat to become a monstrous Horigal. (Although he has not learned the counter-spell to return to human form.) This has garnered him recognition among the Croatoans as one of the most powerful magicians in their society. However, as we will learn through the details of the Seven Soldiers story below, Klarion eschews a leadership role, despite of his sinister powers of persuasion. (As we can see from his exchange with Mary Marvel!)
Klarion was originally created in 1973 by Jack Kirby in one of his weirdest DC series, Demon, but it is likely that there is no connection between the original Kirby creation and the one who appeared in Grant Morrison's 2005 Seven Soldiers of Victory series, and has been entertaining Mary Marvel in Countdown.
KLARION by KIRBY Klarion first appeared in Demon #7 (Mar 1973) as a young magician from Witch-World, another dimension where everyone practiced the dark arts. Like any young teen, he resented being told by his elders what he could and could not do (with his magic), so he defied them and opened a portal to the "normal" (DC) Universe. He and Teekl set out to learn more about witchcraft and cause general mischief – primarily for DC's sulfurous sorcerer, Etrigan the Demon. In the ensuing years, he also crossed paths with Wonder Woman, the Flash, Batman, and Superboy's Ravers.
Klarion played a key role part in DC's 2000 event, Young Justice: Sins of Youth. He was part of a plan by the Agenda to turn public opinion against superhumans, starting with the youngest heroes. At a rally for teen supers Klarion cast a spell reversing the ages of young and old heroes. (This event was also significant in that the Jack Knight Starman gave his Cosmic Rod to Courtney Whitmore - the second Star-Spangled Kid. She then became Stargirl.) In the Sins of Youth series, Klarion was depicted less as a sinister teen with a magical agenda, and more like a cartoony short-pants-wearing spoiled brat. (Think of Richie Rich with a magic wand.) Regardless, the 11-issue mini is a great read with a cool concept… but good luck finding the trade anywhere!
KLARION by MORRISON
Klarion appeared in 2005 in his own mini-series as one of the seven characters in Grant Morrison's re-imagined Seven Soldiers of Victory. Although they look identical, Morrison's version of Klarion is not connected to the previous (Kirby) version. However, in the comments to one of the collected trades, Morrison confused the issue by commenting that the events of the 2005 series actually occurred prior to Kirby's version in The Demon.
Nevertheless, Morrison's story tells of the subterranean Limbo Town - an underground society inhabited by the witchy descendants of the Puritans from the lost population of Roanoke.
Klarion was a rebellious denizen of Limbo Town, whose father had left and never returned, sick of the Submissionaries and their rules. One day those Submissionaries directed the Witchmen to close the Wicket Gate. Angry that this would prevent Klarion from ever escaping to the outside world ("Blue Rafters") he sent out Teekl to cause trouble. In doing so, the duo discovered that the order to close the gate was really a ruse to ambush and weed out subversives like Ezekial, Klarion's stepfather.
Klarion was prevented from warning Ezekial by the Horigal, an eight-legged monstrous manifestation of the Submissionaries. The Horigal drove Klarion out into Cenozoic Station (a secret subway system below Manhattan) and would have killed him if not for the intervention of Ebeneezer Badde, a Witch-Man formerly of Limbo Town. Badde soon betrayed Klarion, however, nearly selling him into slavery.
Klarion later made it to the world above, where he encountered Mr. Melmoth (the "Sheeda-King" who actually spawned the Limbo Town people four centuries prior). Melmoth is a clear analog of Charles Dickens' Fagan (Oliver Twist), with his ragtag bunch of thieving super-children. He convinced Klarion to join the group. However, he did not reveal that the giant digging machine he charged the group with stealing from the New York Superhero museum was to be used in pillaging Limbo Town. Naturally, Klarion learned of the deception, warned the rest of the group and abandoned Melmoth.
Although he wanted to stay on the surface, the Witch-Boy returned to Limbo Town. The townspeople didn't believe his tales or warnings and proceeded to burn him at the stake until Monmoth showed up. Since all the other Submissionaries were already dead, the last dying Submissionary Judah passed on to Klarion the title of (the sole) Submissionary. With this title also passed the ability to transform into that monstrous, eight-legged Horigal. Klarion made the transformation and defeated Monmoth and his group.
Klarion refused his mother's request to replace Submissionary Judah as leader of Limbo Town. (She and the rest of the group just tried to barbeque him, for crying out loud!) He did, however, set out assist the other six soldiers in Seven Soldiers of Victory #1. (Number 1 was the second half of the bookend Seven Soldiers comics. The first – which preceded the seven different mini-series – was numbered #0.)
In that climax to the Seven Soldiers septilogy, however, Klarion's true colors shone through when he betrayed the rest of the group in their quest to defeat the Sheeda (an insect-like race from Earth's far future, which periodically returns to wipe out human civilizations in their past. Hey, this is a Grant Morrison story we're talking about here!) He came in possession of a complete version of the Croatoan, a powerful Sheeda device shaped like a pair of dice. (In the Sheeda language, it is called the "Fatherbox".)
Klarion most recently appeared in Robin #158-159 (Jan – Feb 2007). In this two-part story, Robin helped Klarion battle magical forces and recover Teekl. These issues featured guest artists and broke the flow of the Robin series, so it is difficult to tell whether the story was intended to be simply filler or as a preface to Klarion's appearance in Countdown. Even more confusing is that Robin has no prior knowledge of the character – so it is questionable whether Morrison's Seven Soldiers story now "counts" in DC Continuity.
NEXT WEEK IN WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN? October is Super-Bad-Guy Teams Month in Who Counts in Countdown? We're going to start with my personal favorite: The Crime Syndicate of America… Also known as that team of super-baddies from Earth-3, where everyone is bad!
Posts: 21381 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
