Claw the Unconquered

Last updated
Claw
Clawclassic.jpg
Cover to Claw #1 (June 1975).
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Claw the Unconquered #1 (May–June 1975)
Created by David Michelinie (writer)
Ernie Chan (artist)
In-story information
Alter egoValcan Scaramax
Place of originPytharia
AbilitiesMaster swordsman, magical claw on right arm.

Claw is a sword and sorcery superhero in comic books published by DC Comics. He first appeared in Claw the Unconquered #1 (June 1975), in which he was created by writer David Michelinie and designed by artist Ernie Chan. [1] [2]

Contents

Similar in many ways to Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian (and, more particularly, Marvel Comics's depiction of him), Claw is a wanderer and a barbarian in an apparently prehistoric age who battles various wizards, thieves, monsters, and warriors who cross his path.

Publication history

Claw the Unconquered #1 debuted in mid-1975, a period when DC Comics launched a record number of new titles on to the comic book market (16 new titles debuted in 1975 alone). Claw was one of several of these new series which were set in the "fantasy" or "sword and sorcery" genre. Other such titles include Warlord , Stalker , Starfire , Nightmaster , Tor and Beowulf, Dragon Slayer . At the time, DC's main rival, Marvel Comics, had found success in the genre with its Conan the Barbarian comics, and of all of DC's new fantasy characters, Claw most closely resembles Conan in both his character and appearance, except for the fact that Claw has a deformed hand.

Claw the Unconquered was published bimonthly up until #9 (October 1976), restarting again at #10 (May 1978). The entire series was written by Michelinie (though the never properly published #14 was credited to Tom DeFalco) and Chan remained on the title up to #7, with Keith Giffen taking over pencilling duties with #8. With the addition of Giffen, the series began to incorporate some science fiction elements, moving away from its pure sword and sorcery beginnings. The relaunch of the series lasted just three issues, as it was suddenly cancelled with #12 (September 1978) as part of the "DC Implosion" when DC's comics line was drastically cut. The cancellation was so sudden that two further issues of the series had been fully written and drawn. These stories were published in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #1 in 1978, although only 35 copies of that comic were ever officially published.

The character was revived in 1981 for a two-part back up feature in Warlord #48-49 (August–September 1981) written by Jack C. Harris with art from Tom Yeates. This series tried to wrap up the story of Claw.

Fictional character biography

The adventures of Claw, whose real name was Valcan, took place "in the realm of Pytharia" in a vaguely defined setting which resembled Earth's prehistory. His first adventure pitted him against "Occulas of the Yellow Eye", an evil sorcerer and king who was revealed to have murdered Claw's father, who had also had a deformed hand like his son. Occulas had received a prophecy which predicted that a claw-handed man would defeat him, and that prophecy became his reason for persecuting Valcan and his father. [1]

Claw's origin was revealed in #9, where Valcan learns that his family is cursed to have demon hands throughout their bloodline as a result of a deal his father made with demons.

In later stories it was revealed that Claw existed on the same world (Pytharia) as the original Starfire, which is apparently not Earth. Both Starfire and Claw were revealed as two of the "eternal champions of the Sornaii". The implications of this revelation were never explored, as the series ended in a cliffhanger.

Wonder Woman

Claw's first in-continuity appearance in over twenty years occurs in Wonder Woman #21 (August 2008), where Wonder Woman and Stalker recruit Claw and Beowulf for a mission to slay the Demon Lord Dgrth.

Justice League: Cry for Justice

Prometheus uses a missile derived from one of Claw's gauntlets (described as originating "circa 13,902 BC") to neutralize Firestorm in Justice League: Cry for Justice #6 (March 2010).

Time Masters: Vanishing Point

Valcan returns in Time Masters: Vanishing Point #1 where he meets Rip Hunter. [3]

DC Universe

In the pages of "Dark Nights: Death Metal", Claw the Unconquered is among the superheroes revived by Batman using a Black Lantern ring. [4]

Powers and abilities

Claw the Unconquered is an expert swordsman. He also wields a magical claw on his right arm.

Other versions

John Chan

Another version of Claw is a superhero character created by Steven Seagle and Ken Hooper. He first appeared in Primal Force #1 (October 1994). An Asian youth from Hong Kong, this Claw has no direct ties to the original Claw, although he bears an identical misshapen hand. Claw's real name was John Chan. Chan became the Claw after buying an ancient suit of armour and sword. The Claw of Pytharia, which had been dormant in one of the gauntlets, cut off his hand with the sword and grafted itself in place. The demonic spirit of the claw increased his fighting skills, but made it difficult for him to control his anger. John Chan was a member of Primal Force throughout that series's 15 issue run.

Swamp Thing

Alternate versions of Claw have had cameo appearances in titles such as Sandman #52 (1993), Swamp Thing #163 (1996) and Starman (vol. 2) #55 (1999).

Red Sonja

Red Sonja /Claw The Unconquered: Devil's Hands #4, variant cover by Jim Lee. Jimlee redsonja-claw-04.jpg
Red Sonja /Claw The Unconquered: Devil's Hands #4, variant cover by Jim Lee.

In 2006, with the popularity of sword and sorcery comics once again resurgent due to revivals of Conan by Dark Horse Comics and of Red Sonja by Dynamite Entertainment, DC began to publish new Claw material through their Wildstorm imprint. The character first returned in Red Sonja /Claw The Unconquered: Devil's Hands (March 2006), a crossover limited series featuring Red Sonja which is co-published by Dynamite Entertainment and written by John Layman and pencilled by Andy Smith. A new Wildstorm Claw the Unconquered regular monthly title by writer Chuck Dixon and penciller Andy Smith debuted in June 2006. As of December 2006, the Claw monthly series has apparently run its course, ending with this version of Claw enslaved by demons from hell or a parallel universe, and the whole world doomed to demonic possession. The series gives Claw's full name as Valcan Scaramax. Claw either wandered back to his own world of Pytharia, or into some other world entirely, as nothing in the Claw series from Dynamite bore any connection to Howard's Hyborian realms.

It is unclear if the new Wildstorm Claw stories feature the original 1970s version of the character or whether they adhere to a new continuity. Red Sonja's current iteration is supposed to be consistent with her 1970s Marvel Comics continuity, and the direct connection between Claw's revival and the crossover with Sonja seems to indicate that these new stories occur on Hyborian Age Earth (where Sonja's stories are clearly intended to occur). Strictly speaking, the crossover also means that this version of Claw co-exists with Conan (and indeed the Marvel Universe, as Sonja's original appearances did), though it is unlikely that those connections were ever intended or will ever be acknowledged. [5]

With the Red Sonja book shifting of several years to tell the story of a new Red Sonja, a descendant of the previous one sharing the soul of the departed character, a new Claw appears: Osin, a former ally of Red Sonja, accepting the Curse of Claw, and the partial merge with the Jullah demonic entity, in exchange for being able to locate, train, and protect the new incarnation of her friend. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Sonja</span> Fictional character

Red Sonja is a fictional sword and sorcery comic-book superheroine created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics in 1973, partially inspired by Robert E. Howard's character Red Sonya of Rogatino.

David Michelinie is an American comic book writer best known for scripting Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man and Iron Man and the DC Comics feature Superman in Action Comics. Among the characters he created or co-created are Venom, Carnage, Scott Lang/Ant-Man and War Machine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Thomas</span> American comic book writer, born 1940

Roy William Thomas Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E. Howard's character and helped launch a sword and sorcery trend in comics. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes – particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America – and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and The Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Buscema</span> American comic book artist

John Buscema was an American comic book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop-culture conglomerate. His younger brother Sal Buscema is also a comic book artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Windsor-Smith</span> British graphic novelist (born 1949)

Barry Windsor-Smith is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best-known work has been produced in the United States. He attained note working on Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973, and for his work on the character Wolverine, particularly the 1991 "Weapon X" story arc. His other noted Marvel work included a 1984 "Thing" story in Marvel Fanfare, the "Lifedeath" and "Lifedeath II" stories with writer Chris Claremont that focused on the de-powered Storm in The Uncanny X-Men, as well as the 1984 Machine Man limited series with Herb Trimpe and Tom DeFalco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Layton</span> American comic book artist, writer, and editor

Bob Layton is an American comic book artist, writer, and editor. He is best known for his work on Marvel Comics titles such as Iron Man and Hercules, and for co-founding Valiant Comics with Jim Shooter.

Esteban Maroto is a Spanish comic book artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Simonson</span> American comic book writer and editor (born 1946)

Louise Simonson is an American comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work on comic book titles such as Conan the Barbarian, Power Pack, X-Factor, New Mutants, Superman: The Man of Steel, and Steel. She is often referred to by the nickname "Weezie". Among the comic characters she co-created are Cable, Steel, Power Pack, Rictor, Doomsday and the X-Men villain Apocalypse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernie Chan</span> Chinese-American comic book artist

Ernesto Chan, born and sometimes credited as Ernie Chua, was a Filipino-American comics artist, known for work published by Marvel Comics and DC Comics, including many Marvel issues of series featuring Conan the Barbarian. Chan also had a long tenure on Batman and Detective Comics. Other than his work on Batman, Chan primarily focused on non-superhero characters, staying mostly in the genres of horror, war, and sword and sorcery.

<i>Savage Tales</i> Three different American comics series

Savage Tales is the title of three American comics series. Two were black-and-white comics-magazine anthologies published by Marvel Comics, and the other a color comic book anthology published by Dynamite Entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Yeates</span> American comics artist

Thomas Yeates is an American comic strip and comic book artist best known for illustrating the comic strips Prince Valiant and Zorro and for working on characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conan (comics)</span> Marvel Comics and Dark Horse Comics character

Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard was first adapted into comics in 1952 in Mexico. Marvel Comics began publishing Conan comics with the series Conan the Barbarian in 1970. Dark Horse Comics published Conan from 2003 to 2018, when the rights were reacquired by Marvel Comics. Marvel published Conan comics until 2022, and Titan Comics took over the license from Heroic Signatures to begin publishing its own series.

Pablo Marcos Ortega, known professionally as Pablo Marcos, is a comic book artist and commercial illustrator best known as one of his home country Peru's leading cartoonists, and for his work on such popular American comics characters as Batman and Conan the Barbarian, particularly during the 1970s. His signature character was Marvel Comics' the Zombie, for which Marcos drew all but one story in the black-and-white horror-comics magazine Tales of the Zombie (1973–1975).

<i>Chamber of Darkness</i>

Chamber of Darkness is a horror/fantasy anthology comic book published by the American company Marvel Comics. Under this and a subsequent name, it ran from 1969 to 1974. It featured work by creators such as writer-editor Stan Lee, writers Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, and Roy Thomas, and artists John Buscema, Johnny Craig, Jack Kirby, Tom Sutton, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Bernie Wrightson. Stories were generally hosted by either of the characters Digger, a gravedigger, or Headstone P. Gravely, in undertaker garb, or by one of the artists or writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stalker (DC Comics)</span> Comics character

Stalker is a fictional antihero and swords and sorcery character published by DC Comics. The character, created by Paul Levitz and Steve Ditko, debuted in Stalker #1. The art in all four issues of Stalker was handled by the team of Ditko (pencils) and Wally Wood (inks).

<i>Conan</i> (Dark Horse Comics) Comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics

Conan, the sword-and-sorcery character created by Robert E. Howard, is the protagonist of seven major comic series published by Dark Horse Comics. The first series, titled simply Conan, ran for 50 issues from 2004 to 2008; the second, titled Conan the Cimmerian, began publication in 2008 and lasted 25 issues until 2010; the third series, titled Conan: Road of Kings, started publishing in December 2010 and ended in January 2012 after 12 issues; a fourth series, titled Conan the Barbarian, continuing from Road of Kings, lasted 25 issues from February 2012 to March 2014; a fifth series, titled Conan the Avenger, started publishing in April 2014 and ended in April 2016 after 25 issues; a sixth and final series, titled Conan the Slayer lasted 12 issues from July 2016 to August 2017.

<i>Conan the Barbarian</i> (comics) Comic book series published by Marvel Comics

Conan the Barbarian is a comics book title starring the sword-and-sorcery character created by Robert E. Howard, published by the American company Marvel Comics. It debuted with a first issue cover-dated October 1970 and ran for 275 issues until 1993. A commercial success, the title launched a sword-and-sorcery vogue in American 1970s comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Simons</span> American comic book artist

Dave Simons was an American comic book artist known for his work on Conan, Ghost Rider, Red Sonja, and Spider-Man for Marvel Comics and Forgotten Realms for DC Comics. He is also known for commercial storyboard and games artwork work on The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs and Greyhawk Ruins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starfire (Star Hunters)</span> Comics character

Starfire is a fictional character appearing in publications by DC Comics. She first appeared in Starfire #1, and was created by David Michelinie and Mike Vosburg.

References

  1. 1 2 Wallace, Dan (2008), "Claw the Unconquered", in Dougall, Alastair (ed.), The DC Comics Encyclopedia, New York: Dorling Kindersley, p. 84, ISBN   978-0-7566-4119-1, OCLC   213309017
  2. ↑ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1970s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 163. ISBN   978-0-7566-6742-9. David Michelinie's pen and Ernie Chan's pencils and inks provided the magic for this fantasy series that introduced Claw the Unconquered, a barbaric outlander with a deformed claw-like right hand.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
  3. ↑ Time Masters: Vanishing Point #1 (September 2010)
  4. ↑ Dark Nights: Death Metal #5. DC Comics.
  5. ↑ http://www.fortunecity.com/tatooine/niven/142/recycleb/rb46.html"Claw the Unconquered: Cliche and the Perfect Genre Piece": An Essay on Claw the Unconquered #1
  6. ↑ Red Sonja #36 (2008)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.