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Description

Starfire (no, not that one) + Killraven (Apeslayer) + Mariah Romanova (a little)

Jonni Romanova was born in the far future of Earth, near the end of the White Badoon occupation. She was a slave in the City of Apes when the Mists of Time brought the whole region to Skartaris, the Savaged Land. She was trained to battle gladiator style for the ape’s amusement. The Apes called her StarRaven.

General Sookarooth, a clever Chimpanzee and ally of young Alpha Solovar, trained Jonni to be his secret weapon against his enemies in the Ape city. When the City of the Apes appeared in Skartaris, a young boy, lost to the outside world named Travis Plunder was captured by the Apes. Together with StarRaven and an exiled king named Markhon, they future Warlord escaped from the gladiator arenas of the apes.

In the early days of the arrival of the City of the Apes in Skartaris, several White Badoon were also transported there. StarRaven, Markhon, and Ka-Mandi (also named in the Arenas) battle the White Badoon for the freedom of Ape City and secret ally Solovar and Sookarooth. When the White Badoon are killed or exiled from Skartaris, and the City of the Apes are freed, Solovar returned the favor and freed the slaves.

Ka-Mandi and Markhon went on, allies for life, to explore and fight for freedom of the rest of Skartaris (usually from evil wizards and evil warlords), but StarRaven remained in the area of the Desert of Doom, an enemy of the evil apes, especially Mikhlo Grodd. Though she’s not sure how much she even trusts Solovar… StarRaven has Psionic powers, given her through secret experimentation by Sookarooth. They aren’t much, but they do protect her from Grodd’s formidable telepathy.

StarRaven has had a romantic interest in both Ka-Mandi and Markhon, but their relationships were not meant to be. StarRaven and Ka-Mandi (and his family) and Markhon have frequently worked together even after their escape from the City of the Apes.

Meta-Backstory

Back when I first started to explore Skartaris with Monsieur Magnetite, I made a City of the Apes. There were reasons for this, one was an influence on Ka-Mandi was of course… Kamandi, and there was an ape city in his future world. But as I played with the idea, I was introduced to an interesting fact by In Marvel UK, there was a comic Planet of the Apes that reprinted Marvel’s Planet of the Apes. However, their print schedule was much faster than Marvel US was putting out Planet of the Apes stories, so Marvel UK started to reprint slightly redrawn Killraven stories from Marvel USA (with the martians redrawn as apes, and Killraven slightly changed in appearance). So… in a way, Planet of the Apes is canon Marvel (maybe not really, but close enough). That’s why there’s a buried statue of liberty in the Desert of Doom outside the City of the Apes on the Map of Skartaris. So, the idea would be that Ka-Mandi was a slave there and would have some Killraven in his amalgam. But then, after I finished the map, I also was introduced to Starfire from DC comics (before Koriand’r but after Leonid Kovar) who was an human former slave freedom fighter in a very similar concept to the Killravens and Apeslayers so that made a great idea for an amalgam.

Finally, there was Mariah Romanova. Mariah was a Russian in the DC Warlord stories, and I liked the idea of adding her into the mix so that A) I could draw that funky yellow make-up around her eyes, and B) as a slight nod and a wink to the Russian Starfire. But mostly, it was because Mariah Romanova was a love interest to both Warlord and Machiste, so she could create some friction with Ka-Mandi, Markhon, Tara the She-Devil and Thunder Woman. Why not?

EDIT: changed from red head to brunette. I had made her a redhead because Killraven and Mariah were redheads, but she just looked way way way too much like the Teen Titans Starfire with red hair... and that was something I was trying to avoid. So I went with dark hair as Apeslayer was (I guess?) and the Sword and Science Starfire definitely was.

Amalgams in this story

General Sookarooth (General Raker + Sookarooth + and an ape as neither of the two other characters were apes)

Alpha Solovar (Alpha + Solovar)

Mikhlo Grodd (Mikhlo + Gorilla Grodd)

Ka-Mandi (Warlord + Ka-Zar + Kamandi, the lost boy)

White Badoon (White Martians + Badoon)

City of the Apes (Gorilla City + various Gorilla locations in the world of Kamandi + Marvel UK’s Planet of the Apes)

Description

Starfire (no, not that one) + Killraven (Apeslayer) + Mariah Romanova (a little)

Jonni Romanova was born in the far future of Earth, near the end of the White Badoon occupation. She was a slave in the City of Apes when the Mists of Time brought the whole region to Skartaris, the Savaged Land. She was trained to battle gladiator style for the ape’s amusement. The Apes called her StarRaven.

General Sookarooth, a clever Chimpanzee and ally of young Alpha Solovar, trained Jonni to be his secret weapon against his enemies in the Ape city. When the City of the Apes appeared in Skartaris, a young boy, lost to the outside world named Travis Plunder was captured by the Apes. Together with StarRaven and an exiled king named Markhon, they future Warlord escaped from the gladiator arenas of the apes.

In the early days of the arrival of the City of the Apes in Skartaris, several White Badoon were also transported there. StarRaven, Markhon, and Ka-Mandi (also named in the Arenas) battle the White Badoon for the freedom of Ape City and secret ally Solovar and Sookarooth. When the White Badoon are killed or exiled from Skartaris, and the City of the Apes are freed, Solovar returned the favor and freed the slaves.

Ka-Mandi and Markhon went on, allies for life, to explore and fight for freedom of the rest of Skartaris (usually from evil wizards and evil warlords), but StarRaven remained in the area of the Desert of Doom, an enemy of the evil apes, especially Mikhlo Grodd. Though she’s not sure how much she even trusts Solovar… StarRaven has Psionic powers, given her through secret experimentation by Sookarooth. They aren’t much, but they do protect her from Grodd’s formidable telepathy.

StarRaven has had a romantic interest in both Ka-Mandi and Markhon, but their relationships were not meant to be. StarRaven and Ka-Mandi (and his family) and Markhon have frequently worked together even after their escape from the City of the Apes.

Meta-Backstory

Back when I first started to explore Skartaris with Monsieur Magnetite, I made a City of the Apes. There were reasons for this, one was an influence on Ka-Mandi was of course… Kamandi, and there was an ape city in his future world. But as I played with the idea, I was introduced to an interesting fact by In Marvel UK, there was a comic Planet of the Apes that reprinted Marvel’s Planet of the Apes. However, their print schedule was much faster than Marvel US was putting out Planet of the Apes stories, so Marvel UK started to reprint slightly redrawn Killraven stories from Marvel USA (with the martians redrawn as apes, and Killraven slightly changed in appearance). So… in a way, Planet of the Apes is canon Marvel (maybe not really, but close enough). That’s why there’s a buried statue of liberty in the Desert of Doom outside the City of the Apes on the Map of Skartaris. So, the idea would be that Ka-Mandi was a slave there and would have some Killraven in his amalgam. But then, after I finished the map, I also was introduced to Starfire from DC comics (before Koriand’r but after Leonid Kovar) who was an human former slave freedom fighter in a very similar concept to the Killravens and Apeslayers so that made a great idea for an amalgam.

Finally, there was Mariah Romanova. Mariah was a Russian in the DC Warlord stories, and I liked the idea of adding her into the mix so that A) I could draw that funky yellow make-up around her eyes, and B) as a slight nod and a wink to the Russian Starfire. But mostly, it was because Mariah Romanova was a love interest to both Warlord and Machiste, so she could create some friction with Ka-Mandi, Markhon, Tara the She-Devil and Thunder Woman. Why not?

EDIT: changed from red head to brunette. I had made her a redhead because Killraven and Mariah were redheads, but she just looked way way way too much like the Teen Titans Starfire with red hair... and that was something I was trying to avoid. So I went with dark hair as Apeslayer was (I guess?) and the Sword and Science Starfire definitely was.

Amalgams in this story

General Sookarooth (General Raker + Sookarooth + and an ape as neither of the two other characters were apes)

Alpha Solovar (Alpha + Solovar)

Mikhlo Grodd (Mikhlo + Gorilla Grodd)

Ka-Mandi (Warlord + Ka-Zar + Kamandi, the lost boy)

White Badoon (White Martians + Badoon)

City of the Apes (Gorilla City + various Gorilla locations in the world of Kamandi + Marvel UK’s Planet of the Apes)