Superheroes go Sword & Sorcery is not quite the same thing as Sword & Sorcery Superheroes. I would point to the piece I did on Tales of Asgard for that. Those are characters of Fantasy or mythology who become superheroes. Other examples besides Thor and his buddies include Wonder Woman, Marvel’s Hercules, DC’s Hercules, Samson, and The Black Knight. The heroes we are going to look at here started out as regular supes who take on a Sword & Sorcery flavor (at least for a little while).
Hawkman
The original S&S superhero is Hawkman, created by Gardner F. Fox (1911-1986). Hawkman’s first appearance was Flash Comics #1 (January 1940) in “The Origin of Hawkman”, drawn by Dennis Neville.
Carter Hall is a wealthy collector of weapons as well as a research scientist. He discovers that he is actually the re-incarnation of an ancient Egyptian, Prince Khu-fu. His girl friend, Shiera Sanders, and his original Egyptian killer, Hath-Set, have also been reborn. This sounds more like a version of The Mummy movies or a Conan Doyle short story.
Hawkman Again!
The DC universe is ever-changing and that origin would later be superseded by the planet Thanagor. Gardner Fox returned along with Joe Kubert to re-create the character as an extraterrestrial policeman armed with ancient weapons.
Where did Fox get his inspiration? That is two fold. First and most obviously is Flash Gordon, the comic strip by Alex Raymond. The strip began in January 1934 and was inspired by Buck Rogers. One of the many races of space people Flash dealt with were the winged warriors of Mongo led Prince Vultan. (Famously played by Brian Blessed in the 1980 film.)
This wasn’t Fox’s only inspiration. The winged alien dates back to 1900 and A Honeymoon in Space by George Griffith, then was popular in Planet Stories, a Pulp Fox wrote for.
Crom and the Viking Prince
Hawkman has run through at least four iterations, some more weapon-oriented than others but my favorite is Joe Kubert’s (The Brave & the Bold #34 (February-March 1961)-#44 (October-November 1962). Joe was a fantasy fan with his own Sword & Sorcery characters: Son of Sinbad, The Viking Prince and back in 1950, the very first true Sword & Sorcery character, Crom the Barbarian. Gardner wasn’t done with S&S after the comics. He went on to write three fiction series with Kothar, Kyrik and Niall.
Of the later versions of Hawkman, the one that really caught my eye was in Hawkman Special (2008). Written by Jim Starlin and drawn by Al Milgrom, it has classic Starlin feel!
Medieval Spawn & Witchblade
1996 saw independent comics creators combine two favorites for Medieval Spawn & Witchblade. Written by Garth Ennis, the two power heroes go medieval on their enemies’ buttocks in this three-parter. Art by Brandon Peterson and Matt Banning. Image Comics would do it again in 2018 with a four-parter with Brian Haberlin & Brian Holguin.
Batman Goes Arthurian
Batman got his own medieval freak on in Batman: Dark Knight of the Round Table (December 1998-January 1999) in a two-part mini-series. Written by artist, Bob Layton, the art was done by Dick Giordano and inked by Layton.
Avataars
2000 saw Avataars: Covenant of the Shield from Marvel Comics. This three-part miniseries re-imagined famous superheroes as heroic fantasy characters. The comic was supposed to be a twelve-parter but the financially troubled publisher rushed the product in an attempt to stay afloat. Written by Len Kaminski, the art was by Oscar Jimenez and Eduardo Alpuente.
Look familiar? Some of the Sword & Sorcery feel comes from mimicking classic Conan artwork. This one is Gil Kane and Tom Palmer’s cover from June 1975.
Red Sonja/Spiderman
2007 saw Spider-man and Red Sonja team-up for a four part mini-series written and drawn by Michael Turner. Red would make a living doing these team-ups, later with Claw, Witchblade even Vampirella. Truly a sword for sale. Comic characters became almost like free agent hockey players in the 2000s, not bound to one publishing house.
Skaar, Son of Hulk
Nine years later, and far healthier, we got Hulk’s son, Skaar in What If? Planet Hulk #1 (Dec. 2007) and later in his own series, Skaar: Son of Hulk, which ran for 12 issues from August 2008- August 2009. Written by Greg Pak, the comic shows Skaar growing up on the brutal planet Sakaar. He develops into a fierce warrior. Artists include Ron Garney, Butch Guice, Ron Lim, Cory Hamscher and Greg Adams.
Demon Knights
DC wasn’t above trying to revive old characters with a little Hyborian hustle. Demon Knights, part of the New 52 run, took the Jack Kirby character from The Demon #1 (August 1972) and gave him some Conan mojo. Sadly the series only ran for 24 issues. (November 2011-October 2013). Written by Paul Cornell and Robert Venditti, the art was by Diógenes Neves and Oclair Albert and later by Bernard Chang, Chad Hardin and Phil Winslade.
Some Others
By no means is this every superheroes who went Sword & Sorcery. It gets harder to tell as the 21st century arrived. Here are a few others. I am sure there are many I missed.
Conclusion
Superheroes go Sword & Sorcery proves it’s not difficult to switch from a cape crusaders of the streets of New York City to the sword-swinging fighter of the dark alleys of Hyboria. Marvel experimented a little with the mix in comics like What If Conan Walked the Earth Today? (February 1979), What If Conan Battled Thor? (June 1983), What If Conan Were Stranded in the 20th Century? (February 1984), and What If Wolverine Battled Conan the Barbarian? (August 1990). Switching larger-than-life superheroes into heroic fantasy is not a far walk. Going the other way isn’t hard either. Both styles of storytelling feature titans fighting on a glorious scale. This is all high mimetic mythic level stuff. The setting is mere trappings on a struggle as old as Beowulf versus Grendel. Tights or a loincloth, it doesn’t really matter.
