The Darkness Comes to Roost in Warhammer 40K Magnus Calgar #5

Glorious, blasphemous purpose in Warhammer 40K: Marneus Calgar #5 by Kieron Gillen, Jacen Burrows, Java Tartaglia, and Clayton Cowles.

Forrest Hollingsworth: FOR MORE THAN TEN THOUSAND YEARS, THE LIVING CORPSE OF THE EMPEROR HAS SAT IMMOBILE ON THE GOLDEN THRONE. FOR A FEW MONTHS, WE HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT IT. TODAY IT ENDS.

Justin Partridge: We have seen many wonders and horrors through these months, my battle-brother, Tyranid Hive Editor, and I. Blood, heavy stubbers, the taint of the Warp, and the courage of zealots. How fitting we should end how we began, with a stalwart soldier, a monster, and a cave.

For in the grim far future of the 41st Millennium there is only WAR. Once more into the breach. One. Final. Time.

“Lord of Skulls”

FH: Picking up immediately after Marneus and Heximar’s ship was downed at the conclusion of issue number four, our fifth and final issue starts with a tense, familiar standoff. The servants of the Emperor stand face to face with grotesquely mutated and conjoined Severan and Kato, sworn to the legions of Chaos and aided by a hulking, infernal machine of war known as a Lord of Skulls (fitting). In a hilarious moment Marneus refuses to ‘retreat’ instead choosing to ‘withdraw’, and the Marine and the Adept find themselves in the same cavern system where a young Tacitan faced both the forces of evil and good seemingly ages ago and became the legendary Calgar.

It’s a bit of circuitous plotting to get Marneus back to the place he was made, but strictly within the narrative confines of a miniseries, I think it works. Scenes like the one where he deftly and mercilessly disembodies a coterie of Chaos loyalists he would’ve stood no chance against some years ago on their way into the Khorne Altar feel deserved, at the very least. Marneus has grown, he has changed for the better and the worse, both literally and figuratively he is a different man – one with the refined, “glorious” purpose of the Emperor. As far as a means to introduce the Marines and their nature to new readers or fans goes, it’s successful.

What do you think about the relatively small scale of the stakes and story now that we’ve seen its full scope, Justin?

JP: I will say, at first I was worried it would seem a little mundane or perhaps even a little truncated after the dizzying backstory and lore of the last issue. BUT after that wonderful “we don’t retreat. We WITHDRAW.” gag, I knew Gillen and the art team were going to take us to some really fun places before the final page and I was NOT disappointed.

I think a large part of why it works so well is exactly what you said. It’s brutally cyclical, but it REALLY works in favor with what we know about 40k as a property (grand cosmic engines constantly at war) and what we NOW know completely about Marneus (a “true-believer” who was shaped by trauma and his own personal code of honor).

Like you said, Marneus has absolutely grown in his absence from Nova Thillium and in said growth, he has gained both the strength of body and of ideology needed to finally, literally, put his past into the ground.

Now is that ideology necessarily right? Probably not. But it does still provide him the certitude of mind to finally be able to close his own loop of regret and trauma through the guise of “righteous combat”. While the emotional components of said battle might be skirting the edge of HERESY for Marneus to think about, I think the lowering of the stakes to just being a personal battle for Calgar (amidst the backdrop of his “holy scouring” of the place that forged him into a divine weapon in Roboute Guilliman’s arsenal) is a welcome “downshift” for the series and a canny, almost unexpected way to end Warhammer’s first major sorte into the Marvel licensed comic canon.

FH: I have to say that I’m glad that they didn’t make the eventual confrontation here too…childish? There’s a lot of old trauma and nostalgia and catharsis tied up in it for the characters obviously, but by showing just how much everyone has changed they defy some of those more obvious beats. It’s about change through both good and bad means, about growing organically, and about the temptation of taking the easier, more chaotic shortcut.

JP: OH ABSOLUTELY! And I think Gillen even hones it just a touch further with the dialogue they all three exchange as they fight, all providing their own commentaries and points of view on this long incoming battle.

For the new thralls of The Blood God, this is a long heralded appointment, allowing the monsters to finally triumph over the man they let slip through their grasps all those years ago. For Calgar this is an inevitable return confrontation with his first taste of Chaos, the one that started him on his “holy” path to weapondom only to now still be waiting for him again with another deadly test of his skills and faith.

Like the host of the George Lucas Talk Show, George Lucas, once famously said, “It’s like poetry. It rhymes.”

“Yes, The Sword Has Burst My Heart Luckily, the Emperor Gave Me Two”

FH: The second half of the issue is an extended, callously cathartic combat scene. Marneus guides Heximar to his first kill, spilling Chaos blood in the place where a young marine once did, and fights demons of his own. It’s the kind of brutal, dense violence that this series has been trading in for a bit, with a nice two page spread that shows the breadth of Calgar’s experience but not much else as far as he’s concerned. If anything, I love the abrasive pettiness of the marine here, crushing his enemies skulls so Khorne can’t collect them, and the excerpt above would make for a hell of a Fall Out Boy song title.

I could go back and forth on Marenus saying — as his enemies descend into the pool of blood where he lost the real Marneus — that they aren’t alike, but I think within his mind that is true for the aged Tacitan, even if on a broader scale it…kind of isn’t (at the very least I’m sure Gillen is aware of that). In any event, as their eventual victory and Marneus’s return to the battlefield outside indicates, this may be the finale for us, but it’s just another day for him. Meditative, murderous.

Adept Partridge, how did you end up feeling about the finale and the series as a whole?

JP: OH IT’S SO GOOD, and truly emblematic of the kind of hard-bitten poetry this franchise has to offer readers.

We talked a little above about how this is a “downshift”, at least in scale, and it really is! I mean, beyond the soaringly cool final beat, but generally speaking it’s mostly pretty contained to the characters of Calgar, the Adept, and Calgar’s Warp twisted former fellow students. And armed with those characters, who are further honed by the insane doctrine of BOTH factions of 40k and the hellish conditions of their lives, Gillen just gives us a neat, brutally laid out wrap up of everything they’ve told us and shown us so far.

You nailed it, it’s JUST another day for him. But armed with the context we have of everything that GOT him TO THIS DAY, it’s just…disgustingly cathartic. And again, just a wonderful showing and example of the kind of sharp, highly pulpy storytelling that Warhammer 40k is capable of. Keeping it contained just to the dynamic of the “core” cast and deploying all that backstory up until this finale issue gives the whole affair a drive and charged import that I feel will only appreciate once the whole bloody thing is collected eventually.

All told? A TREMENDOUS first outing for Marvel’s turn at the helm of these grand and ludicous war machine.

FH: For my part, I was really pleasantly surprised by this. It’s much smaller and more immediate in scale and impact than I expected, and the creative team did a good job of making the Marines seem more inherently interesting than them being the ‘default’ faction would imply they are. I never found the art to really ‘click’ with me, especially when you compare how impressive the Stokoe covers are. Nevertheless, there’s an elegance to the balance of exposition, narration, data pages and between the cerebral moments and gory grandiose setpieces that I want to commend. Marneus is a relatively integral character to the universe and I’m impressed by how much they were allowed to do with him regards to lore here in a way that makes me excited to see what they could do with other characters, factions, or timelines.

I also love that our sworn duty ends with an almost entirely redacted data page for THE BLACK ALTAR, the very same rune surfaced blood altar which Khorne’s legions were searching for, and a potentially fantastic artifact to act as a hub for future Warhammer comics spokes. (Marvel, hear my plea).

Thank you for joining us in these trenches, and we hope to see you soon!

JP: YES THANK YOU ALL FOR READING (AND DOUBLE THANKS to my wonderful partners in this endeavor, Forrest and Charlie). We will see you all again once the Dan Abnett book gets announced. COURAGE AND HONOR, READERS!

[TRANSMISSION END]

Vox Squawks

Tau, Tyranids, Primarchs and more! Seems like a risky page if Marvel didn’t have at least some plans to follow-up on.
Two hearts: Tacitan and Marneus.
ALSO VERY TELLING the final page focuses on the missing Black Altar and the Ordo Hereticus’ (AKA Inquisitor’s) interest in it. Mayhap a taste of things to come? I would genuinely love it if Abnett comes back to Marvel writing a freaking INQUISITOR comic. There would be SO MUCH BLOOD and a whole different arena of the Marvel Cosmic line.
Lastly, very interesting this series is firmly set in a period AFTER Space Marine Primarch Roboute Guilliman’s resurrection (a fairly significant event in 40k “history”). I am still so shocked at how outright this series dealt with the liberal amount of lore it dished out. It speaks highly to Marvel’s intention to not play this property close to the chest.
Kei Zama Adeptus Mechanicus book now, please and thank you.

Justin Partridge

Justin Partridge has loved comics all his life. He hasn't quite gotten them to love him back just yet. But that hasn't stopped him from trying as he has been writing about them now for a little over a decade. With bylines at Newsarama, Shelfdust, PanelXPanel, and more, Justin has been doing the work and putting in the time! Comics have yet to return his calls. Usually he can be found on Twitter screaming about Doctor Who.