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Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold is a 4-part series of comics by Dark Horse Comics, starting in February 1994, and concluding in May 1994. It was collected in Indiana Jones Omnibus: Volume 1 in 2008.

Plot summary[]

Issue 1[]

New Delhi, 1937[]

In the late summer of 1937, Indiana Jones traveled to New Delhi to purchase a statue of Shiva from a woman whose husband had gambling debts. Jones was forced to flee from her house when her husband, Rajid, came home and thought Jones was cheating on his wife, and began shooting at Jones.

Barnett College[]

Returning to Barnett College, Jones learned that Chairman Snedly had given Jones' seminar on the Incas to another professor. At the Annual Fall Faculty Fling, Jones met his replacement, the beautiful visiting professor Francisca Uribe Del Arco, and got on her bad side when he confronted Snedly over the "Latin Lollipop." Days later, Uribe and Jones collided on the street near the post office, and after Jones ripped his pants, Uribe invited him back to her house where her maid could repair them. While having tea, two Latin American thugs attacked the house. Jones managed to take the fight to the front yard, when Winchester and two of his fraternity brothers showed up and helped scare the attackers away. Uribe prevented Jones from calling the police and Jones inspected Uribe's recently arrived package: El Dedo de Oro, part of the Chimu Taya Arms of Cuzco, sent by Uribe's brother, Felipe. After correcting Jones about the legendary treasure's power to reshape stone, Uribe found a note from her brother urging her to return. Marcus Brody managed to secure Snedly's agreement to allow Jones to go on sabbatical, leaving Brody in charge of Jones' freshman Archaeology 101 classes.

En route to Buenos Aires[]

Uribe and Jones took an ocean liner south, and one evening while they were walking along the upper decks in an almost romantic mood, a pair of goons assaulted them. Jones quickly beat his attacker, and caught up to Uribe's knife-wielding pursuer, and threw him overboard. As he turned to look for Uribe, a shifting lifeboat knocked him overboard.

Issue 2[]

As he plummeted toward the waters, Jones managed to grab hold of the ship's anchor, and climbed into the chain room, and returned to the deck where Uribe and the ship's crew were searching overboard for him. In order to keep El Dedo de Oro safe, Jones ordered Uribe to stay in her room for the rest of the trip.

Buenos Aires[]

Arriving at the Uribe family apartment in Buenos Aires, Jones was introduced to a family friend, Professor Julio Huertas, who announced that he hadn't seen Felipe in several months. Huertas promised to use his network of academic connections once Jones filled him in on the latest Hollywood gossip. The next morning, Uribe burst into Jones' bedroom with news that her brother's fiancee, Elise Farthington, was in town.

That evening, Jones and Uribe went to a tango palace, where they met Farthington and Major Claude Reed-Whitby while listening to Libertad Lamarque. After dancing with Farthington, Jones got "volunteered" to be a target for the Royal Rumanian Blade Troupe. When some of the knives were aimed at him by the blindfolded knife thrower, Jones trapped one between his feet, and managed to end the act early, before he could get hurt. Getting a drink elsewhere, Farthington revealed that Felipe had last been seen at the Museo de las Pacificas.

The next day, Huertas took Jones to the Museo, where Eduardo and an assistant confirmed that Felipe Uribe was interested in Vasco de la Posco's diary. That night, Jones and Miss Uribe broke into the museum and examined the diary. After searching the text for clues, Jones realized that Felipe had removed a map from the back cover. Using a lighter to heat up the ink, Jones made an impression from the cover, revealing the location of the Chimu Taya arms to be near Lake Titicaca. Stealing the new map, they set out for Peru. At the Buenos Aires docks, Jones and Uribe came under attack by a large band of warriors dressed in Incan costumes, wielding maces, spears, and axes.

Issue 3[]

Jones tried to fend off the natives allowing Uribe to escape, but both were captured. Uribe realized that they were Soldiers of the Sun, and they wanted the map. Instead of giving it to them, Jones swallowed it, and fought his way to freedom, pushing Uribe into the water before jumping in himself. Escaping the wake of their departing steamship, they crawled ashore and returned to the apartment. They discovered that Huertas had talked about the map to an associate, but it would be unlikely that Huerta's contact would be connected to their Quechuan attackers.

Near Lake Titicaca[]

Jones and Uribe decided to fly to Peru, using another Uribe family friend, Antoine d'Espere, as their pilot. After refueling in a snowstorm in the mountains, they took off again, but the storm proved treacherous, and Jones and Uribe were forced to parachute to safety, with d'Espere dying in the crash. Camping on the mountainside, Uribe mourned her lost friend, and Jones distracted her with tales of his involvement in World War I.

The next morning, they were captured by more Soldiers of the Sun, though different from their Buenos Aires attackers. Forced to hike for another day, the pair were led to a large ancient Inca city. Greeted by Villac Venu, whom Uribe recognized as Ricardo, her father's old assistant, Jones feared that he would end up a blood sacrifice, but Villac Venu killed a llama instead. The crowd's roar indicated that their ruler was being brought out - and Francisca was astounded to discover that the city's leader was her brother Felipe.

In private, Felipe greeted his sister and the still-captive Jones, and revealed that his mission had initially been to ruin Jones' reputation, after Jones had stolen credit from their father, for an archaeological discovery in Ur in 1922. While planning to fake the Chimu Taya Arms to trap Jones, Felipe had discovered the map to the real arms. Jones revealed that he knew that Francisca was behind the attacks at Barnett College, on board the ocean liner, and with the knife thrower, but neither Francisca nor Felipe knew about the Incan warriors at the Buenos Aires docks. While Jones tried to clear up the differences between their accounts of the Pu-Abi Harp discovery, Felipe planned Jones' demise. Francisca pleaded on Jones' behalf and asked about Felipe's Incan revival plans. Her brother answered that he hoped to establish and rule a Neo-Incan Empire and throw out both the European imperialists and their opponents, Communists and the A.P.R.A., using the power of the Chimu Taya Arms.

While being guided out to his execution, Jones learned from Villac Venu that Francisca's role was to be Felipe's consort. Jones was taken to the top of a mountain and was stripped, then buried up to his head in the snow and rocks, and given some coca to numb the pain.

Issue 4[]

As night began to fall, Jones regurgitated the coca drink, and wriggled free from his snowy grave. Putting his clothes back on, Jones used his jacket to slide down the mountainside. Reaching a makeshift emergency shelter, Jones huddled inside trying to stay warm. Jones had a vision of a glowing old man, who guided Jones toward a young llama. Jones managed to catch the llama and held onto it for warmth in the shelter.

The next day, Jones and the llama trekked down the road, where they met an old villager, who took them on a reed canoe to a village on the island of Taquili. The next day, Jones used coins hidden in his jacket lining to hire some of the villagers to act as guides to find the burial chamber containing Chimu Taya Arms before Felipe could. Jones had kept his copy of the map in his hat. Arriving at the site, Jones and his guide entered the chamber on the next day, but got separated from the old man after a spike trap descended. Nearly falling into a pit trap, Jones soon reached the main burial chamber, and found the golden arms on the remains of Pachacuti.

Reed-Whitby arrived on site with his team of goons, and Jones recognized that some of the major's men, now in modern dress, were the Incan army that had attacked him and Francisca in Buenos Aires. Reed-Whitby revealed that his company needed to put a stop to the elements in Peru that worked against the European business interests, and had been monitoring Huerta. Before Reed-Whitby could claim the arms, Felipe Uribe and his neo-Incan soldiers appeared, and a battle began. Jones seized the arms back, and when Reed-Whitby ran out of bullets, he was speared by an Incan warrior. Uribe and his soldiers defeated Reed-Whitby's goons, and recaptured Jones.

Jones was then forced to watch a grand ceremony to use the arms to shape stone, and was told that Francisca had been drugged and forced to participate. As Felipe was dressed in the Chimu Taya arms, the chamber began to shake from an earthquake. As the warriors panicked, Jones called Francisca to him, and while untying him, she revealed that the drugs were too weak, and she had been acting. Jones fought some of the guards, while Francisca tried to rescue her brother from his folly. Realizing that the chamber was collapsing, Felipe pushed his sister aside as the throne of Pachacuti toppled over onto him. The chamber began to flood, and Jones and the shocked Francisca clambered up onto some fallen timbers. Using his whip, Jones and Uribe swung for the entrance, and when he lost grip on the stone, she pulled him up and they escaped to the surface, as the earthquake had shifted the lake to cover over where the Pachacuti's burial chamber once lay.

Lima[]

A week later, Uribe and Jones dined in style in Lima, and Uribe promised to return Jones' map impression, which he had only pretended to eat, back in Buenos Aires. A waiter reminded Jones of the glowing old man, and Uribe told Jones of Viracocha. With Uribe's family vengeance issue settled, the spark of romance began between the two archaeologists.

Appearances[]

Characters[]

Artifacts[]

Creatures[]

Cultures[]

Events[]

Locations[]

Organizations and titles[]

Miscellanea[]

Behind the scenes[]

Development[]

Lee Marrs conceived of the story for Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold partly based on her experience of having lived with a Cisco volunteer in Ecuador due to her interest in visiting South America. As with all her Indiana Jones stories, Marrs found inspiration from Raiders of the Lost Ark. She came up with the Chimu Taya Arms of Cuzco due to feeling that the story needed an artifact that Indiana Jones would have to rescue or retrieve and that there should be characters with nefarious intentions for it.[1]

To account for a desire to have several characters speak in their native Spanish, Marrs talked with artist Leo Durañona—a native Argentinian who she credits with many of the ideas in the Buenos Aires setting—and the translations were included in the letters section of the comic rather than the typical method of adding footnotes.[1]

Continuity[]

As much of the action in Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold takes place in South America or among Spanish-speakers, many parts of non-essential dialogue are presented in Spanish, without translation. Additionally, some of the characters in the Lake Titicaca area speak Quechua or other indigenous languages. Despite having learned the Quechua language when riding with Pancho Villa in 1916, Indiana Jones relies on Francisca Uribe del Arco for proper translation. When Arms of Gold was written, it was not yet known that Jones knew Quechua, as this detail would be later established for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

The story is explicitly set during the Barnett College fall semester in 1937 but the timeline for Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide moves the events to February 1938, although the two-page coverage of Arms of Gold (and the Portuguese Coast section of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) is dated 1937–1938.

While being flown from Argentina to Peru by Antoine D'Espere, Indy talks about having experience of flying himself, and also very briefly mentions having fought in World War I. It's also pointed out that Indy speaks French with a Belgian accent. These lines are references to The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

In the third issue, "Let's go!" was translated as "¡Vámanos!" when the actual translation should be "¡Vámonos!". More oddly, this spelling error wasn't even corrected in the list with translated words at the end of the issue.

Cover gallery[]

Notes and references[]

Dark Horse Comics
Adaptations
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: 1 · 2
Original stories
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: "Mid-Atlantic, April 1916"
Indiana Jones and the Shrine of the Sea Devil: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4
Indiana Jones: Thunder in the Orient: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6
Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4
Indiana Jones and the Golden Fleece: 1 · 2
Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4
Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4
Indiana Jones and the Sargasso Pirates: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4
Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4
Cancelled: Jungle Queen · Dance of Death
Lost Horizon · Batman crossover
Indiana Jones Adventures
Volume 1 · Volume 2 · Temple of Yearning
Star Wars Tales
Into the Great Unknown
Collections
Omnibus: Volume 1 · Volume 2
Related
Star Wars · Indiana Jones Trident Comics · Indiana Jones Comic
Marvel Comics · Hollywood Comics · Timeline of comics
ADVENTURE TIMELINE
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October 1937 Fall 1937 June 1938
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
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