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Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods

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Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods is a comic series from Dark Horse Comics that began in July 2008 and concluded in March 2009. It was composed of four issues, and was later collected in the Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods trade paperback in July 2009.[1] Publisher Spotlight released the issues in four individual, 24 page hardcovers for libraries in August 2009.[2]

Plot summary[]

In 1936, Indiana Jones took on the quest of archaeologist Henrik Mellberg, to keep pieces of a mysterious artifact from falling into Nazi hands. The artifact was found in Siberia in 1931 by Mellberg and two associates, who divided it into thirds. Unfortunately, while being chased by Nazi agents in Manhattan, Jones lost Mellberg's piece to a mysterious woman posing as a maid, but learned that the Nazis already have one piece. Jones and Marcus Brody traveled to Tibet to find the third piece, held by Francis Beresford-Hope. But when they reached his cave, they discovered cryptic clues written on the walls, and someone threw some dynamite into the cave.

Surviving the collapse of the cave, the two confronted their attacker, who turned out to be Alex Beresford-Hope, Francis' son. The three recognized their common cause in keeping the secret of the key out of Nazi hands. With Jock Lindsey's help, the three escaped from some Tibetan bandits and flew to Shanghai. Concerned with the significance of the last piece, Brody tried to convince Jones to destroy whatever secret the key was supposed to open, but Jones headed off with Alex toward Siberia on a freighter, determined to find the secret. After a stop in Japan, Jones was captured by some extra passengers: the Nazi team leader, Friedrich von Hassell, and the mysterious woman, Janice Le Roi, now working with the Nazis. Von Hassell claimed Jones' piece and left him and Le Roi adrift in the North Pacific Ocean.

Fending off sharks, Jones and Le Roi started a smoky fire to attract rescuers. As their fire died, they began to lose hope when a great white shark began circling. As the shark attacked, shredding their overturned lifeboat, a whaling ship's harpoon caught the animal. Brody had set out after Jones and had seen the signal fire. Le Roi was locked in a supply room while the ship traveled north into the Arctic Ocean. Without the map or Alex Beresford-Hope's knowledge, Jones and Brody were lost. Jones freed Le Roi, and in return, she produced a copy of the map as seen on the two pieces of the key in von Hassell's possession. Jones had copied the map from the Beresford-Hope piece, and they teamed up to race to their destination. Landing on the north coast of Siberia, Brody, Jones and Le Roi set out on dogsled on a shortcut route to catch up to von Hassell's group. Racing along the ice toward a stormy mountain, Jones attacked the Nazi sledges, hoping to free Beresford-Hope. A lightning strike opened up a large crack in the ice ahead of the dogsleds, and both teams fell into the dark chasm.

Jones found himself clinging to an ancient sculpture, but while trying to get a better grip, it broke, and he slid down into the chasm. Finding some sled dogs, and a dead Ahnenerbe agent, he continued along the underground passage, where he was grabbed by Le Roi. She pulled him to an overlook of a giant chamber, where Jones saw that von Hassell and his men had captured Brody as well as Beresford-Hope. His thoughts towards forming a rescue were stopped when Le Roi focused his attention on what the men below were staring at: the mammoth green structure inside the cavern - the Tomb of the Gods, whose plant-like coverings emanated warmth. Von Hassell led the way into the antechamber, and marveled with Beresford-Hope and Brody at the star charts on the ceiling, before trying to force Beresford-Hope to open the main portal at gunpoint. Knowing that only death and madness lay beyond, Beresford-Hope refused, and von Hassell used his hidden blade to kill the young man. Before he could threaten Brody to open the door, three Ahnenerbe agents, now possessed by voices they had heard in the chamber, opened fire on the party, killing their colleagues. Before they could attack Brody, Jones swung in on a vine, kicked over the first agent, punched out the next gunman, and Le Roi shot the third gunman with the goatee. Von Hassell took the key and opened the door himself, and entered the vault. Jones took Brody's dynamite and followed him. Fighting Jones in front of a giant pit, von Hassell argued that he and Jones were alike in seeking the knowledge of the site. Jones agreed, but felt that avenging Beresford-Hope and keeping this site from falling into Nazi hands was more important, and dropped von Hassell into the pit, and threw the ignited bundle of dynamite after him. Jones pulled Le Roi and Brody to safety, while von Hassell was killed in the explosion, which also pulled down the entire structure. Resting before making their exit, Brody agreed with Jones' decision to destroy the tomb, and Le Roi was a little disappointed in the lack of treasure.

Appearances[]

Characters[]

Locations[]

Artifacts[]

Creatures[]

Behind the scenes[]

Development[]

"You watch the movies countless times and try and get the feel. The most important thing is trying to nail Indy's core, and that's his love of archaeology. One of the first lines in issue one is someone asking Indy who he is, and he replies, 'I'm a college professor.['] That's why he's such a great action hero. Indy gets the crap beaten out of him endlessly and he still keeps chasing his prize. And his vulnerabilities make us relate to him. He's not the biggest gag telling hero, either. He's heroic, gets angry when he sees injustice. As the filmmakers pointed out at the start of 'Last Crusade,' he's a boy scout."
―Rob Williams on why he wished to write a Indiana Jones story.[src]

A huge Indiana Jones fan since watching Raiders of the Lost Ark in his local cinema,[3] Rob Williams saw the chance of writing Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods for Dark Horse Comics as a dream come true.[4] Already working for the company with the Star Wars comic book series Star Wars: Rebellion, Williams asked through email if he could pitch for new Indiana Jones comics once he became aware that the franchise would get new entries to coincide with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.[5] Considering Indiana Jones as one of the great, iconic heroic figures of modern times possessing an indomitable will despite considerable vulnerability, Williams always thought of Raiders of the Lost Ark as a template to write a killer action story with a right amount of gags, character work, mystery and humanity.[4] Having read past Indiana Jones comics from Dark Horse and Marvel Comics, Williams enjoyed their comic format but personally felt given his preferences that they would benefit by embracing cinematic storytelling like silent panels and incremental panel progressions due to being based on movies, such as the pure visual storytelling Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors opening sequence in Raiders, making Williams try to incorporate that cinematic feel to make Tomb of the Gods feel like an unearthed Indiana Jones film that should have been made when star Harrison Ford was younger.[3]

Taking into account the title character's love for learning and knowledge, acting like an archaeologist first and as an action hero second is what Williams had in mind when handling the story's writing.[4] To avoid any backlash due to the story being Indy's "big comeback" to the comic book medium, Williams made sure he didn't write Jones out of character.[3] A familiar character from the franchise Williams opted to include was fan-favorite Marcus Brody,[4] citing his praise for Brody's late actor Denholm Elliott's performance as the character for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.[5] Part of Brody's purpose throughout the story would be to restrain Indy from indulging in his treasure-hunting excesses,[4] with Williams making sure Brody didn't feel like a buffoon but as someone as experienced as Indy who differs from him due to his age. Another character Williams loved to bring back was Jock Lindsey.[6] For the most part, Williams and his team opted to create new characters for the Expanded Adventures in order to allow a sense of danger for them where using pre-existing figures would have fixed fates within the canon.[4] Comparing writing for the Expanded Adventures in contrast to the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Williams felt the former to not be as dense as the latter, allowing him more of a free reign and thus being more accessible to readers instead of forcing them to read past works.[3] The thinking was also that those characters would help the readers to give the comic run a distinct personality of its own.[5] Williams conceived up an equal to Indy in the form of dubious mercenary/female counterpart Janice Le Roi[6] and a deadly recurring adversary for Indy in the form of the Ahnenerbe, led by Friedrich von Hassell in Tomb of the Gods,[7] as the protagonist's "Doctor Doom or the Joker".[4] Although Nazis as the main villains is commonplace for the franchise, the writer made the conscious choice to make them part of the Ahnenerbe, seeing them Adolf Hitler's personal "Ghostbusters" and Indy's archaeological counterparts within enemy ranks.[5]

Feeling that they needed a MacGuffin interesting enough to launch the new Dark Horse series with high stakes rather than a "small, personal trinket",[4] Williams first thought about one suggested by someone of Lucasville, Ohio but he and his team concluded it would offend an entire religion to the point they would have to go into hiding to avoid being persecuted by any offended.[6] He then came up with the Tomb of the Gods because its danger would not only be disastrous for the Earth itself, but also a threat to Indy's soul should he ever let his greed and ego get the best of him. It likewise tempts the archaeologist with the potential to rewrite history, as it threatens to upend everything Jones knows, a creative decision that allowed Williams to get inside his protagonist's head and examine his motivations and ways of thinking.[4] Williams based the inciting incident for Tombs of the Gods on a real event, embellished with homages to a "certain author"'s writing,[5] that being H. P. Lovecraft of the Cthulhu Mythos because either Williams or assistant director Jeremy Barlow thought it would be cool and fun to mix Indy with Lovecraft's Cthulhu,[6] which is evident in the climax due to the comic's similarity to the premise of Lovecraft's 1931 science-fiction horror novella At the Mountains of Madness.[8] There was a version of the page where Indy punches one of the Nazis into the Tomb's pit where a tentacle came around the corner and a panel where a Nazi goes insane with what he sees behind the Tomb's door, but weren't included in the trade paperback, with Williams assuming a Dark Horse employee colored them out.[6] While this represented a departure from the franchise's usual MacGuffins, Williams and Barlow weren't aware that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was going to depict interdimensional beings and UFOs.[6] Aside from the story's high stakes, Williams tried to keep the tone from Raiders, adding some comedy as expected from an Indiana Jones adventure but keeping it balanced unlike what Last Crusade did with Indy and his father.[3]

Williams felt that some lines in the films like Indy's "That belongs in a museum!" ideology and his "Fortune and glory, kid" mantra presented Jones with an interesting dichotomy that Tombs of the Gods could explore, wanting the story to feel like an evolution in Indy's life that affected his decisions in Raiders, such as when he showed a lack of willingness to blow up the Ark of the Covenant, in spite of the more hot-headed character he previously was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.[4][9] Williams even pointed out how at the beginning of Raiders, Indy is all about the thrill of the chase and the prize, but comes to learn respect and humility by the time of the climax, something that Tomb of the Gods shows as well by having Indy initially being a little arrogant and obsessive with the Key to the Tomb of the Gods, thus blinding him from several of the things around him.[3] He viewed this point of Indiana's life as an interesting time in his development, citing Indy's newfound humility being what saves his life by closing his eyes before the Ark's power despite having held off from destroying it out of curiosity view the Ark's mysteries.[5] Williams expressed his conviction that Tomb of the Gods could attribute Indy's desistance from blowing the Ark up in Raiders to what he experiences at the climax of Tomb of the Gods.[3]

For drawing Tomb of the Gods, Williams felt Steve Scott was a "shoo-in" to take on the work having seen the artist's concept sketches for Indiana Jones and Marcus Brody, crediting him with an excellent storytelling sensibility for detailed feats of heroism.[5] Dustin Weaver was originally going to be the comic's penciller, making some amazing designs, but ultimately proved unavailable to do it so Scott came in to replace him.[6] Due to Scott's previous occupation as a firefighter, Williams enjoyed imaging him wearing Indy's outfit when he drew the pages.[5] He felt Scott's art to feel realistic, with a Bryan Hitch-like tone rather than heavily stylised, with some of the characters having their film likenesses, hoping it could attract non-comic fans to buy and enjoy their comic.[3] Much like Scott,[6] when having problems writing scenes for the script, Williams would listen to John Williams' theme song for the franchise to remind himself the story's tone.[5] When writing Indy's dialogue, Williams couldn't avoid hearing Ford's voice, highlighting his character's great inner rage akin to that of all leading men that pops up in Last Crusade when Sallah brings in camels to The Tank Chase, but focused more on Indy's actions.[3] Due to loving the character, Williams felt it was simple to get into Indy's voice to write him correctly like in the case of Doctor Who's title character.[6] To make the comic feel authentic, Williams and Scott did some research to ensure all elements from his story fitted its 1936 setting, hence why he had to replace a DC-3 Dakota with a DC-2, make the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building look as they were then during the comic's opening sequence and check on what type of guns peopled used at that time.[3]

Release[]

Previewscover

Cover to Previews announcing the return of new Indiana Jones comics with Tomb of the Gods. Art by Dustin Weaver

The release of the individual issues of the comic were delayed from the original publishing schedule. Originally, the four issues of the story arc would be released from July 2008 to December 2008, but the final issue was not released until March 2009 and using a different art team (Bart Sears and Randy Elliott) than the first three issues (Steve Scott and Nathan Massengill).

Continuity[]

The inside front cover of the individual issues use Indiana Jones' passport to include the publication information, as well as displaying a chronology of the places visited in this adventure. Here is a list of the dated stamps (and the issue of first appearance):

Note that the entry for the North Pacific is not in chronological order, and may be a typographical error, in issues #3 and #4.

While writer Rob Williams has mentioned in interviews that the story was supposed to take place before Raiders of the Lost Ark (with artist Steve Scott approaching the comic as a lost Indy film),[4] the ambiguities of the Raiders timeline across sources simultaneously places Tomb of the Gods before Raiders (the timeline in the Raiders of the Lost Ark junior novel),[10] during Raiders, between Peru and Nepal sequence (per dating in The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones)[11] and after Raiders (the timeline in Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide).[12]

Collections[]

Issues[]

Cover gallery[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ Dark Horse Comics profile page
  2. ↑ http://www.perma-bound.com/Search/kRKImLKeCdSaFqXzYfZWsg
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 "Rob Williams' Indiana Jones Adventure" in The Pulse
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 ROB WILLIAMS ON INDIANA JONES THE THE TOMB OF THE GODS at Newsarama (Web archive)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 FORTUNE & GLORY: WILLIAMS ON “INDIANA JONES AND THE TOMB OF THE GODS” at CBR News (Web archive)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 IndyCast: Episode 292 at IndyCast
  7. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods
  8. ↑ At the Mountains of Madness
  9. ↑ Chronologically in-universe, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is set a year before Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  10. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark junior novelization
  11. ↑ The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
  12. ↑ Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide

External links[]

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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