Weapons of the Metabaron

***Weapons of the Metabaron*** is a one-off story of *The Saga of the Metabarons*. It was written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, illustrated by Travis Charet and Zoran Janjetov and published by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 2008.

Although the details are unclear, originally the graphic novel was meant to be longer, with each chapter chronicling the origin of one of the Metabaron's most powerful weapons. However, Travis Charet left the comic book industry around 1999-2000 and only completed 29 pages, which were eventually released in 2002 under the title *The Last Metabaron*, assuring that the next chapter would be called *The Sword With a Soul.* Ultimately the project was left on hold for many years until Zoran Janjetov was brought in to finish it.

The story takes place after Aghora birthed the Metabaron in *Aghora the Father-Mother* but before *Before the Incal,* and it partly overlaps with *Nameless, the Last of the Metabarons.*

## Plot

In the
center of the universe Enneade, the Metabaron, along with Tonto, arrives in his
metacraft to Omphale, an asteroid that makes all the dreams of all living
things, but he has trouble remembering exactly why he’s there.

Tonto
reminds him that he’s bringing the omnigrail (a “receptive weapon” that dematerializes
inside of him and takes away his memories) to the eights sages. The sages have
the Metabaron sleep so that he can remember how he got the weapon. The four
next paragraphs take place inside that dream:

The
Metabaron, and his father-mother, Aghora are returning from a victorious battle
against the Karbit armada to Okhar. Once they arrive to the planet Nameless
fights a leodactylea to prove his strength. After the beast is defeated, the
initiatory tradition of the metabarons commences: the son must kill his father
on combat. Nameless succeeds, and Aghora transfers the crest of the Castaka to
him before dying.  The Metabaron swears
to never have children, launches Aghora’s coffin into space, and triggers
his-her Oko-bombs.

Now that
Aghora is dead, Tonto tells the Metabaron the last secret of the Castakas: the
location of Omphale, which is at the center of Enneade. Inside
it, eight sages who are 300,000 years old rest in the sleeping room, being fed
by the energy of Ennead. The Ennead itself is surrounded by main dreamer,
Bihargam, creator of all visions that come out at night for living beings.
Changers of dreams glide in the lobes of Bihargam, taking different forms,
descending into the brain to make dreams and then entering the mind of beings.
But the changers of dreams are in danger. Due to an over-sight, a door for
Hulzgemeaux has been opened, letting evil beings enter the realm of Bihargam, the
Metabaron must now close the door.

Nameless
meets the sages, who guide him into Ennead’s dream. Once he enters the dream,
he traces the Virgin Temple where he acquires Praxis, a sword with a soul. The
Metabaron faces the wicked door, where he’s attacked by a Hulzgemeaux, Praxis
helps him by filling the warrior’s heart with the sword’s soul, which allows
the Metabaron to close the door, and re-enter the normal realm. The sages let
him keep Praxis and inform him that there are still many Hulzgemeaux in Enneade,
and that there are three opponents the he will need to overcome, as well as
acquire two more weapons. The next weapon that the Metabron must find is the
transpinal eye (a mini-computer with its own will that escaped), but first he
must activate the omnigrail, which is in the hands of a tribe of  cannibal lizard-men living in Bottra.

The
Metabaron arrives to Bottra and, after freeing some aboriginal child prisoners,
strikes Praxis into the ground and uses his Superkolt to destroy the lizard-men
temple and kill all of them. Suddenly, he’s attacked by a giant spider, but Nameless
defeats it using Praxis once again. The Metabaron finally acquires the
omnigrail.

Now that
the Nameless has remembered how he got the omnigrail he awakes again, and sets
course to the concentric rings of Trafalhar, to find the transpinal eye. In the
first ring of Trafalhar the metacraft gets attacked by a formless-matter
monster, but the Metabaron uses Praxis’ vibration to get rid of it.

In the second
ring, he finds multiple egg-asteroids that contain dragons that start spouting
fire, but the Metabaron uses an invulnerable shield to defend himself from the
flames. He heads to the bigger asteroid, where the brain of all dragons resides,
and launches a super Oko-missile at it, killing all of them.

In the
third ring, each asteroid contains a colony of leeches. Nameless tries to
activate the repulsive shield, but the computer is nonfunctional because the
leeches actually feed on energy. The Metabaron uses his last amount of strength
to release the anti-energy of Praxis, which devours the leeches.

The
Metabaron finally reaches the transpinal eye, a mini-computer who has the power
to destroy all eight universes, and which has the form of a pyramid. The
transpinal eye tries to trick him by using the images of his antecessors, but Nameless
doesn’t fall for it, since compassion only poison his destiny. Now the transpinal
eye offers him the opportunity to be the father of a child of his choosing, but
he refuses, his duty is more important than anything else.

The transpinal eye
transforms into a mirror image of Nameless, so that if he kills him he dies
too. Nevertheless, the Metabaron decides to fight him, using his Kolt and
Oko-bombs, but the transpinal eye mirrors all his attacks. The Metabaron
decides to trick the transpinal eye with an illusion: he pretends to pierce
through stone so that when the transpinal eye tries to copy him crashes. The
transpinal eye is defeated, and the Metabaron imprisons him in the omnigrail,
and changes him into a host.

The
Metabaron returns to Omphale and the sages insert the changed transpinal eye in
his brain, becoming the sages’ personal weapon. Now Nameless must travel to the
eight universes and conquer the Hulzgemeaux.

## Art Style

Charet's and Janjetov's styles are radically different. Charet favors an ultra realistic and detailed style while Janjetov's art is more cartoon-like.