Doña Vicenta Gabriela de Rokha the Grandmother

***Doña Vicenta Gabriela de Rokha the Grandmother***  is the sixth issue of *The Saga of the Metabarons* (the main series of The Metabarons franchise). It was written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, illustrated by Juan Giménez and released by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 1999. In the english version it was released in three issues: *Melmoth's Plight*, *The Torment of Doña Vicenta*, *Galactic Threat* all in 2001.

In this issue Melmoth and Doña Vicenta deal with Don Nicanor and a Techno-techno attack on Philodendra, Melmoth destorys his head, and Doña Vicenta is pregnant with twins.

## Plot

### **Melmoth’s Plight**

Back in the Metabunker, Tonto is refusing to
tell Lothar any more stories about the clan of the Metabarons. This, coupled
with the fact that their master, the current Metabaron, has been away for so
long, throws Lothar into a deep depression and he begins throwing himself
against the walls in an attempt to commit suicide.

He is interrupted by the security alarms, the
metabunker is under attack. The robots activate their Master’s bio-electrogram
but are shocked to find that it is quickly defeated by the mysterious attacker.
The intruder’s spacecraft turns out to be a Metacraft in disguise, and the
Metabaron himself steps out of it: their long-awaited Master has returned.

The robots’ rejoicing does not last long,
however. The Metabaron tells them that he has returned to disintegrate them,
and blow up the Metabunker. He has become a powerful warrior in a new dimension
and does not want his enemies to get their hands on the robots and find out the
secret of his scar – his only weakness. The Metabaron shows the robots how City
Shaft is just chunk of planet floating in space, the last fragment of a galaxy
that was disintegrated long ago. Just before the robots are about to be
disintegrated, Tonto asks the Metabaron to let them be consumed instead in the
nuclear explosion that will destroy the Metabunker, for the sake of their
honor. The Metabaron then speeds away from his exploding fortress.

### **The Torment of Doña Vicenta**

With the Metabaron having destroyed the
Metabunker, Tonto and Lothar are left on a primitive and muddy planet. They set
about constructing a new Metabunker and continue the story of the Metabarons to
pass the time.

The story continues in a flashback: Don Nicanor
and his army of Philodendrans storm the room where Melmoth and Doña Vicenta have
barricaded themselves, he is determined to possess the woman he no longer
remembers as his daughter. Doña Vicenta asks him what it is he loves most about
her. When he replies that it is her eyes, she tears them out with her
fingernails and gives them to him. Tormented by his own actions he consents to
her marriage to Melmoth, and his decoration with the Medallion of High
Nobility.

At the horrific sight of his wife’s new
cybernetic eyes Melmoth’s personality is once again broken up into its two
components. Steelhead is pleased that his wife is now like him, but Zaran is
repelled by her ugliness.

Meanwhile, outside the palace, a
Techno-cardinal informs Don Nicanor that he and his people must abandon their
home planet so that the Techno-technos can harvest the mineral Bikramen. Don
Nicanor refuses and the delegation begins bombarding the planet with huge
rectangular blocks.

Don Nicanor attempts to fight off the invaders
but their weapons are powerless. Doña Vicente begs Steelhead to fight for her
people, but Melmoth’s poet side, Zaran, sees no point in continued existence.
The Steelhead side refuses to turn away from the fight and instead chooses to
blow his own head off, eliminating the Poet from the equation all together.

### **Galactic Threat**

After Don Nicanor’s death, Steelhead, having
eliminated the part of him that was the poet Zaran Krleza, joins the fight
against the Techno-technos. During the battle, Doña Vicenta learns how cold and
ruthless Steelhead really is, and begins to hate him. Through Steelhead
triumphs, Philodendra is almost entirely leveled.

Next, Steelhead puts into effect an ambitious
plan: He invades the Techno-techno stronghold to kidnap the reigning
Techno-pope, and after killing a technoscarab, bring him back to Philodendra.
Then, as tousands of Techno-destroyers fills the skies and lay siege to the
planet, he informs the rest of the galaxy about the valuable Bikramen found
there, summoning even greater swarms of spaceships from all parts of the
galaxy. With Doña Vicenta’s reluctant cooperation, he negotiates the sale of
the planet and the relocation of the saddened Troglosocialiks to another world.

On the new, artificial world, Doña Vicenta
develops tuberculosis before announcing to the Metabaron that she is pregnant.
When Steelhead examines her he discovers that she is opening her lungs to the
infection on purpose, for she no longer has any reason to live. Inside her womb
are twins, a male child from Steelhead, and a female from Zaran. Tonto
announces that due to complications only one of the babies can be born, and
Doña Vicenta assumes bitterly that Steelhead will save the male child to
perpetuate his clan. But when Steelhead asks her what would happen if he chose
to save the girl child. Doña Vicenta replies that she would find the strength
to live again, so that she could raise the child born of the man she loved.

Tonto ends his tale with the revelation that
Steelhead does indeed choose the female child, leaving Lothar wondering just
how the tradition of the Metabarons, which can only pass from father to son,
could be preserved.

 Other Issues

1. *Othon the Great-Great-Grandfather*(1992)
2. *Honorata the Great-Great-Grandmother*(1993)
3. *Aghnar the Great-Grandfather*(1995)
4. *Oda the Great-Grandmother*(1997)
5. *Steelhead the Grandfather*(1998)
6. ***Doña Vicenta Gabriela de Rokha the Grandmother***(1999)
7. *Aghora the Father-Mother*(2002)
8. *Nameless, the Last of the Metabarons*(2003)