Aghnar the Great-Grandfather

***Aghnar the Great-Grandfather*** is the third 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 1995. In the english version it was released in two issues: *The Snare of Okhar*and *The Trials of Aghnar,* both in 2000.

In this issue, Othon and Aghnar leave Okhar after they face the Shabda-Oud witches, Aghnar kills his father following the metabaron tradition, and meets Oda.

## Plot

### **The Snare of Okhar**

Tonto is making breakfast in the metabunkerfor
the metabaron, despite the fact that he hasn’t returned yet. After Lothar accidentally
activates the bio-electrogram of the Metabaron, the electrogram slices the
metabunker in half. Tonto and Lothar use ant-robots to re-unite the two halves.
Lothar notes that the Metabaron has a scar in his right eyebrow, proving that
he’s not invencible. Lothar is interested in the story behind the scar, but
wants to hear the story of Aghnar first.

The story continues in a flashback: The mother
Superior of the Shabda-Oud witches arrives on Okhar aboard a Cetacyborg, a
gigantic semi-organic vessel, that will attack if the witches aren’t back in
two hours. Escorted by two of her assassins, she immediately submits Honorata
to a closed interrogation. Honorata lies, claiming that her child is indeed a
hermaphrodite, but that an accident led to the amputation of his feet. She
promises to deliver him to the priestesses as soon as he is fit to travel.

The
witches insist upon examining him, but just when they are about to discover the
hoax, Aghnar attacks them with his claw-tipped prostheses. Realizing they’ve
been tricked, the witches try to kill him, but Aghnar manages to overcome the
assassins in midair because his prosthetics are tipped with epyphite. Next he faces
the Mother Superior in a telepathic duel. Honorata links her power to that of
her son, and together, they obliterate the Mother Superior. Othon climbs into his Metacraft to destroy the
sleeping Cetacyborg, which has been programed to destroy Okhar. The outer skin
of the cosmic whale repels all his missiles, so Othon plunges the Metacraft
into the beast’s mouth and is able to destroy the Cetacyborg from the inside. However,
the Cetacyborg’s intestinal acid corrodes Othon’s lungs in the process.

To evade reprisals from the Shabda-Oud, they
must now leave Okhar aboard the metabunker so that they can re-emerge later.
Before leaving Honorata tells Aghnar to never forget the hypnotic scent of Okhar’s
carnivorous flowers, and reveals that a micro-H bomb has been implanted within
her from the beginning. She cannot leave with those she loves, for to do so
would bring about their destruction. Moreover, the surgeon-robots cannot remove
the implant from her, as it is her own artificial heart that is the bomb.
Powerless, father and son depart in the Metabunker, and witness, from space,
the nuclear annihilation of Honorata –and of Okhar. They vow to avenge her.

### **The Trials of Aghnar**

Othon and Aghnar find refuge on Planet Perdita,
which is dominated by a powerful gravity. There, giant mushrooms grow,
inhabited by floating apes, and the planet’s surface crawls with flat,
voracious animals which lie in wait for the occasional ape that falls like ripe
fruit. In 10 years’ time, the spy-needles dispatched into space by Othon will
send information that will permit them to locate the Shabdda-Oud witches. But
Othon is dying, his lungs poisoned by the gasses of the Cetacyborg he
destroyed. He wants to make sure that his son will be capable of avenging
Honorata and demands that Aghnar kill him in single combat. His father has
implanted his entire body with Oko mini-bombs, so Aghnar kills him by piercing
his father’s brain. After that, he implanted his father’s mini-bombs into his
own body.

One day Aghnar saves one of the floating apes
from falling into the clutches of the flat land animals, and then injects him
with epyphite. The ape, a Magon named Kiawoutai, can speak and has a soul.
Together, they fly up to the top of the mushrooms where Aghar confronts and
defeats the leader of the Magon, thus fulfilling the prophecy that foretold of
a little white ape who would lead them to the Diamond Planet.

Aghnar finally learns of the whereabouts of the
Shabda-Oud, who are living on an ice asteroid transformed into a comet, guarded
by their Cetacyborgs. He is able to locate a Cetacyborg and take its control
with the help of the floating-apes. He submits the three Shabda-Oud pilots to
his will and they real the objective of their secret mission: to kidnap the
beautiful princess Oda, whose genes can engender the hermaphrodite that the
Shabda-Oud witches still seek to produce. The whore-priestesses show Aghnar a
holovid of Oda, and the young man immediately falls in love with her. He then
sets off for Amahdis, alone and unarmed, to join the line of Oda’s suitors who
are bringing the princess the blue rose that she desires. Aghnar is able to win
Oda’s heart by telephacally projecting a blue rose. Oda’s father offers him the
kingdom, but Aghnar is only interested the princess. The angered father wants
to arrest Aghnar but Oda calls off the soldiers by threatening to kill herself.
Finally, her father lets them go.

 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)