It was called 'War of the Worlds: starring Killraven', and remains perhaps the most successful continuation of H.G. Wells' saga.

The premise of the story was that the Martians who had failed to conquer Earth in War of the Worlds return over a hundred years later. Their second invasion commences on Saturday 30th June 2001, and after a war lasting several years, the Martians are victorious. The surviving human population are either enslaved, or turn traitor and willingly serve their new alien masters.

 

 

Fast-forward to the year 2018. The strongest humans are forced to fight each other to the death in vast arenas for the Martians' amusement. One such gladiator, named 'Killraven' by his alien overseers, manages to escape. Banding together with other rebellious humans, he forms a group of resistance fighters called the Freemen, who engage the Martians and their servants in a guerrilla war across the land once known as America.

Killraven's adventures continued until issue #39 (1976), when Amazing Adventures was cancelled, although there was a bizarre crossover story in Marvel Team-Up #45 (1976) in which the superhero Spider-Man time-travelled into Killraven's future and helped fight a few Martians. Otherwise, the storyline was left unfinished, with Earth remaining under Martian control and the Freemen still fighting the good fight.

Killraven made an occasional appearance over the next couple of decades, headlining a graphic novel in 1983 and a one-shot (Killraven 2020) in the early Nineties. He turned up in three issues of the 12 part time-travel epic Avengers Forever (1999), and an alternative version of the character (from an altered timeline) appeared in the four part mini-series Paradise X and the three part Paradise X: Heralds that preceded it (both published in 2001/2002).

Killraven and the Freemen were thrust back into the spotlight in 2003 when Marvel published a six part Killraven mini-series, written and drawn by Alan Davis. However, this was not a continuation of the saga that had began in Amazing Adventures, but a 'reimagining' of the characters, with Killraven's story retold from the beginning.

With all the interest surrounding Spielberg's upcoming War of the Worlds epic, it should come as no surprise that Marvel are rumoured to be quite keen to get a Killraven movie into production. Watch this space.