The Sword In The Star: Stave 2

Welcome back to the deck of The Starseed for the 2nd part of Bill Mantlo's aborted epic The Sword In The Star, with art this time from Keith Giffen. Although this episode isn't as cosmic in scope as the first part, and Giffen's style still slightly crude, the layouts & design work are superb. Plus Wayfinder's already had the wind knocked out of him in the first part, so is starting to come across as a much more likeable lead character. And wait'll you see his new sidekick!


















And that was just about it for the adventures of Prince Wayfinder. Creator Bill Mantlo did manage to craft an ending for his saga, by grafting it into The Micronauts story. Wayfinder, having found The Sword In The Star, becoming indirectly responsible for the creation of The Microverse that that particular series took place in. Marvel, as has been noted, generally let stories finish one way or another, though usually it tended to happen in the pages of Marvel Two-In-One.


Sadly, Bill Mantlo had no such happy ending, as in 1992, he became the victim of a hit-and-run accident, suffering severe head trauma and resulting in him being institutionalized, needing 24 hour care. There have been fundraising drives on behalf of Bill's brother & carer Michael, such as the benefit book Mantlo: A Life In Comics and Floating World Comics' art show Spaceknight: A Tribute To Bill Mantlo, made up of various artists' interpretations of ROM.
Anything I say after that'll just sound facile, so I'll just say this: I liked Bill's work, and I hope you do too.