The Redeemer (Graphic Novel)

From Lexicanum

Covers of the four comics.
Redeemer comic part 1, full colour edition	Redeemer comic part 2, full colour edition	Redeemer comic part 3, full colour edition	Redeemer comic part 4, full colour edition

Covers of the larger graphic novels which collected the four comics into a single volume.
This volume is the black and white edition published in 2000.	This graphic novel is the full colour edition published in 2002.

The Redeemer is a graphic novel written by Pat Mills and illustrated by Debbie Gallagher.

Set on the Hive World of Necromunda, The Redeemer chronicles the battles of a small band of Redemptionists, fanatical and homicidal cultists of the Emperor, led by their supreme leader and arch-maniac, Klovis the Redeemer, as they fight to stop the Caller, a deadly and extremely powerful Ratskin Shaman, who is leading a horde of Ratskins, Scalies, Plague Zombies and other Underhive scum in a revolution against the nobles of the Spire.

Klovis the Redeemer is a noble of House Cawdor, based in Hive Primus. As the story opens he has led a band of followers out into the Ash Wastes with the aim of spreading his beliefs among the area's outcast inhabitants. His catchphrase is "Scourge and purge!"

Among his band are faithful Deacon Malakev, who carries a book of tortures called the Liber Excruciatus, and Brude, a cowardly Ratskin.

The Redeemer fights with a flaming crown and a chainsword he calls the Sword of Persecution. He travels around in a vehicle known as the Pulpitek - an armoured car equipped with auto-cannons.

Plot

The first issue (Epistle) opens with the Redeemer and his maniacs purging a group of Ratskins for a crime Malakev (the narrator) cannot even say (they tried to run away). As Klovis tells one Ratskin that he should be thanking him for rewarding him with a martyr's crown, the Ratskin tells Klovis that is sick in the head and calls to the Hive Spirits asking for vengeance for the deaths of his people. At this the Caller, the self-proclaimed Shaman of Shamans, bursts from the ground riding a giant Millasaur. He attacks the Redemptionists, proclaiming his intention to lead a revolution of Ratskins to vengeance against the Hivers. Klovis drives him off with a blast of fire from his crown, but the Caller later attacks the Redeemer at his own camp. After fighting him off, and discoving that the Bloodmare Stone (An eye from one of the- if not the- last of the Giant Necromunda Spiders) is the source of his great power, Klovis and his band set out deeper into the Underhive to purge the Caller. The remainder of this issue deals with the Redeemer slaying a mutant gang boss in a duel so that he and his men can head further down.

In the second issue, the Caller gathers his armies and the Redeemer is captured by a psyker called Ferron Voor, the Emissary of Karloth Valois; Master of Plague Zombies, who drains the life from several of his men to reanimate a monstrous mutant rat, with which he tries to kill Klovis (only to die in the process).

In the third issue, Klovis and the Caller's armies finally battle with each other, the Slaught-drugged Redemptionists wreaking great havoc whilst Klovis manages, in a superhuman effort, to destroy the Rat God (from the last issue), the Bloodmare Spider Queen and the Caller, despite being badly wounded in the process. The power leaking from the crumbling Bloodmare Stone turns his zealots against him, leading to Klovis scourging his own men. In the end, only one survives: Malakev, who is shown on the second last page of the issue to have been converted into a Scribe-Servitor, a mindless cyborg slave who will spend the rest of his existence writing down Klovis' deeds.

Publication history

The Redeemer first appeared as a series of four special editions of Warhammer Monthly in 1999. Each of these comics featured black and white artwork throughout.

The initial production run of the graphic novel, in 2000, was also in black and white. The story was then coloured in and re-released as a series of four individual comics, which were then collected together into a second, full colour, graphic novel in 2002.

This makes a total of 10 individual Redeemer publications. The full-colour graphic novel also featured an eight-page bonus strip. All 10 publications are now out of print.