Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar #2 - Marvel Comics

WARHAMMER 40,000: MARNEUS CALGAR No. 2, January 2021

Focusing far more upon just how an adolescent Marneus Calgar prepared himself for the Astartes tests under the instructor Crixus than the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines’ current battle against the Forces of Chaos on Nova Thulium, Kieron Gillen’s narrative for this twenty-page periodical caused quite a bit of controversy amongst fans of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game when it originally hit the spinner racks in November 2020. For whilst the British author arguably does an excellent job of providing this comic’s audience with a thoroughly riveting read, courtesy of some surprisingly dark treachery on the Agri-world’s moon, the writer also takes “one of the franchise’s most beloved characters” in an entirely new direction by having the twelve year-old shockingly die in the arms of his best friend at the very end of the book; “No, Tacitan. It is over. I am over. I… Marneus Calgar will never be a space marine.”

This act of ultimate betrayal by the adolescent’s bitterly twisted trainer is admittedly a little disconcerting at first, with this twenty-page periodical seemingly therefore depicting the beloved Lord of Macragge as being an ignoble imposter rather than the high-born heir to “the richest house on the planet”. However, such a potential mass cover-up is quickly shown to be nothing of the sort as the Lord Defender of Greater Ultramar quite openly talks about how he took on the name of his closest companion to “little Quintus” Heximar following the true Calgar’s demise, and even goes as far as to show the Adept the impressive family statue dedicated to the deceased youth who “died… in service of the Emperor.”

In addition, the shocking casualty certainly makes some sense story-wise considering the would-be marine Marneus and his ferociously-loyal serf Tacitan are superbly pencilled by American artist Jacen Burrows haplessly stumbling upon their treasonous team-mates’ nightmarish temple to the Blood God Khorne with no weapons apart from a small knife and a couple of lanterns. Surrounded by a sizeable number of ‘brain-washed’ trainees, their barking mad mentor and over half a dozen cybernetically-enhanced Chaos acolytes, this comic’s narrative would debatably appear far too contrived if the two unarmed boys managed to escape the turncoats’ deadly underground trap with nothing but a couple of bruises and cuts.

Writer: Kieron Gillen, Artist: Jacen Burrows, and Colorist Java Tartaglia