Oda the Great-Grandmother

Oda the Great-Grandmother is the fourth 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 1997. In the english version it was released in three issues: The Lair of the Shabda-Oud, The Possession of Oda and The Mentrek's Solution, all in 2000.

In this issue, Aghnar and Oda have their revenge on the Shabda-Oud witches, Aghnar fathers a child with a Honorata-posessed Oda, and becomes a mercenary willing to destroy the Empire.

The Lair of the Shabda-Oud
After Lothar asks the bio-electrogram of the Metabaron how he got the scar, the Metabaron shoots him before dissolving. Tonto repais Lothar with the help of the ant-robots, and continues Aghnar’s story, who had just saved Oda and wanted revenge on the witches.

The story continues in a flashback: Using a psy-cloak, Aghnar disguises as one of the witches, and will pretend to deliver Oda to the Shabda-Oud, who want her for the purpose of breeding. They arrive to the witche’s refuge, and thank to Aghnar’s psycho-mimetics (taught be her mother) they get pass their mental probes. Once on the asteroid of the witches, Oda is chained to an altar. Their god Jejoh, a mound of muscle topped with a hideous head, soon emerges, his tongue forked and dripping. Faced with this disgusting apparition, Oda calls too early for Aghnar to save her. The alarm is raised.

Aghnar gives a mental order to the Cetacyborg under his control to regurgitate the swarm of Magon apes, while he himself attacks Jejoh. But Jejoh is invulnerable, Aghnar’s blows do not affect him at all. Therefore Aghnar willingly lets Jejoh devour his arm. In fact his whole body is riddled with OKO mini-bombs, which implode in the belly of the god-beast. The destruction of Jejoh –and his powerful mental waves- allows the apes to overrun the asteroid without resistance. With one arm amputated, Aghnar mentally confronts the elder witches who concentrate their energy to destroy him. His brain threatens to explode, but Oda comes to his aid, joining her spirit to his, uniting in the mind’s shadow. The witches are obliterated, and the revenge fulfilled.

But Oda has burned out her spirit in the final battle. She lies lifelessly at the despairing Aghnar’s feet. Perhaps he will be able to save her if he returns to the Metabunker. But in order to do that, he’ll have to break through the impenetrable barrier of the six Cetacyborgs that still guard the asteroid…

The Possession of Oda
The Magon tribe sets their new home on the ice asteroid (the “diamond planet”, thus fulfilling the prophecy), springing up gigantic mushrooms from spores that had traveled in the goiters of the female apes, and Aghnar bids goodbye to Kiawoutai and his ten wives. Despite the six Cetacyborg guards Aghnar is able to get back to the Metabunker thanks to a mysterious force of inestimable power. There, their mysterious savior shows herself. It is Honorata. She explains that after Othon and Aghnar left the planet Okhar, she used her Shabda-Oud powers to speed up time so that expert robots could replace her heart-bomb with a new heart made up of acturean katriane, and the next five years were spent building a vessel capable of withstanding the vengeance of the Shabda-Oud: the nuclear disintegration of the planet. So, while 20 years passed for her on Okhar, only a few minutes passed for Othon and Aghnar as they fled into space. Honorata now offers to restore Oda to life thanks to the psycho-surgical science of the Sabda-Oud. Aghnar, but he cautions his mother that he and Oda had agreed that their child would never become a Metabaron. Honorata claims that the operation will expend her energy to near-extinction for several years afterwards, so she’ll need to remain in total isolation, if her solitude is broken she will die, Aghnar agrees to the conditions. The operation is a success and Oda soon becomes pregnant. She will deliver a boy. But during the pregnancy her attitude changes, to Aghnar’s great surprise, indeed, she tries to persuade her husband not to miss the chance to make his son into the greatest warrior in the universe. In the meantime, Aghnar has been visited Honorata, who appears for 30 seconds on the balcony of the Metabunker’s south gallery, and watcher her from the ground, while she remains in silence.

In fact, Honorata has reincarnated herself in Oda’s body (Tonto was actually taking Honorata’s corpse to the balcony to pretend she was still alive) and, when Aghnar realizes the truth, a terrible mental battle erupts between them. The baby itself joins the fight, on the mother’s side. Then a laser-bolt suddenly blows his head off, whoever Honorata manages to save him using the metabaron technology. Aghnar advises Honorata that he will return to challenge his son in a duel, and destroy him. Honorata accepts his threats as a renewal of the Metabaronic traditions. She vows to make her son into a champion capable of killings his father, in line with the warrior code of the clan.

The Mentrek's Solution
Just like his father before him, Aghnar is determined to penetrate the Imperial Palace, where Janus-Jana, Emperoress, is overseeing the equipping of his/her Purple endoguards and talking to General Thato, when Aghnar bursts into the hall, and slaughters the guards before announcing to the Emperoress that he, as the new Metabaron, is discontinuing his service to the Empire. He will henceforth be a mercenary, selling to the highest bidder –which immediately sets off an avalanche of offers. Years go by during which Aghnar sells his services to a variety of causes, such as assisting the Gords in eliminating the Hireas, leasing himself to the Zarkots in order to contain the revolution of the giant machines, leading the Trogolosocialik armada to victory over the trade space encroached by aristocratic cybergs, joined forces with Ulritch and the red’s pirate gang, eliminating Schizoprenics under contract to the Emperoress, or directing a convoy of Morga to faraway lands.

Twenty years go by, and then, one day, in his secret lair on Anasirma, the last remains of his natal planet, Aghnar recognizes Othon’s aging traits when he looks in the mirror. Sad and weary, he is contemplating putting an end to his days when a delegation enters his domain. They are Pthagureans who offer a fortune to the Metabaron to exterminate every living thing within the Empire, because they want to take over the galaxy. The Metabaron accepts. Inside the Imperial Palace, panic takes hold. There is no weapon that can defeat the Metabaron. So the Empire is lost. The best mentreks work on the problem, but they’re all executed for they cannot find a solution. Yet a Techno-techno ambassador claims to hold the solution; a warrior capable of facing the Metabaron. The Techno-techno is in fact a holo-image, which breaks up and reveals Oda/Honorata’s features. Aghnar’s son stands beside her. He is a man without a face, a steel head without features. To demonstrate his power, Steelhead uses the fire of his spirit to mentally twist and sculpt the Imperial dome, creating a gigantic golden flower.

Steelhead is appointed champion of the human galaxy. A duel is arranged. Millions of Pthaguran and human spacecraft form a circle around Steelhead’s purple Metacraft, and the black Metacraft of the Metabaron…

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)