Doña Vicenta Gabriela de Rokha the Grandmother

Doña Vicenta Gabriela de Rokha the Grandmother  is the sixth 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 1999. In the english version it was released in three issues: Melmoth's Plight, The Torment of Doña Vicenta, Galactic Threat all in 2001.

In this issue Melmoth and Doña Vicenta deal with Don Nicanor and a Techno-techno attack on Philodendra, Melmoth destorys his head, and Doña Vicenta is pregnant with twins.

Melmoth’s Plight
Back in the Metabunker, Tonto is refusing to tell Lothar any more stories about the clan of the Metabarons. This, coupled with the fact that their master, the current Metabaron, has been away for so long, throws Lothar into a deep depression and he begins throwing himself against the walls in an attempt to commit suicide.

He is interrupted by the security alarms, the metabunker is under attack. The robots activate their Master’s bio-electrogram but are shocked to find that it is quickly defeated by the mysterious attacker. The intruder’s spacecraft turns out to be a Metacraft in disguise, and the Metabaron himself steps out of it: their long-awaited Master has returned.

The robots’ rejoicing does not last long, however. The Metabaron tells them that he has returned to disintegrate them, and blow up the Metabunker. He has become a powerful warrior in a new dimension and does not want his enemies to get their hands on the robots and find out the secret of his scar – his only weakness. The Metabaron shows the robots how City Shaft is just chunk of planet floating in space, the last fragment of a galaxy that was disintegrated long ago. Just before the robots are about to be disintegrated, Tonto asks the Metabaron to let them be consumed instead in the nuclear explosion that will destroy the Metabunker, for the sake of their honor. The Metabaron then speeds away from his exploding fortress.

The Torment of Doña Vicenta
With the Metabaron having destroyed the Metabunker, Tonto and Lothar are left on a primitive and muddy planet. They set about constructing a new Metabunker and continue the story of the Metabarons to pass the time.

The story continues in a flashback: Don Nicanor and his army of Philodendrans storm the room where Melmoth and Doña Vicenta have barricaded themselves, he is determined to possess the woman he no longer remembers as his daughter. Doña Vicenta asks him what it is he loves most about her. When he replies that it is her eyes, she tears them out with her fingernails and gives them to him. Tormented by his own actions he consents to her marriage to Melmoth, and his decoration with the Medallion of High Nobility.

At the horrific sight of his wife’s new cybernetic eyes Melmoth’s personality is once again broken up into its two components. Steelhead is pleased that his wife is now like him, but Zaran is repelled by her ugliness. Meanwhile, outside the palace, a Techno-cardinal informs Don Nicanor that he and his people must abandon their home planet so that the Techno-technos can harvest the mineral Bikramen. Don Nicanor refuses and the delegation begins bombarding the planet with huge rectangular blocks.

Don Nicanor attempts to fight off the invaders but their weapons are powerless. Doña Vicente begs Steelhead to fight for her people, but Melmoth’s poet side, Zaran, sees no point in continued existence. The Steelhead side refuses to turn away from the fight and instead chooses to blow his own head off, eliminating the Poet from the equation all together.

Galactic Threat
After Don Nicanor’s death, Steelhead, having eliminated the part of him that was the poet Zaran Krleza, joins the fight against the Techno-technos. During the battle, Doña Vicenta learns how cold and ruthless Steelhead really is, and begins to hate him. Through Steelhead triumphs, Philodendra is almost entirely leveled.

Next, Steelhead puts into effect an ambitious plan: He invades the Techno-techno stronghold to kidnap the reigning Techno-pope, and after killing a technoscarab, bring him back to Philodendra. Then, as tousands of Techno-destroyers fills the skies and lay siege to the planet, he informs the rest of the galaxy about the valuable Bikramen found there, summoning even greater swarms of spaceships from all parts of the galaxy. With Doña Vicenta’s reluctant cooperation, he negotiates the sale of the planet and the relocation of the saddened Troglosocialiks to another world. On the new, artificial world, Doña Vicenta develops tuberculosis before announcing to the Metabaron that she is pregnant. When Steelhead examines her he discovers that she is opening her lungs to the infection on purpose, for she no longer has any reason to live. Inside her womb are twins, a male child from Steelhead, and a female from Zaran. Tonto announces that due to complications only one of the babies can be born, and Doña Vicenta assumes bitterly that Steelhead will save the male child to perpetuate his clan. But when Steelhead asks her what would happen if he chose to save the girl child. Doña Vicenta replies that she would find the strength to live again, so that she could raise the child born of the man she loved.

Tonto ends his tale with the revelation that Steelhead does indeed choose the female child, leaving Lothar wondering just how the tradition of the Metabarons, which can only pass from father to son, could be preserved.

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)