Honorata the Great-Great-Grandmother

Honorata the Great-Great-Grandmother  is the second 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 Les Humanoïdes Associés in 1993. In the english version it was released in two issues: The Knighting of Othon and Honorata, the Sorceress, both released in 2000.

In this issue, Othon is knighted Metabaron by the Emperor for saving the Imperial egg, and he and Honorta father a child, Aghnar, thanks to her witch powers.

The Knighting of Othon
In City Shaft, the story has now skipped three centuries. The City is now deserted, only cyber-cops stand watch, when suddenly the last Zacuda Frolex in existence drops down the ventilation hatches of Police Central and lays a single egg before dying, which gives birth to a mutant Zacuda Frolex which accidentally reactivates the attack program in the Central Brain, making the cyber-cops attack the Metabunker. Tonto and Lothat decide to activate the Metabaron’s bio-electrogram (which lasts three minutes in a solid state before dissolving) to defend themselves. The bio-electrogram uses the metacraft to destroys the cyber-cops. Now that they’re safe, Tonto continues Othon’s story.

The story continues in a flashback: The castrated Othon, who has grown cruel and solitary, sacrifices the natural beauty of Okhar and transforms the rustic Castaka fortress into a maxi-prototnic tower, where he lives with the two daughters of his faithful servant, Iku-Itta.

One day the news is announced that scientists have achieved the long-awaited miracle: the creation of embryos of androgynous siamese twins from an ovum of the Empress, fertilized by the sperm of the now-sterile Emperor, and called Janus-Jana. As a horde of pirates, which had disguised their pirate mega spacecraft-carrier as a planet, falls upon the priceless Imperial offspring which was being carried in a Mother-coach, the Emperor makes an appeal for help from all his faithful subjects. Othon regains his taste for life by declaring battle on the evil pirates. He breaches all the Emperor’s security on the Golden Plate to present his plan in person. Putting the most advanced technology into the service of his trickery, and ruthlessly bombarding the artificial pirate planet, Othon wipes out all the pirates. Othon is invited to join the Mother-coach’s escort, but he gets angry when he doesn’t receive the respectful treatment he thinks he deserves, so he ends up taking the Imperial egg from the Mother-coach by himself and directly gives it to its parents, assuring that the Empire doesn’t get betrayed. Othon is knighted Metabaron by the Emperor. The Empress promises to scour the entire galaxy to find a gift that might fulfill the castrated warrior.

One night on Okhar, while Othon sadly rides Bari’s horse, a Shabda-oud priestess named Honorata, introduces herself as being sent by the Empress. Despite her reputation as a witch, she is a magnificent and desirable woman, who entrances Othon, making the warrior’s servants jealous.

Honorata, the Sorceress
Although Othon can no longer father a child, Honorata is able to impregnate herself with a drop of the warrior’s blood. Her pregnancy processes normally, but two jealous servants hurl her from the top of the fortress. As Honorata falls, Othon is able to shoot her with epyphite cartridge, enabling her to float on the wind where she gives birth to a by whom they name Aghnar. The two sisters fall to their death and Iku-Itta eventually hangs himself. Honorata then reveals to Oton that the Shabda-Oud were expecting her to give birth to a hermaphrodite so that they could proclaim it the perfect androgyne and seize the throne. They have seven years to prepare their defenses against the Shabda-Oud before they discover the truth.

The introduction of epyphite during his birth has made Aghnar lighter than air. Othon wants to kill him, for he will never be a warrior, but Honorata, now sterile, forbids it. She places steel bracelets around his waist and ankles, which keep him on the gorund. She then goes into exile on the sacred mountain  of Anasima, filled by monster like the carnivorous eodactyls, where she the time to teach her son to use his mental power and how to resist pain, and even forces him to kill creatures he had befriended so that he learns to control grief. One day he manages to beat his mother in combat, for which she gives him the only kiss he will receive in his entire childhood. When Aghnar turns seven, they return to the Castaka fortress where Othon puts his son to the test, making him fight a formidable robo-killer, who every ten minutes grows a new arm. Then, he submits him to a terrible torture: a machine that crushes his feet, which Aghnar can stop at any time. Even so, the boy doesn’t budge. His feet are crushed, but he has passed the test. That’s how, Tonto tells us, mutilation and prostheses became key ingredients of the Metabaronic imitation.

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)