Comics Review: "THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN #1" is a Classic Action Comic Book

THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN VOL. 1 #1

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

STORY: Jason Aaron

ART: Kewbar Baal

COLORS: Jorge Sutil

LETTERS: Taylor Esposito

EDITOR: Joseph Rybandt

COVER: Michael Cho

VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Joseph Michael Linsner; Francesco Mattina; Bjorn Barends; Rob Liefeld; Michael Cho

32pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (February 2026)

Rated “Teen”

“Thundarr the Barbarian” created Steve Gerber and Joe Ruby and Ken Spears; developed by Steve Gerber

“Thundarr the Barbarian” was an American Saturday morning animated television series.  The series ran for two seasons on ABC from October 4, 1980, to October 31, 1981 for a total of 21 episodes.  The titular hero, Thundarr, is a muscular warrior who wields the “Sunsword.”  With his companions, Princess Ariel, a formidable young sorceress, and Ookla the Mok, a mighty lion-like biped, he travels a post-apocalyptic world on horseback and fights injustice.

“Thundarr the Barbarian” is set in a future (circa 3994), a post-apocalyptic wasteland in which Earth has been divided into kingdoms and territories.  The majority of these places are ruled by wizards, and these ruined places are recognizable as cities and locations in the United States.  The passage of a runaway planet between the Earth and the Moon in 1994 created this apocalyptic situation that destroyed human civilization.  The back story is that Earth has been reborn as a world of “savagery, super-science, and sorcery.”

Dynamite Entertainment recently began publishing a comic book series based on “Thundarr the Barbarian,” the first ever such series.  Entitled Thundarr the Barbarian, it is written by Jason Aaron; drawn by Kewber Baal, colored by Jorge Sutil; and lettered by Taylor Esposito.

Thundarr the Barbarian #1 opens in the “Windless City” where the River Pirates are holding a slave market with captured humans for sale.  Enter the motorcycle-riding Ratman of the Badlands, and they are ready to purchase all the humans.

Among the slaves for sale, however, is one man who breaks the bonds that restrain him.  Enter Thundarr the Barbarian.  With his faithful companions, Ariel the sorceress and Ookla the Mok, and with the power of his mystical blade, “the Sunsword,” Thundarr is on a mission to liberate his world from the forces of evil.  Meanwhile, Lord Gemini has plans to stop Thundarr...

THE LOWDOWN:  Since July 2021, Dynamite Entertainment's marketing department has been providing me with PDF review copies of some of their titles.  Thundarr the Barbarian #1, Volume One is the latest.

In its promotional material for Thundarr the Barbarian #1, Dynamite refers to series writer, Jason Aaron, as a “visionary comics author.”  Aaron is good, but if there are modern visionary modern comic book authors, they are not plying their trade at either Marvel and DC Comics.  Still, Aaron offers a sensational first issue of Dynamite's Thundarr the Barbarian.  It's rough-and-ready, dark, and full of kick-ass action.  Aaron really captures the attitude and mood of the 1980s animated original; he makes this first chapter genuinely fit in with the temper of the source material.

Artist Kewbar Baal has steadily been making his way, climbing the ladder of comics publications over the better part of the last two decades.  You can see Baal grow from Approbation Comics' Chaos Campus: Sorority Girls vs. Zombies #11 to Dynamite's Jeepers Creepers #1 (2018) to the recent Elvira in Monsterland #1 (2023).

In Thundarr the Barbarian #1, Baal only partially borrows from the aesthetic of the “Thundarr the Barbarian” Saturday morning cartoon.  The rest of Baal's graphical storytelling for this first issue offers his own post-apocalyptic expression, which recalls the art from classic science fiction and fantasy comic book magazines such as Heavy Metal and Marvel Comics Epic Illustrated.

I recommend this first issue, dear readers.  I'm certainly ready to see where this goes.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of the “Thundarr the Barbarian” animated show will want to read Thundarr the Barbarian Volume 1.

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Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

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