Amazing Adventures (1970 series) #18

Jonathan Raven, called Killraven, leads his band of Freemen against the Keeper’s forces though the subway tunnels of New York city emerging into Grand Central Station. There, Killraven defeats the enemy’s mutant watchdogs and calls to the Keeper to come out to pay for what he did to Killraven’s brother. He blasts open the Keeper’s stronghold and the old man fires at him but the hero picks up a spear-like piece of mechanical wreckage and hurls it, piercing the Keeper’s body. The hero, having completed his mission, feels empty inside…but the Keeper is not dead. He thanks Killraven for the mortal wound. In a different voice, the Keeper tells Killraven the history of the Wars of the Worlds….

In 1901, invaders from Mars arrived in projectiles from which rose war machines called tripods which proceeded to ravage the English countryside and then the rest of the world, destroying all of mankind’s defenses. Then suddenly, the Martians were dead, succumbing to simple Earth germs. And so the War of the Worlds was over…

…until a century later: the Martians returned with two advantages: an invention that destroyed every nuclear stockpile on Earth and an immunity to Earth diseases. So when the humans employed biological warfare, only the humans suffered. So human victories were few and the desperate Martians overcame and conquered Earth. In New York, Martian tripods wiped out refugees. Killraven’s mother, Maureen Raven, with her two sons, found refuge in Welfare Island, with a doctor named Ann Carver. They hid there until some humans came in a helicopter. The women went out to meet them, mistaking them for rescuers. They were in service to the Martians. They killed the women, disposed of the baby and the Keeper took young Jonathan into service of the Martians. He was trained as a gladiator and given the name Killraven…until the day he escaped from the training camp and living off the land in Queens. He found the world full of Martians and their human slaves, especially Sirens, women who could call men to their doom. Then one day he saw a man molesting a woman and kicked him, accidentally killing him. He was a favorite of the leaders so Killraven had to flee and he departed to Staten Island where he joined a band of Freemen, eventually becoming their leader. One night, Killraven and some cronies captured the Mayor in his den, humiliating him. Afterwards, Killraven became famous and the target of the Martians. And now the Keeper revealed he was controlled by the Martians, forced to act against his will. And he chose Killraven for a special destiny, because on the day he was able to kill the Keeper he had the power to destroy the Martians. The Keeper dies without explaining that any further. Then he is attacked by another mutant and overcomes it and, looking up, sees a trio of deadly Sirens watching him….