Who's This? A warrior with a demon hand.
The facts: Created by David Michelinie and Ernie Chan, it's easy to see which bandwagon Claw the Unconquered was jumping on - he's a dead ringer for Marvel's depiction of Conan (in the comics if not the Who's Who entry). Part of the DC Explosion (1975) and victim to the DC Implosion (1978, though there's a big gap between issues 9 and 10), the sword and sorcery series ends with issue 12, with its last two chapters "published" in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade. He gets a two back-up tales in Warlord in '81. Claw shows up decades later, first in Wonder Woman, while she is traveling various fantasy worlds, in the Gail Simone written run in 2008, then in the 2010 Time Masters mini-series, where he and the original Starfire are said to be from the same dimension. Another Claw with a similar demon hand
would join Primal Force in the 90s, with no relationship to the original model.
How you could have heard of him: DC published new Claw stories through their Wildstorm imprint in the mid-2000s, including a crossover with Red Sonja and a very short-lived ungoing written by Chuck Dixon. Fans of more recent comics would have seen him in the Dark Metal event as a Black Lantern.
Example story: Claw the Unconquered #6 (April 1976) "The Sunset Doom of Dhylka-Ryn" by David Michelinie and Ernie Chan
Conan--damn, I didn't do it on purpose, folks, I swear, just leaving it in to show my work--CLAW and his "otherworldly companion" (otherworldly in that he's better-dressed than anyone else, and he also has traditionally evil facial hair, also, horns) Ghilkyn, Prince of the Thousand Hills, come upon a recent massacre at a town in Scartoris' version of North Africa (Scartoris? Skartaris?!). They've hardly had time to rest according to the recap...
Doesn't look like there's much opportunity for respite, especially considering a young girl is being put in sexual jeopardy by bandits who (also) want her gold (is this why I never took to sword & sorcery comics, guys? ick). Once dispatched (with a lot of kicks and zero blood for sword-wielding heroes), Claw asks the girl, named Pfylahna (Gesundeit!) if she knows where the village of Mouthful (uhm... Dhylka-Ryn, that's it) might be so they can continue their quest for the second facet of the Grimstone, and by some crazy coincidence, she's from there (it's cursed) and just came to THIS destroyed town looking for help. Well her luck's about to turn.
Well at least I like Claw's weary reply. He's talking to the writer, I'm sure. Claw's whole personality is snark, and I find him very relatable for some reason. As we haven't had a flashback in three pages, Claw asks Pfylahna (Bless you!) to tell him about that curse that has her people at their wits' end. Seems a lad named Kurah Shan (no no, the NAMES you have to remember are the principal reason I didn't get into fantasy comics) came to town, got his ass bullied a lot and got run out of town when he "became friends" with Pfylahna (à tes souhaits), who I can't help but see as Triplicate Girl.
This "lad" has very pointy features that make him look both too old for her and almost certainly evil, if comics short-hand is to be believed, and the second half of that description soon comes true when he stumbles on a necromancer's old cave, puts on a pointy hat, and teaches himself black magic. In particular, he uses a magic stone (I bet it's the second facet) to cast a spell of eternal twilight (like us between - checks IMDB - 2008 and 2012) on Dhylka-Ryn (my copy-paste function is really getting a lot of play today). Crops couldn't grow, fuel gave out, constant dread set in, Kurah Shan offered a refused ultimatum and awaits the town's capitulation in his Castle of Sorcerous Light. Our girl Pfylahna (I've run out of sneezing jokes) somehow evaded the weird creatures he set on the village perimeter and here she is. Can Claw and black-haired Fendral help save the village AND Kurah's soul?
INTERLUDE! At this point in comics history, letters pages can often be found in the MIDDLE of an issue, and I only bring attention to it because it does seem to contain the first mention of Starfire (not that Starfire, the first Starfire) taking place in the same universe as Claw the Unconquered:
A "companion magazine" by the same writer, see? It all depends on whether you think Claw lives in a world of "swords & science". Yeah, maybe not. Anyway, back to our regularly-scheduled Conan pastiche already in progress.
So these lugubrious creatures aren't human, so the swords can go into them, I see what's happening here. The prose, by the way, is always a lot gorier than what we see. Imagination ACTIVATE! In this case, it doesn't matter if Claw decorates the page with intestines or not, these things are made of dark stuff and can't be killed. It's a mad ride to the village, only for Pfffwhatna to get a big slap from her dad as a reward. Claw would teach him a good lesson, but getting Kurah's stone is the priority. So they enter the Castle of Light with the intent to take his stone from him. Kurah fights back by throwing all the monsters Claw has killed before at him (aren't there only 5 previous issues?!).
Illusions! The boys conquer their fears and poof they go. Good sequence though. They are soon caught in another magical trap, ebony flames, and the only wait out is for Claw to pull out his demon hand. FINALLY. This is what we've been waiting for, as it is the one big difference between Claw and Conan.
Interesting! I didn't expect him to look this possessed while the hand did its magic thing. Its spell cast, Claw comes back to his senses, free. Kurah runs to his cave to find a more powerful talisman, but he runs into the illusion field that brings one's fears to life and he drops dead from the psychic onslaught. I guess it means it saves Claw from running a gory sword through him. The Castle evaporates, the sun starts shining on Mouthful again, and Pffnagglefaffle's dad comes over to apologize for thinking these outlanders weren't up to snuff. And maybe you heroes would enjoy a night with my daughter free of charge? Hey, you know what else the demon hand can do?
YEAH! DEMON HAND! It's the real hero!
So Claw the Unconquered proves to be a perfectly competent Conan alternative, though I can't see readers choosing him over the real thing at the time. I enjoyed this story well enough, but I don't think it's all that different from similar strips, including Beowulf, Arak, etc.
Who's Next? A horror film star.
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