Cover of SSOC #96 by Joe Jusko
Wrarrl the Devourer of Souls is a reoccuring antagonist of Conan, apparently created by Michael Fleisher, and introduced in Savage Sword of Conan #90. He is of an other-dimensional race of beings bent of conquering the earth. He he wears a bat-winged helmet that partially conceals his inhuman visage, and sometimes rides a bat-winged horse. His main magical ability is to reduce human beings to "souls" which look like worms, which he devours, hence his name. The columnist of Savage Sword, in answer to a reader's query "why worms for souls?" replied it was "Because that's how Wrarrl sees human souls. To him they're bite-sized tasty treats. Yummy!"
The Devourer was first summoned to this dimension by a sorcerer named Meldark, who sought a jewel that would open a door to Wrarrl's realm, from which the Devourer's legions could pour forth into Conan's world. This was when Conan first fell afoul of him. Unfortunately for Wrarrl, he tried to double cross Meldark, and the wizard caused the souls in the Devourer's pouch to grow huge and suffocate him. As with Bor'que Sharaq, it appeared that the Devourer was destroyed, but we learned later on that he was merely banished to another realm.
Conan encountering the Ape-Bat, a lycanthropic spawn of sorcery
Wrarrl returned to Hyborian age earth, seeking revenge on Conan, and to release his minions once more in SSOC #96, in another Fleisher story called "the Ape-Bat of Marmert Tarn." The story's intertwined plot has Conan encounter a town whose windows and doors are bolted every night. The reason for this soon becomes clear, as a saber-fanged, bat-winged ape-creature is terrorizing the town after dark. After his first brush with the monster, Conan saves a girl from a giant cliff-mantis. It turns out, she is the daughter of a local wizard who lords over the town of Marmet Tarn. As for the ape-bat itself, the creature is very like the one in Howard's own tragic "Queen of the Black Coast," who kills Belit, incurring the wrath of Conan. While that beast was the degenerate last specimen of a vanished race, the ape-bat of Marmet Tarn, is of entirely different origin; Conan soon finds proof that the monster and the wizard are one. The girl's father transforms by sorcery into the creature every night to terrorize the villagers. Meanwhile, Wrarrl has returned and is seeking vengeance. A brief scene occurs early one when some cat-throat brigands mistake Wrarrl for a rich traveler--a fatal error, as one could predict!
I just happened upon this Ernie Chan pin-up of Conan and Wrarrl
After vanquishing the ape bat, there is the inevitable showdown with the Devourer. The rescued girl reads a spell incantation from her father's tome, which temporarily steals away Conan's soul rendering him invulnerable to Wrarrl's magic, and allowing him to slay the Devourer with his sword. Wrarrl"s minons are still there, however, and immediately seek revenge for the death of their master, attempting to dismember the souless barbarian, by "rippling off his limbs, gouging out his eyes," etc. The sorcerer's daughter once again saves Conan by summoning a horde of zombified drowned sailors, but, tragically, sacrifices herself , as they drag her into the sea as well, leaving Conan to contemplate the soridness of the human condition.
The Devourer, of course, is still not really dead. Wrarrl's next appearance was in Savage Sword #109. In the previous issue, who's main plot involved Conan's conflict with another antagonist, the traitorous Nemedian inventor Pol Tiurno (more on him in another post), a subplot had the Devourer's minions seeking a sacrifice to summon their master back to the Hyborian realm. This involved the murder of a girl who had just been cruelly rejected, which was a bit disturbing. This sublpot leads directly to the main story of the following issue,called "The Shatterer of Worlds."
This was quite an atypical issue of Savage Sword, as Conan was not even the main character, and didn't even feature that much until the end. The story centers instead around a young boy who is learning a trade, and happens to be a huge fan of Conan. Yes, Conan's exploits had become widely renowned by this time, enough that he had his admirers among the Hyborian common folk!
In any event, the lad comes across the body of a harlot murdered by Wrarrl's minions, and overhears their plot to raise the Devourer from the dead. The boy takes the most logical course of action-- naturally, he seeks out his hero! After coming across the victims of brawls, swordfights, and a gaggle of young pretty women who have been "tired out" by Conan, the boy at last manages to track the Cimmerian down. Unfortunately, he happens to barge into to Conan's room at an inn, when Conan is in the midst of making love to another girl! Conan is understandably annoyed at this, though it's a bit of headscratcher why he does not at first take the lad's story seriously; Conan has seen far too much in his travels, even battled to Devourer twice already, not to at least consider that Wrarrl might be coming back.
The truth soon becomes apparent of course; Conan's current love interest is soon captured by the Devourer's minions, and though Conan manages to save her from the sacrifice, a few droplets of the girl's blood are all it takes to revive Wrarrl, back and ripe for conquest! Unfortunately, though, the Devourer becomes enraged upon discovering his acylotes have inadvertently released another otherwordly being known as the Shatterer of Worlds. This elder-horror resembles a gigantic eyeball surrounded by writhing tentacles. Realizing that the Shatterer will simply destroy Conan's world before he can conquer it (along with Wrarrl"s own dimension!), the Devourer forges a temporary alliance with Conan. Gorging on the souls of his transformed minions, Wrarrl rises up to confront the Shatterer of Worlds. It's all over swiftly, and the world is saved once again. It's somewhat of a departure from the standard Conan formula, and a unique SS plot, though it's a bit disappointing that neither Conan nor Wrarrl feature that much until the very end.
That was Wrarrl's last appearance in SSOC. But unlike Bor'aque Sharaq, who was never seen outside SSOC, the Devourer did reappear in the Conan the Barberian color comic, under Jim Owsley's reign. This occured shortly after a rather lengthy story arc by Owsley, in which involved Conan and a few allies (including Keiv, a man turned into a plant-creature by sorcery, a guy who didn't like Conan named Delmario, and a girl named Tetra) with a mad Kushite called El Sha Madoc, who fancied himself a god, and presided over a Kothian city-state by the same name. Tetra, by the way, a girl whom Conan was in love at the time, died and was replaced by a demonic entity that was a duplicate of her, who absorbed her feelings and was love with Conan! But that whole story is way to convoluted to relate here, other than it involved a lot of political intrigue.
Well, one other thing is notable: Owsley invented an otherworldly antagonist of his own named Imhotep the Ravager (not to be confused with the real-life historical pharaoh of the same name). This entity wore blood-red robes, and ALSO rode a bat-winged stallion (though the horse, too, was blood-red), ALSO commanded a legion, and was bent on world conquest. Imhotep and his legions are ravaging across the Hyborian realm, leaving city after demolished city in their wake. El Sha Madoc lies straight in their path when Conan and his allies become embroiled in local politics. It is during a battle that Imhotep finally shows up, and he and Conan battle, in what seems like a duel to the death. But Conan manages to best Imhotep, and the latter calls a truce between them. After the rule of Madoc is shattered, Imhotep rides off into the sky, promising Conan that when they next meet "it will not be as allies." This proves not to quite the case however, when Imhotep once more returns, but this time in SSOC, under the new reign of Roy Thomas, when he again strikes a bargain with the Cimmerian against a common foe.
But back to Jim Owsley and Wrarrl. A sect of wizards known as the Council of Seven, seeking to assume political power over the city of El Sha Madoc ressurect the Devourer as an ally to their cause. The Council does not want Jahli, a young boy and heir who stands in their way, to ascend to the throne, and have him murdered. Conan fails to save Jahli's life, and swears vengeance on those responsible. I recall the final scene of one issue, in which one smarmy little man "fears later facing the Devourer," and taunts Conan that he killed the boy himself, and enjoyed doing so. Conan responds accordingly by hacking him to pieces. The cult member who actually committed the murder is, in fact, later transformed by Wrarrl and devoured! I kept think thinking that the poor kid would actually turn up alive. Unfortunately for Jahli, it never happened. Jim Owsley was a very good, but also very depressing writer, who had little hesitation in killing off any character. Sort of like the Stephen King of Conan comics.
The Devourer was still around for several issues more however, also written by Owsley, in which he was in more direct conflict with Conan, but when Buscema left and a different artist was brought, I really didn't collect many more issues of Conan the Barbarian, so I can't really say much, save to look up online sources for him. I don't know if there was a final fate for the Devourer, but as he seems essentially immortal, we have not likely seen the last of him. There is a new action figure based on Wrarrl. I'm still waiting to see if Wrarrl will ever come into to conflict with Sharaq. Or with Imhotep, which would be a far more even match.
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