Highlander Origins: The Kurgan #2 Edit. This is the current issue, and therefore no story information will be posted about this issue. Please check your local comic shop for copies of this issue. Highlander Origins: The Kurgan #1 Edit Past Storylines Edit Way of the Sword Edit Collections Edit Hardcovers Edit. Highlander, vol. 1: The Coldest War - Collects #0-5.
Every single Highlander fan out there has their own idea for the origin of The Kurgan, myself included. I had a pretty good idea of how he went from a foundling to the twisted soul we see in the first film and I’ve been shaping it in my head for the past couple of decades. This week, Brandon Jerwa gets to share his thoughts on the matter through the first issue of Dynamite’s Highlander Origins: The Kurgan two issue mini-series. Here’s where I get a little miffed as Jerwa’s version of The Kurgan’s beginnings greatly differ from mineand, frankly, his version is better than I could ever imagine. What Jerwa has done here is to carefully mine all the tiny bits of information that are available from the first film, its’ novelization and the split second mentions from the TV series, then mix in his own extrapolations and embellishments to create a very vivid and compelling vision of the life of The Kurgan.
We get to see the childhood of, arguably, the most evil Immortal in the Highlander universe and the environment that would start him on the path to what he would become. This first issue follows his life up through becoming immortal and training under his first teacher. What I find fascinating is that Jerwa builds a lot of parallells between the life of The Kurgan and his eventual nemesis, Connor MacLeod. Both characters are forced to leave their people, both care for a woman afterwards and both are fortunate to be found by a beneficial teacher after becoming Immortal. The key here is the lessons they each learned in early life and the people that they learned those lessons from were vastly different which informed each to take similar, yet philosophically, and morally, different paths. This adds a fantastically rich layer to the already terrific first film and gives a better understanding of The Kurgan’s behavior down the road.
Ever wonder why The Kurgan specifically seemed to be targeting MacLeod in the 1536 portion of the first film? Sure, The Kurgan was possibly just sensing MacLeod’s potential to become an Immortal, but it seemed to be much more personal than that. We see the beginnings of an explanation in this first book. What could make a man that warped, sadistic and evil?
Check out his childhood at the beginning of this issue. Between this mini and the main Highlander comic series, Jerwa has given us Highlander tales that far surpass all the film sequels and a fair portion of the TV series.
I look forward to issue two and, hopefully, many more Brandon Jerwa Highlander comics. Check back in a month for my thoughts on issue two, an overview of the mini and what i think about the art. Categories Tags, Post navigation.
The Rules Rule 1 - Don't be a jerk It's okay to dislike a theory but it's not okay to dislike a person because they don't agree with you, so please treat people with respect. Rule 2 - Please provide evidence Evidence makes for a good theory, this will be judged at the discretion of the mods.
![Kurgan Kurgan](http://cdn.comixology.com/previews/NOV083946/NOV083946-02.jpg)
Rule 3 - Theories must be about creative works TV shows, movies, video games, anime, comic books, novels and even songs are things we like to see, but events pertaining to real life are not. Rule 4 - Tag all spoilers Please do not include spoilers in the title of your posts, be as vague as possible. And for posts that are not marked with the spoiler flair, please use spoiler tags in the comment section: Spoiler Text Here!(#spoiler) Rule 5 - Add the media name to your title Whether it's the name of the movie, show or video game, please tell us what you're talking about by putting the name in the title.
Rule 6 - No low effort posts Low effort posts include submissions that are just a title, posts that are joke/meme related or those with no evidence in them. Rule 7 - Write up your theory if you link to an outside source People shouldn't have to leave the sub to know what your theory is, please include a write up about your idea. Rule 8 - Unapproved advertising Whether you want to promote your podcast, Youtube channel or blog, we do ask that you contact the mod team via mod mail before you post, but we are more likely to turn you down if it is not FanTheory related. Rule 9 - Posts must be flaired We ask that you flair your post based on these criteria: - A theory regarding past or present works. A theory speculating the contents of future works. Theories which have turned out to be right but must be back up with supporting external evidence. Posts regarding the sub-Reddit itself.
Related Subreddits: Our friends. For those of you who don't know, shame on you. Also, Highlander is an awesome movie about a 14th century Scottish warrior led to battle in 1980's New York. Please, for the love of god, watch it. For those of you who haven't seen Highlander 2: The Quickening: Don't.
Please don't. It is absolute betrayal of everything we witnessed a movie ago. For those of you who haven't seen Highlander: The Series: Also don't. Warnings out of the way, I can begin my theory: One of my problems with the series was how they shoehorned in as many immortals as possible into the later series.
BUT if you give it some time and research, it makes sense (sort of). On, it is seen that he gained his immortality in 1536. This happens to be in the same battle where he is slain by the Kurgan. He is also the ONLY person slain by the Kurgan.
![Origins Origins](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/highlander/images/2/29/Highander_Origins_Kurgan.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170630222128)
Take into consideration the We had to discover those rules firsthand. What if there's a rule we don't know: Any time an immortal kills a mortal, that mortal becomes immortal.
It makes sense considering the rules. One more immortal makes it harder for you to claim the prize during The Gathering.
So all the Immortals we see after the first Highlander are just people caught in the crossfire who no longer know what to do with themselves. Edit: I got a date wrong.
You mean the one that completely negates the drama of Ramirez' death in the first one? The one that represent quite possibly the laziest writing in cinematic history? That resurrection? Don't remember it at all.:- Interesting factoid: Christopher Lambert refused to do the sequel unless Sean Connery returned as well, which is why Ramirez is shoehorned into the movie.
At least it gives us the 'bullet counting' bit between the two actors, which represents literally the only enjoyment I got from the whole thing. I mean, for Christ's sake, Macleod wields his sword for all of about a minute in the entire film. You want to talk about a sequel that completely and in every way possible misses the point of the original, it is H2.
For anyone out there reading this and bitching to themselves about me spoiling the movie: there is literally nothing to spoil in the entire thing; nothing you could know about this movie could possibly make you enjoy it less.;-). It's the best that could be made from a terrible terrible original. It basically involves cutting out everything related to the space-alien origin of the Immortals, but substitutes a bizarre Priesthood-thing from Earth's ancient past. I could be misremembering; it's been a long time since I watched it, and despite its presence on Blu-Ray in my collection, I probable never will again. There is an unbelievable amount of crap in it that was not (could not) be fixed, like bird-men on rocket-skateboards, the villain taking a subway train on a wild ride clearly meant to emulate the Kurgan's excursion (see what I did there?) from the original, and a misbegotten love story that was the result of the original actress' not returning. It's pretty fucking bad.
It is an annoyance that the first movie makes such a big deal about MacLeod being the last immortal, and then the movie and series tread all over it. I like the original Highlander film as its own creature. That said, the series and some of the sequel movies were decent. No, I have not watched #2. In my head, I maintain two canons: one where the original movie stands alone, and one where the Contest in the original movie was just a piece of the puzzle.
In my second headcanon, slaying the Kurgan really boosted MacLeod's power by the sheer fact he killed the man who ended his mortal life. Call it a boss battle, if you will. The series takes place in a separate continuity, where Connor's battle with the Kurgan at the end of the first movie did take place but wasn't the final battle between the last two immortals, and the lore around 'pre-immortals' is quite well established. In early seasons they referred to it being 'the time of the Gathering', although this idea was quietly dropped as the years progressed but, even in seasons one and two, new immortals were discovering their immortality. The general understanding among fans at the time to explain this (I can't recall it ever being specified in-show) was that, since the Gathering began the mid-80s (Connor's adventures in New York), no new immortals would be 'born' (in the series, it is established that they are all foundlings and have no known biological parents so it is left deliberately vague as to where they really come from or what they are) but many of those living would be yet to discover their immortality.