Originally Posted by
Panic
I’ll add a photo of a ceremonial mace to the left of the cover just for comparison:
The next issue, #36, is entitled "God-War". Pablo Marcos's cover is actually very nice, and he's made the sceptre look pretty good, arguably better than Ron Wilson's version inside. Merlin presents Brian with the sceptre, then creates an illusion of Courtney falling to her death to get Brian to instinctively use the sceptre's flight ability to save her (this is very similar to Captain Marvel #17, where the newly revamped Mar-Vell suddenly finds himself confronted with Yon Rogg, who throws a fake Carol Danvers out of a spaceship and leads Mar-Vell to discover he has the power of flight as he thinks about saving her. Marvel really isn't afraid of reusing ideas). He's also attacked by a robed figure, who is, like Yon Rogg in the Captain Marvel issue, really just a convenient obstacle for our hero to test his new abilities against. Flight is actually the only new function the sceptre has that the staff didn't, and it doesn't demonstrate the vibro-blast, which I expect the writer had forgotten about.
Merlin also warns Brian that the sceptre only has fifteen minutes of flight-time in it, after which he'll plummet to his death! You'd think Merlin might have mentioned this to him before he tricked him into flying to rescue faux-Courtney, but I guess you don't want to draw attention to the shortcomings of a gift you've just made a big deal about.
Merlin goes on to big-up the danger the Star Sceptre would pose in the hands of villains, saying that "one lone warrior couldst fly low beneath thy radar and strike without warning!", and we're treated to a picture of a masked villain using the Star Sceptre to fly up to Big Ben and destroy it with a shot from a pistol. I don't know about you, but I think the real threat in this hypothetical situation is the pistol that can one-shot a national landmark, not a gaudy flying stick that will drop you like a brick after fifteen minutes. If I was Brian I'd be asking if I could swap the sceptre for that gun, because that kind of firepower would make mincemeat out of most of CB's foes so far. Brian, however, does not do that, he simply continues to stare at the hook on the sceptre, no doubt trying to build up the confidence to ask Merlin why there is a can-opener attatchment on his new weapon.
Nevertheless, the villain (we learn his name is Nykonn, which sounds suspiciously like the name of a camera manufacturer) seems determined to have the sceptre at all costs. Perhaps he had a tin of soup he needed to open? Whatever, he attacks Merlin and CB with rocks, and Merlin gets Brian to generate a forcefield with the sceptre just by thinking about it. Nykonn creates a small army for Brian to fight, during which Brian discovers that "when I use the sceptre like a staff, it becomes a staff!". He also throws the sceptre at the bad guy - I guess he was hoping that it would magically return to his hand - but it misses; however Merlin destroys Nykonn at the cost of his powers, leaving Brian stranded in Merlin's dimension at the end of the story.
I think it's worth mentioning that the sceptre we see here (and in the stories that follow this one up to and including the Marvel Team-Up issue with Spider-Man) does not really resemble the one Brian has in his adventure with the Black Knight from the pages of the Marvel UK Hulk Comic. Presumably, much like the staff became the Star Sceptre, the Sceptre became the golden staff weapon Brian has with him in that cave in Cornwall. I'll talk about Brian in the Black Knight comic strip on a later Throwback Thursday.