I posted the following on RIP JAGGER'S DOJO but decided to duplicate the post here in case I thought of any follow-ups later.
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I've sometimes wondered if original Kull stories might be more successful if the hero found himself in what we now think of as GAME OF THRONES territory.
For instance, not in all the KULL comics I've ever read have a found an answer to the question, "Why does Kull even want to BE a king?" He complains about "poison in my wine cup, and daggers at my back" (a great line BTW), but he doesn't seem to derive any compensatory joys from rulership. Hell, does he ever even line up candidates to be his queen? Conan more or less stumbles across a commoner for his queen in HOUR OF THE DRAGON, but in "real life," a king is constantly being nagged to make a political marriage for the nation's benefit. Howard had his own reasons for wanting to keep Kull free of what some might call "the Jane Porter Syndrome," some of which had to do with the audience for whom he wrote. But WEIRD TALES is gone, and whereas Conan will always be celebrated as the lusty freebooter, Original Kull stories might take a more settled approach-- without, of course, neglecting sex, blood, and thunder.
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