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 mine…and, 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.