New 'Raised by Wolves' comic reveals Mother's origins and shows how Necromancers led to the end of the world
Spoilers for 'Raised by Wolves' #1
There's a lot of history to the world we're introduced to in 'Raised by Wolves', and there's not enough room for all of it to fit in the TV show. Fortunately, the show isn't the only medium through which HBO Max is telling its stories. On Monday, September 21, HBO Max and DC Comics released a free digital comic tying into the show, and what it reveals has some major implications for fans of the show.
The eight-page comic is written by the show's writer Aaron Guzikowski, with art by Meghan Hetrick, colors by Nick Filardi and letterering by Marshall Dillon. It's set at some point during Episode 1, before Campion's (Winta McGrath) siblings all died from irradiated crops. Mother (Amanda Collin) tells her children about the origins of the Necromancers. Through this, we discover that it's the Necromancers who were responsible for the true start to the war between the Mithraic and the world's remaining atheists, which ultimately led to the end of life on planet Earth.
The powerful, genocidal Necromancer androids were built by the Mithraic, who — as we discovered in Episode 7 — claim to have found the designs written in their scriptures. Mother is of the belief that the Necromancers were actually designed by atheist countries conquered by the Mithraic, and that the Mithraic stole the designs and took credit for them. Regardless, in Mithraic hands, the Necromancers were quickly programmed to root out and destroy all atheistic life they could find. The atheists, in a desperate attempt for survival, tried the nuclear option - but while the bombs had no effect on the Necromancers, the resultant radiation made all life on Earth uninhabitable.
We see evidence of this in Mother's flashback, as we see Campion Sturges (Cosmo Jarvis) slowly become sicker and sicker as he reprograms her, obviously from radiation poisoning. It's notable that despite using the Nercomancers to win their war, the Mithraic were as afraid of them as the atheists were, and left all their Necromancers behind on Earth. If it wasn't for Sturges reprogramming Mother, all Necromancers would be confined to Earth - a company of nearly godlike destructive weapons trapped on a dying planet.
Also notable is the emphasis that, before the events of Episode 1 of the show, Mother was completely unaware that she used to be a Necromancer. The idea chills her, in fact - so much so that she and Father (Abubakar Salim) attempt to use the legend of the Necromancer as a kind of "boogeyman" to frighten their children into behaving well, claiming that Necromancers were attracted to those exhibiting bad behavior. Thus, Mother and Father's children grew up with a strong fear of Necromancers - so much so that Campion would have nightmares about them. Though Mother explained that she and Father had lied about the Necromancer to get the children to behave, the fear of Necromancers still remained with Campion. Now, of course, he's seen first hand that there's a Necromancer on Keppler-22B after all - hiding in Mother all along.
You can download the comic for free here. The next episode of 'Raised by Wolves' airs on Thursday, September 24, on HBO Max.
