Clockwise from center: Prince Crystar, the Crystal Castle of Galax, Prince Moltar, Ambara, Warbow, the Fountain of Fire, some dragon-mounted Magma Men, Ogeode the Wizard.
A short-lived fantasy comic from Marvel Comics. It had its own accompanying action figure line from Remco.
The planet Crystallium is only now recovering from a long war against the forces of the demon lord Chaos, when word reaches the twin princes Crystar and Moltar that Chaos is even now preparing to renew its war against them. The brothers quarrel and soon find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, each transformed into a living champion of crystalline Order or molten Chaos.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Human: The pointed ears, talon-like fingernails, and occasionally blank white eyes imply that Ogeode, Ika, and Zardeth belong to a Mage Species. And while it's likewise never stated outright that Shen is a dwarf, she fits all the standard criteria (though Shen and Ogeode's daughter Ika is of human height).
- Art Shift: The art style changes drastically between issue #1 and #2.
- Barbarian Longhair: Malachon has a lotta red hair, and he keeps most of it piled up in his barbarian headdress.
- Big Bad: The demon lord Chaos. Only glimpsed once, in the first issue as a huge fanged skull with horns. Zardeth works for him.
- Breather Episode: While Jo Duffy's writing always has a hint of humor, the series had two issues played for outright comedy. The first was the Marvel Assistant Editor's Month tie-in (for which almost every Marvel title did a silly story for that month), where one of Ika's spells goes awry and causes the Crystal Castle and the Fountain of Fire to suddenly wind up literally right next to each other (a situation both sides end up agreeing just... isn't tenable). The second is when Nightcrawler of the X-Men winds up on Crystallium and is mistaken for a Chaos demon by both sides, and which includes the immortal line from Nightcrawler, "Is that what brimstone smells like? Phew! No wonder my friends complain!"
- Can't Have Sex, Ever: Played for humor: Ika once obliquely asks Ambara if it bothers her that, since she's flesh and blood, she and Crystar can never actually, you know... "Certainly not!" Ambara says, and stomps off while Ika smirks. A more poignant example: in the last issue, with his dying breath, the evil wizard Zardeth punishes Moltar and Lavour for betraying him by restoring Moltar's humanity, but leaving Lavour still a woman made of living magma. And this just after Lavour had finally realized that she genuinely loved him. Fortunately, Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid, so they don't have to avoid each other entirely, but they can never touch.
- Crystal Landscape: Set on the planet Crystalium, where crystals that would be priceless on Earth are as common as rocks, and are indeed used as rocks for building. Conversely, when the heroes briefly visit Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, they can't believe the incalculable wealth on display there: wooden furniture and shelf after shelf of paper books.
- Crystalline Creature: The crystal warriors resemble humans made out of clear crystal.
- Emergency Transformation: The wizard Ogeode turned Crystar into a being of living crystal as the only way to save his life after Moltar stabbed him. Warbow and Ika are likewise transformed to save their lives. Stalax, Koth, Kalibar, and eventually Bek volunteer for the process, though.
- Eviler than Thou: When Zardeth finally wearies of Moltar's ambivalence to the cause of Chaos, he goes out and recruits the bloodthirsty savage Malachon and his followers.
- Eyepatch of Power: Zardeth wears one after Warbow shoots out his eye. He returns the favor, and Warbow wears one for the rest of the series.
- Genki Girl: Ogeode's daughter Ika is cheerful and perky and upbeat. She could easily count as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, except that she winds up with Stalax who was pretty genki to begin with.
- The Great Offscreen War: The story opens with a lengthy war against the forces of chaos having only recently ended. The royal court is appalled to learn that the prophecy that the war will restart is already upon them.
- Heel–Face Turn: Moltar finally stands up to Zardeth and makes a Heel Face Turn in the last issue. Somewhat to her own surprise, Lavour realizes she actually does love him, and she follows him over to the good guys' side.
- Hot-Blooded: Ogeode's wife, the diminutive warrior woman Shen, who may or may not actually be a dwarf.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Ogeode is of average height, but Shen is very short.
- Inept Mage: To call Ogeode inept seems harsh, but he clearly doesn't always have the best control over his magic. When he meets the very intellectual magician Doctor Strange, Strange is astonished to realize Ogeode does what he does almost entirely through intuition, with very little understanding of how his magic actually works.
- In the Hood: Zardeth has his creepy one-eyed, flat-topped cowl.
- Irony: A letters page message from one reader points out that, despite their avowed allegiances, Zardeth the wizard of chaos is actually very organized and focused, while Ogeode the wizard of order is messy, disorganized, and chronically absent-minded.
- Karmic Transformation: Attempting to kill his brother in a moment of rage and throwing his lot in with Chaos to try and avert another war ends up turning Moltar and his followers into a race of Magma Men and Women.
- Lawful Stupid: A voyage to visit Ogeode's bosses in the Land of Order reveals that they've got more than a bit of this vibe to them. Ogeode himself expresses the need for a balance between order and chaos. His bosses aren't very keen on the idea.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Bek learns the hard way that being turned into a Crystal Warrior doesn't by any means make you invulnerable, especially if you charge in when you don't actually know how to fight.
- Living Lava: The Magma Men and their Lava Dragons are made of semi-molten rock.
- Love Dodecahedron: In the first issue, Lavour and Crystar planned to marry, though Moltar loved Lavour and the meek palace servant Ambara secretly loved Crystar, and Warbow had a crush on Ambara. This gets resolved quickly though — when Crystar appears dead, Lavour shamelessly switches her affections to Moltar, while Ambara finally gets to tell Crystar how she feels, and he responds in kind. Poor Warbow concludes that he's lost his chance with her, and he never does tell her how he feels.
- Love Epiphany: Lavour originally wound up with Moltar out of pure, shameless opportunism (even though he genuinely loved her). When he makes his Heel–Face Turn at the end, she realizes she really does love him, and does likewise.
- Love Triangle: Ika's ex-boyfriend Bek is jealous that she is now dating Stalax.
- Magma Man: The Magma Men and Women are literally made of magma. This does not give them any special power over magma, but they are of course immune to being harmed by it, and their touch is burning hot.
- May–December Romance: The diminutive but cute warrior Shen appears to be much younger than her husband Ogeode, but she's absolutely devoted to him. For his part, he's frequently embarrassed by her Hot-Blooded enthusiasm for things (including him!), but he clearly loves her as well.Shen: "He is not old! He is Ogeode!"
- Merchandise-Driven: Inverted. Crystar did have an action figure line from Remco, which hit stores at the same time, but the comic was conceived first, with the toyline an opportunity actively pursued by Marvel. This also means that Marvel, not Remco, owns the rights to the characters. Additionally, after the Art Shift in the second issue, most of the characters don't even resemble their toys very much. However, the beautifully painted covers stuck to the original character designs, presumably because of the toys, and so are an example of this trope.
- Ms. Fanservice: Ika does not wear much, and Lavour (with the excuse that she's made of magma) gets away with wearing nothing at all.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In the first issue, when Moltar has been manipulated into stabbing his brother Crystar and (wrongly) believes he has killed him, he cries "WHAT HAVE I DONE?" A few scenes later, when his actions lead to him and his followers being turned into monsters (as they will remain for the rest of the series), he has a single Beat Panel of blank horror as it all sinks in... and then composes himself and loudly embraces this fate, for the benefit of his followers if nothing else.
- The Napoleon: Per the trope definition, Shen is hot-blooded, aggressive, and short. She's not self-conscious about her height at all, but don't insult Ogeode in front of her or you're in for it.
- New Old Flame: In the Land of Order, we meet Ika's ex-boyfriend Bek. He's arrogant and it's clear why she dumped him, but he still loves her and wants to prove himself to her. It ends up costing him his life.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, back in his adventurer days, Puck from Alpha Flight paid a visit to Crystallium and met Crystar and Moltar's father. To this day, we still don't know the details of this adventure.
- Order Versus Chaos: A conflict between the mystical forces of order and chaos. These concepts map reasonably well onto "good and evil..." but not perfectly.
- Our Dragons Are Different: "Dragons," big and little, are completely ubiquitous on Crystallium. It's no exaggeration to say that most of the animal life (both wild and domestic) we see has a draconic look to it.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Crystar and Moltar appear to be this... but Moltar's ambivalence about his position as Chaos's stooge and his suppressed-but-real underlying decency show that they're really not so different.
- Power Crystal: Ogeode's Prisma Crystal is his most powerful magical artifact, and the tool he uses for turning humans into crystal.
- Reluctant Monster: Moltar isn't remotely happy that his actions have turned him and his followers into monsters, but he puts on a brave face for them because he actually does care about them. He remains badly conflicted through the whole run of the comic.
- Rock Theme Naming: Crystar (crystal), Moltar (molten), Ogeode (geode), Ambara (amber), Lavour (lava), Feldspar (feldspar), Stalax (stalactite), Malachon (malachite).
- Star-Crossed Lovers: It becomes a minor running gag that Koth and an unnamed Magma Woman are clearly attracted to each other, and flirt whenever they bump into each other. When the conflict ends in the last issue, they apparently get to live happily ever after.
- To Be Lawful or Good: The conflict is nominally about Order vs. Chaos rather than Good vs. Evil; yet, when the heroes travel to the Land of Order, the locals are unhappy when Ogeode points out that Order taken to irrational extremes would be just as bad as the Chaos forces they're fighting.
- Wizard Classic: Ogeode. Long white beard, robes, mysterious and absent-minded, check check and check.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: The planet Crystallium is up to its armpits in enormous gems and crystals. They're literally as common as rocks, and about as valuable. Buildings are made out of them. Then in one issue, the cast winds up magically transported to the home of Doctor Strange, on Earth, and they're awestruck at the incalculable wealth on display: wooden furniture everywhere and entire shelves full of paper books.
