''Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix'' is a

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

starring the fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones. It was the seventh ''Indiana Jones'' limited series by Dark Horse, and the sixth about the adult Indiana. The comic was based on a canceled

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...

video game, a sequel to '' Fate of Atlantis'' (which was also the first Dark Horse ''Indiana Jones'' comic).

Plot

The comic is set after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, with the Nazis seeking the

Philosopher's Stone The philosopher's stone or more properly philosophers' stone (Arabic: حجر الفلاسفة, , la, lapis philosophorum), is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold (, from the Greek , "gold", ...

in an attempt to resurrect dead Nazis. Along with the beautiful Russian major Nadia, Indiana Jones gathers the pieces of the philosopher's stone.

Development

The reasons for the game's cancellation included the clash between the drawing styles of the characters (

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

) and of the background (realistic), the retiring from the project of Aric Wilmunder, the main programmer, and finally, the problems with distribution in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, where

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

laws prohibit the sale of any products with explicit depictions of Nazi symbols. Earlier games could get away easily by simply removing the

Nazi flag The flag of Nazi Germany, officially the flag of the German Reich, featured a red background with a black swastika on a white disc. This flag came into use initially as the banner of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) after its foundation. Following the ap ...

s and references to them, but this could not be done with this game, as they were an important part of the plot and Hitler was featured as a central villain. After this game, LucasArts briefly considered making a game named ''Spear of Destiny'' (involving the spear of

Longinus Longinus () is the name given to the unnamed Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and who in medieval and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity. His name first appeared in the apocryphal G ...

). They eventually abandoned the idea of creating a classical adventure game in the ''Indiana Jones'' series, instead focusing on ''

Tomb Raider ''Tomb Raider'', also known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an action-adventure video game series created by British gaming company Core Design. Formerly owned by Eidos Interactive, ...

''-style 3D action games, thus, ending it with the release of ''

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine ''Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine'' is an action-adventure video game by LucasArts released in 1999. The first 3D installment in the series, its gameplay focuses on solving puzzles, fighting enemies, and completing various platforming sec ...

'', followed by ''

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb ''Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb'' is a 2003 action-adventure video game developed by The Collective and published by LucasArts for the Xbox, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and OS X. It features cover art by Drew Struzan. The game is an a ...

'' and ''

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings '' Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings'' is an action-adventure video game published by LucasArts for Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii. It focuses on Indiana Jones as he searches for his former mentor Charles Kingston, whi ...

''.

Comic book

Since the game, ''Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix'' was canceled, Dark Horse Comics released a four-part comic book series based upon it. A comic book was also created for the canceled game, ''

Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny ''Indiana Jones and The Spear of Destiny'' is a four-issue comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics from April to July 1995. It was their seventh series about the adult Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franc ...

''.

References

External links

The International House of Mojo
* at PC Games that weren't Adventure games Dark Horse Comics titles Indiana Jones comic books 1994 comics debuts 1995 comics endings {{DarkHorse-Comics-stub