'Luther Strode' legend grows with upcoming sequel

• Justin Jordan and Tradd Moore reteam for new sequel 'The Legend of Luther Strode'
• The sequel takes place five years after the first series, with Luther in full vigilante mode
• There will be a special ashcan available at New York Comic Con introducing Zombie Pete

Luther Strode is back, and he's returning with more blood, flying body parts and assorted ultra-violence than ever before.

Writer Justin Jordan and artist Tradd Moore follow up their recent Image Comics hit The Strange Talent of Luther Strode with the new miniseries The Legend of Luther Strode, debuting Dec. 5 and putting its tragic teenager-turned-vigilante — as well as anybody who gets in his way — in extreme harm.

Jordan and Moore are coming to New York Comic Con, beginning Thursday at New York City's Javits Center, with a special preview of their latest Luther chapter. An ashcan limited to 500 copies includes a six-page Strange Talent recap, 11 pages of The Legend of Luther Strode in black and white, and five pages of brand-new material that will never be reprinted that features Zombie Pete, Luther's resurrected best friend who was killed by a plethora of kitchen knives in the original series.

Zombie Pete acts as a "Clarence the Angel-style narrator" in the new tale that takes place before Legend starts, Jordan says. "Whether or not Zombie Pete was actually there for it or whether that's just Luther losing his damn mind, I'll leave up to the reader."

Luther's journey from scrawny kid to muscular killer — with the help of the mysterious Hercules Method — was a nightmare, but the original series' word-of-mouth success has done wonders for its creators: Strange Talent helped Moore land jobs all over the comic landscape, and led directly to Jordan's high-profile gigs on DC Comics' Team 7 series and Valiant Comics' upcoming Shadowman book.

Together, they also had more Luther stories to tell, too.

Legend takes place five years after the end of Strange Talent and finds Luther in a very dark place. He lost everything and everyone in his life in the first series, blaming himself and trying to commit suicide by attacking a bunch of cops.

However, in his near-invulnerable state, it didn't take, and Luther has come to the conclusion that he is everything the first series' main villain, the Librarian, said he was: a homicidal killing machine. "He's been able to make good, as he sees it, by at least directing it toward criminals, but truth be told, he doesn't really want to survive, It's just become a habit at this point," Jordan says. Something happens, though, that takes his mind off of it.

"Under normal circumstances, if they all ganged up on him he would probably attack them with a suicidal frenzy. But an additional factor gets added into the mix that has him not wanting to die right away."

Luther has gone off the deep end, and it's reflected in Moore's designs. The murderous teachings of the Hercules Method have consumed him entirely, the artist says, and the trademark wraps around his hands and feet are starting to become reminiscent of a group of miscreants shown briefly in Strange Talent.

"He's even larger and more menacing than before," Moore reveals. "He's dirty. His hair is long and unkempt, he sports some scraggly facial hair, his eyes are permanently black, and he hasn't really changed clothes in five years. Why would he? He's just a sad, tired, hopeless behemoth."

Trouble arises for him when the criminal element finally finds a way to effectively strike back at Luther, and at least four separate groups all have designs on murdering him and stopping the antihero from cramping their style.

Legend is a more frantic and action-oriented book than the first, according to Jordan, and Moore teases that it's even more violent since the story and cast are bigger this time around.

"Naturally, more folks are going to be getting eviscerated," the artist says. "The whole thing is very fast, visceral and relentless. Expect to see a whole lot of heads and faces explode or become severed."

While no bad guy is "quite as slick" as the Librarian, there's one that Moore thinks fans will particularly enjoy, and Jordan says there'll be a few folks who are more dangerous and evil than the first series' villain.

Overall, Luther will find allies and enemies coming at him from unexpected places, the writer teases. "There is someone who comes about that makes his life worth living, even though it takes him some convincing to figure that out."

Jordan feels The Strange Talent of Luther Strode was his title character's fall, while Legend is a more redemptive story.

"Once you've lost everything, is it possible to come back from that?" he says. "What does it take to make you believe you're worth something and that you're not the monster that life has convinced you you are?"