Indiana Jones: Indy vs. the Volcano

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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr
enik1138-at-popapostle-dot-com

Indiana Jones
"Indy vs. the Volcano"
Novel segment
Written by Wolfgang Hohlbein
Cover by Berni
1990

(Page numbers come from the mass market German paperback edition of Indiana Jones und die Gefiederte Schlange, 7th printing, 1990)

Indy and a seriously injured colleague must escape a live volcanic field of lava and ejecta miles in diameter.

Notes from the Indiana Jones chronology

This novel segment takes place on June 8, 1929.

Didja Know?

This study is made up solely of the first chapter (the chapters are not actually numbered) of the novel Indiana Jones and the Feathered Serpent. This chapter is set in 1929, while the rest of the novel takes place in 1932. The title assigned to this short PopApostle study was invented by PopApostle, inspired by the title of the 1990 comedy film Joe Versus the Volcano.

Indiana Jones and the Feathered Serpent is a novel published in Germany in 1990 as Indiana Jones und die Gefiederte Schlange. It has never been published in English.

The "Berni" referred to as the cover artist is Italian artist Oliviero Berni.

Notes from The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones

The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones is a 2008 publication that purports to be Indy's journal as seen throughout The Young Indiana Chronicles TV series and the big screen Indiana Jones movies. The publication is also annotated with notes from a functionary of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation, the successor agency of the Soviet Union's KGB security agency. The KGB relieved Indy of his journal in 1957 during the events of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The notations imply the journal was released to other governments by the FSB in the early 21st Century. However, some bookend segments of The Young Indiana Chronicles depict Old Indy still in possession of the journal in 1992. The discrepancy has never been resolved.

The journal as published skips over this adventure, going from a reference to 1926 events in The Seven Veils to 1933 and the repercussions of events in The Philosopher's Stone. Quite a large gap and a number of un-journaled adventures.

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Indiana Jones

Greg Swanson (dies in this novel)

old Mayan (name revealed as Mossadera in The Feathered Serpent)

giant Mayan

Joana Swanson (Greg Swanson's daughter, mentioned only, not named until The Feathered Serpent)

Didja Notice?

The book opens in Piedras Negras, Yucatan. There does not appear to be a town of that name in the Mexican state of Yucatan. Piedras Negras is Spanish for "Black Stones".

On page 10, the old Indian in Piedras Negras tries to stop Indy and Swanson from going to the volcano site, warning them of Quetzalcoatl. However, Quetzalcoatl is an Aztec god and the Indian seems to be of Mayan descent. The Mayan "equivalent" (sort of) is Kukulkan. The names both mean "feathered serpent".

On page 17, Indy rams his head into the stomach of the giant Mayan and it feels like ramming into something the size and firmness of the pyramid of Cheops. The pyramid of Cheops is the largest of the pyramids at Giza, Egypt. Cheops was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, in the 26th Century BCE.

On page 22, having escaped the giant Mayan, Indy wonders if there are yet other descendants of Montezuma waiting out there to kill him. Indy's perceived chain of Mayan ancestry is not quite correct. It would be more fair to say that Montezuma was a descendant of the Mayans than they are of him. Montezuma was an Aztec emperor in the 15th Century AD. The Mayan civilization existed in southeastern Mexico and Central America long before the Aztecs, from roughly 250-1697 AD.

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