Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix


Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix is a Dark Horse Comics limited series 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 video game, a sequel to Fate of Atlantis.

Plot

The comic is set after World War II, with the Nazis seeking the Philosopher's Stone 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 and of the background, the retiring from the project of Aric Wilmunder, the main programmer, and finally, the problems with distribution in Germany, where censorship laws prohibit the sale of any products with explicit depictions of Nazi symbols. Earlier games could get away easily by simply removing the Nazi flags 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. They eventually abandoned the idea of creating a classical adventure game in the Indiana Jones series, instead focusing on Tomb Raider-style 3D action games, thus, ending it with the release of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, followed by Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings.

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.