Comic Title: Arak, Son of Thunder #42
Publisher: DC
Cover Date: March 1985
On Sale Date: December 13, 1984 Newsstand Date December 13, 1984
Source: DC Releases, #10

Newsstand Date December 13, 1984
Source: House Ad, Sun Devils #9, Page 28

Newsstand Date December 13, 1984
Source: Amazing Heroes, #59

Shipping Date November 20, 1984
Source: DC Releases, #10

Shipping Date November 20, 1984
Source: Comics Journal, #94

Copyright Date November 20, 1984
Source: Library of Congress, Copyright Office 1984
DC publication dates beyond April 1981 listed by the LoC
represent shipping dates NOT newsstand sale dates

Shipping Date November 20, 1984
Source: Amazing Heroes, #59

Cover Price: $0.75
Page Count: 32
Editor: Roy Thomas

Title: "Beyond the Scorpion Gate"
Pages: 23

Feature(s):
Arak

Writer: Roy Thomas
Writer: Danette Thomas
Artist: Tony DeZuniga
Letterer: L. Lois Buhalis
Colorist: Adrienne Roy

Feature Character(s)

• Arak (last appearance in Arak, Son of Thunder #41; next appearance in Arak, Son of Thunder #43)

Villain(s)

• Angelica (last appearance in Arak, Son of Thunder #41; next appearance in Arak, Son of Thunder #49)
• Angelica's guards (no further appearances)
• A scorpion man and his wife (no further appearances)

Other Character(s)

• He-No (last appearance in Arak, Son of Thunder #33; no further appearances)
• Siduri (daughter of Shamash; no further appearances)
• Utnapishtim (a blind man; next appearance in Arak, Son of Thunder #43)
• Gilgamesh (in flashback; next appearance in Arak, Son of Thunder #43)
• Enkidu and Ishtar (in flashback; no further appearances)

Comments:
This story is continued from Arak, Son of Thunder #41 and continues in Arak, Son of Thunder #43.

Synopsis:
After watching his friends be swallowed into the Earth, Arak stands face-to-face with the sorceress Angelica. She reveals that she is a follower of the Serpent God, and that it was he who rescued her from Cathay. She offers to bring back Arak's friends if he will retrieve a rare flower from elsewhere on the island which will grant her eternal life.

Arak embarks on a quest for the flower. He climbs a snowy mountain and reaches a crystal gate protected by a scorpion man and his wife. The scorpion creatures try to kill him until they realize he has the blood of a god. Before permitting him to pass through the gate, they warn him that Gilgamesh made a similar journey centuries earlier.

Arak continues through a perilous trail. He-No appears and tells him to abandon his quest, but Arak sojourns onward. Eventually he meets Siduri, a beautiful woman who tells him that the river in which the flower grows has dried up. Utnapishtim, a blind man, then tells him the story of Gilgamesh and gives Arak the last seed of the flower. Arak refuses to take the seed as he does not want to grant Angelica eternal life. The old man then opens a portal into the world of Kur where Arak can enter to save his friends.