Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Ariel Olivetti

Barbarian. Cimmerian. King. Conan is a lot of things to a lot of people. The Conan I’m most familiar with is the Kurt Busiek run on Dark Horse’s Conan ongoing book. I left the book when he did but recently I’ve been feeling like my to-read stack is missing something – and, by Crom, I think it might just be Conan!

The issue is slow to start. The first act consists mostly of exposition, setting us up for the general premise of the story. Van Lente’s dialogue is, presumably, purposefully dated which may irk some but I found it evoked a tone of traditional swords’n’sorcerer pulp novels. It picks up around the halfway point and we get some unexpected intrigue and complications. Conan is perfectly characterised, with the story taking place during Conan’s ‘barbarian” portion of his life. Some may find the last-page twist to be predictable but I didn’t see it coming.

Olivetti’s art is perhaps the biggest problem with the book. While beautiful, it lacks any flow or life. A good number of the panels seem static and lifeless but on the flip side Olivetti clearly knows how to draw a good Conan – his rendition is classical and conjures Bruce Timm’s interpretation from an old back-up story in Dark Horse’s aforementioned on-going title. Thumbs up for Richard Starking on letters too, he keeps the classic squared-off word balloons for Conan’s dialogue, something I had forgotten about but was very glad to be reminded of!

If you’re tired of the usual dark and foreboding “realism” that seems to be the current default state of superhero comics and you’re open to reading a classic Conan story, with dark magic, beautiful woman, swords, intrigue and a good sprinkling of the titular characters patented mischievous charm then this is the book for you! Otherwise, take a point off of the final score. I admit, my rose-tinted glasses for the character may be influencing my score, but I can’t deny that I’ll be reading the next issue.

Rating: 7/10.

The writer of this piece was: David McIntyre aka (Big Dave)

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