Conan
the Barbarian: The Life and Death of Conan Book 2
I read this thin trade paperback in one sitting when I got
home from work early one night. That’s
not a crack on its size, because it did take a while to read. This is not an exercise in decompressed
storytelling; it’s a traditional comic book.
I kept reading on, because it was interesting. It has six issues inside (somehow) and was
$18. I wanted to get a trade and this
seemed like the most interesting option at the store. Conan
is fairly reliably entertaining.
I did not notice that this was Book #2 when I bought it,
but I don’t think I really missed much on the overall story. It’s fairly episodic with a thread connecting
the stories and then paying off at the end.
Even though this is a Marvel
production, the owners of the character keep them on a tight leash. Conan
Properties is not going to let some male feminist write the barbarian fighting
imaginary social justice battles while contemplating gender-reassignment
surgery.
Sigh. It’s the current state of the comic book
industry that almost forces me to make tired comments like that. I’m just bored with it and having to read
into the subtext of everything. For
instance in the first story, something of a flashback like the next two
stories, Conan buys five prostitutes, who also happen to be highly skilled
warriors. He didn’t know that when he
bought them; he just needed some attractive women to help get him into a party
as a pimp. They just happened to be
awesome fighters. Were this a TV sitcom,
I’d say this story was more of a backdoor pilot for a spinoff than a social
statement.
Next, Conan is in Cimmeria to visit relatives after his
many travels. His wizard foe, Thoth-Amon, uses his sorcery to
somewhat ruin the reunion. Conan seemed
a little more sentimental than usual here.
This was more of a horror story than a fantasy, but just a teaser for succeeding
issues.
Next was a more psychedelic story. I didn’t quite get what was going on other
than Conan was trying to lead a group of people out of a giant worm. Then there was the origin of Conan’s child
foes, who are his tormentors for this series.
It’s straight horror. It’s gross
and uncomfortable to read. After this
chapter, I decided that I wouldn’t pass this along to dad for him to read.
This brings us to the present. Conan is killed at the end of that
chapter. The end. Except, it isn’t. In the afterlife, Conan faces down Crom, who resurrects him only to
promise him a worse fate later. For the
finale, Conan faces down an evil god and the children turned into demons. He gets some timely help from his son, the
crown prince, and his special forces, the Black
Dragons. However, he basically
finishes everything off himself.
Conan does technically die in this, so the title isn’t
false advertising. I’ve read elsewhere
that Conan’s actual final fate is that Red
Sonja collects him for an adventure to the far away land to the west. His ultimate death is still not revealed.
Even only seeing half of the total story, it’s still pretty good. I kept reading along longer than I meant to just to see how it would finish. The artwork was a bit frustrating. It was really good in places, and then mimicked other artists, and then looked cartoony. (There were three artists over these six issues.) None of the styles really looked right for the character, but they did tell the story, so they worked in that respect. Overall, I recommend, but you might be better off looking for some classic Conan material.
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