Best of Marvel: Week of January 29th, 2020

Best of this Week: Conan the Barbarian #12 – Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson and Travis Lanham

“He will tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.” – The Nemedian Chronicles.

It’s been quite some time since we’ve done a Conan review and this one took a long time to come out, but it was well worth the wait. After eleven absolutely fantastic issues of sword and sorcery, blood and sex, monsters and men, we’ve reached the end of the “Death of Conan” arc and BOY was it satisfying. Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson and Travis Lanham absolutely pay off this amazing story, wrap it up in a nice neat bow for the next creative team and even prepare for the next great story.

Razza and Zazella, the children of the Crimson Witch, have been following Conan since the day he killed their mother, waiting for the perfect time to kill him to resurrect their God, Razazel. Throughout his many years of adventuring, Conan has killed and slaughtered and escaped death more times than any man in the history of the Hyborian Age could ever claim and this has strengthened the potency of his blood for his sacrifice. The tenth issue saw the kids bring Conan back to the Temple of Razazel after near fatal injuries and offering his blood to the Old God.

This issue begins with a short flashback to Conan actually saving the twins years before they meet again. Shortly before bandits try to press gang them onto a ship, Conan swoops in and makes short work of the brigands, gaining the ire of Razza in the process. The Kids are “grateful” for his intervention before walking away, but this is a grave insult to them considering their hatred towards the Cimmerian and the fact that he murdered their mother. This is made even worse by the fact that the kids made a vow to not gloat or talk at the altar when they kill him, but they do just that without confirming his death later on.

When we finally get into the swing of things Asrar, Wilson and Lanham spare no expense when giving readers the action they’ve been waiting for. Asrar shows Conan’s speed and strength as he uses a small boulder to knock Zazella’s sharp, jagged teeth out of her mouth with the rock blurring as he swings it down and Razza looks on in shock. Wilson gives the background and Razazel’s blood roots life through vibrant reds, almost as if to make the reader feel them pumping with evil. Lanham sells Conan’s yell of anger as he strikes with a hearty “RRRRGGH!” word bubble and emphasizing Zazella’s words of fear and disbelief.

After that amazing splash page, Conan rips the daggers out of his chest and faces off against the now monstrous children and the mostly revived Razazel. The fight is dynamic with Conan doing his best to avoid the many mouthed horror that is Razazel. The otherworldly demon could be absolutely horrifying for those with trypophobia as his many mouths look like a cluster of holes, but Wilson gives him a deadlier, darker red to make him amongst the background. Conan, as always, isn’t afraid of the monster and gives him hell throughout the fight.

Conan isn’t just a man, he is an extraordinary man. As stated in a previous review, Conan has fought lesser demons from the depths of hell, beasts of all kinds and monsters that dwarfed him by GREAT margins. He has slain them all and even spat in the face of his own God, Crom at the precipice of death. So Razazel is just another walk in the park for the King of Aquilonia. He thinks nothing of slicing at the fingers of the Old God and even when he’s grabbed and the many mouths are biting and gnawing at him, he just slices at the veins on the walls.

Of course, even Conan still falls prey to the numbers game and with grievous injuries, the Twins begin to overpower him after a good fight. Asrar frames their fight with a fleeting sense of hope as the shot pulls away with each successive panel and more blood is ripped from Conan. Wilson emphasizes this with the backgrounds seemingly getting more red as Conan’s death nears and Lanham excellently places Aaron’s narration of the importance of Conan’s blood out of the way of the action, but still easily readable as you navigate the panels.

And the importance of Conan’s blood cannot be understated as it plays a vital role in the outcome of this battle. One of the better aspects of Aaron’s run thus far is that it has built on Robert E. Howard’s mythos of the character and his amazing feats, but he’s also added something more unexpected in the form of…a legacy, a son: Conn or Conan II. In one splash page, Aaron and Asrar turn the tables as we’re greeted with this child/teenager that’s the spitting image of his father, sword in hand and highlighted amongst his flanking soldiers as they all stare down the monstrous children and their King wounded on the ground.

Now, of course there may be some complaints that Conan having a child ruins his nomadic and loner image, but I argue that this adds a new depth to the character. We’ve seen how fatherhood adds a new layer in characters like Superman and Kratos, improving their stories for the better, so I’m fully on board with it. We’ve already had hundreds of stories of Conan being alone with his throne so exploring a newfound relationship with his boy, teaching him how to be a strong Cimmerian, is something that I didn’t know I wanted until I’d gotten a taste.

Asrar and Wilson continue to sell the horror of things as Conan’s Black Dragon Knights take the fight to the Twins and Razazel. Razza and Zazella make pretty short work of a few of them; Ripping them apart, crushing their heads and even tossing one of them into one of the mouths of Razazel’s forearm in a gruesome display. As they viciously kill and maim Conan’s men, Razza takes pride in his sister and their “soon to come” victory until Conan brutally decapitates him in the middle of his speech. Much like their mother, he survives this and hilarious asks Zazella to throw his head at Conan.

The great Warrior King wastes no time and dispatches Zazella as well, tossing them both into the hole. Conn instructs the soldiers to cut the veins, but Razazel is still hanging on. So Conan does what he does best and leaps into danger. Asrar makes him look like a madman with anger in his eyes, two gaping chest wounds where the kids stabbed him, and his sword in hand about to cut the vein that Razazel is hanging from. Victory is finally at hand when we see Razza, Zazella and Razazel falling into the abyss, defeated by the blood of Conan.

I have to say that there was not a single bad issue in this entire run and this one itself as beyond spectacular. One of the main things that I love about Conan is the simplicity of the character and how anyone can write him, but it takes a REALLY GOOD writer to make you care about him. Throughout the entirety of this series, Jason Aaron held the swinging axe over Conan’s head, dangling it closer and closer with each subsequent issue and victory. At points, I actually thought Aaron might actually do it and end the life of Conan, but deep down we all knew that Conan would emerge victorious.

Mahmud Asrar and Matthew Wilson worked amazingly together on the many issues that they had, capturing the feel of the Hyborian Age with intensity in fights, strong colors and solid inks throughout. I thought Marvel would tone down the violence of the character, but their art and the other artists throughout this book never shied away from the sheer brutality that Conan was capable of. They made sure that this felt like a genuine Conan experience like Dark Horse did during their tenure with the character and much like Marvel did in the 80s. Conan never looked weak and even in defeat he was still a terrifyingly powerful sight to behold.

All in all, I’m excited for more Conan stuff after this. Jim Zub and Roge Antonio take ver the main Conan series after this issue and both of them are very good with writing and art, but Aaron is continuing his story with a King Conan book later this year. Not only that, we’ve got Battle for the Serpent Crown to look forward to, more Savage Avengers and a Dark Agnes miniseries on the way… 2020 is looking like a good year for Conan.

Best of Marvel: Week of October 30th, 2019

Best of this Week: Conan the Barbarian #10 – Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson and Travis Lanham

Conan has faced the horrors of this world and beyond, but his greatest threat has been looming in the shadows far longer than he ever realized.

From the very first issue of this series, there have been these two creepy little children that have shown up at the sites of Conan’s greatest victories, waiting in the wings for his blood to get even richer from all of the death that he’s escaped over his long and bloody life. What we didn’t know is that they’ve been on Conan’s tail since the very moment he showed up at the Tower of Razael, their Blood God, and killed their mother. This issue covers their own crimson origin and their journey to finally seeing the end of Conan the King and the Rebirth of Razazel.

The Crimson Witch has been searching for warriors to give rise to the Blood God for an unknown period of time, but none of them had proven virulent enough for her in her many years. Lord Bevel Stonemarrow bragged that his castle was draped with the flayed flesh of Stygian She-Serpents and Hyperborean Witch Men, but alas it was likely all lies as his blood did nothing for Razael and the witch cast him aside with the other dead. The only “good” thing his seed provided was two children for her.

The sight of this old crone giving birth is absolutely disturbing. From the sweat dripping from her brow, snot from her nose and to the birth itself taking place on her sacrificial altar amongst the many corpses in the Tower. She offers her children up as the new disciples of Razazel, naming them Razza and Zazella, the Children of the Great Red Doom. Asrar does an amazing job of painting what this family is all about with just a few simple techniques. Their first cries are shown in blood and shadow. In the first three panels that they’re show, the background is either full black or littered with corpses, a good foreshadowing of their future.

Their childhood is signaled by a reverence for death contrasted by their playful nature as children. They play hide and seek amongst the many bodies of the Tower while their chores consist of dagger sharpening and gathering toads to make poisons. Aaron accentuates that by placing their childlike enthusiasm over wanting to hear about Razazel slaughtering the nonbelievers and blood oceans. These kids are absolutely adorable and terrifying at the same time. Asrar makes sure to make a point of this as well by drawing them and their mother as being a loving family, hugging and smiling as she goes off to have her first confrontation with Conan. The familial tie between them is as nearly powerful as their worship of the Blood God, despite the fact they are horrendous murderers.

We later find out that they were in the Tower the night that Conan nearly decapitates their mother and burns it all down, displaying a reverence for his ability to kill things and how the Blood Roots in the Tower resonated to his presence. As they watch their mother near death and the flames surround them, their eyes swell with tears and they resolve to kill each other with their own daggers. Children of the Great Red Doom don’t die by fire…and they wouldn’t as their mother and the power of Razazel kept her alive enough for them to escape.

These scenes are a beauty to look at. While most of the shots are flat, focusing on them from one angle, the intensity of the fire, their helpless expressions and their eventual rescue are amazingly well done. Their tiny kid bodies look ridiculous holding these massive daggers and the angles that they were going to stab each other at didn’t look right, but the despair on their faces is palpable. They look like they’ve been absolutely crushed after their mother is “killed” and their love for each other is shown as being genuine. When their mother does reappear, with her head barely being held on by magic and blood tendrils, she looks frantic, carrying them out of the furious flame. It’s disturbing, but heartwarming.

Matthew Wilson’s colors here are striking. The vibrancy of the veins is almost enough that they could pop out of the page at any moment. The fire appears amazingly hot and loud as it consumes the tower and the embers flying around is a really good effect. Wilson does an even better job of showing Razza and Zazella’s dedication growing when he colors their brown shirts with the same deep red of their mother’s neck tendrils. It’s great symbolism.

Over the next few years, the children prove themselves quite capable as worshippers of Razazel, luring many to their deaths with their growling mother ambushing and killing them. They drink the blood and eat the flesh of their victims with giddy smiles while their mother acts as a feral beast. Razazel’s magic keeps them young while they continue to keep tabs on Conan in the shadows, as seen through many of their appearances over the course of the story. Eventually, we come back to Conan’s capture at the end of Issue #2, I think?

The twins stab King Conan through the chest with their daggers and the Blood Roots surge with energy and the walls of the newly remade Tower start cracking. Conan manages to escape and fights The Crimson Witch, but it’s too late – a giant hand with many mouths emerges from the ground and Razazel awakens.

Mahmud Asrar is still an amazingly talented artist for this book. He manages to pull so much depth out of these characters through simple body language and body language. All the while I was reading about these two kids, I found myself feeling sorry for them for being raised the way that they were, but upon remembering how happy they looked, that sadness was replaced with fear. Asrar makes sure to draw their eyes with the same madness that their mother has – a cold excitement and lust for blood under piercing green eyes. The twins are dangerous and their cuteness allows you to let your guard down just enough for them to stab you in the neck.

Not only are his characters well drawn, but the scenery is as well thanks to Matthew Wilson’s colors. Wilson does an amazing job of giving each scene life through his use of deep reds, putrid yellow-greens and cold tones when things happen in the Tower. He always elicits an eerie feeling of darkness through his colors and no location feels safe. Even in the scenes that take place in the day time, light colors are used to lure the reader into a false sense of security before the tables are turned and the pages are colored with an intense orange for the action.

This issue was absolutely dark. Children in general are terrifying, but cannibal children that know blood magic and have managed to stay young for the simple purpose of resurrecting their God through ritual sacrifice are a nightmare. Razza and Zazella are absolutely compelling characters to read and could stand at the top with Conan’s great foes like Kulan Gath and Thulsa Doom. Their drive and dedication to killing Conan far outweighs that of most others in that they might have succeeded where hundreds if not thousands of others have failed.

Best of Marvel: Week of July 31st, 2019

Runner Up: Conan the Barbarian #8 (Legacy #283) – Jason Aaron, Gerardo Zaffino, Garry Brown, Matthew Wilson and Travis Lanham

Very rarely do we get to feel the cold of the hills of Cimmeria.

Conan doesn’t often return home as far as I know. He’s always off on an adventure in Zamora, Khitai, Stygia or any number of other places, not thinking of venturing back home. What makes this story so interesting is Conan’s sense of familiarity and how things are turned on their head when the people that he knew and trusted are suddenly against him. We see his normal rage and anger, but with a restraint that is almost never given to anyone else. It’s strange, but leave it to Gerardo Zaffino and Jason Aaron to give us another amazing tale.

The cold air wafts from Conan’s mouth, the warrior clad in a heavy pelt and a large rucksack on his back. He walks through the blizzard until he comes upon a collection of huts and a dog with piercing red eyes, the first sign that all is not as it seems. He is met by a man with two axes, likely the community butcher, named Ailill. Ailill prepares Conan some food while explaining a sickness that has infected the people of Conan’s clan and that the town shaman had run away. The sickness is one of the mind and as the panels go on, we slowly get a small twinge of dread until Ailill reveals that he himself and the rest of the villagers are infected, also with piercing red eyes.

Conan punches Ailill and tries to escape only to be cornered by the others and his Grandmother, who is drawn with a face almost as horrifying as Norton Sinclair’s from Gideon Falls. This is also one of the few times we see Conan truly afraid as he runs away into the forest to avoid killing his people. He is later found in the freezing cold, half dead, by the village Shaman. He nurses Conan back to a semblance of help and tells him that the curse upon his people was inflicted by a dark wizard by the name of Thoth-Amon, one of Conan’s arch-nemesis. The shaman asks Conan if he’s ready to kill everyone he loves and Conan replies that he had brought gifts for his people and that going South had saved him, so maybe it can do the same for them.

We see how Conan earns the name Conan the Cunning as he lays traps for his people using the gifts he had brought them. Sugar cubes for the dogs to keep them distracted, spices and grog to incapacitate some of the men and spiderweb rope from Zamora for others. Things look to be going surprisingly well until his Grandmother catches him off guard, allowing the others to catch up and corner Conan again. He fights hard, but also doesn’t want to kill them.

Zaffino draws this scene expertly with flashes of Conan’s rage juxtaposed against his feelings of live. He allows himself to be stabbed and battered while just trying to pummel strike or punch his friends. His lines are thick and he makes excellent use of hatching to shade everything. We get the sense of how strong everyone is because of their movements and how large they all are. Conan is the biggest, but his grandmother is still a wall of muscle and anger.

Faces are another thing of beauty as the madness in their eyes is clear. These people are without their faculties and act like simple hounds, hounds that can talk and use tools, but with the bloodlust of hungry animals. Thoth-Amon’s hate of Conan reflects amazingly in them and their lack of restraint only makes thing ever more brutal.

Garry Brown’s colors also make things look so beautiful and desolate. Only a man as hard as Conan could come from a place that feels so cold and isolated. During the fight there are flashes of orange to indicate how dire the fight is becoming. There’s also a deep red as Conan can see the snake coming out of the ear of the Dog Keeper, the first to be infected, showing who the true enemy is and true to form, green is a color of evil as the snake is the perfect shade of vile.

Conan’s grandmother, able to break free of Thoth-Amon’s control, cuts the head off of the dog keeper to keep him from hurting her boy. The rest of the villagers are saved and thank Conan for coming back to them, the good times don’t last as the infected dogs return and all of the Cimmerians join together for another fight.

I loved Jason Aaron’s exploration of Conan’s people. They’re all the same breed of strong as Conan only they’ve never ventured out of their home. They’re rugged, hardy and they’d have to be to survive in the wilderness as they do. It was also amazing to see Conan not kill people when usually a single swing of his sword is enough to begin a tear through armies. Truthfully, he would have done so here too if there were no other way, but he had faith that he could save them and it paid off.

Zaffino gets the most praise from me because of his art style. It rings back to the days of Marvel’s 1970s-1980s Conan series with a sort of pulpy look combined with the expert techniques of the modern day. He conveys emotion, action and even tells a story through the art alone. He’s got skills that makes me want to check out the other books he worked on.

Conan the Barbarian continues to excel as a fantastic story, not only through showcasing new and awesome adventures of the titular barbarian, but by continuing to remind us that by the end of all of this Conan will die. These happy times won’t last and it’s amazing that Aaron has managed to keep that thought looming in the back of our minds. Around every turn we get a new reminder and the dread comes right back. I can’t wait for the next chapter in this story or the many others coming like Esad Ribic’s story of Conan’s youth. This book get another high recommend from me.