Jim Zub

This is volume three of Zub's "Black Stone" storyline of Conan comics, and while I haven't read the previous two volumes, it doesn't really matter - I'd guess he's had to fight wizards and monsters, flexing his "mighty thews"💪🏼 and killing anyone and anything within reach of his sword 🗡️

That said, it's exactly what I want from a Conan comic, and - Bonus! This one sees him cast back in time 80,000 years to Valusia and an encounter with Kull of Atlantis!
Further fan service with an show more appearance by Yag-Kosha, the elephant-headed alien from Robert E. Howard's original Conan story, "The Tower of the Elephant".

All told, an excellent (if at one point gratuitously sexist) adventure, and I hope my library has more in this series. show less

This seventh collection of the Heroic Signatures Conan the Barbarian comic begins with issue #25, which is a stand-alone story "The Nomad" featuring a magical visitation to King Conan, supplying a challenge clothed in images of retrospection. The callbacks to known benchmarks from Conan's career felt sort of like a Simpsons "clips" show, but there was no cheaping out here. Jim Zub's original narrative framing and ultimate moral are adroit, and Alex Horley's art in painted oils (also featured show more on the cover) is terrific.

The remaining three issues of the collection are the serial "The Conquering Crown," which covers events never written by REH as a story in themselves, but often referenced and necessary to Conan's biographical arc. The L. Sprague de Camp pastiche novel Conan the Liberator attempted to cover this particular timespan, but Zub does not appear to have relied on it. These three chapters give an account of the downfall of King Numedides of Aquilonia and Conan's ascent to the throne.

The art for "The Conquering Crown" is by Fernando Dagnino, who has definitely hit his stride in depicting Conan and his world. It did not have Horley's painted colors, so it had more of a "comic book" feel to it, but the illustrations were dynamic and persuasive. Page layouts rarely used conventional gutters, and panels spilled across the pages in a rush of action.

I could pick nits. There was one moment in the third chapter where Conan pulled an arrow out of his own shoulder without remark and didn't even seem annoyed by it. Zub was good about focusing on the canonical concepts from Howard for this crucial segment, but he did succumb to referencing "Black Stone Magic" of his own invention at the climax of the conflict with Numedides.

Pulp fantasy historian Jeffrey Shanks continues his end notes regarding the source literature, and the nature of this book's contents makes for unusually axial concerns in his essays here. "Behind the Blood" is four pages of Horley sketches and Dagnino character designs. The covers gallery is kind of silly, with anywhere from five to thirteen variant covers for each issue, shown nine or ten to a page. The next arc will continue with Conan's reign, if the big old "TO BE CONTINUED ..." after issue #28 is any evidence.

It was going to be hard to measure up to some of the work done on the Dark Horse Conan comics from the first decade of the 21st century. But this series has been very solid, with Zub's writing demonstrating a good mixture of invention and fidelity to the pulp-era stories, and an impressive series of artists who also often manage to evoke and surpass some of the finest moods of the 20th-century Marvel Conan and Savage Sword comics. show less

A fairly reasonable attempt at bringing Conan back into comic book form, with some excellent, grim artwork reminiscent of some of Frazetta’s work (with some images in direct homage through many of the character poses), and some wonderfully evocative painted landscapes throughout.

The main issue is that whilst it does a fine job honouring the background of the lore with a throwback to his early days (including a nicely drawn round up of some of Howard’s stories in the prologue), the show more overall story feels too much like what modern audiences think Conan is supposed to be rather than what the original Conan was all about. Yes, Conan hit bad people and eldritch horrors with his sword, but there was usually plenty more going on than just that.

This is just one long series of sequential battles, full of over the top violence and not really much else. No soul, no depth and for me very little fun. Apart from his Pict companion Brissa (who is the star here really), none of the characters are notable and the “big bad” is largely glossed over. Even Conan himself is fairly dull here.
Contrast it to a classic Howard story and you can see the difference.

If you want a brutal, dark and visceral version of Conan and nothing else, this does that very well. If you want something a bit more fun and well rounded, maybe skip this round. show less

One of those anthologies that is awesome in concept but a bit disappointing in execution as we are given shallow little glimpses of a lot of characters. A couple of the longer stories offered are first issues of mini-series where the rest of the story will be continued elsewhere.

There are a few gems that make it worthwhile to flip through it though.

The Watcher ~ 3 stars

Uatu provides a roll call of all the Marvel heroes with Indigenous roots. I'd forgotten about some of these characters, so show more it was nice to get a reminder right off the top.

Hitting Back ~ 2 stars

Echo gets called to help an alien race defeat a swamp god who is terrorizing him. A martial artist vs. a god? "Super easy, barely an inconvenience." More a prelude to developments in Maya Lopez's life than a story.

Multifaceted ~ 3 stars

New Mutants Mirage and Wolfsbane do the standard X-Men thing, showing up to help a new mutants whose first display of power has gotten him in trouble with the local authorities. Nicely done, though, with charming character interactions.

Blue Moon ~ 2 stars

In the distant past Silver Fox and Trigo, a wife and husband of the Blackfoot Confederacy, sabotage a fort so it will fail and slow down white settlers. Dark and depressing for many reasons.

The Unexpected ~ 2 stars

Indigenous members of the X-Men play whack-a-mole with a weird but easily defeated giant thingywhatsit. Less a story, more a statement.

The Tuurngait's Song ~ 2 stars

Snowguard of the Champions returns home to Nunavut to recruit help for her village against some sea witches. Stiff and silly.

Not Dead Yet ~ 3 stars

Set in the 2070s, American Eagle shows us that aging is not the same as being washed up when he stumbles into a bank robbery.

A Friend in Need ~ 2 stars

Another prelude to the upcoming series starring Maya Lopez introduces readers to River -- short for Riverwalker -- a young man who does the old "I see dead people" thing. Meh.

An Interview with Writer Rebecca Roanhorse

Roanhorse complains of "one-dimensional characters where there's always a spirit animal or someone's always changing into an animal." The editor maybe shouldn't have placed this article right before the next two stories.

Champions Annual #1 ~ 2 stars

Snowguard, a shapeshifter, returns to Nunavut for the second time in this collection to deal with still more mythical creatures endangering her hometown. She's a more interesting character this time around, but it's all so earnest it gets a little boring.

Werewolf by Night #1 ~ 2 stars

When he's not protecting his people by turning into a werewolf at night, Jake Gomez works as a janitor at an evil corporation. Seems like those two things are going to collide at some point. And Red Wolf is hanging out in the background keeping his eye on everything. Seems a little generic as far as first issues go, but I might pick up the series collection to see if it builds momentum.

The United States of Captain America #3 ~3 stars

This short excerpt introduces us to Joe Gomez, a Kickapoo construction worker from Kansas, who ends up using a tower crane to battle Bulldozer when the villain attacks his construction site. Gomez's regular guy rising to a moment of heroism is cool. It's a shame they didn't do more with him instead of making him yet another new Captain America in a series that gave us a half dozen or so.

Phoenix Song: Echo #1 ~ 2 stars

Oh, look, here's what those previous two stories about Echo were hinting at. I've seen Maya Lopez in various places around the Marvel Universe, but she never seems to be anything but angry. This first issue from her new mini-series seems to be more of the same at first, but might be moving toward something a little deeper. I'm not totally won over, but I might check out the full collection later.

Honor the Sacred ~ 3 stars

A nice tribute to Red Wolf with some dynamic art and design.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:

• Introduction / Lee Francis IV, writer

Marvel's Voices: Indigenous Voices (2020) #1, cover art by Jim Terry
• The Watcher / Jeffrey Veregge, writer and artist
• Hitting Back [Echo] / Rebecca Roanhorse, writer; Weshoyot Alvitre, artist
• Multifaceted [New Mutants] / Darcie Little Badger, writer; Kyle Charles, artist
• Blue Moon [Silver Fox] / Stephen Graham Jones, writer; David Cutler, penciller; Roberto Poggi, inker
• Afterword / Taboo and B. Earl

Marvel's Voices: Heritage (2021) #1, cover art by Kyle Charles
• The Unexpected [X-Men] / Jim Terry, writer and artist
• The Tuurngait's Song [Snowguard] / Nyla Innuksuk, writer; Natasha Donovan, artist
• Not Dead Yet [American Eagle] / Steven Paul Judd, writer; David Cutler, penciller, José Marzan Jr., inker
• A Friend in Need [River] / Rebecca Roanhorse, writer; Shaun Beyale, penciller, Belardino Brabo, inker
• An Interview with Writer Rebecca Roanhorse / Angélique Roché

Champions Annual (2018) #1, cover art by R. B. Silva
• [Snowguard] / Jim Zub and Nyla Innuksuk, writers; Marcus To, artist

Werewolf by Night (2020) #1, cover art by Mike McKone
• [New Wolf Rising, Part 1] / Taboo and B. Earl, writers; Scot Eaton, artist; Scott Hanna, inker

The United States of Captain America (2021) #3, cover art by Gerard Parel
• [Excerpt featuring Joe Gomez, the Captain America of the Kickapoo Tribe] / Darcie Little Badger, writer; David Cutler, penciller; Roberto Poggi, inker

Phoenix Song: Echo (2021) #1, cover art by Cory Smith
• [Phoenix Song: Echo, Part 1] / Rebecca Roanhorse, writer; Luca Maresca, artist

Marvel Comics (2019) #1000
• Honor the Sacred [Excerpt featuring Red Wolf] / Taboo and B. Earl, writers; Jeffrey Veregge, artist

• Marvel's Voices Essay / Darcie Little Badger, writer
• Marvel's Voices Essay / Karla Pacheco, writer
• We Are Here! Indigenous Presence and Imagined Futures / Amanda R. Tachine, writer
• Variant Cover Gallery / David Mack, Afua Richardson, Jeffrey Veregge, Roy Boney, Jim Terry, Bill Sienkiewicz, Babs Tarr, and Maria Wolf, illustrators show less