Review: Conan the Barbarian #5 (2019)
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| Conan the Barbarian (2019) #5 Variant Cover |
By BOB FREEMAN - Paint Monk's Library Writer
I am growing weary of this book. Five issues in, not even halfway, and I am desperately trying to maintain my objectivity.
I don’t want to dislike Conan the Barbarian. I have loved the character for 40 some years. Marvel’s original run is my all-time favorite comic. I thoroughly enjoyed the majority of Dark Horse’s work on Conan. I am not asking for the singular vision of Roy Thomas from a bygone era. All I’m asking for is a comic that stays true to the character that Robert E. Howard breathed life into.
Dozens of comic creators have accomplished this in the past, many of them in recent memory. I expected the same from Marvel’s relaunch.
You can say that I’m out of touch, that I’m old and curmudgeony because I do not like what I’ve seen so far from the House of Ideas. My time has passed and comics are different now. You can say that, sure, but maybe, just maybe, Marvel (and the whole comic book industry) is on a downward spiral, hemorrhaging readers because they’ve forgotten how to tell all-ages comic book stories
Synopsis: Conan the Barbarian #5 (2019)
Conan is alone at sea, trapped on a ship of the dead. Having stolen a wooden idol, Conan booked passage on a ship so he could deliver it to a buyer in Messantia. Pirates, however, attacked, with the sole purpose of stealing the idol.
Conan makes short work of them, but once the idol tasted blood, bad things happened, and the Cimmerian awoke, alone, and was forced to sail the ship as best he could, fighting off mutated monsters from the deep and from the charnel house below decks. Eventually, another pirate ship appears and Conan kills a third of their crew before being named captain.
They set fire to the battered ship and it and the idol sink to the depths of the ocean. As the Cimmerian recants his tale, he realizes that, although he views most men as fools, he is drawn to their company. He was not meant to be alone.
CAPSULE REVIEW: Jason Aaron is an accomplished name-dropper. Here we have the mention of Messantia, the capital of Argos, as well as the characters of Belit and Thoth-Amon. But there’s no weight to it. No emotional resonance. Why? Because this character is simply not Conan.
The writing is just not good. I continue to think the plot is solid enough. It’s salvageable, but the actual words on paper just are not working for me. None of it rings true, largely because Conan’s characterization is off.
I was more enamored with Mahmud Asrar’s artwork in this issue. There were certain panels that were absolutely stunning, and the splash-page in which Conan boards the pirate ship should go down as one of the most iconic interpretations of the character in comic book history, but he continues to be inconsistent.
The colorist, Matt Wilson, delivers some beautiful work that really elevates Asrar’s inked pages.
This run could have been really special. No one is more surprised than me, a Jason Aaron fan, that it is ultimately on his shoulders that the book has so consistently missed the mark.
Black Starlight by John Hocking, the companion serializtion, continues to be the book’s brightest spot.
Conan and his companions fight off another supernatural threat attempting to steal the emerald lotus from Zelandra, this time in the form of a leech like creature with wings and arms, and speaking in crude R’lyehian.
This was the weakest chapter thus far, though I suspect it would have faired better had I been reading the novella in its completed form rather than as a sliver of the whole.
Hocking has some skills as a writer, but his stories always seem a little too “Dungeons & Dragons” for me, and that’s speaking as someone who is a huge D&D fan. What I mean is, Hocking gets Conan as a character, but he puts him in situations that seem out of place. more akin to an adventuring party facing an rpg module than a story culled up from the annals of prehistory as Howard’s tales cam across.
Still, all in all, an entertaining read.
As for the comic itself, on a scale of 1-10 skulls of my enemies, I would rate this issue worthy of 6, mainly because, at least Conan isn’t dressed up like a medieval Punisher.
Alba Gu Brath – Bob Freeeman (aka The Occult Detective)
I'm waiting to read the novella when it's complete.Can't say I'm all that impressed with what Marvel are doing , certainly not up with best of ol'Marvel and Dark Horse.Be interesting to see how the sales hold up.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree with you. Although this time around, I did get suckered into buying both versions of the comic. The Asgardian variant cover was too good to turn down. Loving the art, but the writing, not so much. I tend to concur with Bob's reviews of the new Conan thus far.
DeleteSimply put, the new Conan is not the old Conan. The writers don't get him. I doubt they have even read a Howard story.
ReplyDeleteBut its more than that. There was a feeling back in the 70s that the Conan comics fit in. I remember listening to Sword and Sorcery rock by Wishbone Ash & Uriah Heep, delving deep into Conan comics and being swept away by the art of Barry Windsor Smith and John Buscema, to a realm where magic was real and barbarians strode slaying monsters with a mighty hand.
My reading companions were the Robert E Howard stories, Moorcock's Elric stories, Tolkien's LOTR, Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series and HP Lovecraft. It seemed like Fantasy was everywhere as a genre. Those were simplier times.
But then it all became mainstream, Dungeons and Dragons came along and cheapened the fantasy market. Books appeared based on D&D modules. Then those awful Schwarzenegger Conan movies that missed the mark. Add CGI and today's cynicism and fantasy and science fiction glut and there you have it.
No one thrills to the exploits of Conan of Cimmeria anymore. He's just another Disney property. The lost years when an Age Undreamed of.. When the Hyborian Age was fresh new and exciting are gone forever. It can never be brought back.
Felt the muse with that one. Was it good?
DeleteI agree that Marvel's new Conan is a milquetoast character. If you changed his name, he could be any one of the generic barbarians that have appeared in comics over the last 30 or 40 years.
DeletePart of that is the writing. Howard stories were usually short and to the point. At most his longest stories ran more than two hundred pages. They were made to be single printed stories for the pulps.
DeleteThe dame thing goes with the older Conan comic books, again nearly each comic was a stand alone adventure.
This format allowed Conan to be direct and action packed. Conan himself rarely had an introspective moment and preferred to use his sword to surmount any opposition.
The new Conan suffers through an endless story arc,it slows him down and bores the reader.
In what way is the characterization wrong?
ReplyDeleteOn one hand, I don’t think the comics are delivering the kind of art and storytelling the Conan character deserves.
ReplyDeleteBut on the other, much of the criticism I’m hearing sounds a lot like argument from nostalgia. Sure, this isn’t REH’s Conan, but did Roy Thomas regularly deliver REH’s Conan? Not exactly.
Was every issue an artistic triumph? Not exactly. Everybody remembers Song of Red Sonja but few seem to recall The Crab-things That Walked Like Men.
Seems to me that these guys are just getting started, doing something they’ve never done before and being immediately compared to the greatest creators of fantasy comics of all time. The pressure is such that if you draw a single panel somebody somewhere is going to scream that Buscema or Smith or Frazetta was way better. And they’ll be right. I’m actually kind of amazed creators are so willing to pick up the reins and give Conan a try. So I’ll give them some time to get accustomed to the character and his world.
Hey! That was one of my favorite issues - Conan #99, the "Man Crabs of the Dark Cliffs!" It wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination compared to the stuff we've been served since January by Marvel. Just saying :)
Delete"Am I really so out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong."
ReplyDeleteI certainly didn't think this issue was a triumph of the character but I do think the series is improving on some fronts and staying serviceable to good in others. Is this a run I'll revisit? Yeah probably. That's all I ask i can't say the same for a lot of comics, some even being Conan. The art is in my opinion the best it has been since the series launched.
I will say I don't care about the Razazel/ Blood Witch story much but I've liked the one off stories about half the time and actually liked this one a lot, not nearly enough "man kills a bunch of mutated monsters with a sword" comics these days to nitpick this one based on comparison to some of the greatest runs of all time. Will Aaron ever be Thomas? Maybe? Obviously your mileage may vary thanks for reading!