Conan The Barbarian #9 - Marvel Comics

CONAN THE BARBARIAN No. 9, November 2019

On paper the possibility of setting this ongoing series’ titular character up for a cycle of rematches against his most famous foes probably seemed like a dream come true for Jason Aaron, especially when one considers the Alabama-born author “threw my hat into the ring in a big way and threatened to fight any writer they would try to hire” just as soon “as I got wind that the [Conan] rights were coming” to “Marvel Worldwide’. But whilst many of this comic’s 26,923 readers undoubtedly enjoyed momentarily seeing the Cimmerian once again ‘lock horns’ with “the bellowing, yellow-fanged ape-beast in its scarlet robes” known as Thak, the subsequent onslaught of similarly-popular opponents quickly degenerates into a relentless slog of seemingly lazy penmanship.

Indeed, by the time the barbarian momentarily confronts a fully-fit Yag-Kosha, courtesy of yet another Leech-man inspired illusion, many within this book’s dwindling audience were probably left wondering whether the American writer was capable of providing his narrative for “The God Below” with any originality whatsoever. Certainly, it is hard to see just where the story is supposedly going when each and every one of Mahmoud Asrar’s proficiently pencilled panels appears to have been populated with any and all of Robert E. Howard’s most memorable antagonists… Or, at least in the case of the aforementioned “pacifist alien exile from the distant constellation of Yag”, a disrespectful misinterpretation of one of Conan’s most powerful allies.

Frustratingly, so intense a carousel of contrived encounters really does diminish one of this twenty-page periodical’s best kept secrets, when it is revealed in an awe-inspiring ending that the entire adventure has actually taken place within the bloated bowls of a great land worm. Admittedly, even this jaw-dropping concept would seem to have been ‘borrowed’ from another literary great, in this case Frank Herbert, but it’s hard not to be impressed by the Turkish-born artist’s sweeping splash-page of a giant, fatally wounded grub, bloodily bursting to the surface in its death throes. Coupled with the Cimmerian nonchalantly cutting his way free of the behemoth's belly with his sword, this finale really makes a lasting impact upon the memory, and resultantly it seems a pity Aaron didn’t focus upon the trials of the hero (and his hapless companions) simply being beleaguered by numerous Leech-men and the deadly, acidic digestive juices of their environment, rather than an endless parade of previously seen enemies.

Writer: Jason Aaron, Artist: Mahmud Asrar, and Colorist: Matthew Wilson