Conan The Barbarian #16 - Marvel Comics

CONAN THE BARBARIAN No. 16, January 2021

At first sight Jim Zub’s script for this particular twenty-page periodical strongly suggests that the titular character is probably just as close to an ignoble end as Robert E. Howard depicted him way back in his 1933 prose tale “The Scarlet Citadel”. In fact, the similarities between the Cimmerian’s fatal-looking predicament are arguably quite close, considering that in both adventures the incarcerated warrior has refused any suggestion of clemency by paying ‘lip-service’ to his captors and resultantly faces certain death locked away within a seemingly impregnable prison cell.

Yet whilst Conan’s creator would have his hero ‘saved’ by a chance encounter with an old adversary from his piratical days as Amra, this comic’s Canadian author rather nicely ties the savage’s unlikely escape in with the previously depicted cold-blooded murder of Yohnic of the Oaks and the dead Hyrkanian’s thirst for retribution against a brutal people who slaughtered him in cultish obeisance to a god who actually doesn’t exist; “I’ll avenge you, old man. You and Naru-Li deserve vengeance -- We all do. I promise. These wretches will pay…”

Similarly as well-penned is Zub’s ability to portray the barbarian’s somewhat believable course through the City of Garchall’s palace without having to resort to the usual trope of the Cimmerian frenziedly fighting his way through an entire army of sentinels with little more than his dogged determination and a basic hand-weapon. Admittedly, the freed captive does skewer a pair of hapless sentries with a stolen spear when he initially makes his bid for freedom, and then later winds up fencing with the “cursed Magistrate’s elite guards" once the alarm is raised. But these battles are fleetingly fast and involve just a handful of soldiers at most, rather than proposing the unrealistic suggestion that a half-starved semi-naked warrior could matter-of-factly wade through a sea of swords, shields and armour.

Perhaps therefore this comic book’s sole disappointment debatably lies in its conclusion when Conan faces the Chief Magistrate and simply discovers that the death-god Challi-Mai is a sham designed to ensure that the common people have “something to fear.” This deception is certainly plausible, especially as it has allowed a single family to rule the municipal behind the scenes for several generations. However, some readers may well have felt a tad let down that the multi-part narrative didn’t end with a spectacular confrontation between the adventurer and the Crucible’s deity, rather than having the barbarian slope away in the night with a stolen blade…

The regular cover art of "CONAN THE BARBARIAN" #16 by E.M. Gist