King Conan #4 - Marvel Comics

KING CONAN No. 4, July 2022

Focusing far more upon “a duel that will change the course of the Hyborian Age” than the arguably less satisfying (and unconvincing) tale of the titular character being shipwrecked upon a tiny isle of the Undead with a “Stygian snake-kisser” for company, Jason Aaron’s storyline for Issue Four of “King Conan” probably still didn’t convince many long-time fans of Robert E. Howard’s creation that the sword and sorcery hero was in particularly safe hands. Sure, the aforementioned swordfight between Aquilonia’s King and his heir depicts some diverting moments as young Conn bravely stands tall in the face of his father’s plan to banish him from the kingdom. However, it's abundantly clear that the Cimmerian will never meaningfully harm his son with a permanently debilitating blow from his blade, so any sense of genuine tension is abundantly missing, as is a healthy dose of logic behind the Barbarian’s bizarre behaviour.

Indeed, debatably one of this twenty-page plot’s biggest disappointments is how the Alabama-born author pens a deeply disturbed monarch taking out his evident frustrations at being a successful ruler upon his adolescent son, and then suddenly, tearfully deciding to abdicate when he’s dubiously bested by the boy; “By Crom. When did you become such a man? My son. My King.” L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter’s 1968 novel “Conan Of The Isles” certainly has its shortcomings, but at least the Sixty-something Sovereign is goaded into abandoning his throne due to the sorcerous sacrifice of his old friend, Count Trocero of Poitian and another stern warning from the ancient prophet, Epemitreus, rather than because he’s bored and implausibly disarmed by his physically inferior child.

Possibly just as farfetched is Aaron’s attempt to have artist Mahmud Asrar pencil a clearly fatigued Cimmerian besting a confined cave full of murderous killer apes with just a single punch to the jaw and a limb-severing sword swipe. This demonstration of well-sketched barbaric ferocity is supposedly enough to stave off the remaining three formidably sized gorillas so the weary adventurer can make good his escape from the clutches of the (retconned/redesigned) Princess Prima along with a bleeding Thoth-Amon, and even supposedly provides the unlikely comrades-in-arms with more than enough time for them to dangerously stop just a little way further down the hollow to discuss the benefits of their dubious double-act.

The regular cover art of "KING CONAN" #4 by Mahmud Asrar & Matthew Wilson