Conan The Barbarian #5 - Titan Comics

CONAN THE BARBARIAN No. 5, December 2023

Somewhat intriguingly setting this adventure shortly after Conan’s “adventures on the high seas” with the now dead Belit, Jim Zub’s narrative for “The Heist” paints an enthralling picture of the sorrowful Cimmerian desperately trying to drown his great grief in the alcoholic drafts of Shadizar the Wicked. Indeed, arguably one of this comic’s hardest-hitting hooks is witnessing the heartbroken barbarian desperately agreeing to even the foolhardiest of thefts simply so he has enough coin to “return to drunken oblivion.”

Happily however, the Canadian author’s twenty-two-page plot doesn’t just dwell on the adventurer’s anguish at losing the Queen of the Black Coast and his soul-mate. But instead strives to capture the tense atmosphere generated by Robert E. Howard’s 1933 tale “The Tower of the Elephant" by depicting the thickly-muscled burglar attempting to infiltrate another of the heavily-guarded citadels stood deep within “Zamora's gleaming capital.” This stressful sequence is extremely well-written, with the Eisner Award-nominee penning a quite logical penetration of the basilica’s formidable defences, as well as some rather tongue-in-cheek exchanges between the robbers working alongside Conan - something which genuinely helps endear them to the publication’s audience.

Furthermore, the book projects an almost palpable passage of time as the quartet stealthily make their way down countless winding stairwells and past innumerable chambers packed full of devoted cultists. So tangible an atmosphere really helps sell the ever-present danger the Gloryhounds are in, and doubtless Greff’s painfully long attempt to disarm the traps protecting their highly-sought after prize will cause the odd reader to nervously look over their own shoulders for any approaching temple guards out of sympathy for the safe-cracker’s patient work; “Here, under lantern light with time running short, it pushes his abilities to their absolute limit.”

Ably aiding the story-telling within Issue Five of “Conan The Barbarian” is “the diabolical Doug Braithwaite”, whose pencils do a sterling job in portraying the squalor of Shadizar and the grotesque grimness of the Cimmerian’s route to the fortress’ Moratorium. In addition, “the master of visual sorcery” does an excellent job of showing just how merciless this current incarnation of the titular character is – a cold-blooded killer whose overwhelming unhappiness causes him to care not for the people he savagely slays with his sword.

The regular cover art of "CONAN THE BARBARIAN" #5 by Mike Deodato