Conan The Barbarian #14 - Titan Comics

CONAN THE BARBARIAN No. 14, September 2024

Frustratingly trying to fill in some of the gaps of Robert E. Howard’s 1953 tale “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter”, Jim Zub’s storyline for Issue Fourteen of “Conan The Cimmerian” can certainly be seen as an attempt by the Canadian author to pen a prologue for that particular adventure. Indeed, the entire twenty-two page plot is dedicated to explaining how the young, heavily-muscled traveller just happened to be stood one day upon a snowy field in Nordheim when he first laid eyes on the bewitchingly white form of Atali; “Together we’ll bring those red-haired whoresons a feast of vengeance true!”

Yet whilst such a notion is arguably laudable, the writer does resultantly make a few bemusing decisions so as to ensure that the central protagonist quickly ingratiates himself with his would-be murderers to the point where he can then ‘lead’ them into battle. For example, having been ambushed by a trio of disagreeable Aesirmen, who mean to steal his food and at the very least physically maim him, the barbarian only defends himself with his bare fists – despite carrying a sword (and later hand-axe). This scrap is definitely well-paced. However, many a reader may well be left scratching their heads as to why the headstrong hero didn’t just gut the long-bearded and overconfident raiders as he would ordinarily have done..?

Furthermore, having been forced to surrender the huge bear he single-handedly killed in exchange for his own life, the audience are then expected to believe Conan would willingly join Wulfhere's Aesir in chasing down a Vanir war party who’ve just destroyed one of the yellow-hair’s settlements. Admittedly, in doing so the “the wolves of Bragi” do break one of the Cimmerian’s more well-established codes of conduct by slaughtering women and children. But even so, the sudden successful attack upon a partially fortified wooden hamlet may well land a little unconvincingly with this comic’s audience as a genuine motivation for the warrior to accompany his former foes in their blood-soaked revenge.

Quite possibly just as sceptical as to the logic of some of these events is Doug Braithwaite, whose pencilling is somewhat ‘hit and miss’ throughout the publication. The British artist’s depiction of the climactic battle is absolutely first-rate in its sheer brutality and savagery. Yet this heady bout of gratuitous violence isn’t quite proficient enough to wipe away the memory of a rather impotent-looking barbarian supposedly wearing bulky armour for the first time…

The regular cover art of "CONAN THE BARBARIAN" #14 by Jae Lee