Conan The Barbarian: Scourge Of The Serpent #3 - Titan Comics

CONAN THE BARBARIAN: SCOURGE OF THE SERPENT No.3, December 2025

Having debatably done little more than adapt a trio of Robert E. Howard’s previously published prose adventures in this mini-series’ first two instalments, it can be argued that Jim Zub finally starts to take the steering wheel with his narrative for Issue Three of “Conan: Scourge Of The Serpent”. In fact, the Canadian author appears to go to quite considerable lengths to drag out the Cimmerian’s encounter with the serpentine deity from “The God In The Bowl”, inflating a single line of words which tells of the hero instantly decapitating the gorgon into a lengthy, action sequence filled full of desperate lunges and slithering feints - And all so that the barbarian’s fight for life can simultaneously reach its zenith alongside that of King Kull and John Kirowan.

Surprisingly however, the same cannot be said of the Animex Honorary Award-winner’s handling of “The Haunter Of The Ring”, in which the exploits of John Conrad’s partner are arguably quite severely truncated from those deeds found in the novella’s original text. Admittedly, this abbreviation still follows the general flow of the tome by having the Professor face his greatest antagonist Yosef Vrolok. But rather then drive to the villain’s home, the writer snatches at the chance to add his own spectral spin to the confrontation by having Kirowan instead simply trade blows with a murderous manifestation of his rival at Jim Gordon's house.

Such a blatant divergence from Howard’s work might be a bit too much for those purists reading this comic. However, the move actually imbues the narrative with some much-needed pace and ghostly ambiance. Indeed, it allows the significantly more modern tale to tie-in quite nicely with both Conan and Kull’s own battles against green-hued serpent-like foes; especially when it becomes clear that the snake-eyed medusa haunting poor Evelyn’s every thought is associated with the Cimmerian’s most notorious nemesis Thoth-Amon.

Undoubtedly helping mesh all these different threads and time-streams together are “Ironclad Ivan Gil” and colour artist “Jumping Jao Canola”. Together the creative pair appear particularly inventive when it comes to extending the barbarian’s aforementioned tussle with a fair-faced serpent in the Nemedian municipality of Numalia. Yet the duo’s work is also first-rate when it comes to convincingly telling of Vrolok’s mystical materialisation from beyond the grave in Boston 1934.

The regular cover art of "CONAN THE BARBARIAN: SCOURGE OF THE SERPENT" #3 by Gerardo Zaffino