Conan The Barbarian: Scourge Of The Serpent #4 - Titan Comics

CONAN THE BARBARIAN: SCOURGE OF THE SERPENT No.4, February 2026

It probably didn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone purchasing this twenty-two-page periodical that contributor Jeffrey Shanks saw the need to actually explain this mini-series’ climax as part of his final back-page article “In The Coils Of Set – The Origin And Legacy Of The Great Serpent”. For whilst Jim Zub’s narrative certainly depicts the Hyborian Age deity telling the likes of Conan, King Kull and John Kirowan what it wants from them, it’s rather trivial needs could easily get lost amongst all the inter-dimensional, planetwide fighting which revolves around it.

Indeed, Set’s apparent desire to mate with this title’s three leading antagonists so as to create “a perfect hybrid race” is debatably far from convincingly delivered, especially when “the arch-enemy of the gods of light” appears before the trio as multiple snake-headed assassins, a huge gorgon and the murderous wife of the Professor’s latest client. These forms, and resultant attempts upon the heroes’ lives don’t seem to be the best way of wooing a lover into the Great Serpent’s arms – no matter how alluring its final, semi-naked astral form may appear.

Furthermore, “Titan Comics” attempt to try to hoodwink this comic’s audience into accepting that such an overriding purpose is “very much drawn from themes in Robert E. Howard’s original tales” will surely put the backs up of any of the 1930’s pulp writer’s purists - no matter how hard Shanks’ aforementioned lengthy essay tries to convince them otherwise. Perhaps therefore this book’s most intriguing element only comes at its very end when it becomes clear that, in the Canadian author’s canon at least, Set sees itself as the planet’s saviour from various “terrors undreamed of”, and apparently wants to rescue Mankind, rather than simply dominant it like so many other one-dimensional, evil tyrants.

Unfortunately, Ivan Gil’s layouts don’t seem to help show what is truly happening throughout this publication either. It doesn’t matter how proficient a penciller the illustrator is at depicting Conan, Kull and Kirowan as somewhat decrepit, older versions of themselves, nor how much ghostly green ink colour artist Jao Canola throws at the multiple supernatural sequences. It is never made clear whether the leading characters can ever actually see (and therefore work) together, nor why they become so drastically aged in the first place..?

The regular cover art of "CONAN THE BARBARIAN: SCOURGE OF THE SERPENT" #4 by Roberto De La Torre