Conan the Barbarian 1 (2019) Comic Review

I would like to preface this review with the fact I am not a huge Conan the Barbarian fan. In fact, the only issue of Conan that is part of my personal #comics collection is a fairly beat-up copy of the first Conan the Barbarian comic. On with the review!

Issue 1 of the new Conan the Barbarian series is brought to us from Marvel Comics with the creative team of Jason Aaron (writer), Mahmud Asrar (penciller), Matthew Wilson (inks), and main cover by Esad Ribic. The cover by Ribic is outstanding, but Conan's face looks a little off to me for some reason.

The issue begins with an almost cinematic text introduction to the background of Conan and his world. Page 1 includes a map, and page 2 to 3 include images pulled from the original Marvel run of Conan the Barbarian with some art from Barry Windsor-Smith and John Buscema. Surprisingly, neither Smith or Buscema is credited anywhere in the issue that I could see. I would also like to point out, a red-headed female (not Red Sonja) is pictured in several of these captured images. I suspect she will play a role in this series as the story progresses. After the intro we get a couple of splash pages showing Conan at the beginning and presumably the end of his life. Not to overuse the word "cinematic", but the intro to the comic really feels like a movie and reminded me strongly of the Conan the Barbarian film, the Arnold Schwarzenegger version that is.

I would like to point out that this book does include a Parental Advisory and is quite bloody and contains a lot of innuendo. The term "gushing release" does have a double-meaning in the story.

Jason Aaron uses a story-telling mechanism similar to what he did on his first run of Thor. The issue is titled the Life and Death of Thor and contains the first part of two stories, one told in the present and the second told near the end of Conan's life. Aaron used this effectively as part of the Thor run, and it feels like it is going to work here in Conan as well. In the present, we find that Conan is a gladiator who fights for the entertainment of others, and presumably his own. I do appreciate the fact that the first spoken word by Conan in this series is "Crom." Conan is duped by an "attractive" woman whom he beds to discover she is in fact a witch, specifically the Crimson Witch. Conan is intended to be used as part of the fulfillment of a prophecy to bring about the return of Razazel. Of course, Conan manages to escape and believes he has killed the witch.

The second part of the story flash-forwards several years to Conan on the battlefield, presumably as king. As he walks the battlefield, he discovers two young children collecting the corpses of the slain. While speaking with the children, he hears them mention a familiar name, "Razazel." Cue the entrance of the return of the Crimson Witch to wrap-up the comic portion of the issue.

As an added bonus, a 3-page prose story is also included about Conan's adventures with a group of three others. This prose story will be told in 12-parts through as many issues of the comic. It seems to be solidly written, but it only goes so far in 3-pages.

The interior art by Mahmud Asrar is very good. I feel like he really captures the world of Conan. The backgrounds are not particularly detailed, but he does an excellent job telling the story.

In my opinion, fans of the original Conan the Barbarian series should be please. Marvel did also include the legacy numbering of issue 276 on the cover of this book as well. I think Conan fans will be pleased, and I plan to pick this story up in trade. If you would like to hear more about this issue, the #campuscomicscast crew will be discussing the issue in episode 37 of our podcast which should release around January 16, 2019.

Grade: Very Fine (8.0)