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Conan the Barbarian #4 (2023) review










Jim Zub's miserable and interminable zombie tale of ennui ends, at last.

Conan transcends the abyss soup, chills with Brule, kills a Lovecraftian creature and escapes this poorly written story arc.

What I did like:

A cover that features A WOMAN of the Hyborian age by Giada Marchisio!!

Bound in Black Stone is done, finished.

My boy, Brule, the Spear-Slayer finally appears.

Collapsing structures is a very Howardian way of finishing a sword and sorcery tale.

Conan Father’s Sword from the 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger film appears.

The Frost-Giant's Daughter cover by Cary Nord is bitter sweet because Titan Comics are presently not adapting the stories of Robert E. Howard. It's only pastiches for now. Let's hope they change their minds and give us adaptations in the future!

Nice cover by Nick Percival.

What I did not like:

Still no cover by British comics artist Colin MacNeil!!!

No Kull of Atlantis.

No Thulsa Doom.

No Set Berserkers from the John Milius film!

Not very clear what really happens to the prisoners or the dead once they are brought to the Black Stone temple.

She's on Giada's cover, but No Brissa at all in this issue. Very sexist and stupid, once again.

The letters page is still too small and is used to promote upcoming projects.

The Cthulhu monster that assails Conan is never fully seen.

Still not offered in black and white! Digital colours and Conan do not mix.

An incompetent editor. Do a better job, Murray, nudge Zub in the proper narrative direction, please try to make this comic more comprehensible and compelling.

I give it a 3/10. Quit stalling, Titan + Heroic Signatures, and give us Patrick Zircher's Solomon Kane and The Song of Belit by Michael A. Stackpole!

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