Thrice Marked for Death! part four: Sacrifice!... Jim Zub's blood-soaked sequel to Queen of the Black Coast ends here.
We get more "amazing" memories of Conan's time with his girlfriend aboard the Tigress.
Conan is sword fighting for fun with Lanre. Bêlit wants to spar with an ancient weapon (Brule/Brissa's Pictish blade) that she just stumbled upon, Conan refuses to indulge her because of his feelings for it. In a jealous fit of rage Bêlit tries to toss the half-sword overboard. Conan stops her.
Back to the present, Conan, now a thrice possessed tool for Thulsa Doom is walking around the city of Shadizar.
We get more flashbacks: Conan breaking the vessel from issue 4, the jungles of Kush, his fight with a shapechanger in the grasslands, the selling of the Pictish blade to Jaali the trader.
The nefarious spectres inside our Cimmerian want that blade... to corrupt it. Jason Voorhees... I mean, Conan goes back to the pawnshop, kills Jaali's nephew and Thulsa Doom's guardian spirits extract the info they need from Jaali's brain. It takes time but Conan's body finally finds the Pict sword at a museum.
While "Crystal Lake" Conan is stoically waiting for the now restored blade to arrive, a dreaming Conan starts strangling Bêlit.
Meanwhile, the body of Conan is choking another woman (Hura, the conservator-restorer), it grabs the restored blade and Conan at long last is able take over to force his body to skewer himself.
A dying Conan recalls his talk with the Pictish warrior Brule the Spear Slayer (from issue 4). Brule transmutes into Brissa.
Lighting from heaven's grasp strikes Brule's blade once more, just like in issue 4 and Conan's body and the blade are atomized.
Conan died on the way back to his home planet? The End?
What I did like:
Rob De La Torre will be back next issue! Thank you, Crom!
This borefest of an arc that went nowhere, this mindless gorefest is finally over!
The Patch Zircher tetraptych! I can finally complete Patrick's quadriptych with my covers of Conan The Barbarian #5-8.
An essay describing the Black Stone as connective tissue for the current narrative.
What I did not like:
We are at issue eight and still no Thulsa Doom! So lame!
Ki Ki Ki, Ma Ma Ma. Zub is a Canadian and no hockey goalie masks appear in the pawnshop!?
What the heck is a "hey-foll"?
Conan still having Brule's blade is pretty absurd. It would have been stolen, lost or destroyed ages ago.
Not crediting Ernie Chan on the Robert E. Howard and his ages undreamed of page. Not cool!
Where can we buy Francesca Baerald's THURIAN AGE MAP poster?
Incompetent editors! Conan is hurting women again! Chris Butera and Matt Murray, again, shame on you both.
I give it a 0/10. Zero, once more? You keep putting your hands on women, you'll keep getting zero. Titan/Heroic Signatures how about translating for us the mini-series: Dragonero Conan from Italy? And where is Michael A. Stackpole’s new Conan novel “Song of Bêlit”!?
