Battle of the Black Stone part 3: Quest into Darkness, the epic new Conan event from Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics is almost over.
Only six Heroes remain, the Pict gate is behind them, the HEROES OF MAN are now deep into the Pictland jungles west of Conajohara.
Brissa tells her tale from Savage Sword of Conan #4.
Our heroes are looking for the BLACK STONE BEAST's "source of corruption".
Conan talks about his grandfather and past adventures. Brissa compliments multiple times the Cimmerian with the minuscule ego.
Brissa reveals a tiny piece of the cursed BLACK STONE.
Slain scribe James Allison appears once again as an apparition, he's not only drawn to mighty, courageous souls, his spirit also can guide our heroes towards the source of corruption
Solomon Kane is sure that he is on a mission from God, Dark Agnès de Chastillon is not so sure.
Kane and Agnès converse in French, he mentions that he traveled along the Isère river in southeastern France... in 1574. Agnès thinks it impossible since she's from 1522.
John Conrad is taking copious notes thinking that he will return alive in his own time, John Kirowan is pretty sure they are all doomed.
On the third day they conveniently find another shard of the BLACK STONE, this time situated in a split tree.
James Allison's spirit reappears. Conrad sees a BLACK STONE glyph on the bark and this impels the scholar to impale his palm through the shard.
Conrad's mind is sent back to 1934 in Essex County (Massachusetts). Flames are enveloping the house of John Grimlan. Above the crimson inferno, the hovering gigantic monstrous bat (Malik Tous from the Dig Me No Grave short story by Robert E. Howard) has been replaced by... the BLACK STONE BEAST!
James Allison "reassures" our frightened heroes that they are all food for the BLACK STONE BEAST.
Conan tries to sever Conrad's arm to set him free from his trance, but the pragmatic barbarian is too late, Conrad's anatomy is torn apart anyway.
Only five Heroes remain.
Agnès is tired of being hunted, exactly like Billy Sole in Predator (1987), so she calls the BLACK STONE BEAST to her.
The BLACK STONE BEAST erupts violently from under the earth just marked by Agnès with the BLACK STONE sigil.
Kirowan snatches the BLACK STONE shard. The BEAST slaps Conan around and devours Agnès. The rest of our heroes retreat into the jungle.
Only four Heroes remain.
After hours of running they realize that Conan has also expired.
Only three Heroes remain.
À suivre.
What I did like:
The BLACK STONE BEAST still has El Borak's blade lodged in its skull.
Dark Agnès is the star of this issue.
A Francisco Goya Saturn homage.
Archaeologist Jeffrey Shanks talks C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, John Silence Physician Extraordinary, Thomas Carnacki The Ghost-Finder, Jules de Grandin, Lovecraft, The Children of the Night (1931), Clemants, John O'Donnel, Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt, The Haunter of the Ring (1934), Dermod's Bane (1967), The Thing on the Roof (1932) and The Black Stone (1931).
Women appear on all of the variant covers!
2 female characters actually speak! Two!
Scott Campbell (Scott C)'s cover is awesome!
A letters page inside a mini-series!
Kirowan is morphing into Peter Cushing.
If you are lucky enough to find a gal that's willing to carry your wounded derrière for multiple hours straight. Marry her!
What I did not like:
James Allison is our heroes's Obi-Wan Kenobi or just a wailing BLACK STONE bloodhound?
Where's the Malik Tous vs the BLACK STONE BEAST Kaiju battle? Let them fight! A missed opportunity for sure.
The BLACK STONE BEAST is not holding the body of John Grimlan in the Dig Me No Grave flashback.
Kane only tells Agnès about his previous encounter with the BLACK STONE BEAST (from Savage Sword of Conan #4).
Everyone understands and speaks English? What?! No one questions the implausibility.
Agnès does not say one word in French! Lazy and shameful. Canada has two official languages. I wanted to see Zub flex his French.
Where's the ring of Thoth-Amon, the Serpent Ring of Set?
N'Longa, the fan favourite African shaman is still MIA. Unacceptable!
The BLACK STONE BEAST never says a word and its darkness is still not clutching at our heroes with clammy fingers. Very disappointing.
I give it a 6/10. Jonas Scharf's art is even more fantastic this time around. This reads like a Predator/Aliens/A Nightmare on Elm Street hybrid comic from the 1990s. Our HEROES OF MAN are taken out one by one by the BLACK STONE BEAST. For the final issue, I'm pretty sure we'll see Brissa fasten multiple Pict-blade spears together, fry the eggs of the BLACK STONE BEAST, get into a Chopper and ultimately nuke (it's the only way to be sure) the entire source of corruption out of existence.
