Scourge of the Serpent part 2 (of 4): Words of Power. The epic new Conan event from Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics continues.
The Thurian Age of Kull of Atlantis (from Robert E. Howard's The Shadow Kingdom).
Gonar the Seeker (from Kings of the Night) proclaims that time and space do not exist, that EVERYTHING is happening NOW.
Brule the Spear-Slayer reminds Kull (the king of Valusia) that Serpent-Men, similar to an actor donning a mask, can resemble anyone they decide to impersonate.
Uncounted centuries ago, we see the race of men who battled with the grisly beings of the ELDER UNIVERSE. Men in combat with hideous monsters, vanquishing a planet of frightful terrors: the bird-women, the harpies, the bat-men, the flying fiends, the wolf-people, the demons, the goblins, the wolf-men and the serpent-men.
To conceal it from view, Brule picks up the carcass of the doppelgänger of chief councillor Tu and vanishes with it through another secret door. Kull wonders... Are the people of Valusia human beings or are they all serpents?
Brule attacks Kull, Kull the Conqueror kills Brule with "The Fangs of The Serpent"; i.e., Thulsa Doom's Dagger (the very same one with the two intertwining snakes from the 1982 Conan the Barbarian film)!
Brule dies, his human features melt away to reveal a Serpent-Man. Kull notices that the dead snake-man is not wearing the dragon (which was the greatest foe of the serpent) armlet.
Flaunting the mystic armlet of the flying dinosaur, the real Brule emerges from the secret door.
Brule informs Kull that only genuine humans can say the strange phrase that exposes the Serpent-Men: "Ka nama kaa lajerama!".
The Hyborian Age of Conan (from Robert E. Howard's The God in the Bowl).
Demetrio discerns that Kallian Publico was strangled. The Inquisitor somehow knows that a Cimmerian would never have killed a man in this manner.
We see the empty sarcophagus, a relic of the time when Set walked the earth in the form of a man, such as is found in ancient Stygian tombs, round like a covered metal bowl, carved with hieroglyphics, like those found on the more ancient menhirs in southern Stygia.
The bowl was not Publico's property. It was meant for Kalanthes of Hanumar, a priest of Ibis.
Demetrio inspects the engravings on the bowl's lid and recognizes the Ouroboros, a symbol depicting a scaled serpent coiled with its tail in its mouth: the sign of Set, the Old Serpent, the god of the Stygians!
Conan sees something move nearby... that crossed the floor like a long dark shadow.
Aztrias "scented dog" Petanius, the nephew of the city's governor arrives on the scene.
The Cimmerian confesses that Aztrias recruited him to steal a Zamorian diamond goblet from Publico's temple... That Aztrias was waiting in the shadows for the tumbler.
Aztrias refuses to clear Conan of the murder of Publico, he fibs that he does not know the barbarian and that he never hired him.
An exasperated Conan beheads Aztrias, stabs Demetrio in the thigh, cuts off one of Dionus' ears and stomps Arus' mouth.
The prefect of police pleads for mercy. Conan hears Brule's words "Ka nama kaa lajerama!".
Promero the Clerk enters the room, falls, yells like a madman: "The god has a long neck! Ha! ha! ha! Oh, a long, a cursed long neck!" then dies.
Boston, Massachusetts 1934 (from Robert E. Howard's The Haunter of the Ring).
For a brief moment occult investigator/professor John Kirowan sees the mysterious Set siren first seen in Conan the Barbarian (2023) #24 instead of Evelyn (wife of James Gordon).
Evelyn tells Kirowan that she saw another, darker version of herself in her dreams.
Evelyn and Kirowan also hear Brule's primeval words "Ka nama kaa lajerama!".
Evelyn turns into a Serpent-Woman... She grabs a revolver! She's about to start blasting.
What I did like:
It is new reader friendly.
Evelyn appears on Maria the Wolf's cover.
Valka and Mitra mentioned.
Kirowan resembles actor Peter Cushing.
A "bande dessinée franco-belge" version of Conan the Barbarian.
Archaeologist Jeffrey Shanks talks The Shadow Kingdom, The Problem of Atlantis by Lewis Spence, The Lost Continent of Mu by James Churchward, William Scott-Elliot, Saul the first king of Israel, The Scarlet Citadel, Worms of the Earth and The God in the Bowl.
What I did not like:
What is the serpent god's grand plan for the puny humans of planet Earth? Will we ever know?
Conan leaves the peepers of Posthumo in peace.
We do not see The God in the Bowl Man-Serpent lurking anywhere.
The editor is not doing his job.
It is James GordOn not James Gordan.
It is meNhirs not mehirs.
Thoth-Amon, Kalanthes' deadly foe, is not even mentioned!
Robert E. Howard's name is still not on the cover! IT SHOULD BE THE FIRST NAME ON THE COVER!
I give it an 8.5/10. Zub continues to adapt three of Two-Gun Bob's greatest tales. Fans of Go Nagai's Devilman will love this issue. We need an ELDER UNIVERSE ongoing series from Heroic Signatures & Titan Comics tout de suite!
