Jim Zub's The Conquering Crown part 3 (of 3): The Unlikely Sovereign
Count Trocero of Poitain saves the life of Captain Prospero (who was mesmerized by Conan's awesomeness).
Aquilonian General Conan (The Savior of Poitain) is spreading hope and his army is growing.
Count Trocero thinks that he should be the future ruler of Aquilonia... Prospero is not so sure.
Baron Phineas of Tauran joins the Cimmerian's insurgency/armed rebellion.
Travelling to Tanasul (city in northern Aquilonia), King Numedides' forces get attacked by Conan's rebel insurgents.
Prospero and Baron Thasperas of Schohira push back Numedides' royal military and gain reinforcements.
Close to the Tybor River, the legion of Numedides surrenders to Conan, Prospero and the army of Shamar (city in southern Aquilonia).
Conan and co. reach the capital of Aquilonia (Tarantia).
Gromel, the giant Bossonian captain of the Black Dragon Knights, grovels for his life... Conan lets him go.
King Numedides has sacrificed some unknown sycophants to The Woeful Eye in exchange for... cosmic/Lovecraftian power! The mad monarch of Aquilonia uses his new might to immobilize Conan and his friends. Conan who is almost immune to The Woeful Eye's BLACK STONE magic, strangles the tyrant.
Numedides's crown falls to the ground... in front of the timid aristocrats of Aquilonia: Baron Thasperas of Schohira, Lord Brocas of Conawaga, Baron Phineas of Tauran and Count Trocero of Poitain... Conan of Cimmeria is the only dude intrepid enough to grasp the adornment and to set it on his dome.
Conan the Liberator of Aquilonia is now the new Barbarian King of Aquilonia!
What I did like:
Find someone who looks at you the way Prospero looks at Conan is the latest Internet meme.
Variant covers by Gerardo Zaffino, Sweeney Boo & Scott Campbell (Scott C.).
Female characters appear.
Archaeologist Jeffrey Shanks talks The Phoenix on the Sword, The Scarlet Citadel, The Hour of the Dragon, P. Schuyler Miller and John Drury Clark, Wolves Beyond the Border, Beyond the Black River, Oriskonie and Thandara (provinces in western Aquilonia) and Conan the Liberator.
What I did not like:
Apparently the BLACK STONE eye SIGIL is just as potent as a fragment of BLACK STONE. Ridiculous.
Scott Campbell (Scott C.)'s cover could have been funnier.
Women do not appear on any of the covers.
The female mercenary never gets a name.
Was Numedides truly mad? Who cares?
Who were the sycophants that Numedides sacrificed? Who cares?
Baron Brocas who is pro-Numedides never attempts to assassinate the Cimmerian.
Captain Gromel shouldn't have a moustache.
Conan does not tear the crown from Numedides' gory head.
I give it a 7/10. Conan gallops around killing people. Why was this complex and important tale crammed into only three issues? What was the rush? Women once again do not speak. Numedides is barely present. The Woeful Eye is never seen or heard. It feels like I'm reading a comic book that is missing half of its pages... but it looks spectacular thanks to Spanish penciller, Fernando Dagnino!