By WALLY MONK – PM Library Editor

One of the things that makes Disney World a beloved destination for all generations is that everyone knows Mickey Mouse and his friends. Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck have always been the same.

They might behave slightly differently or be voiced by different actors; Minnie wears clothes these days instead of just a hair bow to differentiate her character from that of her male counterpart, But even people who remember Mickey from his debut in 1928’s “Steamboat Willie” cartoon would recognize The Mouse today.

Sadly, Marvel’s parent company forgot that business model in Marvel’s latest adaptation of Belit, the Shemite she-pirate of the Black Coast. In the inaugural issue Age of Conan – Belit #1, the character is given a major re-vamp. In this up-to-date re-envisioning, Belit is the daughter of a retired pirate king, and the writer has re-named the city of Asgalun as Asgulin, unless this was a faux pas by Marvel’s editorial team. 

To be fair, writer Tini Howard is trying to present a younger Belit and the story of how she grows up. But after reading this issue, I’m hard-pressed to see how this young, angsty-goth Belit will grow up into the fierce she-pirate we know and love from Thomas’ original comic book incarnation.

In my attempt to find the positives and not more of the glaring negatives that are coming out of the House of Ideas in connection with Conan’s re-launch, I will try to present the good and bad without constantly looking at this comic in the eyes of the Conan many people over 30 know. Now on to the story.

Review: Age of Conan – Belit #1

The dread pirate Atrahasis is looking for his daughter. When he asks some local boys if they’ve seen Belit, they inform him that she’s always spoiling their play with talk of “ocean beasties”. Within moments, a loud bell is being rung aboard a ship (which we learn is the Tigress). Atrahasis finds Belit to be the hands behind the clanging bell, telling her dad that she’s sighted one of said “beasties”.

Here we observe young Belit and her feisty character. She looks at one of the ropes on the deck, suggesting that the man who tied it be flogged. She tells her father that she knows more about the sea than many of his hired men. Atrahasis here provides plenty of fatherly advice, sharing with the young Belit that you can’t flog all of your men if you expect loyalty and other pithy proverbs meant to be teaching moments. At the end of their conversation, the young Belit leaves her father on the shore. He calls from land, telling her that the lesson of the day is to head out to the Tigress and not look back to the shore.

Belit does not listen, and observes men approaching her father and assaulting him. It would seem the pirate admiral owed some debts that now need to be paid.