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By BOB FREEMAN – Paint Monk’s Library Writer
After a surprisingly impressive debut , I have settled down with Savage Avengers #2 fully expecting the wheels to come off. Spoiler alert — They don’t.
Here’s how Marvel describes the issue:
The Hand has teamed up with the evil wizards of the Hyborian Age to summon a death god from a celestial hell. The only thing standing between Earth and destruction is the Savage Avengers: Conan, Wolverine, Punisher and Voodoo. Plus: Logan donates blood, changing one Avenger forever. And Conan discovers a dark secret squirming in a genie bottle. Your new favorite ongoing series is knives out in its second chapter. (Parental Advisory)
*Review: Savage Avengers #1 – SPOILER ALERT!*
Hyperbole not withstanding, Savage Avengers delivers. Yes, I still find the modern trappings intermixing with the fantasy element annoying, almost as much as the inclusion of the other protagonists, but the simple truth remains — Gerry Duggan and Mike Deodato are delivering an awesome Conan the Barbarian comic.
The writing is excellent. The artwork is exquisite.
The book lives up to its name. It’s villains are suitably nasty. The heroes are drenched in copious amounts of blood. There is violence and mayhem at every turn.
It feels like a Conan book should feel.
The super-hero element is a turn-off, but it’s so pretty, and so much superior to the actual Conan titles, that it is easily overlooked.
If you’re a Conan comic fan who is not checking out this book because of its Marvel Universe trappings, I urge you to give it a chance. Howard purists have plenty to grouse about, but this is still the best Conan comic you’re going to get without delving into back issues of Savage Sword.
I give this book 7 out of 10 skulls of my enemies. Substitute the Avengers for appropriate Hyborian Age mercenaries, change the location to Stygia or some other exotic region, and I would be tossing all 10 skulls at this book.
—Alba Gu Brath!
Bob Freeman
occultdetective.com
Very enjoyable discussion going on here between these reviews and the podcast!
On the subject of Conan “Crossing over” and teaming up with Wolverine and others:
Comic books are completely fictional, and anything can be made up, there are no sacred rules that they must adhere to. I get that.
On the other hand, for me Conan had an appeal that superhero comics never had. Looking back from the perspective of all these years, this diagram occurred to me, and I wonder if it’s accurate.
Imagine a horizontal axis, this is the environment axis, to the left is 0 and to the right is 100. A story that happens in the real world – utterly normal – would sit hard-left at 0. One that happens in a complete fantasy world where there are no normal physics, where time-travel is possible, where magic rules the day.. that would be positioned over at 100 all the way to the right. So, for example the world inhabited by Warlock is going to be pretty far to the right in that spectrum, while James Bond’s environment is going to be pretty far to the left.
Now add a vertical axis, for the nature of the hero/protagonist, where the bottom of the axis represents a character with no transhuman or superhuman abilities, and the top represents a character with almost no human limitations. So, for example the Spirit might be located pretty close to the bottom of the chart, and Thanos would be close to the top.
Combine these into a square and you can locate pretty much any comic book character you like, in terms of the capabilities of the character and the ‘wildness’ of the environment they are in. Where would you put Batman? The Punisher? Ghost Rider? The Fantastic Four? Iron Man?
The stories of Conan resonated with my teenage self because he was, while exceptional, entirely *human* in his capabilities, and he was caught in a world that was occasionally (very) irrational. This was something I recognized. When I read the New Gods it didn’t do anything for me because it didn’t have a hook that made it …I’m not sure the word I want.. digestible maybe.
So my problem with these crossovers is more or less an intellectual one, not a visual one or even a literary one: a team-up of Conan with a guy who can heal off bullet wounds and amputations almost instantly, for me, deprives Conan of a reason to be in the story at all.
Any way I hope this is a positive contribution to the site you have going here Fr. Monk, thank you for it.
I like the way you think, Matt, and am in total agreement.
I like my Conan cut as close to the Howard bone as possible.