“BY CROM – THE BARBARIAN VS. HIS GOD! As Conan shuffles off this mortal coil, he stands face to face with his God, CROM! But Crom does not care for the fate of some weak mortal…Unless Conan MAKES him! CONAN IS DEAD! LONG LIVE CONAN!”

By BOB FREEMAN – PM Library Writer

We have reached the penultimate chapter in Jason Aaron and (mostly) Mahmud Asrar’s twelve-part saga — The Life & Death of Conan. It has been, for this reviewer, a dismal exercise that has highlighted the worst tendencies of modern comics.

I don’t want to be that guy … you know, the old gray-beaded curmudgeon recalling the glory days of comicdom when god-like beings named Lee, Kirby, Ditko, Buscema, Kubert, and more strode the earth. The guy who bemoans, “Back in my day, why comics were something special…”

But it’s kind of true.

The greatest crime Aaron and Asrar’s Conan has committed has been taking too darned long to get to the point. In the 70s, this would have been a Roy Thomas three-parter. The pages would have been dripping with elegant prose and Buscema and Chan would have delivered artwork to elevate the story even higher.

Aaron and Asrar have given us a decompressed, slow and plodding plot, filled with illustrations that rarely raise themselves to the levels of artistry one used to take for granted.

So, here we are, at the 11th hour of their tale and what do we get? Sparse words and panel after panel where the colorist does the heavy lifting by establishing mood and tone.

Oh, this is probably the second or third best issue in their run. There are some decent individual moments. But overall, we knew Conan would be coming back from the dead to face Razazel. It was telegraphed from the beginning.

The indomitable spirit of Conan was there, buried in a painfully extended narrative, throughout the run, but especially in this issue. The sentiment was not the problem, but the execution certainly was.

Aaron and Asrar are both talented creators. Conan just got away from them. But they shouldn’t take it too hard. Thomas and Davis sort of dropped the ball over on Savage Sword, too.

Maybe it’s not the creators. Maybe it’s Marvel and their editorial shortcomings. Maybe its the stewardship. Maybe it’s… Maybe…

Maybe I need to hole up in my woodland shack with Robert E. Howard’s collected Conan tales, complete and unmarred by other hands. That’s where Conan is.

Maybe I need to take a deep breath and remind myself, these are just comic books. Maybe I should climb down off the mountain and return to my people in the village. Yeah, maybe I should…

But by Crom, I’m not ready to lie down just yet.

Skulls of my enemies? 5 out of 10 of them I guess. One issue remains. While it’s impossible for redemption, I still hope its a worthwhile conclusion to the tale. But mostly, I hope Jim Zub’s ready to take up the mantle and deliver the Conan we deserve.