COMIC BOOKS: Conan the Barbarian: Into the Crucible
May 8—Writer Jim Zub knows Conan.
With the story collected in the narrative arc, "Conan the Barbarian: Into the Crucible," he places Conan in a situation where the Cimmerian is roped into the religious sport of a kingdom's sacrificial competition — a challenge for warriors to battle one another as they face the crucible of the being that lives in the labyrinth beneath the city.
Along the way, Conan comes into possession of a sword that threatens to possess his soul and turn the Hyborian Age's greatest warrior into its most malevolent nightmare.
Zub weaves these stories with a wide knowledge of the character and world created by Robert E. Howard. Zub showed the depth of his Howard knowledge with the recent mini-series "Conan: Serpent War," which included not only Conan but lesser-known Howard characters — James Allison, Solomon Kane and Dark Agnes.
"Into the Crucible" features several artists but Roge Antonio handles the lion's share of the art. Antonio's pencils seem too cartoonish for Conan, at first. But they grow on a reader and are far more complex than they initially seem.
While Marvel continues pulling Conan into more modern settings, teaming up with regular Marvel characters in titles such as "Savage Avengers," it's good to see the character still treads "the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his feet" in his own sweet time.
