This review originally appeared at Grimdark Magazine on November 11, 2024.
Conan the Barbarian #16
By Jim Zub (Writer) and Doug Braithwaite (Artist) – Titan Comics – October 23, 2024
Review by Robin Marx
Last issue, Conan experienced a close encounter with the divine. Sole survivor of a battle between rival tribes of Northmen, Conan found himself visited by Atali, daughter of the mythic frost giant Ymir. Conan the Barbarian #16 opens with Conan back at the Aesir camp, reflecting on his brush with the otherworldly. Left with a scrap of Atali’s diaphanous garment as the only physical proof of his experience, Conan recalls his own religious upbringing in Cimmeria, where the inhabitants worship the grim and notoriously distant deity Crom.
Conan the Barbarian #16 serves as a denouement to the Frozen Faith storyline, following the expanded retelling of Robert E. Howard’s short story “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter.” Doug Braithwaite’s artwork matches the standard we’ve seen from him to date, and Jim Zub’s script features its usual punchiness.
However, from both an art and storytelling perspective, this four-issue arc felt like a misstep. His earthly women are fine, but as an artist Braithwaite was not up to the task of effectively rendering Atali’s ethereal beauty. For Zub’s part, I don’t feel like this was particularly an episode that needed telling. In addition to the original prose short story, readers have a number of comic adaptations of “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” to choose from. The Braithwaite/Zub interview included in the issue’s backmatter provides some interesting insight into the genesis of this version: Braithwaite was a fan of the 1970s Marvel Comics adaptation by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith and wanted to try his own take on the tale, and Zub felt that positioning Atali herself as narrator would be novel enough to justify the retelling. While Zub succeeds in making Atali more of a three-dimensional character and less a cipher than in the original Howard story, he doesn’t go far enough. Atali is depicted appraising humanity through her close observation of Conan and his indomitable fighting spirit, but her ultimate objective remains as murky as ever. What is her endgame here?
Apart from “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” being well-trodden ground, the emphasis on Conan’s childhood and religious beliefs does not sit well with this reader. Unlike some other varieties of fantasy fiction, Sword & Sorcery heroes do not need elaborate backstories and are rarely given them. The genre is almost always concerned with the here and now: what fresh hell has the protagonist found himself embroiled in, and how is he or she going to extricate themselves? Flashbacks of Conan as a sullen child dealing with village bullies and butting heads with his apparently devout Crom-worshipping father are not something I seek in Conan the Barbarian. Conan’s creator never gave readers more than the barest sketches of the barbarian’s origin, and they were sufficient to make him the enduring character he is today, more than 90 years later. In comics, films, and pastiche novels, other stewards of the character always seem irresistibly tempted to backfill, but readers don’t need it. They really don’t. Tell me what Conan is doing NOW, not what he did when he was eight years old.
The preoccupation with Conan’s religious faith is likewise unnecessary and does little to enhance the character. The passage is touched upon in the accompanying essay by Jeffrey Shanks, but as far as this reader is concerned, the last word about Conan and religion is captured in Howard’s “Queen of the Black Coast” (1934):
“I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. … I know not, nor do I care. … Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”
In short, Conan has been around and encountered some strange things. He knows the supernatural exists, and has concluded that gods are likely to be present as well. Regardless, he has elected to remain unconcerned by questions of religion and live his own life. Granted, the Conan of “Queen of the Black Coast” is older and more seasoned than at the time of the Frozen Faith storyline, but the spiritual journey of Crom-skeptic to Crom-believer told here feels inappropriately pensive for a character that is overwhelmingly concerned with the tangible, the here and now. Howard had other characters better suited to stories about religious belief. King Kull was a philosopher, for example, and Solomon Kane’s fanatical Puritanism motivated every action he took. Conan, however, shrugs at your religion. Try to crowbar a crisis of faith into a Conan story and you risk getting into “Are You There, Crom? It’s Me, Conan” territory.
Conan the Barbarian #16 marks the end of a flawed experiment. While it ultimately didn’t work for me, it was interesting to see the creative team’s take on an expanded adaptation of a classic story. Thus far, over the course of Titan Comics’ Conan the Barbarian we’ve had a continuity-heavy year-long plot, time travel, numerous flashbacks, and multiple crossovers with other literary Howard characters. Now that the breadth of Howard’s universe has been demonstrated, here’s hoping that the series returns to its core appeal: fast-paced, original episodic adventures showing the barbarian operating at the height of his powers.
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