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This review originally appeared at Grimdark Magazine on August 14, 2024.

Conan the Barbarian #13

By Jim Zub (Writer) and Doug Braithwaite (Artist) – Titan Comics – July 24, 2024

Review by Robin Marx

Titan Comics’ Conan the Barbarian enters its second year of publication, and a new story arc begins. Issue #12 concluded with an epic confrontation with a powerful enemy, but this installment shifts gears. Rather than pick up where we saw Conan last, the narrative returns to a younger version of the barbarian. Having first gotten a taste of adventure with his participation in the destruction of Aquilonia’s border outpost of Venarium (shown in the Free Comic Book Day 2023 issue, released prior to the start of the monthly series), the teenaged barbarian has taken up his salvaged sword and horned helmet and headed north into the frozen wastes. Feeling unexpectedly deflated after his first victory in battle, Conan remains eager to test himself and discover his place in the world. Over the course of this first issue in the “Frozen Faith” story arc, Conan encounters several threats to his young life, from dangerous wildlife to threatening Northmen, but he wonders if mere survival is enough to give his life meaning.

With the start of this new arc, writer Jim Zub has taken the Conan the Barbarian narrative in an intriguing new direction. With so much of the comic’s first year occupied by an ongoing high-stakes plotline involving the malignant influence of the mysterious Black Stone and recurring foe Thulsa Doom it feels like a relief to take a step back from all of that and return to basics. Like the original Robert E. Howard stories themselves, other publishers’ comic series have jumped around to different points in Conan’s adventuring career, and it’s reassuring to see that tendency continue in the current Titan Comics incarnation, rather than follow a strictly linear progression.

Zub gives readers an uncommonly intimate look into Conan’s thoughts with this issue. Flashbacks show Conan as a child, untrained but already fierce at a tender age. His father tells him of the Cimmerians’ ancestral god Crom, who lives in the mountains, judging his descendants from afar. Crom famously declines to intervene on his worshippers’ behalf, but he is said to gift every Cimmerian at birth with an iron will. This issue shows Conan as a child, questioning the beliefs his people take for granted and then carrying those doubts into his teenage years. Conan has been tested in battle, but he has emerged unfulfilled, skeptical of religion, and almost nihilistic. This feels like a risky approach to take with a character like Conan; sword & sorcery heroes usually skip the origin story and are commonly depicted fully formed and self-assured. Are readers ready for Conan the Larval Barbarian? I am unsure of what to think at this point, but I am curious to see where Zub takes the character in the next few issues.

“Frozen Faith” marks the return of artist Doug Braithwaite, who previously handled the “Thrice Marked for Death” story arc (Conan the Barbarian issues #5-8). Braithwaite renders this issue’s action scenes and snowy landscapes with aplomb, but I still feel like he etches too many fine lines into Conan’s face, making him appear at least a decade older than he is supposed to be at this point in his life.

Conan the Barbarian #13 offers readers a fresh start. This issue delivers a change of pace for existing readers and serves as a gentle jumping-on point for newcomers curious about Titan Comics’ most successful series to date. While core sword & sorcery enthusiasts find this meditative depiction of Conan slightly jarring, I suspect the added introspection may appeal to grimdark fans hungry for a little existential philosophy in their dark fantasy.

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