Wow, this was really close to POTW status, and for some reason I never thought I’d be able to say that about a Conan book.
While this series has been of extremely high quality month in and month out since it started publication, this issue stepped things up a notch with the debut of artist James Harren. As much as I am really enjoying Becky Cloonan’s take on Crom’s (least) favourite son, nothing so far has totally blown me away like the double page spread in this issue depicting the city of Argos- stunning! Harren is definitely a name to watch, as one of iFanboy’s recent articles suggested. I could definitely live with these two pencillers trading off arcs in much the same way that Bachalo and Bradshaw are doing on Wolvie and the X-Men right now.
Brian Wood continues to do a great job of making Conan seem fresh and exciting again- while I still have about half of the original Dark Horse Conan run unread in a box somewhere, he has ensured that this is one of the titles I read first in my stack and look forward to every time. His use of the pirate queen Belit here as a driving force behind the plot is great, and again she has been beautifully drawn by both artists thus far- Harren’s portrayal in particular not only looks gorgeous but is also imbued with so much charisma that she almost comes to life on the page. The fact that we never quite now whether she can be trusted or whether she’s just leading the dumb Cimmerian around by the balls is intriguing to say the least…
So, basically, a joy to read from cover to beautiful cover- thanks Dark Horse for bringing on a team that can really tap into the potential of this great character and his world in a way that few in comics have before.
Five stars? Oh, yes.