Comic Review: Conan the Barbarian (2019-) #4

Conan The Barbarian (2019-)  #4

Marvel Comics

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artist: Gerado Zaffino

My brother is a much bigger fan of Conan the Barbarian than I think I’ll ever be. It’s not that I don’t like the character, I just don’t find the “sword and sorcery” genre to be of my interest. Nothing against it, it’s just not my cup of tea. But, here we are four issues deep in Conan’s return to Marvel Comics, and I’ll admit, I’m pretty into it.

Conan becomes King of Aquilonia, and as king, brings peace to the land. But peace doesn’t suit the warrior that Conan is, and he comes down with a mystery illness. Ignoring his advisors and medicine men, Conan takes to the streets to fight his sickness by fighting criminals.

This is easily my favorite issue of any of the recent Conan comics Marvel’s been releasing. It’s a pretty self-contained story, and really gets to the point. Conan becomes King, gets sick from no longer fighting battles, and to cure himself becomes a vigilante. There’s also a lion sidekick. You read that right, a lion sidekick. There’s no real elaboration about the sickness, and if it’s truly because Conan isn’t swinging a sword around anymore. This is also the fourth part of this “Crimson Witch” story, but there’s no mention of that during the actual story. I can understand if someone counts that as a negative for this issue, but I don’t. It hasn’t really been a big part of the series since the first issue anyways.

Gerardo Zaffino’s art in this issue is really great. There’s something to it that really fits the tone that the story has. It’s a little more line heavy and gritty, and there’s a lot more shadows in use. And then when Conan is fighting, it looks bloody and brutal, like you’d think. The colors are kind of muted and washed out, but, again, I think it works very well with the tone of the story. I also enjoy Conan’s vigilante design, it’s pretty simple, but it works. It’s a little Superman-esque with how easy it would be to discover who’s behind the mask. It’s nothing against the art or design, because I really like both, but I had to mention it.

This is my favorite out of all of Marvel’s recent Conan titles. The story is something that I wouldn’t mind if they explored more. The art is a great fit for the darker tone this issue has. This is a very solid issue of Conan the Barbarian. I think fans of Conan will enjoy this issue, and I think non-fans will have something to enjoy here as well.