'Conan the Barbarian: The Life and Death of Conan, Book Two' – Aaron, Asrar, Zaffino (Marvel)



It really doesn't feel like it was December last year when I read 'The Life and Death of Conan, Book One' but apparently it was... Sometimes it really does feel like we've had a year's worth of crap happen in the last five and a bit months. But anyway...
'The Life and Death of Conan, Book One' was a happy reminder that there is life after Dark Horse's superlative Conan collection and that Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar and Gerardo Zaffino are the team to put your money behind. Sorry Mr Duggan, if it's any consolation though it was a close run race.
So I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I mean, we all know that Conan won't die (especially now he's with Marvel, he'll probably end up being a teacher to the next group of young mutants...) but the fun is in the journey and not the destination. So then, lets take that journey...

The many loves of Conan! Beyond his lusts for ale, battle and gold, there have been many women who have captured the Barbarian's heart over the years. But nothing is sacred when the Crimson Witch strikes and twists what is truly best in life! Then, Conan returns home to Cimmeria! But things aren't exactly as he remembers them... Is he that out of touch or is he falling right into the trap of the wizard Thoth-Amon?! 'The Life and Death of Conan' continues! Collecting: Conan The Barbarian 7-12

'The Life and Death of Conan, Book 2' doesn't offer any big surprises (told you...) but what it does give you is a continuation of all that was good about the first book; a journey through Conan's life as seen by two children who want to eventually feed him to their god...
The structure is exactly the same as the first book, we see Conan go on an adventure, or have something unexpected and horrible happen to him, and we gradually realise that we are not seeing this latest adventure through Conan's eyes... Fair play to Aaron that even though we know the children are following Conan, it's still a surprise when they pop up at the end of a story.

And the stories... It's like Aaron thought to himself that even though he was following the same plot structure, there was absolutely no reason at all why he couldn't just ramp it up to 11 and just go for it... and he does. Not ony does Conan fight his way out of a god, we also get to meet Crom himself which I wasn't sure about to start off with (I mean, no-body meets Crom, that's the whole point of Crom...) but it worked really well and and just ended up really summing up what Conan is really all about; never once giving up and making sure that you hit hardest. That's the real point of this book, I think.

There is so much going on here, I thought it would be a relatively quick read (being a fairly slim book) but it took a few hours and they were definitely hours well spent. Aaron may have steered the book past the potential pitfalls but Asrar and Zaffino really nail it once again with the artwork. It's just superb and again, really captures the spirit of what Conan is all about. In the unlikely event that anyone from Marvel ever reads this review, please keep this team together. I think they could really make 'Conan' into something special.

In the 'battle' of 'Savage Sword of Conan' vs 'Conan the Barbarian', 'Conan the Barbarian' wins the first bout and looks like it could well be the Marvel 'Conan' title to follow. I'll be picking up both anyway, but this is my current favourite. 'The Life and Death of Conan, Book Two' looked like it could have fallen foul of a trap or two but Aaron, Asrar and Zaffino really turned it around and added some pathos to an older barbarian who clearly has a few more adventures in him.

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