Conan the Barbarian, Volume 1: Bound In Black Stone Review (Jim Zub, Roberto de la Torre)

Marvel lost the Conan licence to Titan Comics along with the creative team of Jim Zub and Roberto de la Torre who also moved over, having previously worked on Conan at Marvel. I’m not a big fan of Conan or fantasy in general but I heard good things about this one - and maybe the title would be good without Marvel editorial’s stinkbomb touch?

Disappointingly, nope - this one wasn’t for me. On paper it’s a good fit. Jim Zub is the perfect writer to be relaunching Conan the Barbarian. Not only because he used to write the character, but he’s been writing fantasy for years. Skullkickers was solid and he also wrote some D&D comics - the pedigree is there. Roberto de la Torre is a fine artist too - this book doesn’t look bad at all (maybe a bit dark - though that’s on colourist Dean White too).

But it’s such a boring read! Conan is the archetypal barbarian character in fantasy and Zub delivers simply that: an archetypal barbarian fantasy story. There’s a monster in black stone and (for the umpteenth time) Thulsa Doom that are bringing the undead scourge and lizard men in human form to threaten the land - Conan and other one-dimensional warrior characters smash ‘em. That’s all Conan ever does too: hits stuff that gets in his way, moves on, repeat ad infinitum.

Besides his rote actions, Conan doesn’t have much of a personality. He’s stoic and barely speaks so Zub has to fill the page with Robert E. Howard-esque prose that adds absolutely nothing to what we’re seeing on the page, which is usually Conan stabbing someone with a sword, so it’s just a dreary and pointless slog to read through (Howard was not a great or entertaining writer).

Conan clearly has his fans as his continued publications attest to, though I remain mystified as to what they see in him; to me, he’s a wholly uninteresting protagonist and his adventures are the same dull thing over and over, decade after decade. Conan the Barbarian, Volume 1: Bound in Black Stone only further confirms to me that Conan and fantasy comics aren’t my bag, whoever’s publishing them.