Conan the Barbarian vol. 2: The Life and Death of Conan, Book Two

The first half of this volume carries on much as the previous one did.  With writer Jason Aaron, and artist Mahmud Asrar (and Gerardo Zaffino back for another issue here) giving us some decent but unspectacular “Conan” stories.  We see the barbarian recruiting a group of working girls to get some revenge, returning home to find that his friends and family needing some sorcery knocked out of them, and fighting his way through a literal “greatest hits” gauntlet of his past antagonists.  None of these stories are outright bad, they just feel so conventional by the standards of what I’ve come to expect from the character.  Things don’t look any better once we get to the two-thirds mark and find Aaron getting back to the whole “Life and Death of Conan” business by giving us some backstory for those eeeeeeeeevil cultist sibling kids.

Then Conan dies.  No, really, he does.  If you’re thinking that even death won’t keep the barbarian from going before his time, then you’d be right.  As to the means by which this happens… it’s actually pretty interesting.  Surprising, even.  It took him until near the very end, but Aaron FINALLY offers up something new (or at least, new to me) to the character’s mythos in the penultimate issue of his run.  Asrar is also up to the challenge of depicting this new addition and the resulting confrontation is easily the high point of the series.

The good feelings carry over to the final issue, where the evil is vanquished and King Conan rides out to resume his duties as King of Aquilonia.  We get some good action here, but the issue’s heart lies in its final pages as Conan reflects on what happened in the previous one.  It’s a realization that feels true to the character and puts the “curse” he was afflicted with in a new light.  Even if most of the issues in the Aaron/Asrar run were below my expectations of them, they were at least able to finish strong.