King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel

Though writer Tim Truman and artist Tomas Giorello wrapped up their run on “Conan the Cimmerian” a while back, they’ve teamed up again for this tale of the character’s years as a king.  This time, after being betrayed on the battlefield and having his army slaughtered to the man, Conan finds himself imprisoned in the titular object while his enemies go to claim his kingdom for themselves.  As with so many other stories involving the man, this involves him surviving the many horrors of the sorcerous lair so that he may unleash a can of Hyborian whoop-ass on his captors at the end.  Truman and Giorello worked very well together during their time on the ongoing series, giving the gritty violence and otherworldly weirdness an epic heft and scope in their best stories.  “The Scarlet Citadel” has a much smaller focus, but it still captures a lot of what made their run work.

It isn’t, however, the best “King Conan” story.  That honor still goes to Josh Dysart and Will Conrad’s “Conan and the Midnight God” with its portrayal of a restless king trying to bite off more than he can chew by waging a war against Stygia for equal parts revenge and the fact that it allows him to keep doing what he feels he was born to do.  There’s a reason I keep referring to this as “Conan’s Midlife Crisis,” but the truth underlying the character’s exploits here almost makes my glibness ring hollow.  This story doesn’t have that depth, though the framing sequences which set up the device of having an older King Conan narrate his story give the story a touch of melancholy in a sense that maybe the man’s best days are behind him.  Even if that is the case, this won’t be Truman and Giorello’s last story with this version of the character as “The Phoenix on the Sword” is currently being serialized, and should be worth reading based on their work here.