Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1 Review

 

Writer: Jim Zub

Artist: Jonas Scharf

Colorist: João Canola

Letterers: Richard Starkings & Tyler Smith

Editors: Chris Butera & Matt Murray

Cover Artists:Gerardo Zaffino; Sedat Oezgen; Stuart Sayger; Samwise Didier; Tony Fleecs,

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: September 4, 2024

 

Professor John Kirowan and John Conrad arrive at The Wanderers Club late. Speaking the members’ phrase gains them entry, but is the person they wish to meet still there? And how can they advance Professor Kirowan’s research? Let’s leap into Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1 and find out!

 

Story

Adventurers, researchers, and scholars gather in the plush Chicago club surrounded by historic artifacts. But Professor Kirowan is more interested in books. Specifically, he is interested in a symbol Francis Xavier Gordon drew in a journal. Professor Kirowan and his friend saw the symbol in the excavated ruins of a Stygian city. They want Gordon, or El Borak, to tell them more about it.  

 

Conan battled the Aquilonians when they erected a fort in Cimmeria at Venarium. Now, he defends their fort in the Pict-held lands at Conajohara. Valannus, the commander of Fort Tuscelan, views Conan little better than the savages who defy their civilized invaders. Other Aquilonians agree. While Conan is a fierce fighter, a sigil inscribed on stone drives him into a berserker-like rage. He found the disk of carved stone on a dead Pict. So, like the Eye of the Serpent and the Wheel of Pain pendant, Conan slipped it around his neck. As with the emblem of two serpents facing each other, the symbol plagues his mind. Conan’s lapses of control worry him. While others sleep, Conan slips out of Fort Tuscelan and ventures into Pict territory. Perhaps there, Conan will learn why the Pict wore the symbol, and why it drives him into a killing frenzy.

 

 

 

Long after the Hyborian Age, James Alison sits at his desk in Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1. He writes tall tales of warriors and wanderers and sells his stories to magazines. As Alison doesn’t share his stories’ origins, or use the title A Million Little Pieces, his editors assume he makes them up. But every time he writes, an ancient symbol burns in his mind.

 

As they sit together at The Wanderers Club, Francis Xavier Gordon’s good humor fades. El Borak faced his fears as he defended a kidnapped chief’s son in a cursed temple. Now, he dissembles. Then he admits the truth. The symbol plagues him. Unlike Harry Potter, he fears any mention of it will increase its power. 

 

 

 

In Jim Zub’s story, the symbol of the Black Stone calls to people across space and time. It propels them on journeys. It calls them to battle. And it fires their imaginations. Professor Kirowan wants to learn its power. El Borak fears that the symbol will provoke a war to end all wars. He’s already lived through one. He doesn’t want to provoke another.

 

 

 

Art

Fog rises from the car-choked street as rays from the setting sun stream between the stone buildings lining the street. The golden light makes a gargoyle glow as silhouettes ascend stairs in Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1. A woman leads the men into a museum illuminated a skylight-ceiling. The largest artifacts stand on an upper floor. More hang on the wall. The smallest reside within glass globes atop wooden pedestals. Then the richly adorned background fades as El Borak, his black tie hanging loose beneath his white tuxedo, welcomes the black tuxedoed visitors.

 

 

 

Men in monochromatic formal attire make ladies in pink and lavender dresses shine amid the rich yellows and browns of The Wanderers Club. Conan and fellow defenders sport rosy flesh while a yellow and orange fire rages inside the fort. They enter, and as Conan and another brawl before the bonfire, the other soldiers become fade to black. Amid the rich textures and bright colors suffusing Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1, none shine brighter than green. After holding the disk of stone in his hand, green radiates from Conan as he lays beneath a black starry sky. The green symbol hovers above him. Soon, that same green glow will surround other Howardian heroes. And for one, the fire it radiates will threaten to consume him.

 

 

 

Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith conjure black uppercase words into white dialogue balloons and green narrative boxes. Stately white letters announce time and location. No sound effects invade Jonas Scharf’s art, even when Conan wages a fierce battle against those who call Conajohara their own. But the symbol João Canola colors green prompts Conan to utter large colorful dialogue in Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1. Thanks to Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures for providing a copy for review. 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

An ancient symbol speaks to people across space and time. It drives Conan and Dark Agnes into savage rages. It intrigues Kirowan and Conrad, fires a Texas writer’s imagination and sends Soloman Kane on a quest. Conan undertakes the most dangerous journey and makes the strangest discovery in Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #1.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

For more cover art and a checklist to ensure you don't miss a moment of the Battle of the Black Stone crossover see my preview on September 4th.