COMIC BOOKS: Conan Chronicles: Shadows Over Kush

Dean Poling, The Valdosta Daily Times, Ga.
·2 min read

Jan. 29—When Marvel Comics reacquired the comics rights to Conan the Barbarian, it also won the rights to the Conan works created during the Dark Horse Comics period of publishing Conan comics. Just as Dark Horse had the rights to all of the earlier works during the first Marvel run.

Marvel initially created a lot of Conan comics and titles, including "Conan the Barbarian," "Savage Sword of Conan" and "King Conan," and has published several "Conan" titles since reacquiring the properties a few years ago.

But Dark Horse published multiple "Conan" runs and titles during its years with Conan. And Marvel has been reissuing these story arcs as part of its "Conan Chronicles" series. Each volume of "Conan Chronicles" is several hundred pages and usually includes anywhere from a handful of lengthy story arcs, usually built around an adaptation of a story by Robert E. Howard, Conan's creator.

The latest "Conan Chronicles: Shadows Over Kush" collects "Conan the Avenger" issues 1-19. Released in recent weeks, the book follows the same pattern. It offers a few Conan storylines built around an adaptation of Howard's "The Slithering Shadow," where Conan and Natala, a young woman, escape death by thirst in the desert in a city where all of its inhabitants spend the majority of their times living dream lives induced by drugs. As they sleep, a shadowy figure feeds upon the dreaming residents. Conan will not be taken in his sleep.

In some ways, the adaptation doesn't fit in with the comics stories built around it. The adaptation features a different artist than the rest of the run. But the major problem is a strange one. The adaptation is too true to the original short story. In the short story, Natala is a two-dimensional woman as supporting character in a Conan tale. She is also complacent. She is this way in the adaptation, too.

But Natala has more personality and more gumption in the stories surrounding the adaptation. It's almost like the stories involve two different women. A few tweaks to the adaptation could have made Natala more consistent without altering the nature of the story.

That said, "Shadows Over Kush" has plenty of adventure and personality for regular Conan fans ... be it Marvel, Dark Horse or repurposed from one to the other.