Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Conan The Barbarian #24Conan The Barbarian #24
Dark Horse Comics
Wood, Burchielli & Stewart

The penultimate issue of the Brian Wood Conan the Barbarian run is a tremendous issue. The book makes excellent use of visuals to tell the story while Wood writes a beautiful narration of the events unfolding in the comic book. This actually reads very well as a one-shot because of how Wood constructs it but the emotional punch might get slightly lost without the longer view of how Conan feels for his beloved Belit. However, you look at this comic you can't go wrong picking it up. It's a fantastic read.

Conan is alone and trapped on an Island. Everyone is dead. His crew, his love, his friends are all gone. Conan is hunted by many creatures. This comic book is mostly about Conan's survival from this deathtrap. While you might think a comic about Conan fighting creatures is kind of boring it is not because of the visuals and the narration.

The visuals are fantastic in the book because the pencils really captures the terror of Conan being hunted but still shows his brave and barbaric side at the same time. The color scheme is brilliant as it makes great use of red when the blood begins to flow from the open wounds. There is something very fluid about the panels that convey the action well. The comic book is very dramatic and brutal visually.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe book moves toward Conan saying goodbye to his lover Belit. There are only a few pages of this but the narration really emphasizes how Conan feels extremely effectively. He isn't blubbering about her death but he is in mourning. Conan seems aware that an important chapter in his life has just closed. It's a touching sequence.

The only oddity with the issue is that book seems to move from a straightforward, linear story in the beginning to one that jumps around the timeline in the end. It was a strange construction for the book but I think the juxtaposition of scenes shown helps to show the extremes of the character: love and brutality.

Wood's run on Conan has been very good. The long view is one of a love story. This comic closes the book on the love story and unleashes a bloodbath of rage as Conan makes the decision to survive. Even it means carrying on alone. This is such a great read.

4.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles