Conan Reviews: Conan the Barbarian 167, Conan the Barbarian 168

Conan the Barbarian #167 – “The Creature From Time’s Dawn” – Michael Fleisher/John Buscema/Dave Simons

This one starts with Conan and Fafnir betting on a street game in some town. Fafnir is still pissed off that Conan kept him from being killed last issue, but they’re distracted when Conan realizes the guy running the game is cheating. The head con (Menskar) takes off while Conan pounds his thugs, which attracts the attention of a lovely noblewoman (Countess Noirelle), who invites Conan and Fafnir back to her chateau. (Judging by the faux-French names, I assume they’re still in Nemedia.) Noirelle wants them to do something for her, so she invites them to stay for dinner. They marvel at the décor in her palace, including paintings of her that seem very old. (We see Noirelle looking at her reflection in a mirror, so I guess that means she’s not a vampire.) Meanwhile, Menskar is pissed off at Conan for revealing his scam and swears revenge. At Noirelle’s palace, she tells Conan and Fafnir she wants them to retrieve a valuable egg, but first they need some yellow lotus powder to put the egg’s guardian to sleep. Yellow lots is trafficked (illegally) in Nemedia by Shemites who use Khaurani slaves to harvest the pollen from the marshes. There are too many Shemites to fight, so Fafnir volunteers to sneak into the camp and steal some pollen. He alerts a guard and Conan has to jump in to help, freeing the slaves so they can attack the Shemites too. Fafnir grabs some pollen and they take off, but he refuses to let Conan take the pollen for safekeeping. Conan and Noirelle go back to her place for some banging, but Menskar and his thugs are waiting for them. Conan wastes them all and is still ready for some lovin’. Noirelle explains that she needs to egg to make a potion that will keep her looking young, even though she’s thousands of years old. Meanwhile, Fafnir meets a tavern doxy who he rather unwisely tells about the lotus pollen he’s carrying. Naturally, she steals it, but Fafnir thinks it’s still in the pouch on his belt. He, Conan, and Noirelle head to the aerie of a monstrous bird (which looks more like a bat) to get the egg, but it sounds like Noirelle might be using the two warriors as a distraction so she can grab the egg. Fafnir soon finds out he doesn’t have the lotus powder anymore, so he throws himself at the beast and gets knocked into the egg, smashing it to shit. Fafnir is tossed off the cliff by the monster and Noirelle jumps after him, breaking her neck but not dying since her immortality can only be ended by aging. She dives off the cliff, hoping to find Fafnir’s body still covered in egg residue. The monster attacks Conan and he kills it, then prepares to look for Fafnir and Noirelle. This was a pretty good issue, with Noirelle’s immortality being more of a curse than a blessing and driving her to desperate ends. I’m not sure if this is the last we’ll see of her and Fafnir or not, but I’m sure Conan will search for them until there’s no hope left.

Conan the Barbarian #168 – “The Bird-Woman and the Beast” – Michael Fleisher/John Buscema

This issue follows from the one above, but it seems like Conan has given up he search for Fafnir (or his body) after scouring the surroundings thoroughly. He’s distracted when some hillmen arrive chasing a woman with wings, who turns out to be Alhambra (last seen in issue 154). Conan tries to rescue her, but the hillmen trip his horse and get away. Conan follows their trail to a nearby town where he finds Alhambra being exhibited in a circus freak show, beaten half to death. He tries to get her out and is jumped by thugs working for the showrunner. The fight starts a fire and one of the other “freaks” (a yeti-man called Villardo) rescues Alhambra. Conan pounds the thugs and escapes the fire to find the circus people have taken off, not wanting the villagers to blame them for the fire. Conan follows the trail but is accosted by some bird-men from Ur-Xanarrh who are also looking for Alhambra. Apparently, she was supposed to marry their leader to cement an alliance between their peoples, but she took off instead. Conan takes down a couple of his attackers and the other one flees. As the circus sets up in another town, Villardo tells Alhambra how he’s been shunned and vilified his whole life because he looks like a monster, which is why he doesn’t really want to leave the circus. Alhambra does want to escape and it’s obvious (to us at least) that Villardo is in love with her. The bird-men looking for Alhambra find a poster advertising the circus. Conan finds the circus camp and forces the owner to free Alhambra, but the bird-men show up to grab her, taking Conan high in the air to drop him. Alhambra convinces Villardo to free her and saves Conan from falling to his death. They rout the bird-men and Conan figures they can celebrate with some sex, but Alhambra realizes she loves Villardo as much as he loves her, so she chooses to be with him. This was a pretty good issue, although the whole travelling circus thing doesn’t quite fit with the Hyborian Age. It was good to see Alhambra again an I like that she recognized Villardo’s feelings for her and reciprocated them.