Conan the Barbarian #199 – “Revelation in the Mists” – James Owsley/Val Semeiks/Geof Isherwood
This one continues from last issue with Conan and Kaleb fighting over Solaise. Conan now knows she has some kind of Demonic power and that she’s dangerous, but Kaleb (who was quite aware of all that) is still protecting her. As the two of them fight, the Devourer of Souls calls Solaise’s cat to him through a dimensional rift. Solaise follows the cat and Conan and Kaleb follow her, ending up back in the Forest of Eternal Truth. Conan and Kaleb see visions of the time of King
Kull followed by more recent ones, showing how Kaleb joined the Council of the Seven and gave them the Eye of Namut. That allowed them to access the power of the Elder Gods’ child. Kaleb’s guilt ate at him until he returned to smash the Eye, which caused the child’s essence to enter Solaise. Kaleb was given youth and power to protect her and he beats the shit out of Conan when he tries to grab Solaise. In this place of truth, Kaleb reverts to his real form, that of an old man. The Devourer gives Kaleb a dagger and tells him to kill Conan ig he wants to restore his youth. Meanwhile, the Elder Gods have woken up and are aware of what’s happening, so they sent a mystical bolt to change the 
staff Simeon is carrying into a sword capable of being wielded by their chosen champion. This is a decent issue, but it’s mostly exposition about Solaise and Kaleb. The story continues in Conan Annual 12 but since I won’t be reviewing that I’ll give you a synopsis. Basically, the cat Sedrick was once squire to a knight of King Kull but he betrayed Kull to Thulsa Doom and was cursed to be a cat for millennia. Whoever reunites Sedrick and Solaise (who holds the power of the Elder Gods) can wield ultimate power and that what the Devourer does. Conan receives the magic sword and Sonja gets her fighting spirit back, but they need help from the skeletal remains of Thulsa Doom to face the newly empowered Devourer.
Conan the Barbarian #200 – “The Fall of Acheron” – James Owsley/Val Semeiks/Geof Isherwood
This one continues from last issue (or from the annual) with the Devourer using his power to obliterate Conan and all his friends … or trying to. The magic sword Conan holds has the power of the Elder Gods and shields him and his friends from the Devourer’s power. Conan challenges the Devourer to a one-on-one fight, but the Devourer retreats. It’s having trouble containing all the power that once resided in Solaise; she was innocent, so the power didn’t hurt her, but the Devourer is in constant pain. Back at Conan’s camp, Thulsa Doom’s shade summons Xuthl (Lord of the Evil
Dead) and asks a favour of him. Xuthl goes to he Devourer to call in the favour he owes (from issue 193), requesting that he sacrifice a beautiful yet unspoilt woman whose love he has won fairly. The Devourer finds such a woman and takes on mortal form (calling himself Acheron) to win the love of the beautiful Sephra. It takes a while but he does make her love him and he falls for her too, hoping that he can actually live out his days as a mortal with Sephra at his side. But as soon as she proclaims her love for him, she bursts into flame and dies. Acheron realizes Xuthl tricked him and he goes to where he hid the Devourer’s form to destroy it. Conan and his friends have arrived there too, 
hoping to get rid of the Devourer once and for all. While the others fight conjured demons, Conan finds the Devourer’s remains and dispatches Acheron. The Devourer animates and attacks Conan and the two warriors have a grand battle that transports them from place to place thanks to their eldritch swords. The manor collapses but Conan and the Devourer crawl from the rubble to face each other again. The Devourer is cowed by Conan’s indomitable will and that gives the Cimmerian the edge he needs. Conan defeats the Devourer, Solaise re-appears as a child, and the magic sword crumbles to dust. We see the now-mortal Acheron wash ashore on one of the Pearl Islands with a bottle containing Xuthl, who tells him his defeat was caused by the lingering bit of
humanity in him that made him hesitate while facing Conan. I’m not sure what that means exactly, but I’m glad this storyline is finally over. All this cosmos-shattering stuff seems much too grand for Conan, who Robert E. Howard always wrote as a much more down-to-earth hero. I think I’ve had enough of Conan’s adventures for now, so I’ll be doing all Spider-Man reviews for the foreseeable future.