Conan the Barbarian #51 – “Man Born of Demon” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Dick Giordano
This one starts with Conan arriving (finally!) in the capital city of Phalkar to complete his mission. He’s impersonating a merchant and bullies his way through some guards to get to the usurper, Unos. Conan presents Unos with a gift, a golden bird that he says can answer questions about the past, present, and future. The two wizards who killed the true regent and installed Unos in his place (Thalkalides and Elviriom) don’t believe the bird can prophesy (or maybe they just fear losing influence with Unos), but the acting regent is eager to hear what the bird will say about his future. Unfortunately for him, the bird predicts Unos will be overthrown and the
rightful heir (who we know from last issue is Stefanya) will rule in his place. The two wizards freak out and the bird mentions Elviriom being responsible for the “accident” that killed Stefanya’s parents, as well as revealing that they created Unos through demonic sorcery. That makes Unos wonder if the wizards will turn on him someday and he lets Conan and his bird go free. The bird turns out to be Lupalina, although she’s cagey about whether she actually transformed into the bird or if it was just an illusion. Unos later tracks down Conan 
and Lupalina, wanting their help to protect him from the power-hungry wizards. Lupalina uses her magic to summon the two demons who created Unos, who asks them to get rid of the wizards for him. Conveniently, Thalkalides and Elviriom followed Unos and burst into the room just at that moment. The demons kill them and disappear, warning Unos they won’t help him again. Unos thanks Lupalina for her help, then stabs her in the back … literally. Meanwhile, Conan and Stefanya have headed back into the wastelands of the Border Kingdoms to find the body of Zoqquanor, which was discarded when Torkal Moh ambushed them. They find Zoqquanor’s body, still protected by its sorcerous shield, but
they’re set upon by a vengeful Unos, riding a conjured hell-horse. Unos wants to kill Stefanya to assure his rulership and the easiest way to do that is to eliminate Zoqquanor, because of the binding spell Zoqquanor used to link his life to Stefanya’s. Conan opposes Unos and gives the wizard a shock when he regenerates from Unos’s laser eyes (thanks to the magic amulet Conan was supposed to deliver to the true regent of Phalkar). But Unos uses his magic to throw rocks at Conan and bind him with vines conjured from the rocky ground. Unos tries to kill Zoqquanor, which causes Stefanya a lot of pain. 
But when Conan hears that Unos killed Lupalina, he breaks free and kills the usurper (unwittingly) by pressing the amulet against his chest. Conan uses the amulet to bring Stefanya back from the brink of death, even though Zoqquanor is dead. He tells Stefanya to keep the amulet and to rule Phalkar well, asking her to give Lupalina a decent burial ceremony since he won’t be coming with her. This is a pretty good ending for the Gardner Fox adaptation, although it sucks that Lupalina had to die. Roy apparently wasn’t happy about it either, but wanted to stay faithful to Fox’s original story, which he mostly did (although he changed the ending a bit).
Conan the Barbarian #52 – “The Altar and the Scorpion” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Tom Palmer
This one starts with Conan arriving in Belverus, the capital of Nemedia, looking for work as a mercenary. When a bull gets loose in the own square, a youngster performs some daring acrobatics before Conan breaks the bull’s neck. Turns out the bull was let loose by Conan’s old acquaintance, Murilo, who’s in town recruiting men for his mercenary company, the Crimson Company. The young bull-dancer doesn’t appreciate Murilo’s prank and kicks him in the face. His men grab the plucky youngster, who turns out to be a girl named Tara, and Conan leaps to
her defense. Luckily, Murilo’s weird sense of humour extends to himself and he tells his men to leave Tara alone. At a nearby tavern, Murilo recounts how he was caught selling state secrets and forced to flee, becoming a mercenary leader. He offers Conan the job of second-in-command of the Crimson Company and Conan accepts. Tara wants to come too and Murilo isn’t too keen on that idea, but when Conan speaks up for her, Murilo says Tara can come along as the barbarian’s squire. Murilo’s company is heading for Ophir and Conan learns some new 
fighting moves along the way, as well as being fitted out with some new gear. But when the company passes into Ophirean territory, marching towards the Plain of Shamu, some of the men get scared because of some ancient legends about the place. Murilo tells Conan of a great city on the plain, back in the days of King Kull, and how two factions in the city worshipped opposing gods: the great scorpion god and the Black Shadow. Supposedly, a Shadow worshipper named Thuron was killed by a scorpion before he could sacrifice some of the Scorpion god’s worshippers to his own dark god. Murilo isn’t frightened by the stories, but he does believe them … in fact, their mission is to find the altar of the scorpion god in the ruined city. They do find the altar and Murilo
tells his men to move it, even though they’re reluctant (and even Conan warns against offending a god). When the men try to move the crystal scorpion from the altar, it comes to life and starts killing them. Conan kills the scorpion and Murilo points out some steps leading under the altar, where they find the prize they came for … the Ring of the Black Shadow. Murilo is smart enough not to touch the ring, but says they have to go see their employers in Ronnoco to see what they want done with the Ring. Conan advises Murilo to bury the Ring again, but he doesn’t pay any heed to the barbarian and orders a couple of his men to guard the Ring while the rest of the company heads to Ronnoco. After 
three days of guarding the Ring, the two men get restless and decide to take it for themselves, but as soon as one of them touches it a shadow grows out of the Ring and swallows him up. The shadow swallows the other mercenary too, growing larger in the process. This is an original story, although Roy incorporated a very short Kull tale by Robert E. Howard as the legend of the lost city and made that the framework for the overall story. Tara is an interesting character, which her acrobatics and intelligence, so I hope she doesn’t get killed off in the next part of the story. Tom Palmer’s inking gives the art a different look, but I like it.