Conan the Barbarian #119 – “The Voice of One Long Gone” – J.M. DeMatteis/John Buscema/Bob McLeod, Sal Buscema
This one continues from last issue, with the villagers celebrating Myya’s death, but Conan is in a dark mood and refuses to take part in the revels, even when a drunken Jenna tries to entice him. Conan takes off and Jenna decides to go with him rather than deal with the losers who start hitting on her. They have to stop for Jenna to be sick and Conan confides that his mood is because he feels a strange presence hanging over him, a presence that reminds him of someone he knew back in Cimmeria … his grandfather, Drogin. Conan tells Jenna how Drogin helped him become a true warrior and how bad Conan felt when Drogin went off into the snowy wastes to die when he
got old. Jenna has fallen asleep and Conan’s reverie is interrupted by someone who looks just like Drogin, except younger. At first, Conan assumes it’s a ghost or some sorcerous conjuring, but soon accepts that this really is a de-aged Drogin somehow returned to life. Drogin takes Conan to a shimmering portal and cajoles him into entering it. They wind up in a strange place, where Drogin leads Conan to the castle of his “master”, a misshapen ruler named Ravenna. Drogin tells Conan how he regretted not travelling outside Cimmeria when he was about to die and how Ravenna appeared in a vision and offered him a deal: Ravenna’s consciousness would share Drogin’s body so he (or they) 
could travel all over the world. Ravenna even restored Drogin’s youth to make his wanderings easier. But Drogin eventually grew tired of that life and wished for the peace of death, so Ravenna told him he could be released if he found someone willing to fight for his life. Conan is willing and goes to confront Ravenna’s “champion”, which takes the form of past foes like Yag-Kosha, a devil-beast of Nergal, Thak, and even Bêlit. But Conan realizes the truth when he wakes up tied to a stone slab: Ravenna wants him to replace Drogin as the vessel for Ravenna’s consciousness. Ravenna reveals his true form (which looks like a Horta made of straw) and begins to insinuate his mind into Conan’s. Drogin comes to his senses and throws a brazier at Ravenna, allowing Conan to
break free and attack the beast. Ravenna tosses them through a portal back to their own world, but Drogin has lost his youth and wanders into the forest to die for real this time, leaving Conan to find some comfort in Jenna’s arms. This story is okay, but it leans a bit too much on sorcery; that seems to be a common theme with DeMatteis’s Conan stuff, using too much mystical stuff instead of concentrating on the characters. This is a decent fantasy tale, but I think Roy’s stuff s closer in tone to Robert E. Howard’s Conan.
Conan the Barbarian #120 – “The Hand of Erlik” – J.M. DeMatteis/John Buscema/Bob McLeod
This one starts with Conan and Jenna travelling through Shem and getting a surprise when a strange mist surrounds them. They see a man playing a set of pipes who introduces himself as Vonndhar, servant of the death-god Erlik. Conan isn’t inclined to believe him until he spits him on his sword and Vonndhar rises again good as new. Vonndhar says Jenna was supposed to die of the plague a couple issues back but since she didn’t, he’s here to judge if she’s worthy to keep living. Jenna doesn’t help her case by taking off and she gets in more trouble when she stumbles into a brigand
camp. To keep them from violating her, she tells them she’s just escaped from a very rich master and offers to lead the brigands right to him. She leads them to Conan and Vonndhar, who waste quite a few brigands before the leader (Okkan) realizes Jenna tricked them. Since Vonndhar says Jenna is under his protection the brigands can’t retaliate, but Okkan asks Conan and Vonndhar to join them in raiding the king of Pelishtia’s gold shipments. Conan agrees, but only if he leads the brigands, a position he establishes by punching Okkan out. Later, Vonndhar tells Conan and Jenna how he was once a general in ancient Valusia until he was killed in battle and resurrected to be Erlik’s 
ambassador amongst mortals. Jenna tries to use her charms on Vonndhar, which kinda seems like it’s working, but he still won’t relent on judging whether she should live or die. The next day, Conan leads the brigands in an ambush of the wagons carrying the gold, but during the fight a wagon tips over on Jenna, pushed by a strong wind that springs up from nowhere. Vonndhar realizes it’s Erlik’s doing and curses the god, who partially manifests to tell Vonndhar that he had allowed his long-buried human emotions to sway his decision about Jenna’s fate. Vonndhar offers to give Erlik his soul in place of Jenna’s and Erlik accepts. Jenna revives and is mystified as to Vonndhar’s actions
until Conan points out the obvious … Vonndhar was in love with her. Conan realizes Jenna’s professions of love for Vonndhar were just a way to manipulate him, so he takes off, leaving Jenna with the dead brigands … and her own conscience. This is another decent story, but once again DeMatteis leans on esoteric elements (with an actual god this time) to keep the story moving. I hope he does some more down-to-earth tales in future issues.