Conan the Barbarian #185 – “Monument” – Jim Owsley/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts with a flashback to issue 177 where Tetra declared her love for Conan and he brushed her off. Apparently she’s a bit miffed about that, which is why she blew up the castle last issue and everyone in it. Well, everyone except Conan, who she protects with a mystical force-field so she can show him why she’s so pissed off at him. She takes him into the time-stream, which she claims she’s now doomed to wander forever. She blames Conan for her fate and shows him images of
their adventures together, admonishing him for not noticing (or maybe not caring about) her feelings for him. She finishes with an image of being dragged into another dimension and gives Conan shit for assuming she was dead and not trying to find her. Tetra then reveals that she’s been moving through the time-stream and manipulating events to get things to end up like this. She went far back in the past to give the amulet to a trader who passed it down through the generations, she forced Imhotep into Conan’s world knowing that only the amulet could free him, and she took Maddoc I so his son would be forced 
to take over rule of his city. Tetra tells Conan she still loves him and wants him to join her in her wanderings through the time-stream, offering him riches and conquest beyond his wildest dreams. Conan says he will join her under certain conditions: she take them back to a few moments before she destroyed the castle, thus restoring his companions to life; she turn Keiv human again; and she give up her sorcerous power and journey through time with him as a mortal woman. She agrees and seems to give up her power, but Conan knows the real Tetra is dead and this is just a demonic mockery, so he stabs her. She admits she is just a demon pretending to be Tetra and blasts him before fleeing to regroup. But her wounds disorient her and Conan catches her at the top of
the tower, where he finishes her off. The tower crumbles under his feet but Conan is saved by Imhotep, so he returns the amulet allowing the demon to go back to his own dimension. This is a pretty good issue, although a lot of it is just recaps of stuff we’ve already seen. It wasn’t too surprising that this wasn’t the real Tetra and I’m glad Conan was astute enough to see it. It’s good that Keiv and Shapur ended up all right in the end too, and Imhotep saving Conan made sense since he still had the amulet (plus Imhotep said he owed Conan for saving him).
Conan the Barbarian #186 – “The Crimson Brotherhood” – Don Kraar/Mike Docherty/Dave Simons
This one starts with Conan on a Zingaran ship sailing through the storm-tossed sea pursued by a ship from Argos. The new King of Argos is pissed off at Conan and wants him dead, but the Zingaran captain has no love for Argos and manages to evade pursuit by sailing close to some reefs. Unfortunately, he gts too close to an island where a siren sings to lure them onto the reefs, breaking up their ship. Conan and a few others wash up on shore
unconscious and are imprison by slave-traders, who seem to be using the siren to get new “merchandise”. Conan is recognized as Amra by some of the slavers, but they also know about the bounty the Argossean king has lately put on his head. Conan tries to challenge the slaver captain (Kezan Val) to single combat, but he says slaves can’t make such a challenge. Later, the siren (a water nymph named Miri) tells Conan she will free him if he returns the favour, breaking the silver chain that binds her to Kezan Val’s service (which can only be done by a man without fear). Once freed, Conan arms himself and drags Kezan 
Val out in front of everyone to challenge him again. Naturally, Conan wins and lets Kezan Val skulk away in shame while Conan takes over leadership of the pirates, renaming them the Crimson Brotherhood. He doesn’t forget to free Miri, who promises she will repay him someday. Kezan Val goes straight to King Thamos in Argos to let him know where to find Conan (and gets his throat cut as a reward). Thamos leads four ships out to find Conan and they use another ship to bait the pirates into a trap. After a quick sea battle, the other Argosseans close in and Conan is forced to flee back towards the reefs. Another storm blows up and the siren call is heard again, this time luring all
the Argossean ships to their doom, thus fulfilling Miri’s promise. This was a pretty good story; it’s nice to see Conan as a pirate again and it was cool to see Miri keeping her promise by helping destroy all the ships from Argos. I like the art too, it reminds me of Buscema’s a bit, although nobody can quite equal him on Conan.