Conan the Barbarian #191 – “Deliverance” – James Owsley/Val Semeiks/Geof Isherwood
This one starts with an ex-soldier (Jahib-Re) reflecting on his past glories. Jahib was once unbeatable and commanded respect and fear in equal measure from all who knew him. Now he’s older and has been retired (somewhat unwillingly), but when his liege (Prince Irham) requests his presence, Jahib responds immediately. Irham has invaded El Shah Maddoc while Conan and company were absent and he’s now searching for a particular girl (who just happens to be Kaleb’s
daughter, Solaise) and wants Jahib to find her. Jahib reminds him that the men who took Solaise were mysteriously burnt to death and the girl escaped, but Irham decides to humiliate Jahibby making him dance in front of the entire court. We find out that the Devourer of Souls is the one who wants Solaise found, presumably so he can bring Kaleb to him and finish killing the Seven Apostles. Meanwhile, Conan and friends have returned to El Shah Maddoc and are planning to help Kaleb retrieve his daughter. That night, Jahib spots Conan sneaking about the rooftops of the city but keeps it to himself, hoping Conan is there to ruin Irham’s plans. Jahib finds Solaise near more burnt
corpses, but doesn’t seem to connect the two as he takes her away. (I’m assuming Solaise is the one burning her pursuers with some kind of weird magical power that manifests when she’s frightened.) When Irham tells Jahib that Solaise is to be killed, he realizes what a scumbag Irham is and refuses to obey him any longer. As Conan’s friends silently take out various guards, Irham sends his men to kill Jahib, who wastes quite a few of them. He runs into Conan and Kaleb, but Conan lets him go, repaying Jahib for not raising the alarm about him. When the Devourer tries to kill Solaise, she unleashes whatever power she has and almost destroys him, escaping while he reconstitutes himself. Conan and
his cohort invade the throne room and start wasting Irham’s men, aided by Jahib who has decided to throw his lot in with the noble Cimmerian. Jahib goes to confront the Devourer, but he ends up being killed. Solaise reunites with her father (who apparently knows about her deadly powers) and Simeon captures Irham. Conan is ready to kill him, but Keiv figures Irham’s takeover of the city puts him in open rebellion with the Emperor of Koth, which means he can hire Conan and company as highly-paid mercenaries. I’m not sure if that 
really makes sense, but Conan didn’t seem all that keen on being king anyway. This is a pretty good issue, though it’s a bit convoluted at times. I’m curious to see more of Solaise’s power and to find out where she got them. The Devourer seems to have shifted his focus from the Apostles to Conan, but I’m not sure why. I’m also not sure about the sudden reversal at the end; turning on the Kothian emperor right after he appointed Conan the king of El Shah Maddoc seems like a stupid move, but I guess we’ll see what happens.
Conan the Barbarian #192 – “Keeper” – James Owslry/Val Semeiks/Geof Isherwood
This one starts with Conan heading to a distant outpost to shore up whatever defenses Irham can muster now that he’s rebelling against Strabonus, Emperor of Koth. Conan had sent Simeon ahead but he was acting like a lunatic, so the guards locked him up. Conan frees him and they leave, with Conan giving Simeon shit for pretending to be a madman. Simeon points out that everyone puts up some kind of façade, even Conan. Simeon insists they cut through the forest and they run into some Kushites, who chase them to a clearing. The Kushites take off as if the
clearing was haunted, which it kind of is. Tentacles emerge from the ground and drag Conan and Simeon under, down to a tunnel network deep in the ground. Simeon has been taken farther down the tunnel, so Conan goes after him and ends up knocking himself out. Some weird creatures (like little green aliens) find Conan and try to take him to safety, but their enemy (the Keeper) shows up and grabs Conan. It torments him with nightmare visions of people he’s known, apparently in an effort to break through the face he presents to the world and find the true person under, so it can feed on the lies. But the Keeper is stunned to find no real artifice in Conan; he is just as he presents himself, 
free of hypocrisy, deceit, and petty jealousy. That repels the creature and it withdraws, telling Conan he’s free to leave. But he refuses to go without Simeon and ends up fighting the Keeper. They crash into an energy barrier but instead of being annihilated, Conan finds himself back above ground where Simeon is waiting for him. Simeon has no memories of the Keeper, so they head off to their next mission. This story seems like filler and it doesn’t really fit with Conan’s usual milieu. Green aliens and weird monsters are a bit out of his purview, but I suppose the point was to show that Conan doesn’t have a façade like most people, he just shows his true self to the world.