Savage Sword Of Conan #4 Is A Zombie-Bashing Adventure With Depth

While the main Conan series has been telling stories of the Cimmerian’s life on the macro level, Savage Sword of Conan is clearly meant for individual stories on the micro level, arcs exploring full adventures. However, it’s been interesting to see both series explore the same themes.

Gerry Duggan, Ron Garney, Richard Isanove and Travis Lanham continue their story as Conan and their companions are drawn deeper and deeper into their quest.

Conan, Suty and Menes battle the undead warriors blocking their path as they dive deeper into the catacombs under Kheshatta. However, Suty’s condition is worsening, as Koga Thun’s curse take ahold of him. Even with Conan’s cunning, the curse could be his undoing…

It’s interesting that Duggan explores some of the same themes this issue as the most recent issue of Jason Aaron’s Conan. In that issue, his need for connection with others was his salvation, and in this one, it could prove to be his undoing. He also is able to show how intelligent and driven Conan is, all behind a classic sword and sorcery action story.

While Duggan is using a fight to frame a deep theme, Garney and Isanove are putting us in the center of the action. They create a sense of claustrophobia and fear, with Garney putting the monstrous undead front and center through the action, and Isanove using the natural colors of torchlight to paint the page. Garney’s action is impactful, and he uses his panel layouts to draw the reader in, then explode with violence.

We know that Conan’s going to make it through this adventure, but it’s going to be exciting to see exactly how in the next two issues.

Savage Sword of Conan #4 is available now from Marvel Comics.