Conan The Barbarian #2
Written by Brian Wood
Art by Becky Cloonan
Colors by Dave Stewart
Letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Cover by Massino Carnevale
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 14, 2012
Cover Price: $3.50

Conan The Barbarian #2 is a true gem. One of those comics that will have a Conan fan cheering out loud by the end of the book. The problem is, I don’t know how well readers who aren’t familiar with Conan will take it.

Writer Brian Wood takes a classic Robert E. Howard story with almost no dialogue and crafts a fantastic comic…with almost no dialogue. And that’s fine. There’s not much that needs to be said in this story, and what dialogue there is, is meaningful.

As I stated early, this is a classic Conan story that fans of the property have been begging to be adapted ever since Dark Horse Comics started publishing comics. Well, it’s finally here and it’s worth the wait. This issue, boiled down, is Conan fighting and the boarding of one ship by another. That’s. About. It. BUT, it’s written in a way that absolutely takes these two simple events and expands and expounds upon them to make a thrilling, fun, and all around fantastic full-length comic.

Becky Cloonan. Every time I look at this book you just make me sad. As the world’s second biggest MacGyver fan, all I can think of is what would have been. Such a shame. ANYWAY, let me talk about Conan the Barbarian #2. Simply put, I loved the art. I’ve been reading Conan comics for a long time. Since I was about ten or eleven years old. The art in this book is SUCH a welcome breath of fresh air! Cloonan takes her art and tells a Conan story. This isn’t a Conan story drawn by Becky Cloonan, this is a Becky Cloonan Conan story. I’m very curious as to how her art will be received. Conan has a very specific look to it, and this is FAR from the norm. Gone is Conan with the He-Man on steroids physique. He’s slim, but cut. If he were wearing a top of some kind in this story, you really wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a crowd. Again, a very nice change of pace and the last page comes across with such emotion, that, as a long time Conan fan, I got goosebumps. For real.

Again, great great issue. What Dark Horse has set out to do, they’ve accomplished. They’ve got a whole different look and feel to Conan the Barbarian comics. Hopefully, the regular crowd of readers is satisfied and not put off by the drastic artistic changes.

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