Written by: Stefano Vietti & Luca Enoch
Art by: Lorenzo Nuti
Lettering by: Richard Stalking & Tyler Smith
Cover by: Roberto De La Torre
Published by: Titan Comics
Summary:
The first issue begins in a vast, dreary desert as Conan and his band of brutes land from the sky into Erondar, the land of the dragons. The first half of this issue focuses on fast, brutish combat from the band of barbarians, as Conan tries under pressure to gather his senses when mute zombie-like minions arise from the ashes of the desert.
We see a teaser of the might of the Erondarian army as tides of shrapnel hit Conan’s men from above, and this is where the story changes in terms of revealing the whereabouts of their adventure. Conan is captured and put in a dark, cobblestone jail cell while different men come to visit. A young man introduces himself as a sorcerer and ties a necklace around Conan’s neck to help translate his speech via magic. The story continues to move as the next man that visits the barbarian is Deynar, commander of the Erondarian army. Alarms sound off as a dragon crashes into the fortress and sends the men into a flurry of confusion and rancor.
This first issue comes to a climax as Ian Aranhill, known better as Dragonero, comes to the cell to interrogate Conan as he claims that the dragon outside is “on his trail”.
Lorenzo Nuti works wonders with water-coloring as the focus for illustrating the fights between the barbarians and the foreign nation of Erondar, but it does not take attention away from the solid writing that comes from Vietti and Enoch in this issue. Stalking and Smith know how to use lettering to emphasise boots against concrete and slaughter from sword to sword. The reader’s eyes should be able to shift from page to page easily as the panel layout is easy to follow. Solid start to this crossover series, as it’s easy to follow along and readers do not need to know prior Conan lore in order to jump into this series.
Overall: 8/10
India Williams is a comic writer and reviewer based in Florida. She is a lifelong comics fan, with favorites including Thor, Conan, G.I. Joe, and Speed Racer. When she’s not writing comics or reviewing them, she enjoys toy photography.
