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Conan Volume 15: The Nightmare of the Shallows

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  •  
    Todd Jordan
    Smut is good.

  • Conan Volume 15: The Nightmare of the Shallows




    Published by: Dark Horse Comics
    Released on: Jan. 22, 2014
    Writer: Brian Wood
    Artists: Andrea Mutti, Davide Gianfelice, Mirko Colak
    Covers: Massimo Carnevale
    Purchase at Amazon

    Collected from the pages of Dark Horse's Conan the Barbarian series comes two story arcs that ran from issue #13 through issue #18. “The Woman on the Wall” takes place after Conan and his true love Belit have lost their unborn child and it has torn them apart. She left her ship The Tigress to return to her home land, which is under siege as is often the case. Conan goes to find her, traveling on a suicide mission across the desert with no food or water. Enemies to Belit's homeland of Shem find him while on a march to lay siege to Shem and force him into their ranks. Conan does what he always does, the impossible, by scaling the walls and breeching security, something never done in the recorded history of Shem. But Belit was expecting him and set a trap, allowing the guards to beat him within inches of his life and then thrown into bondage. His escape and his inevitable reunion with Belit round out the story.

    The second story, “The Nightmare of the Shallows”, finds Conan and Belit on a bit of a vacation, relaxing in a den of sin, complete with a suggested (not shown) threesome. A stranger enters the room, offers the two lovers some yellow lotus, promising them a good time. They seem not to question the intentions of the stranger, and the drugs go down the gullets. What follows is what can be described as Conan having a bad acid trip. His guilt of what he has done haunts him; his mourning over the miscarriage Belit suffered mocks him; lots of soul searching going on here. The two ride the trip out together and come out on the other side with lots to talk about.





    Not having read any issues of the Conan the Barbarian series before or after the six issues in this collection, it would appear by these two stories that the whole series is one long love story. It's understandable that Conan can get stale after all these years, especially when in the hands of writers with little interest in writing Conan stories (not saying that is the case here at all) but a love story? Pass.

    “The Woman on the Wall” has some good action and the battle scenes play out well. Mirko Colak puts nice detail in his work and the coloring by Dave Stewart brings out those details with a pleasing clarity. There's plenty of bloodshed and grime to go around as well. Some of Conan's decisions don't make sense, like crossing the desert unprepared and knowing he'll die for a piece of tail. He passes it up all the time for a mug of ale, why do something so stupid? For someone without a ton of displayed emotions, he sure is a pussy when it comes to this chick. And the actions Belit takes against Conan when he comes for her in Shem don't make sense either. I love you so much I'll have guards beat you up to a near-death. What?

    “The Nightmare of the Shallows” is simply an insane concept. Conan taking yellow lotus, and from a complete stranger? He hates pushers and users. He'll drink himself into a coma but, like Mr. T, he steers clear of the drugs. It seems so out of character for him that it the story barely feels like a Conan comic, other than his name, occupation, his homeland, and Crom being mentioned. Otherwise it steers clear of being the Conan this reader expects and wants. And the artistic style of Davide Gianfelice, while maybe fine for another comic character, doesn't fit with Conan at all.





    And what's up with the fact that in both stories Conan looks to be half a foot smaller and 100 pounds lighter than he normally does? Where're the muscles and the machismo? The bravado? Yeah, he's Young Conan, but does he have to be Sensitive Light Heavyweight Conan? With the decent first half of the collection giving way to the mediocre and less than-satisfying second half, you'd best skip this one if your just coming into the world of Dark Horse Conan books, as this is NOT a good jumping on point. Volume 15 suffers from Yoko Ono Disease.



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