Reading King Conan/Conan the King for the first time

[conanchronoproject]

Hi all, not sure if starting a new thread on this is correct etiquette for the forum (I'm new), but I just finished going through the original Marvel King Conan. I was really pleased with the first four TPBs, which were primarily retellings of Howard stories. The fourth begins a new storyline, but I really felt that the story began to fall off the rails pretty quickly.

I liked the idea of Conan becoming more world-weary and philosophical as the crown weighed on him, and the idea that he might lose his heir was interesting, but in tone the later issues just felt too much like the wilderness years of CtB after Roy Thomas left. Specifically, in the Road to Empire stuff, it felt like every issue was leaping from story beat to story beat, but without really giving any of it the time or weight that it deserved. There's probably something to do with sales numbers in the 90s and real-world concerns like that which explain this, but overall, it just felt like King Conan was kid stuff compared to CtB.

Is this just me? Is there some merit to King Conan that I'm missing? Happy to be proven wrong.

[danieljames495]

yeah it's been the same way for me.
I mean it was agood comic but I could never manage to get through it as easily as the barbarian or savage sword titles.
Definitely the weakest of the three titles in my opinion.

[conanchronoproject]

Apr 10, 2024 15:49:49 GMT -5 danieljames495 said:

yeah it's been the same way for me.
I mean it was agood comic but I could never manage to get through it as easily as the barbarian or savage sword titles.
Definitely the weakest of the three titles in my opinion.

Nothing felt earned. I mean he conquered Nemedia in a single issue. Ophir might have taken two. They had to keep coming up with new enemies because they kept killing off all the enemy rulers and generals.