A good comics crossover shouldn’t come out of nowhere. Some characters should be familiar, and a sense of the looming threat should have popped up long before they connect. It’s hard to remember now, but DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths actually had seeds planted for a full year before the first issue hit the stands. (Bonus point for anyone who knows which comic book accidentally showed The Monitor’s face.)
That’s a long-winded way of saying when Jim Zub took on Conan the Barbarian for Titan Comics, he knew those guidelines. He planted those seeds in a year’s worth of comic stories. If you got enthusiastic, you followed the Cimmerian over to The Savage Sword of Conan, where the terrific Patch Zircher helped out by re-establishing Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane.
All throughout Conan’s adventures, he kept running across a terrible sigil with a corrupting effect on his humanity. Pulled through to a time before his own, he also encountered his ancestor, King Kull of Atlantis along with the ancient Pict hero Brule. If you notice, that means Zub and his creative collaborators firmly established four of Robert E. Howard’s characters in anticipation of the big event: The Battle of the Black Stone.
Because all of them encountered the eerie black stone. As Zub pointed out when we spoke last month, REH wrote of its essence popping up all throughout history. His heroes, some popular and some not, encountered it. But in the 1930s, bringing them all together hadn’t yet been an idea. They all “existed” in the same universe, but even Howard’s peer Edgar Rice Burroughs had barely started crossing characters over when he sent Tarzan to Pellucidar.
Leave it to comics. First, pick up The Savage Sword of Conan #4, out this week. There, Zub presents a direct prelude to the mini-series, drawn by Fernando Dagnino. A bevy of other creators jump around the REHniverse, Zircher writing and drawing the tale of Solomon Kane first encountering the Black Stone. With artist Dean Kotz, Zub brings back Brissa from his first arc in Conan the Barbarian.
But those are more famous characters, all three appearing previously in Titan’s efforts. Some of the undiscovered gems from Howard (and Heroic Signatures, the rights holders to all of Howard’s creations) get short spotlights. Someone more steeped in Conan comics history than I am can tell you if these are comic book debuts. For me, they’re great discoveries. Intellectual explorers Conrad & Kirowan experience a little of the Black Stone’s power courtesy of writer Jeffrey Shanks and artist Eryk Donovan. Fred Kennedy and Andy Belanger set Dark Agnes up to join the band, and Ron Marz and Mike Perkins lay seeds for El Borak to know why one should not mess with this eldritch terror.
And right off the bat in Battle of the Black Stone #1, they’re all brought together by Zub and frequent collaborator Jonas Scharf. If not physically, we’re seeing the threads start getting pulled. (In the back of The Savage Sword of Conan, there’s a 2-page pin-up by Roberto DeLaTorre that dubs them all “The Heroes of Man.”)
In the first official issue, there’s a 1930s pulp writer not named Robert E. Howard who has unwittingly fallen into the grasp of the stone. (This may or may not tie in to the story Howard used to introduce the concept — “The Black Stone.” Again, my deepest dive into his work lies ahead of me.) At first I thought this crossover would be one like 7 Soldiers of Victory, where the heroes don’t meet up, but I should trust that Zub introduced time travel for a reason. Suddenly, we have the possibility of Conan meeting Solomon Kane, but even more so now, I’m intrigued to see how the bookish Conrad & Kirowan react to meeting the barbarian.
The other thing to appreciate about this crossover is that the despite the large cast, you don’t have to buy a plethora of titles. You can catch up on the first year arc, but it’s not really necessary. Zub remembers that every Conan comic is somebody’s first. Conan: Battle of the Black Stone spins out of The Savage Sword of Conan #4, and the only side step going forward is a novel in November — Conan: Cult of the Obsidian Moon by James Lovegrove (who has also been writing short stories featuring El Borak). It’s a small enough event to stay focused, but, in comics terms, earth-shattering enough to eagerly await what’s coming next.
Because of the Heroes of Man lose, we all do. No matter how mighty our thews are, nor how pantherish our steps. The Battle of the Black Stone will pull you into its thrall.
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