Savage Sword of Conan #181 - Marvel

Jan. 1991 - "The Face of God"

This issue of Savage Sword of Conan features an offbeat adventure for everyone's favorite barbarian, brought to you by Paul Kupperberg (him again!), Michael Docherty, and Ricardo Villagran.

Our story opens with Conan and a band of others fighting what seems to be a losing battle:

Conan's compatriots want to give up, but of course he's having none of it. He continues to fight like a demon, so long and so well that the leader of the other side, General Ganth gets involved.

But when he gets close, and sees Conan's face, he is startled by something. Instead of ordering Conan to be killed (ha! as if they could do it anyway), he simply whacks him on the back of the head, knocking him out.

Ganth and his men return to their home, the small city of Zamora. Ganth shows the trussed-up barbarian to the king, named Fhal. Fhal takes a look at Conan, too, and sees the same thing: Conan is the spitting image of a demi-god that Zamora worships, as seen on shield hanging in the royal palace!

We learn about the legend of the warrior Shan, who died in battle. As he ascended to Heaven (or the Hyborian Age equivalent), his spirit promised to look after Zamora and its people--and promising one day to return and lead Zamora to victory.

The plan is to introduce Conan to the unwashed masses of Zamora as Shan, mollifying the citizens who are increasingly unhappy with life under King Fhal. Conan wants no part of this, but when they offer him "a large quantity of gold", Conan decides to go along with the crazy plan...for the moment, at least.

After meeting the Royal Palace's priest, an elderly man eager to remain in his exalted place, Conan meets his followers:

To keep Conan's mollified, he's not just offered gold: a comely wench named Claea is sent to...keep Conan company, which she does.

Meanwhile, a small group of Zamorans are meeting in the dark of night, horrified at what they know is a charade. Their leader, Bren, promises to bring down King Fhal more than ever.

That same night, Conan decides to try and sneak out of the royal palace and wander into town. One of the small group of rebels sees him and calls his pals. They attack Conan, leading to many beheadings. Conan is about to run Bren through, but when he accuses Conan of being part of the evil ruling class, Conan walks away disgusted.

Unbeknownst to Conan, General Ganth had him followed, and after another knock on the head, he wakes up back in his gilded cage:

...I should stop for a moment to remark on the artwork by Docherty and Villagran. I'm not familiar with Mr. Docherty, but I've seen and enjoyed Villagran's work before. I love the amount of depth and detail in that panel above, with Ganth talking to Conan, with the priest and the wench watching.

Okay, anyway, later on, Bren and his men run into some of the army. Bren and his men hold their own, until some the army, perched from high up with bows and arrows, start slaughtering the rebels. As they run off, the army soldiers mock Bren and his fighters as "ignorant peasant offal." Conan notices this, and again walks away disgusted.

King Fhal is furious the rebels are making such brazen attacks, even though they fail. To win the people of Zamora over, he follows an idea proposed by Ganth--to conquer a neighboring city, just to show how powerful Zamora is. Everybody loves a winner.

Conan is dragged into this, and the battle with that city's army is nasty and bloody. Until something unbelievable happens: the skies begin to darken, followed by a bolt of lightning. Standing before all of them on the battlefield is...Shan!

Shan is mighty perturbed at how his name is used to justify all sorts of bad behavior, and starts bringing down some divine justice on Zamora--by immolating Zamora's soldiers, followed by General Ganth and King Fhal!

He then turns his attention on Conan who is not all that impressed:

Conan engages Shan, refusing to believe he is as powerful as he claims. He charges that Shan is only back on Earth to regain the unwavering belief of his people, since over the years he's been gone, it has begun to fade.

The remaining Zamorans, stunned they are watching Conan goe toe-to-toe with their God, start to question Shan's status, heeding Conan's words that Shan did nothing while they suffered under King Fhal.

Finally, Conan jams his sword into Shan's gut. A burst of lightning, followed by a scream, and Shan is gone. Conan and the Zamorans watch it all happen:

Conan is less than impressed with the Zamorans and their eagerness to claim him as their new god. He climbs aboard a steed, and rides off, but not before suggesting that Bren might be a good leader: "He's a hothead, but he has your city's interests at heart."

Conan believes he will be a king some day, but not in Zamora: "My destiny lies elsewhere."

There's a short second story, "The Rescue", by Dwight Jon Zimmerman and Tony DeZuniga:

"The Rescue", at eight pages, is fine but nothing outstanding. Some of the artwork is solid, some of it looks a little rushed. There's a lot of wash effects in it, giving it at least a nice visual contrast to the main story.


Before I read this issue, I talked to Paul Kupperberg (who has been a vocal supporter of my blogging efforts, granting me numerous interviews about his Aquaman and Phantom Stranger work), wondering how he came to write just this one issue of SSOC.

Paul told me to "be kind", and I joked that as long as the story had all the basic Conan story trappings--fighting, wenching, bucking authority, a giant monster--then I'd be happy.

Of course, this story does have all those things (except the giant monster), but nevertheless its not a typical Conan story, and one that I enjoyed thoroughly--Conan is recognizably Conan here, but he's thrown into an unusual situation, one that obviously has parallels to today. Ably drawn by Docherty and Villagran, this is a highly effective Conan adventure, one of the best ones I've read in a while.


Speaking of interviews, we'll be ending this new week of posts with a talk with Paul about his brief foray into the world of black and white mags, writing for Conan and Crazy. Be here tomorrow!