How do I sell you on Savage Avengers (written by Gerry Duggan, with artwork by various artists)?
Well, I could tell you it features Conan the Barbarian fighting Wolverine, in one of those “smashing your action figures together” moments that comics can do so well. That was certainly the moment that sold me. I could talk about Conan learning of Deadpool’s healing abilities, and using him for a human shield accordingly, or the time he fights a dragon, which he never managed even in Robert E. Howard’s original stories. Or I could bring up the scene where Conan charges into battle on a flaming, undead devil horse waving a sword and screaming “DEATH TO ALL SLAVERS!”
Suffice to say there are quite a lot of moments like that, and the only reason I don’t wax poetic about all of them is because I don’t want to spoil things for you. As you’ve guessed by now, I loved Savage Avengers, a rip-roaring, blood-soaked, heavy metal romp for the ages.
Here’s the setup: Conan, thanks to some time-travel shenanigans in a different comic you needn’t read in order to understand this one, has been transported from the Hyborian Age to the present, and of course, dives headfirst into the action, determined to steal a mystical amulet just for the thrill of it. This puts him on a collision course with Kulan Gath, an evil sorcerer with a goofy hat, and Wolverine, who’s searching for a missing friend.
The word that comes to mind is “enthusiasm.” My enthusiasm, as I watched Conan rampage his way through Marvel Comics, was nearly boundless, and part of that stemmed from the clear enthusiasm of its creators, which bled through on every page.
Of course, it’s not called Savage Conan, it’s called Savage Avengers, and the story draws in a number of Marvel characters, most of them on the magical and/or morally murky side, united in the escalating war against Kulan Gath. The story balances a big ensemble, and places far more emphasis on the team than you might expect. Duggan pulls this off very well, balancing page time between characters and giving them all moments to shine.
Be that as it may, I suspect Conan is the man most people will be here to see, and Duggan does a great job bringing everyone’s favorite barbarian to life. It simply feels like a Conan story, in an intangible way that’s tough to describe. We see him hacking and slashing and spitting in the face of the forces of darkness, of course, but we also see him protecting civilians from rampaging monsters and bonding with his newfound companions. I never knew how much I needed to see Conan interacting with the Marvel universe until I read this series; I particularly enjoyed the Punisher’s interest in Crom, Conan’s oft-invoked deity, and Conan’s uneasy alliance with Doctor Doom. While the book has no shortage of carnage, it’s the interactions between characters that take it to the next level.
And the ending? Let’s just say that it goes in a different direction that you might expect, and we see Conan at his best. After hundreds of pages of bloodletting and swashbuckling, it’s genuinely moving, and the perfect way to tie a bow on this brutal epic.
I might have liked the climactic battle to go on a little longer, and there’s an extended sequence where Conan essentially wanders away on a side quest, but such things are mere trifles when you’re having such a blast.
Spectacular, violent, spectacularly violent and violently spectacular, Savage Avengers is a fist-pumping salute to everything you love about Conan and Marvel, and it stands as one of my favorite comics. What a hoot.
(Author’s note: there are technically two Savage Avengers series; this review discusses the first, with the second involving a different creative team and different storylines.)
