Synopsis: A deadly new foe hunts Conan the Barbarian, tracking his spirit wherever he travels – a killer with keen blade in hand and teeth from old prey strung round his neck. The cult of the Black Stone wants revenge against the Cimmerian and the Son of the Tooth is their weapon of choice.
The Story
A new story arc gets underway in which we learn the origin of the Son of the Tooth. The story begins in a remote village where a baby is born, though it quickly becomes clear that this child is weaker than the others in his family. From an early age he is plagued by nightmares of other realms, often waking with a primal scream that unsettles everyone around him.
As the child grows, he becomes feared by the villagers and is treated as little more than a curiosity by his own brothers and sisters. Tragedy follows the family, as each of the children dies before reaching adulthood. After every death, the boy takes the eye tooth of the fallen sibling, and with each passing year he seems to grow stronger. Before long it is believed that he has somehow taken the strength and vitality of the dead for himself.
When the child comes of age, his father takes him to the edge of the desert to perform a ritual hunt, a trial meant to mark the transition from boy to man. As part of the ritual, both father and son must reveal a truth to one another. The son confesses that he was the one who killed his siblings, stealing their strength for his own survival. In turn, the father admits that he poisoned their food, intending for both of them to die rather than allow such a monster to live.
What follows is a brutal fight to the death between the two. The son survives, seemingly unaffected by the poison, the strength of his fallen siblings protecting him.
Returning to his village, he finds it in ruins, ransacked and abandoned. Instead of being reunited with his mother, the boy, now a man, is confronted by the Cult of the Black Stone, who finally reveal the dark purpose that awaits him.
Artwork
Doug Braithwaite handles the art duties for this new story arc, with glorious colour work provided by Diego Rodriguez. As has become the norm with this title, the artwork throughout the issue is nothing short of stunning. One particularly striking sequence shows the boy suffering from his nightmares, with a vortex-like effect swirling from his head as the visions take hold. This is followed on the very next page by a beautifully detailed image of the boy staring out into the night sky, a quiet but haunting contrast to the chaos of the previous panel.
As the first chapter draws to a close, the tone shifts back to raw brutality, with some visceral imagery during the fight between the boy and his father. The confrontation is harsh, physical, and unforgiving, perfectly capturing the savage nature of the world these Conan stories inhabit. Suffice to say, the issue delivers a visual feast that reflects both the cruelty and the harsh beauty of the Hyborian Age.
Overall
This is a solid opening chapter to what already feels like another epic story in the making. I really liked the decision by Jim Zub to kick things off by giving us the origin of this new villain, which adds a strong sense of dread to what is clearly building towards an inevitable confrontation. It will be very interesting to see what happens when the Son of the Tooth finally crosses paths with Conan, and if this first issue is anything to go by, that meeting is not going to end quietly. I suspect a few extractions may be in order.
- Covers9.5
- Story9.8
- Artwork10
- Lettering9.5
- Colours10
