Conan of Cimmeria.
A barbarian, a thief, a pirate, a king.
A man with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth.
A man who does not appear at all in Conan the Barbarian #29.
Instead, we are introduced to a formidable new foe, one whose path will soon violently cross with Conan’s:
The Son of the Tooth.
Touched by Darkness
Hyrkania. A land of nomadic tribes of horse-dwellers, with very few villages. They defy categorization or containment to the more civilized lands. Think the Huns or the Mongols and you are on the right track.
Born to the leader of a tribe of hunters, the future Son of the Tooth was a small, sickly child. He was the eleventh of the leaders. One look at him, and it was determined he would not live until adulthood. While his older siblings trained in the use of bow and blade, he was too feeble to pull the string and too uncoordinated to hold a knife. He was little more than an object of mocking and scorn for the family.
At night was a different story. When he slept, he dreamed horrible nightmares where he felt a presence watching him. He would scream the loudest and most horrifying screams, and the family could not wake him.
Finding no other use for the boy, the leader gave him the task of sharpening and maintaining the blades of the tribe. This the boy excelled at. One day he lost time, and when he returned to his senses, he found the blade in the hand painted with blood, and one of his elder brothers dead at his feet. Spectral images appeared, showing the brother mocking him, and the boy attacking him with a power and ferocity that none knew he possessed. After the images, a strange compulsion told the boy to remove one of the eyeteeth of the brother, then he dumped the body over the nearby cliff. Trying to determine what to do with the blood, the heavens opened up, and it began to rain.
By the end of the year, three more of the siblings were missing, and with each disappearance, the strength, speed, and skill of the boy increased. By the time he was to turn 16 years of age, he was the last child remaining of the eleven.
His father said it was time for the blooming hunt. This is a Hyrkanian tradition where father and son hunt together and live off the land for three days, at the end of which the boy will be a man. The father and son made dark confessions to each other, and patricide was committed.
Returning to the village, the now-man found the village ablaze. He was met with members of a group called the Children of the Woeful Eye, who had been waiting for him and the nightmare visions. They named him the Son of the Tooth, and made him the assassin.
A decade later, he is given the new assignment, which will prove to be the greatest challenge: a Northern savage by the name of Conan.
Forces Gather
I am a huge fan of Conan the Barbarian. This current Titan Comics series has been fantastic. There is a certain degree of irony that the first issue I review for this site does not feature Conan himself at all!
Despite the absence of the titular Cimmerian, this is still an engrossing read. There has been much talk and hype over the Son of the Tooth, as Conan has not had a new major foe in a long, long time. He is not unlike Marvel’s The Punisher. He has very few recurring enemies, as most of them do not survive the initial encounter. The Son of the Tooth looks to be poised to become one of the more notable recurring foes, based on the amount of time and care given to the backstory of the character this issue.
The structure of the issue is interesting, with the first half having no dialogue whatsoever. The dialogue does not start until the introduction of the blooming hunt, or when the boy becomes a man. Even then, he is not giving any huge speeches, being more of a man of action than words. He is a fitting shadow to Conan himself.
The ability of the Son of the Tooth to take in the soul of those he slays through one of the teeth is a unique one. It gives him a horrific and inhuman feeling that makes him a dark Yang to the Yin of Conan. The Cimmerian eschews any form of magical assistance and prefers to rely on the own wits and strength. If the souls of the 12 members of the family gave the Son of the Tooth the power to survive being poisoned, what strength will the probably hundreds that he has gathered over the years grant him?
Hunting Party
Jim Zub is fast becoming one of the best writers to tackle Conan since Robert E. Howard himself. He has an almost historian’s understanding of the character and the world of the character. The additions to canon, such as the Son of the Tooth, fit well and do not stand out as out of place at all. The narration of Zub drives the story but is never so much that it detracts from the artwork, letting the visuals tell much of the story.
Speaking of the artwork, Doug Braithwaite is a great fit for this story. The style of the artist is detailed, but everything has a bit of a grimy look to it that befits the Hyrkanian landscape. The pale, sickly boy has an almost inhuman look to him, which only expands as he grows to adulthood and the unnatural abilities of the boy increase. The bursts of violence, where he begins to collect the trophies, are well rendered to show the speed and savagery the boy begins to display. Additionally, the ghostly recollections have an almost dream-like quality to them, which is aided by the colors.
Colorist Diego Rodriguez is an essential part of the team in this issue. The nightmares of the boy, the ghostly recollections, the blood, the glint of a blade in the quiet moments before violence, and the red tint over fits of rage represent palette opportunities that are many and varied. In all cases, the colorist rises to the challenge.
Impending Doom
Even though the titular barbarian is not present in this issue, Conan the Barbarian #29 is nonetheless an impressive issue. It establishes a new foe, both strange and horrible, who is poised to be a great threat in the issues to come. It establishes the harsh Hyrkanian lands and the people, contrasting the sickly boy with the rest of the family and making the slow transformation of the character stand out all the more.
The ties of the boy to the Children of the Woeful Eye, whose path frequently crosses with the path of Conan, connect him to the Cimmerian in a meaningful way. With Conan having recently prevented the efforts of the Eye to revive Thulsa Doom, the group is ready for revenge. The Son of the Tooth looks to be the perfect instrument for the task. I feel the audience is witnessing the start of what could be another epic tale featuring the greatest creation of Robert E. Howard, Conan the Barbarian. By Crom, I am all for it.