Conan: Tides of the Tyrant King #1 review

At long last the next Howardverse crossover from Titan Comics and Jim Zub is here, bringing with it a familiar enemy to threaten all ages. Poised to stand against this threat are two heroes, vastly different and separated by countless millennia, yet bound together by the threads of fate. Can they hope to stop the undying malevolence of Thulsa Doom, or will they be swept away as the tide of the ancient tyrant’s evil machinations washes over the Howardverse?

*Mild spoilers ahead for Conan: Tides of the Tyrant King #1*

Heroes come in all manner of forms. Some are powerful warriors, their will as strong as their body, their mind as sharp as their steel. Others are those who pull themselves up from the depths of their own darkness to defend those in danger without concern for their own safety. Our story features both of these. Conan, the legendary Cimmerian warrior whose exploits require no explanation, and Stephen Costigan, a shell-shocked World War 1 veteran desperately trying to drown out his demons with narcotics. 

These two very different men are separated by untold eons, yet are connected in ways neither yet knows. Fate has placed the two of them in the path of Thulsa Doom, the immortal necromancer of old Atlantis, whose undying malevolence threatens all eras of the Howardverse. Conan has faced the lich before early in Zub’s monthly Conan the Barbarian run, and only narrowly managed to defeat him. Costigan, meanwhile, knows not what unholy power stands before him. 

Besides the ancient tyrant, the two eras are connected by another: Zuleika, a mysterious woman whose soul exists in both times seemingly simultaneously. It’s through her that the two men find their way into the fray, drawn forth in mirrored experiences that are far more than mere coincidence separated by the ages. There is a dark power at work, and it remains to be seen what side Zukeika is truly on, especially if you’ve read the recent Savage Sword of Conan issue in which her origin is told. 

The entire story plays out as two mirrored tales, following Conan and Costigan as they leave the apathy of their current states to help Zuleika, drawn to her by something neither truly understands. In both ages, the men choose to defend her from an attacker. In the Hyborian Age, this attack takes the form of an undead creature, something Conan recalls coming up against before. In Costigan’s time, meanwhile, the attacker is an ordinary man who seems to know something about Zuleika’s true nature. In both eras, this attack sets the two men onto a path that leads to Thulsa Doom and his still unknown plans. 

I love how the story is presented in this manner. It really ties into the theme Zub has been toying with in his previous crossover miniseries, that being that time is not a strict linear thing, but rather that everything is happening at the same time. What is happening in the distant past of the Hyborian Age is occurring simultaneously to what is happening in Costigan’s time. While this does create some confusion about whether Thulsa Doom’s continued existence in the 1920s means that Conan was unable to vanquish him in the Hyborian Age, it provides a neat way for the story to jump between the two eras without feeling disconnected like it might in another story. It feels less like the story is suddenly leaping forward thousands of years and more like it’s moving between two different dimensions. 

Adding to this is the way in which Zuleita inhabits both timelines simultaneously. For those that haven’t read the most recent Savage Sword of Conan issue, this is not a matter of immortality as is the case for Thulsa Doom’s continued existence, but rather seems to be something akin to a past life, with Zuleita switching back and forth between her past and present selves through a strange gift. This has yet to be confirmed by Zub in either story, though I’m sure the truth shall be revealed in time. Whether it is indeed switching between past lives or some manner of sorcery owed to the way all times occur simultaneously, it’s a cool concept that could unite the two storylines in a way that the last crossover Scourge of the Serpent failed to do. 

As with the previous Howardverse crossovers, this first issue presents far more questions than it provides answers for. And as with its predecessors, this proves to be an excellent way to set the stage for what is to come, both in this miniseries and in the stories to come. By now it’s little secret that Zub is building towards a larger conflict with the Eldritch horror known as the Woeful Eye, and whatever is planned for Tides of the Tyrant King will be the next stage in that plan. So what is planned? Honestly, I don’t know, and that excites me. 

Conan: Tides of the Tyrant King #1 is available now from Titan Comics.