Interesting collection of short stories from Conan's life - from the earliest days to the days when Conan became the king (each story begins with the map depicting area where story takes place, very nice touch). I like that Marvel decided on keeping up the direction established by DarkHorse - these are heavy-duty action stories (I especially like the story with the lion) and much more mature/serious (at least as much as it can be done in comics).

Main thread connecting all of these stories is Conan's arch-enemy, Red Witch. He manages to stop her machinations but it seems like she (like evil in general) just cannot be brought down and has her own fate intertwined with Conan's own.

Ending is a cliffhanger, I hope they will continue with this story-thread in future releases.

Art is great. I especially like Esad Ribic's covers but art of the stories themselves is truly beautiful. There is a mix of styles here (i.e. first story from Zamora and the story with king Conan feeling caged by his court) but each and every truly add to each other giving us us in overall a beautiful book.

Recommended to all fans of high-fantasy action adventure and Conan in particular. ( )

A bit familiar and safe for Jason Aaron but his Conan is damn near perfect - a brute of force going from battle to battle, victory to victory, test to test in a series of adventures all while the prospect of death lingers. ( )

Wow. I was hoping for entertaining, but I think Jason Aaron has done something even better with Conan, that not many of the previous versions I've read (and I've read many) have done...

Conan gets some depth.

Don't get me wrong, Conan the drunk, the brawler, the womanizer...I mean, this is the very foundation of the character. But to now bounce around from his teen years to his time as King, and to see the weight of all his years and experience fall squarely on his shoulders and aching back...

This series is absolutely brilliant. The stories, the insights, and, of course, the art. All entwine to give us a deeper glimpse into a character and level him up from entertaining to downright interesting. ( )

Does Aaron's contract with Marvel require him to set all his titles in at least two timelines? Following on his Thor of the past, present and end of time and his Avengers of the present day and One Million B.C., we are given tales of a young barbarian Conan beginning his adventures framed by sequences of King Conan facing what may be his final battle.

Most of the chapters contain stand-alone tales of Conan doing his Conan thing. They are perfectly fine if all you want is some simple sword and sorcery action with pirates. witches, monsters, etc. There are even some allusions to Batman-style vigilantes, guerrilla warfare à la Vietnam or Afghanistan, and Conan going full Costner in a Dances with Wolves homage. But it's all filler for the dull and too slowly unfolding overarching story. ( )

This trade paperback collects the first six issues of the new iteration of the Conan the Barbarian title at Marvel Comics. Writer Jason Aaron and principal artist Mahmud Asrar appear to be accomplished creators within the contemporary Marvel operation, and they both do competent work here. I'm not really blown away the way that I was in the early numbers of the Dark Horse run back in 2003-4, but I did find these new comics to be quick and satisfying reading. It does seem like there's an attempt to strike a balance between the tone of the original Marvel run and the Dark Horse title.

Aaron hits a few clinkers with his language, but on the whole his Conan seems more faithful to Howard's original hero than most of the pastiche novel Conans have been (to say nothing of the movies). Each issue starts with the same Nemedian Chronicles quote ("... when the oceans drank Atlantis yada yada ...") and a full-continent Hyborian Age map highlighted to show the location of that number's principal adventure.

This collection has stories set throughout Conan's life, using as a framing device young Conan's encounter with a malevolent witch who returns to kill him in sacrifice to her arch-demon benefactor many years later when Conan is king of Aquilonia. Whether she succeeds (as implied in the "Life and Death of" title of the book) is left unresolved at the end of the sixth issue.

Appended to the reprinted contents is a vast gallery of alternate cover art. For the first issue alone, there were at least a dozen covers. I really have to wonder if this now venerable publishing gimmick is really serving any purpose. Are readers foolish enough to buy multiple copies for the different covers? Well, I guess I represent the opposite extreme, since I waited for the trade collection and then borrowed it from the public library.