The Chronicles of Conan: The Corridor of Mullah-Kajar & Other Stories

Writers: J.M DeMatteis, Len Wein, Larry Hama, Robert E. Howard, Roy Thomas.
Artists: John Buscema, Neal Adams, Ernie Chan, Bob McLeod, Vicente Alcazar, Yong Montano.
Publisher: Dark Horse

Ah yes, as time passes, so comes another volume of Conan. The 15th volume Dark Horse has put out of The Chronicles of Conan, this trade encompasses seven stories of the Barbarian from Cimmeria

The first story in this volume called "Crawler in the Mist" starts out with Conan being rescued by some nomads, having laid in the desert sun, poisoned and weak. As Conan comes to, he finds his rescuers are traders and soon realizes that they mean to trade HIM as a slave. Conan being well... Conan, whoops some arse and sends two of his slavers fleeing, the third unable to run, left chained to the mighty Barbarian. Deciding not to cut off the slaver's hand and be free of him Conan drags the trader along with him as he looks for shelter with night approaching Wandering through the desert Conan and his "traveler" eventually come upon a city...seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The trader warns Conan of this city being home to a monster that prowls the streets at night taking anyone foolish enough to be wandering out of their homes, Conan scoffs at his companions' plea and they enter the city laying down on the streets for sleep. Deep in sleep Conan is awakened to hear his friends' cry as a huge red slug-like creature takes hold of the trader. Amidst the battling, the slug creature severs the chain linking the trader and Conan, fleeing with the helpless slaver in tow, Conan in pursuit. From here the rest of the story plays out Twilight Zone-like so I won't ruin it for you, other then to say it ends somewhat sadly.

The rest of the stories within this volume play out pretty close to the first one, Conan either runs into trouble or goes looking for it, a tussel ensues and the foe is defeated. All the tales are enjoyable to an extent. Certain readers will definitely get more out of these collected Conan volumes then others. Those not big on reading loads of text I can tell you right now will have issues with this Conan volume. At about 190 pages this sucker feels like twice that in overall dialogue I personally like the expanded dialogue as it gives more depth to the story an characters BUT...then again I am a fickle/weird comic reader.

The art within each story varies with the artist. For the most part John Buscema does a majority of the art within this volume and it is alright...it's not mind-blowing but half this stuff was in the 70s and 80s so you gotta cut the guy some slack. The best page out of this whole volume though in both story and art is in, "The Phoenix on the Sword". Art by Vicente Alcazar an Yong Montano, it displays Conan looking to tear apart those before him, an image of Kull of Atlantis above him, Roy Thomas writing of the parallel in this scene between Conan & Kull.

I don't know what it is but this page just kinda hits you in a right way...almost makes me wanna go back and read up on Kull of Atlantis, (another creation of of Robert E. Howard's).

In closing, this volume as a whole is GOOD. Not great but good. If you like Conan you'll dig this volume and for those that have never read of the mighty warrior borrow this volume from a friend...you may just be glad you did.

Book Review: Batman Vs. The Incredible Hulk

This review was submitted by Jeff Hartz.

Writer: Len Wein
Artists: Jose Luis Garcia Lopez
Dick Giordano

Okay, so I have a couple of reasons for submitting this review. Number one is the fact that while we wait for Omar and Melanie to return from their wonderful honeymoon, it's time for some of us to step up and provide some filler for the website. Number two is that with both "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Dark Knight" hitting theatres this summer, it sounds like the right time to look back at this 1981 classic. You can find this story in The Crossover Classics Volume One trade paperback, unless you're really old like Ray and I and have the original copy we got in or youth.

The story begins with people dreams starting to become real, such as a sweltering summer dream of Arctic Ice and monsters in the horror movie. It seems the Shaper of Worlds, an old Hulk villain that was originally a Skrull-created Cosmic Cube experiment (Damn! Those Skrulls are EVERYWHERE!!!) is going insane and losing his ability to use other people's dreams as a blueprint to alter reality. Seeking out a unique mind in the Universe to help him find a cure he turns to... The Joker! It seems there is a chance of a cure using a Gamma-Gun being developed at Wayne Enterprises as a way to cure all Mankind's diseases. So the Joker attempts to steal it, unaware that secretly working as day labor at the project is Bruce Banner. He's there to find out if the Gamma Gun will finally cure him of The Hulk, and when The Joker's goons tackle him after he trips the alarm, it's time for a little Jade Giant action. Fleeing with the gun from the Hulk, they come upon none other that The Dark Knight! But Joker manages to turn the situation into your classic "Superheroes fight before they team up" scenario and gets away with the Gamma Gun, which he plans to use to give Shaper his powers back in exchange for being able to alter reality any way Emperor Joker sees fits.

Okay, I'm not going to go too much further into the details as you've either already read the story at least once in your life and know it by heart, or you've never read it, and I'll tease you for more and make you go out and read it. But I will give my thoughts on it. The style of Bruce Banner being on the run and secretly trying to find a cure was at the heart of the story back then, directly related to the "lonely man" television version of Hulk. And with the new movie (go see it again and again and again!) focusing on that style once more, it really comes full circle to the way Hulk is perceived these days. Joker is as maniacal and lethal then as he's ever been in the years since. And Batman is Batman. Bad ass then, badder ass now! Shaper of Worlds doesn't do much except be the McGuffin, and cameos with Thunderbolt Ross, Doc Samson, and various Batman/Hulk villains could have been more than just an afterthought. But he y, this was 1981 and we saw HULK VS. BATMAN and didn't give a rat's ass who else was in it! Overall, the story surprisingly holds up today as much as it did when it was written. I'd say give it a shot and see for yourself, or for those of you over 35 go back and recapture that feeling from long ago that you felt a little bit when you sat in the theatres last week. RATING: A-