Review: Age of Conan: Belit #4

STORY

Thankfully this comic has a prologue page to catch you up on the origin of Belit and the events of the previous issues otherwise this book would be more difficult to get into than it is. It definitely helps but being new to this series with this issue as my first I can’t help but judge the story on what this sole issue has to offer.

I really wanted to like this comic as a long time Conan fan (of both the books and the comics) but this author strings a series of events together and the characters for the most part don’t make sense. N’Yaga, former first mate of Belit’s father demonstrates his intense loyalty toÂ his deceased captain and of his oath to protect his family by recounting the tragic tale of her mother’s descent into madness. He calls Belit family yet when she insults her father’s memory, N’Yaga threatens to duel her to the death. An assault on her vessel is thwarted easily in basically a page by Belit rallying her crew by telling them that Stygian sailors are cowards and then she proves this to be so as they surrender so quickly and easily that she has them all killed in disgust at their cowardice. So why does Stygia even have a navy? Further, unconcerned with possibly taking on an entire city with one pirate ship she says into Stygian with the capture vessel and a sea serpent eye the size of a house in tow. Apparently cutting the ropes securing said eye with launch it like a catapult into the city.

The high priest of this Stygian port thinks with his little head instead of killing a bloodthirsty pirate and ignores her insults as he tries to bed her until she choke him out in his chambers. Belit is arrogant and he is just plain stupid. Upset by her past Belit decided to quit pirate life by attempting sail a galleon all by herself, a physically impossible feat and one she is reminded that she has failed at before. Worse still she was planning on leaving her crew behind who would surely have been executed by the enraged priest.

The only things that really worked in this book were the prologue and the priest having his god Set put a curse of pain and madness upon Belit. Those good scenes bookend a rather poorly thought out story. There are just too many things going wrong here to ignore. Which is a real shame because the prologue/opening scene set up a lot of good ideas and potential conflicts but sadly it all withered on the vine and nothing truly satisfying came of this story.

ART

The art is ok, not great, only the colors really stand out. I really like the colorist’s work on this comic. It’s vibrant, sets the mood and the watercoloresque rendering makes me think of the graphic novels of old or the comics found in Heavy Metal. The pencils just aren’t terribly exciting though. It gets the job done and there is some good page layout and flow and a good variance of angles. The story telling is there but it all lacks the kind of punch Stan Lee and John Buscema showed us in How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way.

The missed opportunity of the sea battle was not just a failure in the writing department but also with the art. It’s handled by as an incredibly lackluster two page spread which doesn“t even depict any real action. This was one of those moments where the artist can really take charge and shine but this time nobody delivered the goods.

Scott Hanna on fill in inks as he perfectly matched Niemczyk’s work. I could not tell their had been two different inkers on the book.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This should have been a swashbuckling, rollicking adventure with dark undertones but instead its a series of events and characters who ignore basic story logic. Go read Conan or Red Sonja instead. 2 out of 5

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

AGE OF CONAN: BELIT #4
Writer:Â Tini Howard
Art/Inks:Â Kate Niemczyk
Inks: Scott Hanna
Colors:Â Jason Keith