Nothing says "masculinity" like two oiled-up men wrestling.

Hooboy. Where to start.

It’s enough that the apparently talentless Timothy Truman had to take Kurt Busiek’s job as writer. Now Conan has switched colorists from the incomparable Dave Stewart (Hellboy, Everything Else Good Published Right Now) to Richard Isanove. It’s not that Isanove is bad; he’s actually quite competent. But he doesn’t complement Cary Nord well which Stewart does. When Nord was drawing for Daredevil in the 90s, the pencils were dull and hazy. In Conan, however, with the aid of Dave Stewart, Nord hit his stride. The two were unstoppable. Even if you hated Conan, or fantasy, the jagged, gripping artwork in Dark Horse’s barbarian title was still worth a look. That may not continue to be the case if Nord and Isanove are paired up. This first collaboration looks more like a Thomas Kinkade painting than a gritty fantasy comic.

Despite my comments, Tim Truman turns in his best job yet as writer in this issue. Conan #37 is a boxing story, as the cover suggests. Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Cimmerian, was a boxer himself, and even created a pulp character, Steve Costigan, whose stories often revolved around the sweet science. It’s nice to give a nod to this overlooked aspect of REH’s life, but I don’t read Conan for scenes I could see anywhere else. If you’re going to do a boxing story in the Hyborian age, at least try to add a few fantastic/primitive elements. Conan #37 might as well be set in (shudder) present-day New York.

Worth the money? Yeeeeeeee-No. Isanove and Nord give Conan an interesting new look. Let’s hope it doesn’t stick around.