Conan The Barbarian Vol. 1, No. 180, Mar. 1986

CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol. 1, No. 180, March 1986 “Witches Keep”
Writer:            Jim Owsley
Artist:             John Buscema

Cover Artist:  No Info

Finishes:         Bob Camp                 
Colorist:         George Roussos
Letters:           Janice Chiang
Publisher:       Marvel Comics Group

Editor:                        Larry Hama

Editor In Chief: Jim shooter

Cover Price: $.75 (Current Near Mint Price $2.00-4.00)

Cast:

Imhotep aka The Ravager

Conan

Keiv

General  Soto

Renrutanit Queen of the Witches aka Ren

Tetra

Two Boons…

Imhotep’s arrival is imminent; he is the Bringer of Doom the Ravager of Worlds and Conan holds the one secret to surviving his wrath.  Meanwhile, Renrutanit or Ren, Queen of the Witches has duped the young General Sotto into believing that she is powerless due to in her words “Nocturnal Equinox, nonsense” a fictitious event she made up in order to embolden General Sotto to give chase.  Her reasoning to encourage her own pursuit you ask?  To use General Sotto and his troops as a decoy for the inevitable arrival of Imhotep.  Conan and his giant green, man thing, friend haplessly stumble into the middle of this cat and mouse game being played out between Ren and Sotto.  Long story short:  Conan meets General Sotto after pummeling several of his men, during which time Keiv goes missing.  Sotto’s men have no idea where Conan’s furry friend is, which leaves only one explanation, Rhen must have him.

Conan ventures off in search of Keiv and is lead to the Witch Queen by a very curvy daughter of hers.  The Witch Queen promises to release Keiv to Conan unharmed but only after he grants her two boons… First, the head of General Sotto and secondly, Some Conan lovin’ (queue the 70’s porno music…Brownchicken- Browncow…) Conan pleasures the Witch Queen and then later returns with a sack supposedly containing the head of the young General Sotto.  The queen quickly discovers the treachery and the fight is on, just as quickly she discovers Conan’s ability in combat is just as good if not better than his ability in the sack.

General Sotto arrives just in time to get a full dose of Imhoteps power.  The annihilation of Soto and his troops is comparable to the opening of the Lost Ark.  The medallion Conan holds, words off Imhotep. Though Conan yet draws breath, we are left with no clue as to Keiv’s current state.  Tetra arrives on scene whispers sweet nothings into Conan’s semi conscious ear and takes the Witch Queen’s head as well as her title.  The Witch Queen Tetra, has a nice ring to it, wouldn’t you agree?

Crom’s Verdict-

Though I find Keiv, the giant, green, man-thing who looks much like an illegitimate love child of Uncle Fester and The Incredible Hulk a bit hokey, I did enjoy the story.  My favorite part is when one of Sotto’s captains calls off his men who are mistakenly attacking Conan.  He asks Conan if he might inspect his papers and Conan says “My bloody sword is all the papers I need captain” At the risk and glee of sounding like the great REH, I nearly ejaculated in excitement. It was a classic Conan moment.  I found Rhen’s dissemination of false information particularly interesting as well.  The only other complaints I had was; look as hard as I may I could draw no correlation between the story and the cover art.  Not only was there no correlation between the two, but the cover art wasn’t very good either.

Review by:  Crom’s Fist