This weekend’s light-hearted and escapist superhero story looks at Marvel Comics’ adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s non-Conan short story The Altar and the Scorpion rewritten with Conan as the central character.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #52 (Jul 1975)
Title: The Altar and the Scorpion
Villain: The Scorpion God
Synopsis: Conan’s wanderings bring him to Belverus, the capital city of Nemedia in the Hyborian Age. He encounters Murilo, whom he first met in Rogues in the House during his battle with Thak and Nabodinus.
Murilo now leads a mercenary troop called Crimson Company and he hires Conan as his new second-in-command. The hundreds of Crimson Company soldiers ride south to Ophir to start working for their new client – the ruler of the city of Ronnoco.
Their first mission is to retrieve the Ring of the Black Shadow, a powerful ring in the ruins of an abandoned, ancient Valusian city. The ring can unleash a dark god if worn by a mortal. Conan and a female member of Crimson Company, Tara of Hanumar, shine in the expedition.
Conan finds the Ring of the Black Shadow, thus animating a huge statue of the Scorpion God which guards the ring to keep it out of human hands. Our hero fights the statue and renders it inert again with a sword through its “brain.”
Heeding Murilo’s instructions that nobody must touch the ring, two Crimson Company soldiers are assigned to stand guard over it while Conan, Tara and the others ride on to Ronnoco to get priestly help in containing the ring.
One of the guards greedily decides to steal the ring but upon touching it is transformed into a human-sized black shadow-being. He absorbs the other guard at his touch and becomes as large as two humans.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #53 (Aug 1975)
Title: Brothers of the Blade
Villains: The Brothers of the Blade
Synopsis: In Ronnoco, the Crimson Company’s client Lord Belzamo gives Murilo’s troops two assignments. One detachment is sent back to the ancient Valusian ruins with a blessed container to retrieve and contain the Ring of the Black Shadow.
The other detachment, led by Conan, is sent to intercept the army escorting Princess Yvonna of Pergona. She is being taken to an arranged marriage to the prince of Carnolla in order to make peace between those two kingdoms. They then plan to unite against Ronnoco and conquer it.
Belzamo intends to force Yvonna to instead marry his son Vanni, forging an alliance between Pergona and Ronnoco so they can unite and destroy Carnolla. Conan leads his troops to victory over the Brothers of the Blade, the mercenaries escorting Princess Yvonna.
While Conan and company take Yvonna to Ronnoco, the Crimson Company soldiers sent to retrieve the Ring of the Black Shadow fall victim to the black shadow-being. It grows with each man it absorbs, and the sole survivor, Yusef, rides off in a panic to alert Murilo.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #54 (Sep 1975)
Title: The Oracle of Ophir
Villains: The Oracle’s Guardian
Synopsis: While Murilo and his men stand ready in case Yvonna’s father or her intended groom in Carnolla send troops to retrieve her from Ronnoco, Conan, Yusef and Tara are sent to consult the Oracle of Ophir regarding a way of defeating the Shadow Being as it ravages the countryside, growing larger and larger with all the victims it absorbs.
Conan enters the Cave of the Oracle and must battle the undead Guardian of the Oracle. Naturally, the Cimmerian defeats the Guardian and takes its magnificent, jeweled sword off the corpse.
The Oracle gives a cryptic message to Conan about how to destroy the Shadow Being and he turns to leave the cave. An invisible force field prevents him from departing and somehow creates a duplicate Conan.
The two fight each other for a long time before Conan realizes he cannot leave the cavern until he returns the jeweled sword to the fallen Guardian. He does so and the undead being revives, then the phony Conan disappears.
Conan can now leave, so he, Tara and Yusef ride back to Ronnoco, hoping the Oracle’s words can be deciphered.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #55 (Oct 1975)
Title: A Shadow on the Land
Villain: The Black Shadow Being
Synopsis: Conan and his two companions witness the Shadow Being killing all the inhabitants of a village near Ronnoco. Helpless to stop it, they ride on to the city to tell Murilo what the Oracle said.
While they ponder the words, the captive Princess Yvonna resists the thought of marrying Lord Belzamo’s sleazy son Vanni. The Shadow Being, now enormous, arrives at the high walls of Ronnoco and besieges it, absorbing anyone foolish enough to get within its arms’ reach.
Conan suddenly realizes what the Oracle’s instructions on destroying the Shadow Being mean. He rides out of the city, barely avoiding being absorbed by the creature. Vanni panics, and imitates Conan by fleeing the city, but with Yvonna as a hostage.
Conan returns to the ancient Valusian ruins, where he uses the Oracle’s instructions to reanimate the giant scorpion statue. The statue races off toward Ronnoco to deal with its ancient foe the Shadow Being. On his own way back, Conan frees Yvonna from Vanni and kills the sleazeball in a sword fight.
The statue of the Scorpion God and the Shadow Being fight it out, with the statue completely destroying the being. Murilo and Conan’s relief is short-lived, however, as armies sent by Yvonna’s father and by her betrothed in Carnolla approach Ronnoco.
With Vanni dead, Princess Yvonna takes control, telling the commanders of both armies that she will not marry anyone until she wants to. With a truce established, she flirts with Murilo then returns home with the Pergolan troops.
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