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Conan the Barbarian #1 (2023) Reviews
Just over a year ago we announced that Conan the Barbarian would be returning to comics through Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics. Now, at last, our first issues arrives. What do the critics think?
• AIPT: 8/10 “An all-star creative team and balls-to-the-wall execution make this take on Conan’s legend a winner. Longtime fans will be pleased with the start to this new era.”
• ComicBook.com: “When it comes to invoking that nostalgia, Conan the Barbarian #1 overwhelmingly succeeds. The art is rough around the edges in a way that feels purposeful – an effort to achieve a throwback style.”
• Comic Book Dispatch: 9.5/10 “Like Roy Thomas, Grim Jim’s not afraid to thicken action with narrative or spice battles with dialogue. Anyone who suggests he hasn’t channeled the best traditions of Conan comics is a cowardly dog!”
• Comicon.com: 10/10 “The art is primal and energetic in a way that takes you along for the adventure. The story is brilliantly balanced between narration and dialog making it feel like the classic Conan stories I love.”
• Comic Crusaders: 10/10 “The old school stylings of the work of Zub, De La Torre, Villarrubia and Starkings go to prove how fantastic the comics of the past could be, by CROM!”
• Comical Opinions: 9.5/10 “Jim Zub delivers a sword-slashing, brooding, action-packed debut worthy of Robert E. Howard fans, and Robert De La Torre’s art is a perfect homage to classic Conan comics.”
• Comics Beat: “Enlisting Zub and de la Torre made sure the first issue kicked things off with a vision that nurtures the scale and epic proportions of Robert Howard’s unique style of worldbuilding. If each comic in the new series is as beautiful, raw, and exciting as this one, then readers are in for a read that might just earn its spot among the greats.”
• D-Rock Steady: “It has everything you want – barbarians, boobs, bloodshed, and battles. Fantastic stuff and great artwork.”
• Fanboy Planet: “The narrative allows for quieter moments for world-building, which allows De La Torre to show off his terrific storytelling skills.”
• Geek Culture: 10/10 “…the perfect start for Titan Comics, and the creative team. For Zub and co. the character is their bread and butter, and it’s great seeing them all come together to craft this wonderful opening in perfect synergy.”
• Get Your Comic On: 10/10 “Hard hitting, intense story that will have you gripped to each page. Brutal and dramatic artwork hits the mark, if this issue is anything to go by we are in for a treat for the rest of this series.”
• Graphic Policy: 8.9/10 “I had high expectations going into Conan the Barbarian #1. Somehow it met all of them and then some. This is a hell of a debut and new chapter for the classic character that will hopefully launch adventures of this quality for many years to come.”
• Hero Press: 9.2/10 “… it more than delivers on the promise of the lauded Free Comic Book Day prequel….if this debut issue is a sign of things to come then it feels like we’ll be getting the ‘real deal’ from the Titan era.”
• Horror Tree: 10/10 “…the Conan I read about in this Titan Comics issue still holds appeal to me even as an adult. He’s a nonconformist, a loner, and an intentional outsider. Yes, a rogue, in a way. He’s a restless traveler in a culture that preferred staying in one place, according to a scene in the first few pages.”
• How To Love Comics: “…a visually impressive comic that looks great and has strong storytelling. Overall, Titan’s new era for Conan is off to an excellent start.”
• Infinity Flux: “My favorite book of the week…I can’t recommend this one enough.”
• League of Comic Geeks: 10/10 “BLOWN AWAY! Conan is back and in such an awesome way. This book is savage, bloody and sexy, the way a Conan story should be.”
• Multiversity: 8/10 “The new run on “Conan the Barbarian” is, without question, a love letter to the franchise. This is a creative team that clearly loves the character and the many adventures he’s been through, and are putting that passion to work in creating a comic that captures and pays tribute to the classic style in every detail, whether through narration and dialogue, art and color styles, or even Richard Starkings’ font designs for the lettering.”
• Negromancer: “De la Torre makes me feel the blood, violence, and the heat of bone-breaking, and he creates a sense of foreboding and then, terror when the horde strikes.”
• Next Issue Podcast: “I think Jim Zub is a really fun writer, especially when it comes to barbarian fantasy and I think the art team really nails the aesthetic that one expects from a Conan book.”
• Pfangirl: “De la Torre delivers page after page of big hits, and even bigger battles…”
• Planes, Trains and Comic Books: 10/10 “This comic was fantastic!…It feels very classic but, at the same time, new.”
• Pop Culture Philosophers: “They’re giving us a no hold’s barred classic old school Conan book. I thought it was really solid.”
• Pullbox: 10/10 “I’m looking forward to seeing if these new stories can maintain the ferocity promised in this first issue”
• Sci-Fi 4 Me: “…a steady paced story with a good mix of action sets and quieter character moments to give the action room to breathe. Overall, a great first entry into a new series, and I can definitely recommend you pick this one up.”
• Sci-Fi Jubilee: “Conan the Barbarian #1 has everything Conan fans could’ve hoped for and plenty for newcomers to enjoy as well. Jim Zub, Rob De La Torre, and José Villarrubia are an exceptional creative team and this new series is a fantastic sword and sorcery epic set in the classic Conan style of yesteryear.”
• Scifiward: “Conan the Barbarian #1 absolutely shines. Roberto De La Torre is a great artist and the action really comes alive.”
• Set The Tape: 8/10 “All in all, this is a thoroughly enjoyable read, one that old fans will welcome whilst being accessible to anyone new to the character. If you’re in the mood for some old-fashioned, low fantasy swordplay be sure to grab this title.”
• Stygian Dogs: “It is gory, it’s fantastic…This is a dream team working on a dream project.”
• Super Hero Hype: 10/10 “Those who have never read a Conan comic could not ask for a better introduction to the first son of sword-and-sorcery than Conan the Barbarian #1, and those who are already fans of Conan will find this first chapter to be everything they could have hoped for.”
• Super Powered Fancast: 9/10 “…a fantastic return of the Cimmerian warrior. The story has a classic feel that immediately immerses you into the world of the character and there is a great sense of rising tension throughout the issue.”
• 32 Flavors Of Nickweiser: 8.2/10 “It’s a book that you need to go out and read. Definitely go check this out. Buy this book.”
• Thinking Critical: “I think it absolutely delivers in every way conceivable when it comes to this comic book. It feels like Conan. It feels like a barbarian comic with absolutely awesome fantasy action.”
• Todd Luck: “This really does feel like a premium comic that you’re paying regular price for…This is a good, worthy successor and a good jumping on point.”
• Wakizashi’s Reviews: 8.5/10 “It reminded me of reading comics when I was younger, those moments when the outside world fades away and you are deep in the world of the story.”
• Weird Science Comics: 8.5/10 “This is for the Conan crowd through and through…It does a good job of getting things going…I had a smile on my face by the end with how classic it was.”
