“Age of Conan: Bêlit, Queen of the Black Coast” #1 gives us a young, idealistic Bêlit who looks up to her father and aspires to be just like him.
Turns out, he’s a pirate, and Bêlit’s ideals are a little more bloodthirsty than most girls (and boys) her age. Warning: spoilers ahead.
Written by Tini HowardCover by Sana Takeda
Illustrated by Kate Niemczyk
Colored by Jason Keith
Lettered by Travis Lanham
THE SHE-DEVIL OF THE SEA WHO WOULD BE QUEEN! BÊLIT. The name alone conjures fear up and down the coasts of the Hyborian Age. And the sight of her ship, the Tigress, is an omen of despair for any town in the pirate queen’s path! The AGE OF CONAN kicks off with one of Conan’s most formidable – and memorable – female compatriots, in an all-new story revealing how she became the undisputed QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST!
“Age of Conan: Bêlit” #1 is the third title in Marvel’s revisit of the classic “Conan” canon, and gives us an origin for one of the most formidable women Conan’s ever encountered: Bêlit. Howard’s work here is somewhat without precedent, despite Thomas including her in a good chunk of Marvel’s original “Conan the Barbarian,” and many of the markers of good storytelling are here. There’s drama in Bêlit’s defined personality and in her father’s demise, there’s the big speech and hypocritical, violent rule of law inherent in the civilized world, and there’s enough tragedy to help get Bêlit’s story off the ground. If anything, there’s one too many things going on in this first issue, and the story’s pace might’ve been better spooled out if issue #1 ended with Bêlit making the choice to end her father’s life. As the pivotal moment is sandwiched between a few pages of establishing narrative and the abrupt shift to get Bêlit off the land and onto the sea, it feels rushed and more like a plot box that’s been ticked off than a real defining point in Bêlit’s life. The moment should build a lot of tension, and be given the grand tone of all seminal moments of violence that are the hallmark of stories in the “Conan” universe. Narrowing the scope here would give Howard more time to raise Bêlit’s dramatic stakes and give the book a grand kick-off.
For immediate reference, Niemczyk’s art has more in common with Mahmud Asrar’s style in “Conan the Barbarian” than Ron Garney’s art in “Savage Sword of Conan.” Both styles are competent for the storytelling in their respective books, but there’s something a little too polished about Niemczyk’s work to fit the rough-and-tumble world Bêlit’s born to and ends up ruling. There’s plenty of conflict and even a little blood, but Niemczyk’s line is too clean and the action too contained to sell this bad and boisterous pirate world right off the bat. Layouts are competent, though the choice to eschew borders on some of the backgrounds feels uneven. There’s also an occasional squashed panel and some weird foreshortening, which add some unnecessary cartoonishness to serious moments like the death of Bêlit’s father and her arrival at the port to see her father’s ships under siege. Facial details disintegrate a bit at a distance, which makes tracking the pirate conflict in the latter half of the comic difficult. Niemczyk’s backgrounds are meticulous and well crafted, but overall the art is just a touch too clean to truly grip or deepen interest in Bêlit’s story. At least for now, because that sea monster at the end has a lot of potential.
Keith’s colors are competent but a bit too bright, and Keith doesn’t appear to be committing to any definitive style to lift issue #1 out of its visual doldrums. The colors, like the art, are polished and clean, which makes everything feel like it’s been pressure-washed. Keith does fire, blood and moody waters very nicely, but the finesse with those elements somehow doesn’t translate into the character details or more mundane backgrounds. There’s not enough light in scenes that should be blinding, and not enough shadow to help build drama or mood. There’s also an immediate and very jarring issue with the color chosen for Lanham’s narrative boxes and the browns Keith uses for Asgulin’s port. They’re close enough in tone and texture that they blend together, and while this is the only narration present in this comic, it’s a bit of a stumble right off the bat. There’s potential here for some keen visual flavor in issues to come, but issue #1 doesn’t establish either a minimal or varied enough palette to cement the book’s style as a strong, discrete companion to the other two “Conan” titles on shelves right now.
Continued belowLanham’s lettering is on point as it is with the other two books, and Marvel’s choice to use the same letterer for all three provides necessary visual continuity for the rebooted “Conan” universe. Lanham keeps the dialogue load readable and flowing, though there are occasionally some slight crowding issues in Niemczyk’s narrower panels, and the book’s ultimately better off having Lanham on it.
While it might not be fair to compare the three books, “Age of Conan: Bêlit” should deliver a narrative and visual experience that has a lot of legs next to its two comic peers. That’s not to say that crafting a Bêlit story is at all the same as creating a Conan tale – if anything, the slate being cleaner means it’s more of a challenge to set Bêlit’s history apart from the herd. Howard has an interesting enough take on the future pirate queen, but the style and tone of the book don’t yet match Howard’s bold steps forward with Bêlit’s character, and there’s too much going on plot-wise to make Bêlit’s personality land as solidly as it should to pull off a killer first issue. The meat of this series will have to come in subsequent issues.
Final Verdict: 6.5 – “Age of Conan: Bêlit, Queen of the Black Coast” #1 packs in too much narrative and not enough unique visual style to dazzle, but Bêlit’s origins deserve a bit of readerly patience to see what’s to come.
