Should Conan be part of the Marvel universe?

[Iron Maiden]

In my own personal head canon he’s always been a part of the MU.
The Hyborean Age was woven into Marvel’s history in the early seventies; my two favorite What Ifs are V1 #13 What if Conan The Barbarian Walked The Earth Today, and V1 #43 What if Conan The Barbarian Were Stranded in The Twentieth Century. One of my favorite Marvel Team Up issues was V1 #79 where Spidey teamed up w. Red Sonja (who’d possessed Mary Jane’s body) to fight Kulan Gath.

Seeing Conan in Savage Avengers has been a hoot. From fighting Wolverine to eating dinner w. Doom to watching lucha libre matches and teaming up w. Venom to fight alien invaders, the guy takes everything in stride, nothing phases him.
That’s Conan in a nutshell.

I agree with this. I really thought it was a stupid idea when I first saw the stories about Marvel bringing him into the present day MU but he's been highly entertaining in Savage Avengers. I hope he never gets civilized and remains a barbarian. Oh, he can get smarter, more accustomed to some things in the present day but I feel he should still resist it.

[Snoop Dogg]

marvel has a million characters who can do what conan does but they should definitely keep simping for a character they don't really own, surely that will never bite them in the ass

[Grapeweasel]

I don't mind linking magic and monsters and artifacts to the Marvel Universe, but Conan walking around in the modern age is just plain silly.

[Riv86672]

I'm anxiously awaiting the Conan and Blue Marvel team-up.

^^^Ah, but would you actually read it before saying it wasn’t any good?

I agree with this. I really thought it was a stupid idea when I first saw the stories about Marvel bringing him into the present day MU but he's been highly entertaining in Savage Avengers. I hope he never gets civilized and remains a barbarian. Oh, he can get smarter, more accustomed to some things in the present day but I feel he should still resist it.

^^^agree w. your points.

[stingray]

I remember waaaay back in Conan the Barbarian #1, a shaman glimpsed the future (an astronaut floating amongst other things) and he was driven mad by these sights. When Conan met the Scarlet Witch in the Avengers mini and was transported to the present, he didn't bat an eye. A simple spell let him speak English, and all the sensory overload that he should have experienced amounted to....absolutely nothing. I always found this a little silly to be honest.

[superduperman]

Ehhhh... In the past is the best way to do it, but my real opinion is 'If they can KEEP the rights'. Marvel has had a lot of trouble in the past with having fun and interesting characters crossover and team up... only to lose the rights later and be forbidden from mentioning, reprinting those issues. GI JOE, Transformers, ROM, Godzilla... For a company so focused on tpbs, it's REALLY dangerous to make a character they MAY not have the rights to in 5 years an integral part fo the story...

This is precisely the kind of thing I was thinking of when I wrote this. Look at Rom. Marvel created the Dire Wraiths but can't mention where they came from now. Just as the "new" Rom can't use them either. For a while Dark Horse was reprinting the old Marvel Conan stories and one of them had a Wolverine stand in implying that he was around back in Conan's time (this would be the early nineties before his origins were established). Out of context, in the hands of another company, that doesn't mean anything. And what about Red Sonja? Marvel still doesn't have the rights to her. How many crossovers did they have together? Or Solomon Cain? Or any number of other characters that Marvel had the publishing rights to but don't anymore? My understanding is that the Transformers comics took place in the Marvel universe. Those can never be reprinted now. IDW isn't going to just get the rights to reprint a comic with Spider Man in it.

[JudicatorPrime]

^^^Ah, but would you actually read it before saying it wasn’t any good?

I read Conan in the recent Avengers limited series. That did nothing to change my opinion. I used to collect Conan because of the amazing Ernie Chan. Conan belongs in the Hyborian Age, or similar. If I want to read someone with his character attributes in the modern world, I'll read Wolverine or Thor.

[JudicatorPrime]

I remember waaaay back in Conan the Barbarian #1, a shaman glimpsed the future (an astronaut floating amongst other things) and he was driven mad by these sights. When Conan met the Scarlet Witch in the Avengers mini and was transported to the present, he didn't bat an eye. A simple spell let him speak English, and all the sensory overload that he should have experienced amounted to....absolutely nothing. I always found this a little silly to be honest.

Comics has a way of doing that. I mean if you think of the diseases alone, Conan doesn't survive past a few days in a real world scenario. Or on the other hand, he'd be his own super spreader of contagions that died out in the lengthy interim between the Hyborian era and modern day. It's a myth that "modern" means that we've found cures for everything. Some of the viruses and bacteria simply didn't survive, in part because the world's population wasn't as dense and it took forever to get anywhere, which served as a form of natural quarantine.

[JudicatorPrime]

Conan vs. Alien Xenomorphs vs. Predator. Doable?

[Riv86672]

I read Conan in the recent Avengers limited series. That did nothing to change my opinion. I used to collect Conan because of the amazing Ernie Chan. Conan belongs in the Hyborian Age, or similar. If I want to read someone with his character attributes in the modern world, I'll read Wolverine or Thor.

^^^Well, I look forward to your review of the Blue Marvel/Conan team up sight unseen then!

As to the last few posts, not sure why things that get handwaved in all sorts of fiction when it comes to time travel are being used as evidence of why Conan doesn’t work in the modern day.

-shrug-

[JudicatorPrime]

^^^Well, I look forward to your review of the Blue Marvel/Conan team up sight unseen then!

Ha ha! If I'm around and should they ever announce something like that, I'll definitely weigh in one way or the other. Very much looking forward to Doctor Adam Brashear joining Conan, Bêlit, and Zula to expand the "Titans Three."

Edit: Oh, and since we're talking far-fetched fantasies here, can I get that with Boris Vallejo painting each of the covers? A four issue limited series should just about cover it.

[Riv86672]

Buscema Conan. There is no substitute.

[Hypestyle]

Ehhhh... In the past is the best way to do it, but my real opinion is 'If they can KEEP the rights'. Marvel has had a lot of trouble in the past with having fun and interesting characters crossover and team up... only to lose the rights later and be forbidden from mentioning, reprinting those issues. GI JOE, Transformers, ROM, Godzilla... For a company so focused on tpbs, it's REALLY dangerous to make a character they MAY not have the rights to in 5 years an integral part fo the story...

it was shortsighted for marvel/cadence not to buy Conan outright decades ago. Even now, there needs to be folks at Marvel who have the ear of Disney to try and get them to buy the Conan Characters- taking into account the movie projects they are divorced from any sort of Marvel connection.

Marvel needs to be sure that some random regime change isn't going to try and scuttle the Marvel relationship whenever it's up for renewal. Too much archival material at stake, and especially since Marvel has made the choice to "mainstream" Conan into the contemporary Marvel world (for now), it puts all those stories in jeopardy if the license is lost again.

Serious things to consider. I hope somebody is listening.

[Ptrvc]

As a fan of Robert E. Howard's work, I just don't buy a Conan written by anyone else.

[Jabare]

marvel has a million characters who can do what conan does

pretty much this. I think Conan is more special in his own world. Sure you could add him, but when he stands in the universe with everyone else he doesn't shine as much