The Savage Sword of Conan: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus, Vol. 7

The Savage Sword of Conan: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus

by Michael Fleisher, John Buscema, Alan Zelenetz

Savage Sword enters an exciting new era with the first appearance of one of Conan’s deadliest super-villain adversaries, Wrarrl, better known as the Devourer of Souls! He earned that title by consuming the life force of anyone standing in his way—but he never met a foe as ardent as Conan! Their iconic battle is the first of several engagements between the two in Marvel Conan lore. And returning to menace Conan is another of his legendary rogues gallery, Captain Bor’aqh Sharaq, believed to be dead but hunting Conan on a quest for vengeance! This Omnibus edition is packed with Conan classics, with stories by Michael Fleisher, Christopher Priest and art by all-time Conan great John Buscema! 

COLLECTING: Savage Sword of Conan (1974) 88-101

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Fantasy

936 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1984

About the author

Michael Lawrence Fleisher's comic-book writing career spanned two decades in which he authored approximately 700 stories for DC, Marvel, and other comics publishers. His work on series such as The Spectre and Jonah Hex is still highly regarded, as is his work on the Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes. After a widely reported libel case his comic output declined, with his last published comic assignment appearing in the UK anthology 2000AD in 1995.

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Fleisher pens some pretty fun stories, lots that feel a tad generic, but they don't over stay their welcome. John Buscema is still pencilling most of this! It's wild how much Conan he did. Near the end he starts getting credited for Plot as well. Fleisher adds a bunch of extra words to Buscema's stories, most I think would read well with minimal descriptive text.

Pleasantly surprised Savage Sword continues strong. Although the early issues felt more substantial, these comics are still really high quality.

[OmniBen · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 4.25/5
Ignoring whatever dipstick at Marvel selected this cover from the dozen or so others available, the material contained herein is the strongest collection of SSoC stories since whenever it was that Roy Thomas stepped away from writing duties. In truth, this is mainly down to the art, which is without a shadow of a doubt, the strongest collection of artists on any of these omnibus thus far. Buscema, Chan, Nebres, Marcos. If I'm forgetting someone I apologise, but hot damn, this made me cry devastatingly brutal man tears of joy at just how amazing comics used to look. There isn't a dud issue to be seen anywhere when it comes to the art. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the writing.
Michael Fleischer is forever doomed to reside inside Roy Thomas' shadow, despite this being his most consistent offering thus far. His tiring tropes were on display early, and I was grimacing somewhat here and there at some pretty baffling narrative choices, but the longer this went on, the better it got. Towards the end I was well and truly on board, my more critical reservations falling away, allowing me to enjoy these stories for exactly what they are. Some of the best looking, fairly well written stories to ever grace the printed page.
I can't imagine a review of a volume 7 will ever be of great interest to anyone, as you are either going to collect this line or your not, but if you want to pick and chose only the books that collect the strongest work, then this is one you won't want to pass up. 4.25/5


OmniBen.

[Kurt Vosper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading the second last collection of Savage Sword I can see that it’s not quite as powerful as it was in the beginning but it’s still so very well done, particularly the works of the original artists. A pleasure to read.