"The End" Week: Conan #11!

We looked at Conan last issues before, and I had thought we'd blogged Wonder Woman/Conan; but today we've got a Conan finale with amazons! From 1996, Conan #11, "Amazons!" Written by Larry Hama, art by Enrique Alcatena, cover by Bret Blevins. (While I like both, there's a world of difference between those two artists! Blevins did a few covers for this run, as well as interiors for #7.)

Hmm. I know I have the previous issue, but I only recall the cover! Captured by an Amazon tribe, the Queen digs Conan, but per Amazon law men have to die. Queen Bryn tries to let Conan sneak out the back, but is double-crossed by a hardline contingent, who chase after him. (The queen is traditionally beautiful, Mag and the hardliners...less so.) Conan runs into a small army of brigands coming the other way, and tries to warn the Amazons, who aren't about to listen to a man, and subsequently get mostly slaughtered. Conan knows he should get out while he can, but can't leave the last one, Danae, to die; and leaps into the fray, driving off the brigands for the moment. Bryn is facing a death sentence, but Conan and Danae arrive in time to save her, since the Amazons will need all the swords they can muster.

Brigand leader and pile of ugly,"Malekhar the Morose," follows one of his men, who lies about killing several Amazons and Conan, into a barrage of Amazon arrows. Still, he's savvy enough to realize this is how the Cimmerians fight: force a superior force into a wall of spears, then let your berserkers hack up any resistance. Malekhar tries to counter by rushing the high ground--using his hapless scout as a shield--and try to take out the Amazons' queen. Ballsy move, but it only gets him far enough that Conan has to kill his ass. Still, while now some of the Amazons accept Conan at his word, the law says he can't be allowed to leave, and Danae warns him of just that. As Conan rides out, Mag puts an arrow in his back!

Luckily, Danae gave Conan a pretty nice shield...and a good story, for when he would be king. There's no letters page or announcement that this was the final issue; but next would be the limited series Stalker of the Woods; which looks a bit closer to classic Marvel Conan than this brief series had gone.