WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Conan the Barbarian #11, by Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson and VC's Travis Lanham, on sale now.
Conan has never been one to step away from a fight, and he doesn’t give up. Whether he’s fighting one-on-one, or taking on an army, this Cimmerian-turned-king will take on any challenge set before him, even when that means changing the mind of a god.
In Conan The Barbarian #11, the titular warrior finds himself in a strangely familiar place that shouldn’t exist. In struggling to get to the bottom of the mystery, he embarks on a simple quest of mythic proportions that brings him face-to-face with a deity who couldn’t care less about helping his people.
After being stabbed in the chest at The Temple of Razazel and witnessing the ceiling crumble, Conan wakes up in a frozen landscape, unsure of where he is. Once his vision clears, he sees that the two people standing before him are his parents.
He is back in the village where he was born. Fairly quickly, Conan figures out that this can’t be real. He decides that the only way to determine just where he is and how he got here is to climb to the top of the mountain looming over everything.
The mountain, which does not want him climbing it, throws everything it can at him. Conner suffers through an avalanche, storms and several beasts that remove him from the cliff face and eat him over and over. However, the barbarian keeps getting back up -- no matter what is thrown at him, he will not stop.
Upon finally reaching the mountain’s peak, Conan sees evidence of other warriors in the form of swords sticking up through the snow. He has reached his destination, but has no answer. When a booming voice demands that he leave, and the very rock he stands on forms into fists that repeatedly knock him in the gut, does the answer appear: The mountain is the god Crom himself.
There have been references to Crom all throughout Conan's history. A famous example is of the character speaking to his god was Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan praying to him to grant him revenge before a battle in the 1982 film.
Their meeting here is not one of respect but of defiance. When Crom tells him to never climb the mountain again, Conan asks what is to happen to the world of the living. Crom explains that Razazel will mess everything up and the other gods will put things right, but he, basically, does not care. He then turns away from Conan.
So, Conan throws a sword in the god’s back. Not only that, he chops off his fingers and does his very best to try and kill him. This is a being he has spoken of all his life. He has fought in his name, made kingdoms bend to his will, but when Crom brushes him aside, refusing to help others who have fought in his name, Conan has none of it.
Crom sends Conan back to the land of the living, but lets him know that he is now cursed to live forever and watch everything he holds dear, including his own strength and legend, fade away to nothing. If the final image of a bloody Conan rising from the rubble of the ceiling, with two swords sticking out of his chest, ready to rip apart the twins who killed him, this curse is a price he’s more than willing to pay in order to save the world and continue fighting in the name of Crom.
Conan the Barbarian #12 goes on sale January 29, 2020.