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'The Argos
Deception' ends as it began with a ship asea. Artist James Harren and colorist
Dave Stewart set the Tigress, laden
(presumably) with riches, on a stolid ocean in contrast to a dreamy cloud-streaked
sky[1].
The closure that this image provides its arc is apt, a mirrored bookend to a
tale in which little happens and almost all is left to the imagination. Writer Brian Wood uses the concept of closure to
join up the loose ends of this story, while at the same time, Wood knots this
arc with the previous one by using the cords of Conan's budding psyche and
lashes them to the most powerful tie that binds: love.
In Understanding Comics,
Scott McCloud hangs his blue check shirt in the gutter, that space between the
panels that transforms images into ideas (the seen and the unseen) and makes us
all complicit in the crime and the craft. Comics kids! McCloud draws his
definition like so: ''This phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole has a name. It’s called closure'' (63). Four pages later, an clear McCloud states: ''Comics IS closure.'' The kind of
closure, McCloud seeks is from panel to panel, the whole sequential art thing.
McCloud ends the chapter emphasizing that closure is (only) the result; the act
(the work) must come from the 'faith' and the 'imagination' of the reader.Conan and Bêlit's Messantian vacation (escape?) centers on a raid. Sure, Conan 'could' have been executed, but that's a minor detail and Bêlit (and the REH estate) wasn't going to let that happen. Like a practiced pickpocket, Wood has light fingers as he masks the lift and hides the heist. If nobody sees you take it, is it really stealing? In Conan the Barbarian #6, Wood achieves closure with closure. Plans and plot points resolve themselves in the gutter. So why all the friggin' around? Why all this deception? Are N'Yaga's words, ''This is Bêlit,'' the Hyborian Age equivalent of 'it is what it is?' Wood wants this Cimmerian shaggy-dog story to provide more than mere closure; it desires belief and requires trust on both the part of Conan and the reader.
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Harren gets his
final whacks in showing Conan as he gashes, beheads and impales his foes with a
respective 'Whhikkkttt,' 'Slllkkkk' and 'Thukk' and oh the blood doth flow as
if from a hydrant. Stewart selects a gooey shade of red as blood bursts from
bodies and aprons off the blade of Conan's sword. Harren slashes the page with
ferocious speed lines capturing momentum and the precise and precious moment
that Conan makes widows of soldier's wives. In the penultimate splash page,
Conan embraces his beloved and in what could be called an 80's
action-movie-moment, the two gaze into each other's viscera flecked faces, as Bêlit
says, ''Conan, you doubted me? When will you learn?'' And scene.
Six issues in,
Wood's adaptation of Howard's ''Queen of the Black Coast'' is as much about
sword and sandal adventures as it is a story about boy meets girl. It's a love
story, yes, and in some crazy way it's damn near a romantic comedy. Wood
appears (desires?) to be interested in the process, the how's and why's that
occur to form this relationship between Conan and Bêlit[2].
For some, the early stages of a relationship are fraught with doubts and
profound conflict of all kinds. We are all (supposedly) free and can walk away, none beholden to any
other. So why stay? What ties one to his or her Tigress?As N'Yaga and Conan make their mad dash to the docks, N'Yaga offers some sage relationship advice when it comes to taming or changing Bêlit: don't. Instead, N'Yaga tells Conan, ''you can understand her. And in that, perhaps she will understand you too.'' Ah, yes, understanding, relationship bedrock. If this scene occurred not at breakneck speed while on horseback, though the cobblestone streets of a burning city between a barbarian and his white haired wizened bro, but instead took place at a comfortable bar between the Seth Rogen character and the Paul Rudd character, would it smell as sweet? Good advice is good advice, you take it where and when and from whom you get it. Don't tame. Don't change. Understand. Understand?
[1]
I'm guessing, since the next arc takes place
(thanks to the requisite keeper of the letter column, assistant editor, Brendan
Wright) in ''the frozen plains of
Cimmeria!'' one could add to the end of this sentence: 'And the ship sails
on, back to the north / Through the fog and ice … '
but there's no need to force and Iron Maiden reference into every review I write. Right?
[2]
So far, the anatomy of this relationship
has been one-sided. Perhaps, Wood will plumb the depths of Bêlit's motivations
instead of making her only the object
of Conan's desires. I, for one, look forward to the Bêlit and N'Gora shopping
montage where at the end Bêlit tells N'Gora how much she loves Conan and why.
In this scenario, of course, N'Gora is gay.
Man, that is the 800 poung gorilla in the room, innit? I never even noticed that they don't show you the heist! That's the one of the things I loved about Reservoir Dogs, you only see the prep, then the aftermath, and closure provides ther rest of the story.
ReplyDeleteJ.,
DeleteI came 'this close' to making a 'Reservoir Dogs' ref. Leave it to you ... again I ask, why, why tell the story this way? What's all the hub-bub, bub? Brilliant or something else?