Conan the Barbarian (2019) #15 - Full Script (Patreon)

Part 3 of 'Into the Crucible' arrived in stores 7 months after part 2 because of pandemic-related shutdowns and a "pencils down" order from Marvel to suspend production. At the time we had no idea if it would be a temporary gap or if the North American comic market was about to permanently stop cold.

Obviously, with such a massive gap in the middle of our story, it killed almost all momentum around the new creative team and Conan's ongoing adventures. A lot of creative projects ended up getting crushed between the grinding gears of tragic history in the making, but there were far more important things happening in the world at that moment.

As far as the script itself goes - Conan at Marvel had a "Parental Advisory", but there was only so far we could go in terms of violent or sexual content. My editor and I tried to find the edge of that line so we could still surprise readers and hew true to the source material, and the only way to do that was to sometimes push too far in the script and have the art team obscure brutality or sexuality in shadow or by pushing things off panel.

Things ramp up in this chapter as Conan and his allies try to survive the Crucible tournament. Lots of action and betrayal in here.

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MURDER IN THE PITS OF THE CRUCIBLE!

CONAN's fate is altered by the sudden murder of one of the contestants! But as all signs point to Conan's guilt, has he fallen victim to a cruel betrayal…or a demonic possession clouding his actions? The Crucible tournament continues with its deadliest twist yet!