Finally finished Wonder Woman/Conan.
So the basic story is that these shapeshifting crowd goddesses called The Corvidae has set up a situation where Conan and Wonder Woman would fight to the death for their own amusement but it ends up not working that way.
It starts with Conan saving someone who welches on deals from getting killed with the promise of being made rich and able to have all the women he wants. The man tells him that the fight hes betting on is guaranteed to give him the money needed to make good on that promise.
However, the plan goes awry when the fighter ends up losing to Wonder Woman (whom is enslaved at the time and doesnt remember who she is), However Conan ends up losing interest in that when he sees Wonder Woman and she reminds him of a woman from his past named Yanna. Both of them end up captured by the Slaver who plans to make them fight for the Corvidaes own amusement. Of course they both escape and the time used during the escape is where the story focuses on developing the relationship between Conan and Wonder Woman that seems to have a tinge of both Warriors Respect and romance. The story does its best to convince you that maybe Wonder Woman is this Yanna that Conan thinks she is but as the story unfolds Diana remembers who and what she is. There is a moment in the story where the Amazons find a way to Conans time zone after the Corvidae show up in Themyscira and that leads to a moment where Diana is forced to leave Conan fighting a war by himself that also has the life of his childhood friend Yanna on the line. She gives him one of her bracelets and the lasso of truth to help him.
Wonder Woman feels guilty about it and just in time when Conan is attacking the Corvidae on his own Diana and the Amazons return along with the Welcher freeing the slaves to engage in all out war with the Corvidae.
The story really does a great job of balancing the Hyborian Ages more grim aesthetic with the more hopeful vibe of Wonder Womans lore and for that day Conan and the townspeople were inspired by her nature.
The story strangely ends in a bittersweet fashion where Conan finds out that Yanna is now Married with Children. However him and Diana end up leaving with one kiss and an Amazon salute...atleast the main story but theres a little tidbit at the end that harkens back to a line Yanna told Conan about the possibility of there being Echoes in the Chasm which seems to imply the concept of reincarnation.
There are a lot of crossovers in media that either dont often live up to the hype at all or are good because they delivery on the sheer novelty factor of said crossover but honestly everything from the storyline, art, action and character driven approach taken to the story really makes this one of the best comic crossovers one will probably ever read. Its not often I read a crossover (especially an inter company one) where I can say it gave me everything I wanted but I can easily say that for this.
Definitely a
9/10 from start to finish.
It really makes me excited for her upcoming Red Sonja/Conan crossover but sad we likely wont see a follow up to this book at the same time.
