Once upon a time, in a far off land known as the 1970s, Marvel got the rights to publish Conan comics. He rather surprisingly became one of their biggest characters of the decade. In the course of this, they introduced Red Sonja. My understanding is Robert E. Howard had a character named Red Sonia, but all Marvel used was an approximation of the name. Red Sonja quickly got popular enough to headline her own book for awhile. And, as we’ve seen, to appear in Marvel Team-Up, something Conan himself didn’t even do. Marvel’s Conan projects continued into the 90s, when they let the license lapse and Dark Horse picked it up. Conan has been printed by a few companies since then, including a brief stint back at Marvel. Meanwhile, somehow, Red Sonja was separated from him, and Dynamite got the rights to her. So, for the last, I don’t know, 10-15 years, Red Sonja and Conan have been unrelated despite their history together, and that’s weird. But, now, in 2007, during Back In Black, Dynamite has struck a deal with Marvel to do a 5-issue… reference?… to that Marvel Team-Up issue. We will quickly see that 5 issues is too many. But as someone who saw the Team-Up issue in his formative years as a comic fan, I was in. Also, at the helm is Michael Avon Oeming, Bendis’ longtime collaborator on Powers, serving as writer rather than artist for this, so that was interesting, also. Oeming wrote, drew and wrote & drew all sorts of things in this period in addition to Powers, including several for Marvel (Like that Omega Flight book they were launching out of Civil War). The thing is, tho, something like this is very much not in continuity. There’s no Registration Act and various other obvious signs, and Peter & MJ are still together. Altho, they were supposed to be broken up during that Team-Up issue and weren’t due to scheduling problems, so that’s almost fitting. This is technically a sequel to the Team-Up story, but it doesn’t reference it too thoroughly, as I recall. Covers are by Michael Turner, who I have referenced a few times as some of his followers have drawn Spider-Man, but here’s the man himself. He made his bones at Marc Silvestri’s Top Cow, on Witchblade, and somehow became known for drawing sexy women despite his women being rail thin, dead-eyed automatons. And he inspired a whole legion of copycats to do the same. On pencils, we have Mel Rubi, who is not one of those followers. He was the artist on Dynamite’s Red Sonja book, which makes him doing this instead a bit odd. Brian Buccellatto is on colors, and no one is credited with inks, so I guess it’s shot from Rubi’s pencils. Hey, let’s get to it, already. To begin, we find Spider-Man busting up some jewel thieves while also calling MJ.
How… could she be about to perform the play without Peter knowing she got the part?
While Peter & MJ prepare for a quiet night in, a senator who’s kind of coming unglued about some vague horrible things he’s done arrives at a museum exhibit with his very shady right-hand man, where he’s greeted by J. Jonah Jameson…
That thing almost looks familiar, but also not quite.
Well, there he is! Meanwhile, swinging toward the Bugle to drop off some snaps, our man’s Spider Sense goes off so bad it makes him fall out of the sky. Then we see Robbie at the Bugle, and then we watch Spidey, Robbie and JJJ all react as the world morphs into Hyborian architecture around them.
Spidey sees some medieval types being shaken down for money, and leaps into action, thinking he’s still himself no matter what’s going on. Meanwhile, Kulan Gath forces JJJ to become his scribe, recording his every word.
Elsewhere, Spider-Man is still fightin’ rubes, and being called Spider-Demon and Spider-Devil by the people he’s trying to save as he takes off.
Rubi’s really leaning into the McFarlane thing. It’s 2007, dude.
You can really tell this is shot from the raw pencils in things like MJ’s hands there. A lot of random marks that an inker would’ve erased.
Well, there you go. We’re off to the races.