It is a Khitan warrior custom to honor a brave warrior by wearing his blood to battle. One such Khitan warrior does this to honor Pallantides - dipping his hand in Pallantide's blood and marking her face. No problem there. Conan, on hearing this, gets a bit of the warrior's blood on his hand and marks his face with it as a means of honoring the warrior's brother - dead by Conan's hand in a previous altercation. Bows of respect are then exchanged on both sides. This felt really awkward to me - I'm sure it felt awkward - and wrong, to the Khitan warrior also. First of all, Conan did not pay attention to the subtle rule. You honor a warrior by wearing his blood to battle. You can't get blood from one warrior to honor another - that wasn't the rule. Secondly, I'm getting guilt from Conan from killing a man who essentially tried to kill him first. Not like him at all. What feels authentic in this scenario is the clumsy way two cultures sometimes meet. Both sides want to honor the other, or at least not give offense, there are these strange rules, and sometimes it just comes off as awkward.
In terms of action, the issue doesn't belong to Conan or the two Khitan warriors that are with him. It belongs to Namie. The girl I mentioned in my commentary in issue 1; the one who was wearing a kimono. Namie is pursued by a huge Siberian Tiger into a dark labyrinthine temple were Namie wait's to ambush the beast. She does so effectively. Driving her sai through it's head from neck to skull then loping the head off. There is a spectacular panel which shows Namie in action while the Siberian Tiger's head flies off its bloody neck. Spectacular.
Posted by Pete Albano - January 16, 2012
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