zAh, a good old-fashioned subway fight. Not New York subway, Chicago subway. The setting should give Birthright some kind of distinction, but it doesn’t. In fact, there’s no distinct this issue, except maybe the first time I’ve seen Bressan rush through a scene so bad he loses his detail. The last seven or so pages…

Williamson surprises a little bit with this issue of Birthright because he positions the Conan character as sympathetic. Or at least inviting sympathy. There’s this flashback to when he was Kid Conan and coming into his own adventuring and all that fantasy nonsense and he’s a likable character. The gimmick of Birthright is two-fold. There’s…

As usual for Williamson–and easily the most frustrating thing about his writing–the issue reads too fast. This issue of Birthright is some female bonding and a lengthy fight sequence. At the end of the fight sequence comes a big surprise. And it’s a good big surprise, but it’s not good enough to forgive the issue…

It’s like Terminator 2. Birthright, at least this issue, reads like watching Terminator 2 for the first time. Well, parts of it; the really good action parts. Something about Bressan’s composition and the level of detail to figures in motion–the action scenes in the comic feel like a really well-executed movie action sequence. It’s weird,…

This issue of Birthright moves rather well. Williamson gets in a lot of busyness. Not much happens–Conan brings his little big brother to a first aid station after passing some possessed guys (possessed by creatures from the fantasy world). Then he has to fight them. And his flying girlfriend (who’s pregnant) has a run in…

Well, Williamson turns in another fine issue of Birthright. I just wish they were all either this fine or I’d even take it a little less fine. Just so it’d be a steady read, because I don’t like feeling iffy on a series. The story is good, he just doesn’t always tell it the same…

It’s too soon to say I’m worried about Birthright, but I guess I’m starting to get concerned. Or maybe I wasn’t concerned but this issue is concerning. Williamson is accelerating the story of the evil villain controlling Conan and accelerating Conan’s younger big brother figuring out something’s wrong with his brother. There’s some nice stuff…

Williamson has a surprise in him. Birthright has it’s big surprise, of course, the big overall one, but Williamson totally changes the series with the last scene and it’s pretty cool. Birthright, just because the concept is so defined, occasionally feels like it can’t surprise. Even when it’s really good, it’s because Williamson’s doing really…

Williamson keeps improving with Birthright. He never loses what he’s already done, but he develops further–and not with his flashbacks to fantasy land, which get tiresome (something the father realizes too, in a great scene). Instead, he’s able to reveal things about the family without having to use a flashback. It comes up in the…

It’s a particularly interesting issue because Williamson never talks about the big secret–the big gimmick, the big deception, the big unknown. There’s stuff related to it, but he never identifies why he’s on these topics. It would be a bad jumping on issue. There’s some good stuff with the parents. Not together so much, because…

The first half or so of this issue is worrisome. Williamson brings in a whole bunch of fantasy world vocabulary for a flashback–the structure is fairly simple, present day on Earth with Conan grown-up, the fantasy world in flashback when he’s still an Earth kid adjusting. And while Bressan’s art is fine–his action is better–there’s…

If the first issue is an indication, Birthright is going to be a trip. Writer Joshua Williamson has a big twist at the end–the story of a missing child who returns as a grown, savage warrior out of a fantasy world–but the better stuff is how he’s handling the regular characters. The back and forth…