CONAN: SCOURGE OF THE SERPENT #3 – New Comic Review

Conan: Scourge of the Serpent #3, by Titan Comics on 11/26/25, tightens the noose on three timelines at once as gods, kings, and occultists all find they are much smaller than the serpent looming over them.

Credits:

• Writer: Jim Zub
• Artist: Ivan Gil
• Colorist: Jao Canola
• Letterer: Richard Starkings, Tyler Smith
• Cover Artist: Gerardo Zaffino (cover A)
• Publisher: Titan Comics
• Release Date: November 26, 2025
• Comic Rating: Mature (brief nudity)
• Cover Price: $4.99
• Page Count: 36
• Format: Single Issue

Covers:

Analysis of CONAN: SCOURGE OF THE SERPENT #3:

First Impressions:

The opening pages hit with a clean, ruthless hook: Evelyn’s possession goes from creepy to lethal in a blink, Conan’s “curiosity over survival” switch flips in the worst possible room, and Kull realizes his crown sits on a nest of snakes. The three captions lining up Boston, Numalia, and Valusia like dominoes instantly sell the core concept that every era is the same bad moment replaying itself. The mood lands fast and hard, but it also announces that this chapter is more about escalation than payoff, which matters if you came looking for resolutions instead of cliffhangers.

Recap:

Previously, King Kull and Brule uncovered that Valusia’s royal court hid serpent‑men behind trusted faces, exposing a mutiny of doppelgangers, buried feuds, and old sorcery that left the throne balanced on a knife edge. In Numalia, Conan was framed for murder inside a sacred museum, brawled his way through guards and corruption, and turned his anger on Aztrias, the schemer who used him as bait. Meanwhile, in 1934 Boston, Kirowan and O’Donnell probed Evelyn Gordon’s slide into madness after she wore a snake‑shaped ring, revealing visions and warnings that tied her to a curse of Set reaching across ages. The last issue ended with three cliffhangers: Kull fighting for his crown against ancient serpent sorcerers, Conan hunting unseen killers in museum shadows, and Kirowan wondering whether anyone in the room was even human anymore as Set’s cult closed its grip.

Plot Analysis:

In Boston, Kirowan faces down an armed and possessed Evelyn as she thrashes against a doctor and turns on everyone in the room. He tries to reach whatever is left of her, framing her condition as warped perception rather than madness, and begs her to trust him while her husband, Jim Gordon, is gravely injured at their feet. Evelyn’s guttural shrieks finally give way to Jim’s weak voice, and when she realizes how badly she has hurt him, panic crashes in as Kirowan senses another, hidden presence occupying the room. While others want an ambulance and rational answers, Kirowan insists the ring is only a conduit for older magic and that the real danger is an entity riding along behind Evelyn’s eyes.​

As Kirowan explains that Evelyn’s visions of a “dark mirror” point to something using her body, he connects the fragments and identifies Joseph Roelocke as his old occult rival, Yosef Vrolok. He recounts how they once studied forbidden mysteries together in Budapest until Vrolok sank into deeper corruption, stole the woman Kirowan loved, and became a soul he thought he had already killed. When Kirowan confronts “Roelocke,” the man drops the pretense, reveals he is both Vrolok and something more than human, and boasts that death was nothing but a speed bump on his road to power. Vrolok claims he and Kirowan have circled each other through incarnations, ruining each other’s lovers and rituals, and now plans to use the serpent ring to become eternal while making sure Kirowan never reincarnates again.​

In Numalia, Conan refuses to flee the museum even as he recognizes he should, because his stubborn curiosity demands he see what really killed the proprietor and the guards. Among ancient artifacts and shadows, he hears an unearthly sound and glimpses an impossible creature tied to the Stygian bowl, something neither fully beast nor man yet carrying a divine, inhuman presence. The monster moves far faster than anything Conan has hunted, turning the tight, cluttered chamber into a death trap where every relic becomes an obstacle against his sword arm. Within moments the creature hurls him around, pins him down, and nearly claims him as “one more vanquished victim for the god in the bowl,” only for Conan’s battle‑hardened instincts and refusal to yield to shock the horror into a harder counterattack.​

Back in Valusia, Kull starts his day under a calm veneer, listening to Brule talk about trust while the king questions whether anyone in his court is really human, including himself behind his own “mask.” The memory of last night’s exposed serpent‑men weighs on him as Brule warns that their enemies know two of their cult are dead and will move against them during the coming council session. Kull longs for simple battle instead of political deceit as he walks into the council chamber, Brule defiantly at his back, and counts seventeen familiar councilors who once supported his rise to the throne. With no way to know who is real, he unleashes Brule’s spell phrase, “Ka nama kaa lajerama,” to reveal serpent‑men in their midst, and the narrative slams into a multi‑timeline fury montage where Kull, Conan, and Kirowan all erupt into desperate struggle as the cosmic power behind Set’s cult finally steps into the foreground.

Story

The pacing runs hot once the recap text fades, bouncing between Boston, Numalia, and Valusia without dead air, yet it relies heavily on caption‑driven voice‑over to glue the three fights into a single thematic crescendo. That structure keeps tension high but leans hard on “this is all one moment” narration instead of letting the scenes prove it, which can make the climax feel guided rather than discovered. Dialogue is clear and functional, with Kirowan’s measured occult monologues, Vrolok’s theatrical gloating, and Conan’s more wordless defiance all distinct, though Kirowan occasionally shoves a lot of backstory into speech that reads more like lecture than conversation. The issue closes on a strong structural beat, explicitly flagging this as a “point of no return” and promising a conclusion next time, but it stops so close to the real payoff that the last page reads more like a long trailer than a chapter finish.

Art

The art team keeps the action readable even with three separate tone palettes: cold interiors and harsh lighting for Boston, dim golds and deep shadows for the museum, and regal brightness for Valusia. Panel layouts in the Conan sequence sell his size and helplessness against the god in the bowl by framing him small against the bulk of the creature and cramming him into tight, cluttered panels whenever he tries to move. Kirowan’s scenes lean on close‑ups of strained faces and warped eyes to make the possession feel immediate, while Vrolok’s reveal uses lighting and posture to push him from “man in a room” to “walking embodiment of bad decisions catching up.” The final multi‑timeline montage uses color contrast and mirrored compositions to tie the three fights together, which looks impressive but edges toward visual overload for younger readers trying to track who is where on a first pass.

Characters

Conan’s motivation stays brutally simple: he wants answers as much as survival, so he chooses to hunt the unknown killer instead of escaping, even when the environment is stacked against him. That stubbornness is completely on brand and makes him relatable as someone who would rather risk his neck than walk away not knowing the truth. Kirowan gets the most emotional shading as he juggles guilt over his past with Vrolok, fear for Evelyn and Jim, and the weight of being the only one in the room who actually understands what is happening. Kull’s inner conflict plays out through his doubts about trust and identity, wondering whether every mask, including his own, hides a serpent, which gives his eventual outburst in the council room a clear emotional trigger rather than just an excuse for a fight.

Originality & Concept Execution

The core concept of three heroes linked across time by Set’s cult and a cursed ring remains the hook, and this issue pushes that idea forward by explicitly tying Kirowan’s reincarnation feud with Vrolok to the same serpent power that stalks Conan and undermines Kull. On a concept level, blending a Hyborian heist, a pre‑cataclysmic throne room conspiracy, and a 1930s occult detective story is a fresh twist on shared‑universe sword‑and‑sorcery. Execution here is solid but not flawless, because the script has to stop several times and explain the metaphysics of reincarnation and conduits instead of letting the horror speak for itself. Still, when the book shuts up and lets the cosmic montage roll, the “all moments are one moment” premise hits the way the series has been promising since the prelude.

Positives

This issue’s biggest strength is escalation: every thread gets sharper, from Conan’s brutal grapple with a god‑thing to Kirowan’s confrontation with a literally weaponized ex‑colleague, to Kull’s public test of loyalty that could decapitate his government in one spell word. The writing keeps character motivations clean and easy to follow, which matters when reincarnation charts and serpent cult lore start stacking up. The art backs that up with strong visual storytelling, especially in the museum sequence where Conan’s physical disadvantage is obvious without a single caption telling the reader he is in trouble. Together, those choices create a chapter that measurably raises tension and stakes, even if it keeps the actual answers close to the vest.

Negatives

The biggest stumble on value is that, structurally, this issue behaves like the first half of a finale instead of a self‑contained chapter, so readers paying full price get a lot of setup and not much resolution. Exposition also gets thick in the Kirowan scenes, where crucial information about Vrolok, past lives, and the ring’s function arrives as spoken lecture rather than dramatized discovery, which slows pacing and blunts the horror. The three‑timeline montage at the end looks dramatic but risks confusing less experienced readers, because the visual and narrative cross‑cutting peak right as the book ends without clearly signaling how the events interact beyond “everyone is very angry at once.” If your budget demands that each issue stand tall on its own, this chapter leans harder on “to be concluded” than on delivering a fully satisfying slice of story.

Art Samples:

The Scorecard:

Writing Quality (Clarity & Pacing): [3/4]
Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): [3.5/4]
Value (Originality & Entertainment): [1/2]

Final Thoughts:

(Click this link 👇 to order this comic)

COCONAN: SCOURGE OF THE SERPENT #3 is a strong middle chapter that spikes the tension, deepens the Kirowan–Vrolok feud, and finally throws Conan against something worthy of a god’s title, but it is also blatantly half a climax with “to be concluded” stamped across its forehead. If your comic budget demands full meals instead of cliffhanger samplers, this is best picked up alongside the next issue; if you are already committed to the event, this one earns its slot by proving the threat is more than just hissy talk.

---

---

---

As an Amazon Associate, we earn revenue from qualifying purchases to help fund this site. Links to Blu-Rays, DVDs, Books, Movies, and more contained in this article are affiliate links. Please consider purchasing if you find something interesting, and thank you for your support.