One of my favorite stories in the Conan trades was "The Frost Giant's Daughter," a surprisingly mature and bloody tale that is by all accounts one of the best comic adaptations of Robert E. Howard's stories. Busiek and Nord tackle this story early on in their run, and even being able to compare it to the Roy Thomas/Barry Smith classic, I'm pretty impressed. Nord's depiction of the frost giant's daughter makes her as visually impressive as Conan's narration promises, and his depiction of the frost giants themselves is equally impressive. Meanwhile, Busiek continues to walk the line between making Conan a dangerous barbarian with violent tendencies and an honorable hero worthy of admiration.
One of the things that this new version of "The Frost Giant's Daughter" has that the others didn't is a nice context. We've seen where Conan was immediately before this, and we have a little more sense of the importance of the battle that brought Conan into the daughter's sphere of influence. It's a minor thing, but it does make the whole encounter feel a little more surreal, as we leave the reality of a bloody battle with recently-earned friends and travel into a more mystical, unusual realm. While the meat of the story is Conan's encounter with the frost giants, Busiek does some nice stuff with the bookend sequences, and I especially liked how the helmet dent in the early battle plays into the finale.
However, while I love the sense of context, the real selling point of the issue is that Busiek and Nord serve up such an effective rendition of Conan's encounter with the frost giants. Nord, along with colorist Dave Stewart, gives us a very effective rendition of the snowy battlefield, building up the desolation and bloody carnage very effectively, and there's a nice dreamlike feeling to the isolated, snowy backdrop that we see throughout. In addition, the frost giant's daughter is gorgeous, beautifully drawn, sensual, otherworldly, everything that the text promises yet somehow avoiding easy cheesecake (unlike the Linsner cover) and conveying sexuality without being able to rely on overt nudity.
Busiek matches this beautiful visage with a playful and wicked personality, making her a very different adversary than the muscled foes that Conan has faced thus far, and a more dangerous foe as well. I love the flickers of anger that give away her true nature, even as she's trying to portray herself as a sensuous lure for Conan, and I especially love that she's an effective temptress despite these flare-ups of anger. Also, while much of the story is a pursuit and a verbal and intellectual challenge, Busiek and Nord don't skimp on the action either. The battle between Conan and Heimdul is brief but bloody and effective, and the battle between Conan and two very impressive, oversized foes at the end equally brutal and quick.
Busiek and Nord cleared a major hurdle by making me interested in a character I didn't think I had much interest in with Conan #0, and with #2, they've cleared another hurdle, putting out a story that can be directly compared to one of the beloved Marvel stories and not only equalling but exceeding the quality of that story. Fans of heroic fantasy should be in seventh heaven with Dark Horse's new Conan series, and with any luck it will have a long and storied run equal to the beloved Marvel series of the '70s.
