Warning: contains spoilers for Savage Avengers #20!
Legendary warrior Conan the Barbarian just explained to Spider-Man why he does’t see the Wall-Crawler as a hero, and despite the fact that Conan is working with the Rhino to rob a bank at the time, he makes some points that Peter Parker finds it harder to rebut than you might expect.
As the name implies, Savage Avengers features some of the roughest and toughest characters from across the Marvel Universe, including Venom, the Punisher, and Conan the Barbarian. Conan has been assisting the team in their fight against Kulan Gath, and recently picked up a symbiote ally who hates the evil sorcerer and is willing to work with Conan to see him dead. The Cimmerian is now loose in the present day, using a former Hellfire Club building as his base, and adjusting to life in New York City with mixed results.
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Conan has taken a liking to the Bar with No Name, and Savage Avengers #20 – written by Gerry Duggan with art by Patch Zircher, colors by Java Tartaglia and lettering by Travis Lanham – sees him collecting funds to keep it running by robbing the Bank of Manhattan, with an assist from Spider-Man foe the Rhino. This naturally draws out Spider-Man, who tangles with Conan after realizing Rhino is a distraction. During their fight, Conan accuses Spider-Man of wasting his power by, “volunteering as a sell-sword to the corrupt gangsters who run this hungry and poor city?” Spider-Man calls Conan’s assessment of him, “a complete mischaracterization of what I do,” but he’s clearly rattled, and the fight ends with the Web-Head holding a serious grudge.
Conan the Barbarian is a man out of time, a stranger from the distant past stuck in the present day. Part of the appeal is watching Conan interact with other Marvel heroes, be it the X-Men last issue or Spider-Man in this one. Conan has a fresh perspective on Spider-Man – that he uses his “great power” just to maintain the status quo rather than working to better the lives of the many New Yorkers who could benefit from his abilities. It’s an argument that Spider-Man doesn’t want to hear, but one which – thanks to his incredible guilt – he doesn’t flat out disagree with.
The problem with Conan’s argument, however, is that especially in the case of superheroes, might doesn’t make right. If people like Spider-Man or Captain Marvel tried to change the world according to their personal moral outlook, there would be chaos. A number of classic comics, such as Watchmen and Supreme Power, have been built around this premise, and it never ends well for anyone. Such thinking may have been appropriate for Conan’s Hyborian Age, but in the 2021 of Marvel Comics, everyone from readers to heroes knows how quickly and dramatically this logic leads to disaster.
Conan may not be incorrect in observing that Spider-Man needs to rethink the extent to which he focuses on upholding unjust systems, but where Peter Parker will always beat the barbarian hero is in his concern for the vulnerable, and the need to use his powers with a sense of responsibility. For now, Conan the Barbarian gets away with the money, and Spider-Man is left alone with his thoughts.
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