A Chronology of Conan in Marvel Comics
I. Back to the Hyborian Lands
Riding south after his encounters with the frost giant's daughter and the Ice Worm, Conan passes through the Haunted lands of the Border Kingdom. An exiled mage named Merdoramon talks him, against his better judgement, into transporting a mystic amulet to Themas Heklar, ruler of the province Phalkar. Along the way, Conan rescues a maiden named Stefanya, who believes her survival is magically linked to that of a wizard named Zoqquanor. The barbarian fights a shambling homunculus called a Shokkoth to rescue the sorcerer's comatose "body" ["The Curse of the Conjuer"]
He and Stefanya haul the wizard along with them, protecting it by night from ghouls ["The Rats Dance at Ravengard"]
Escaping, Conan acquires an ally - Lupalina, the Wolf Mistress, sister-sorceress to Ursla, the Priestess whom he met years earlier on his Day of Manhood. He and Lupalina lead both her wolves and discontented peasants against Torkhal Moh's castle. When Conan and Stefanya retrieve the amulet, they come face to face with gargantuan water-monster called Pthassiass ["Wolf-Woman"]
Conan embroiles Pthassiass in a battle with carnivorous vegetation in the surrounding garden. Lupalina recognizes Stefanya as the daughter of Chrysala, late princess of Phalkar. Themas Heklar had tried to kill her when he became regent, but Lupalina had fled with her, and given her over to Zoqquanor's care. Conan learns that Merdoramon's amulet has arrived too late; Themas Heklar has been overthrown by a demon-born sorcerer called Unus, who now rules Phalkar with an iron fist ["The Dweller in hte Pool"]
Conan rides to Alkarion, capital of the province. After various intrigues, Conan slays Unos. Stefanya is freed from her lingage with the destiny of Zoqquanor, and ascends the throne. Conan politely rejects her offer to be her consort. But alas, Lupalina has been murdered by Unos ["Man Born of Demon"]
II. Soldiers of Fortune
In search of more traditional employment, Conan rides to Nemedia, where he and acrobatic young girl named Tara of Hanumar save a child from a runaway bull. His old comrade, Murilo of Corinthia, has formed the Crimson Company, a brand of mercenary soldiers. With himself now Murilo's second in command, they head for Ophir. In the ruins of of a mountain city left over from the days of King Kull, they fight a huge Crystal Scorpion - and uncover the ring of the Black Shadow, once worn by the pre-Cataclysmic wizard Thuron. But soon after they depart, the soldiers they left to guard the Ring are devoured by the humanoid Black Shadow that emerges from it ["The Altar and the Scorpion"]
The Crimson company finds the Ophirean city-state of Ronnoco engaged in a bitter commercial rivalry with two other cities, Carnolla and Pergona. Its ruler, Belzamo, orders them to kidnap Yvonna, the daughter of Pergona's lord, to force him into an alliance against Carnolla. Yvonna is guarded by three human weapons known as the Brothers of the Blade, but Conan and Tara overcome them and secure the lady. ["Brothers of the Blade"]
While Yvonna verbally spars with Captain Murilo, Belzamo sends Conan, Tara, and a young soldier named Yusef to consult an oracle. The Cimmerian is somewhat unnerved when he must fight a doppelganger of himself in the oracle's cavern ["The Oracle of Ophir"]
The Black Shadow - now grown to leviathan size - menaces Ronnoco. In despiration, Conan restores to life its age-old enemy, the Crystal Scorpion, and the two neutralize each other. Belzamo's scheme, meanwhile, has succeeded only in uniting his two sister cities against him. Yvonna arranges a three-way truce, and the ambitious Murilo suspects she may look favorable on him as a marriage prospect. Conan, disgusted that peace has broken out, rides westward with Tara and Yusef, now young lovers ["Shadow on the Land"]
In the hinterlands of Argos, the trio barely survive a night in an eerie time-lost city which only appears on Earth once in an eon. By the time Conan is finished with its grisly inhabitants, it will reappear no more ["The Strange High Tower in the Mist"]
III. Queen of the Black Coast
In Messantia, Argos's seaport capital, Conan runs afoul of a corrupt law establishment which makes the fugitives of Tara and Yusef. Slaying a crooked judge in the midst of his day in court, Conan escapes by leaping aboard a ship, the Argus, as it leaves the harbour ["Incident in Argos"]
The Argos is sunk, many leagues south of Messantia, by the dreaded Black Corsairs, who are captained by a fierce white women named Belit. Enamored with Conan's sword skills and fearlessness, she takes him as her first mete - in more ways than one ["The Queen of the Black Coast"]
Belit will become the first long sustained love of Conan's life, as they and the Black Corsairs prey upon western shipping, especially Stygian, with their ship, the Tigress. From her shaman, N'Yaga, the Cimmerian learns she is the daughter of the murdered King Atrahasis of Asgalun, a Shemite city-state. N'Yaga took her as an infant to the Southern Isles (also called as Silver Isles). He orchestrated a scheme to make its people consider her a goddess, so she could become their leader - and one day recapture the throne she was born to ["The Ballad of Belit"]
IV. The coming of Amra
Though she intimidates the tribes that dwell along the Black Coast, Belit prefers tribute to plunder. A visit to the village of the Watambis is interrupted whenn Belit is carried off by the fearsome Dragon-Riders, who fight from the back of large crocodiles ["Riders of the River-Dragons"]
While Conan pursues her, he realizes how much she has come to mean to him. Belit, meanwhile, eludes her captors - only to be captured by the mysterious red-haired jungle king who calls himself Amra, Lord of the Lions ["On the Track of the She-Pirate"]
Amra, the son of an Aquilonian lord who was marooned on the Black Coast, has grown up commanding the great cats, especially a black lion known as Sholo. He wants Belit for his mate. In a jealous rage, his former mitress, Makeda, princess of the Moonhawk Tribe, frees eons-imprisoned gnomes so that they can kill Belit ["Lord of the Lions"]
Arriving on the scene, Conan battless these denizens of the dark. Afterward, since Amra will not relinquish Belit, Conan is forced to battle the Lord of the Lions - and kills him. Conan is astonished to find that he himself is now called "Amra", and that the black lion Sholo acknowledges his primacy with a great roar ["Death among the Ruins"]
V. When she-warriors clash
Now known as "Amra" by all but Belit, Conan prowls the seas at his captain-mistress's side. Seeking supplies on a hounted isle, they briefly caught up in a century-old feud ["Fiends of the Feathered Serpent"]
When they sneak ashore by night in Messantia to fence some of their loot, a merchant named Publio talks them into stealing for him a loose page from the iron-bound Book os Skelos, which is kept in the Temple of a Thousand Gods. To Conan's amazement, his sometime comrade Red Sonja is there, in the search of the very same piece of parchment ["Dagger and Death-Gods"]
Conan and Belit learn that Sonja had been sent for the unbound spell-page by Karenthes, priest of the bird-god Ibis ["Beware the Sacred Sons of Set"]
Sonja and Belit skirmish - whether over Conan or the page is bit unclear - and the Hyrkanian makes off with their mutual prize. In hot pursuit, Conan runs into Tara of Hanumar, now pregnant by Yusef, who's been imprisoned in Messantia's dungeon. Conan sets Yusef free, and sends the pair on their way. Then he and Belit ride after Sonja ["Talons of the Man-Tiger"]
Conan and Belit split up, and he overtakes Sonja in the temple of Ibis presided over by Karanthes. The two are fighting - when a hooded Stygian priest (who has transformed himself magically into a bat-winged creature) swoops in and absconds with the page from the Book of Skelos ["The Battle of the Barbarians"]
Chasing this halfling, Conan and Sonja rejoin Belit - and discover that the palace of King Kull, Atlantis-born monarch of Valusia in pre-Cataclysmic days, has materialized in the Hyborian Age. Brought before Kull, the trio is denounced by the Pictish wizard Gonar. They soon discover that "Gonar" is actually the Stygian Priest, who stole the spell-page for his own master, the wizard Thoth-Amon. Conan brings down the priest with an arrow, but the spell-page is consumed by mystic flame. Kull returns to his rightful time, and Conan and Belit part company with Sonja. Belit, in particular, is glad to see the Hyrkanian go ["Of Once and Future Kings"]
VI. Wanderings at sea
Back on board the corsair ship, Conan regales Belit with a tale of his first youthful encounter with the Western Sea ["The Demon Out of the Deep"]
A violent storm at sea causes the Tigress to land on the island of Kelka, in search of certain herbs to save the life of the ailing N'Yaga. An ancient civilization there is threatened by Barachan Pirates. The Black Corsairs drive them off - only to be betrayed by Kelka's ruler, and sentenced to be sacrificed to the goddess Ashroreth ["The City in the Storm"]
The barbarian discovers that the "goddess" is actually a young woman who is beloved of a primeval sea god - and who is held captive by Kelka's king. The sea deity destroys the isle, presumably reclaiming his intended bride, as Conan and Belit escape ["The Secret of Astoreth"]
With her shaman mentor still gravely ill, Belit decides she must return to the palace at Asgalun in Sherm - the place of her birth - to retrieve a vial of a powder that may save him. There, she learns that her father's alleged killer, Nim-Karrak, rules through Stygian soldiers and underlords, including Ptor-Nubis, a sorcerer of the Black Ring. Belit presence is soon detected. She and Conan flee - with the powder - but not before she is told that her sire was sent alive years ago to Luxor, Stygia's capital ["Vengeance in Asgalun"]
Returning to their ship, Conan and Belit face a mutiny under a treacherous corsair named Kawaku, who has bound those loyal to their captain. He forces Belit to lead him to the treasure she has buried over the years an a nameless island. But the mutineers fall prey to a toad-thing there, and Belit takes back command of the Tigress ["He Who Waits - in the Well of Skelos"]
VII. City of Hawks
Sinking a Stygian ship, the Black Corsairs capture a pale-skinned young woman called Neftha, who claims to be a slave of Zingaran parentage. With Neftha in tow, Conan, Belit, and a few Corsair sneak into the wharves of Khemi, Stygia's major seaport, and set fire to Khemi's sea-walls as a diversion ["The Battle at the Black Walls"]
The group head up the River Styx toward Luxor, in search of Belit's father. They are attacked by the deadly Hawk-Riders of city of Harakht. Conan is borne aloft and away from his companions as he slays one of the gigantic hawks. It falls to earth with him. ["The Hawk-Riders of Harakht"]
Belit is taken as a captive to Harakht - while Conan gets into the city-state on his own. Taken prisoner, the barbarian is hurled into a dungeon cell with a hate-filled giant named Gol-Thir ["Swordless in Stygia"]
Gol-Thir was mutated to his ten-foot height by a meteor that fell on Stygia years ago; Gol-Thir's wife died from the grief of their forced separation. He and Conan are ordered to fight to the death before Hor-Neb. But Gol-Thir, dying of the radiation that transformed him, instead uses his last surge of energy to hurl Conan out of the arena. Conan kills Hor-Neb, and - spurred on by Neftha - the young priest Mer-Ath takes over the rule of the Hawk City ["When Giants Walk the Earth"]
VIII. Deadly Detours
Fleeing Harakht, Conan stumbles into a lost valley, into which the army of a conqueror named iskander had wandered long ago. The descendants of the army patiently await their leader's return in their city of Attalus ["The Lost Valley of Iskender"]
The Cimmerian defeats Ptolemy, the eight-foot ruler of Attalus - only to find that a Stygian army is attacking, and he, now its king, must head at the defence ["Trial by Combat"]
Conan leads Attalus against the invaders, then restores Ptolemy to the position of kingship. He takes leave of the beauteous blonde Bardylis who has befriended him, though not without an ardent farewell ["The Eye of the Serpent"]
Bound for Harakht to rescue Belit, Conan is momentarily drawn into a battle between blacks and Stygians in the swamp known as Viper's Head ["The Sorceress of the Swamp"]
Conan eventually settless things, but not before he is nearly killed by "man-dragons" - creatures half human, half crocodile ["The Leopard Men of Darfar"]
IX. Zula and the King/Queen of Stygia
Weary of skulking, Conan rides boldly into Harakht, only to learn that Belit has escaped, taking Neftha with her as a hostage against pursuit by Mer-Ath's soldiery. As he struggles with soldiers, the Cimmerian is brained by a powerful slave named Zula, who later becomes his cellmate. While Belit and Neftha are stealing into Luxur in search of the she-pirate's father, Zula decides to befriend Conan. They escape on the backs of two of the city's huge hawk's ["Two against the Hawk-City"]
Zula tells Conan he is the last of his tribe, the Zamballah's; he was sold into the slavery in Kheshatta, Stygia's City of Magician's, and was eventually traded to Harakht. The fugitives hawks perish, for their over-sized hearts cannot stand the strain of a long flight. Zula agrees to help Conan find Belit, if the Cimmerian will later help him gain revenge on his Kheshattan master ["The Swordsmen and the Sorcerer"]
In the crypts of Luxur, Conan and Zula are attacked by a monstrosity called the Devourer of the Dead, which bears a vague resemblance to a Stygian demon of the same name. In a floating sarcophagus, they find none other than Belit, placed there by King Ctesphon II. When Ctesphon's guard's had captured her and Neftha, the she-pirate had learned that Neftha is in reality not a slave at all, but the sister of the king of Stygia ["The Devourer of the Dead"]
Belit explanes the boy-king Ctesphon II sold Neftha into slavery to secure the throne. Neftha does not look "Stygian" because the ruling caste are of a lighter-complexioned ancestry. Conan and Belit rescue Neftha from the executioner's blade, while Belit pursues Ctesphon to a balcony and asks him at sword-point about her father, King Athasis of Asgalun. When Ctesphon admits that her sire was executed to celebrate his own coronation, Belit kicks him off the balcony to his death. Neftha becomes the "King" of Stygia - for Stygia has no queens - but turns on her rescuers and orders them slain ["The Queen and the Corsairs"]
The wizard Thoth-Amon makes peace with Neftha (now Ctesphon III) and agrees to use his magic to help her hold the throne. The fleeing trio survive a run-in with Thoth-Amon's human-headed Man-Serpents and snake-headed Serpent Men, and rendezvous with M'Gora and others of the Black Corsairs ["The Sword and the Serpent"]
X. Triumph in Asgalun
To secure the deaths of Conan and Belit, Thoth-Amon communicates magically with the wizard Ptor-Nubis in Asgalun. Meanwhile, an earthquake plunges the fugitives into an underground cave where they find a fabled crown - and the undead Giant-King who jealously guards it ["The Diadem of the Giant-Kings"]
Back aboard the Tigress, they are soon joined by second mate M'Gora, who's been spying in Asgalun. He relates how Nim-Karrak and his Stygian underlords are caught up in deadly intrigues against each other, which involve new mercenaries from Kush and Hyrkania - a high-born oaf named Uriaz - a mad royal pretender named Akhirom - and King Sumuabi, of the rival Shemite city-state of Anakia. When Conan, Zula, Belit, and M'Gora try to sneak into Asgalun, Ptor-Nubis hypnotizes the four into fighting each other to the death ["Savage Doings in Shem"]
Shaking off the mesmerism, the Corsairs turn their collective fury onto their captors. Later, as the fat nobleman Uriaz is about to be beheaded at Nim-Karrak's order, the masked executioner suddenly reveals himself to be Conan in disguise. This sets off a city-wide revolt against Nim-Karrak's Stygian-backed rule. Ptor-Nubis is one of the first casulties. Belit is enraged when Nim-Karrak dies by other hands than hers, but she never truly wanted to be Asgalun's Queen - only to avenge her father. She crowns the terrified Uriaz king; then she and her Corsairs leave the city, just as mad Akhirom leads the Anakian army in to take control of Asgalun. ["Rage and Revenge"]
XI. The Spawn of Jhebbal Sag
Zula releases Conan from his vow to help him pursue his revenge, and heads off into the interior of the black kingdoms with several of the Tigress's crew. Conan and Belit return to the village of Watambis, to find them terrorized by a warrior- king named Ajaga, who controls the beasts of the of the jungle through the power of the demon Jhebbal Sag. In a battle, Belit is captured as Ajaga's potential bride, and Conan topples off a clif, seemingly to his death ["The Beast-King of Abombi"]
The durable barbarians survives, and is reminded that he is not only "Amra" to the tribes of the Black Coast, but also to Sholo, the great black lion who was once brother to the first Amra. From a dying witch-finder called G'Chambi, Conan learns the secret sign he can trace in dirt or sand to protect him from the beasts commanded by Ajaga ["The Return of Amra"]
Conan is captured by Ajaga, who calls the fouler beasts of the jungle to his stronghold to devour the bound Cimmerian during the Feast of the Bloodmoon ["The Long Night of Fang and Talon, Part One"]
Belit, who's escaped her own cell with the aid of Sholo, arrives just in time to rescue Conan. Ajaga, befuddled by a head injury, is torn apart by the beasts he has summonded. Sholo is killed while slaying one of Ajaga's warriors, and Conan buries the black lion with honors beneath a cairn of rocks ["The Long Night of Fang and Talon, Part Two"]
Back on the western Sea, Conan and Belit bring an board a strange blue-skinned, green-haired woman they find floating on the ocean. She soon proves to be a hypnotic monster of the sea, who drgs several Corsairs to their dooms. She nearly drowns Conan, as well, but the voice of the woman he truly loves - Belit - awakens him just in time. Slain, the "woman" turns into nothing more than a mass of seaweed ["Sea-Woman"]
XII.The Death of a Queen
Conan and Belit range up and down the Black Coast for some time, raiding villages which will not pay them a reasonable tribute. They undoubtedly have numerous adventures which have not, to date, been recorded, including the rescue of Argos-sean sailors from a race of manlike crabs ["Devil-Crabs of the Dark Cliffs"]
And then, tragedy strikes. Obsessed with the idea of treasure, Belit sails the Tigress up to the River Zarkheba, in search of a lost city. Their love now has deepened, and she tells Conan that if she were dead, and he battling for his life, she would come back to fight at his side.
While Belit and her men scower the ruins, Conan goes in search of fresh water, and is plunged into deep sleep by free-blooming black lotus. He has strange dreams in which he sees an ancient civilization of handsome winged people fall, its inhabitants gradually transformed by the venomous waters of the Zarkheba into apelike monsters.
Waking, he finds the Black Corsairs all slain horribly, and M'Gora driven mad so that Conan has no choice but to dispatch him with his sword. Worst of all, he finds Belit, dead, hanged by a crimson-jeweled necklace she found in the ruins.
The barbarian stands guard over her body by night. After driving off a pack of blood-mad hyenas, he is abruptly attacked by a hulking winged ape-thing - the misshaped heir of the earlier race. Conan is fighting for his life when suddenly a glimmer of white flashes between ape-thing and Cimmerian. It is the ghost of Belit, whose sword thrusts distract the monster long enough for Conan to kill it. Belit has kept her vow to return to aid him, even across death's abyss. Placing her corpse aboard the Tigress, he sets the ship adrift and sets it aflame as a funereal pyre. Thus passes the Queen of the Black Cost ["Death on the Black Coast"]
And Conan plunges inland, to carve out a new destiny far from the Western Sea...and to face a numerous adventures not mentioned here.