This Barbarian Hero Will Give You Deja Vu
Artist Mike Deodato, Jr. has been a fixture at Marvel Comics for decades at this point. That's why it was so surprising when Deodato announced in March he was leaving Marvel to focus on creator-owned comics for a change. Berserker Unbound is the first fruit to blossom from that career change, as Deodato teams with the inhumanly prolific Jeff Lemire to weave a sword-and-sorcery saga about an ancient barbarian warrior being dragged into the 21st Century. Let the inevitable Conan comparisons begin.
To be fair, it's pretty much impossible not to be reminded of the Conan franchise while reading Berserker Unbound #1. The main protagonist, the Mongrel King, is a fearsome, loincloth-clad warrior with a penchant for wandering the land and slaughtering his enemies. He's one dye job away from being a dead ringer for the Marvel Comics version of Conan. It doesn't help that Marvel so recently introduced a new status quo where Conan himself has been dragged into the present-day Marvel Universe. Heck, Deodato's final Marvel assignment was the Conan-centric Savage Avengers, where he was among the first creators to explore that new status quo. Suffice it to say, Deodato isn't exactly venturing into unknown territory for his first post-Marvel assignment.
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