King Conan #2 (Marvel Comics, 1980)

After establishing the larger, quarterly King Conan adventure series in King Conan #1, the Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and Ernie Chan team turn a classic L. Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter story into a massive Conan adventure for the ages.

Conan is king, and peace makes for boring comic books. King Conan issue 2 opens up as night falls on the blood-soaked earth of Zingara after a fierce battle. Bodies lay strewn about with swords and arrows stuck in them. Hyenas move in to feast on the corpses.

The glowering Pantho (no relation to Panthro from the Thundercats) watches his ambitions to take the throne of Zingara drown in rivers of gore.

King Conan sits in his throne, pondering Pantho's decision to attack Poitain when his goal is Zingara. He broods, for he is Conan, and Conan is displeased that Pantho crossed his border, so he attacks with Aquilonia's finest army of pikemen and archers and slaughters Pantho's men. After the battle, Conan downs flagons of ale while convening with his advisors. Conan, maybe a little drunk, decides that some unknown forces must be controlling Pantho because Pantho's tactical decision was idiotic. He tells his son, Conn, that he brings a "secret weapon" with him, though Conn has no idea what that could be.

That evening, a strange old man named Diviatix visits the camp and requests an audience with Conan, for he brings a message from the Lords of Light.

The next morning brings more politics as King Conan declares his old friends, Olivero and Princess Chabela, king and queen of Zingara. With the throne now filled, Conan travels south with his armies, bringing peace and stability to his kingdom. He plans to travel to Stygia with his men and his son, Conn, to investigate the strange uprisings as of late. Rumors of Thoth-Amon lurk thereabouts! Conan believes that he is at Nebthu, headquarters of the Black Ring, a guild of evil magicians.

Conn spots Nebthu in the distance, a dead and lifeless city. They investigate and discover a huge statue called the Ghoul-Hyena of Chaos!

The place reeks of dark magic, but Conan camps nearby under the guard of sentries. He gets up in the middle of the night, sensing that something is wrong, so he wakes Conn and Trocero, grabs some guards, and discovers footprints in the sand nearby. They follow the footprints until they see a strange man in the distance who enters the strange hyena idol. Conan races towards it and pries open a false door. They descend into the dark, cursed statue.

While exploring by torchlight, they enter a room filled with hundreds of robed men standing before Thoth-Amon! He gloats that Conan's camp is now under siege by troops from Koth and Ophir.

While fire arrows rain down on Conan's troops outside in the desert, Thoth-Amon attacks Conan's party with magic and knocks their swords away. But then, Diviatix shows up, somewhat drunk, and counters Thoth-Amon's magic. The entire chamber erupts into a magic laser beam fight like something out of Star Wars.

Conan opens a small box that he brought with him, which contains a magic jewel, and he hands it to Diviatix. Thoth-Amon's dark sorcerers spontaneously combust, screaming about the Heart of Ahriman (Conan apparently had this thing stashed in his vault after the events of Savage Sword of Conan #10 and planned to bring it).

With his minions dead and burning, Thoth-Amon summons a gigantic hyena monster and then vanishes. The great ghoul hyena, many times larger than a man, attacks Conan and his crew. They flee from the giant idol with the hyena at their heels, driving it directly into an attacking wave of enemy soldiers outside. The gigantic ghoul hyena eats the Stygian soldiers outside, while Conan and his men hide and watch. After it eats all the bad guys, the ghoul hyena returns to its statue.

Conan returns to camp and celebrates. Before Diviatix and Conan part ways, the strange wizard writes several runes on Conn's sword blade, saying that they may prove useful in the future...