Conan the Barbarian #240

Issue #240 marks the climax of Marvel's nine-part Young Conan saga, and the cover by Gary Hartle and Dan Adkins delivers the tension that tagline promises. A muscular, black-haired Conan grapples ferociously with a hulking blue-skinned opponent on stone steps, sword in hand, while a fallen figure lies sprawled in the foreground against a backdrop of flames — every element telegraphing a brutal, high-stakes confrontation. Roy Thomas brings his long run with the Cimmerian full circle here, and "The End Must Come" feels like exactly the right note on which to close out this arc.