In the Conan stories of Robert E. Howard, the barbarian seemed like a tremendously wily, strong, tough and agile man thrown into fantastic adventures. With Howard’s short story “A Witch Shall Be Born,” Conan arguably becomes a super-powered barbarian. Not just a man but a man with extraordinary strength and perseverance.

The scene is familiar to anyone who has seen the Arnold Schwarzenegger “Conan” movie from the 1980s: Conan crucified, nailed to the Tree of Woe, but even the movie version is not as brutal a crucible as the scene created by Howard in “A Witch Shall Be Born.”

In the short story, Conan is crucified and left to die in the desert. He hangs for hours. He does trick a vulture to attack him then bites the bird and Conan breaks its neck between his jaws. But he is not saved by a friend but by the leader of a desert tribe who comes across Conan. 

The desert leader orders Conan freed by chopping down the cross while the barbarian still hangs from it. Surviving that, the spikes are pulled from his hands, then Conan grabs the pincers in his swollen hands and pulls the spikes from his feet. He then hobbles to a horse, pulls himself slowly into the saddle and rides for miles without water.

And so a super barbarian is born.

Marvel Comics adapted the scene and Howard’s “A Witch Shall Be Born” a few decades ago. Dark Horse Comics re-adapted it as part of its Conan comics several years ago. Now, Marvel, that again has the rights to Conan, republishes the Dark Horse version along with the adaptation of Howard’s Conan story “The Devil in Iron” in the last “Conan Chronicles” edition, titled “Blood in His Wake.”

“Conan Chronicles” are eight volumes, each one about 400-plus pages, collecting the Dark Horse Conan comics. For anyone who missed any or all of the Dark Horse Conan stories, “Chronicles” editions have been a joy to find.

That joy continues and concludes here, with “Blood in His Wake.”

But Marvel continues telling new Conan stories with a variety of titles, currently including “King Conan.”