Alex Horley has finally gotten an opportunity to draw two of his favorite heroes from his childhood together: Spider-Man and Conan.
Marvel has commissioned Horley to draw a variant cover for Savage Avengers #20 (opens in new tab) featuring the two, who are members of the eclectic team.
“A marvelous Marvel team-up between Conan and the Rhino goes awry when Spider-Man threatens to ruin their good time,” reads the publisher’s description for the issue.
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Alex Horley – real name Alessandro Orlandelli – was born in a small town outside of Milan, Italy, and grew up on imported ’70s Marvel Comics and translated short stories of Robert E. Howard. It was actually the work of John Buscema and Frank Frazetta which led the young man to begin creating art himself.
The regular Savage Avengers team of writer Gerry Duggan and artist Patrick Zircher is working on this issue itself, but it’s great to see Horley draw two of his favorites – including Conan, who he has so much history with.
Although Conan comics have been published on-and-off at Marvel for decades, the barbarian didn’t actually join the Marvel universe proper until 2019 when the Scarlet Witch was accidentally transported to his universe in Avengers: No Road Home #5 (opens in new tab).
That one-off surprise quickly became the new status quo, with Conan acting as the face of a cutthroat version of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes with the launch of Savage Avengers in May 2019.
Savage Avengers #20 (and Alex Horley’s Savage Avengers #20 variant (opens in new tab)) goes on sale April 29.
Check out our rundown of all of Marvel’s April 2021 releases.