Savage Avengers #2 1:25 variant cover (Volume 1, 2019) - Wolverine versus Conan The Barbarian in the Savage Land

Drawn on 11" x 17" art board by Nick Bradshaw. I'm a huge Conan and Wolverine fan and even bigger Nick Bradshaw fan. Put them on a cover battling in the Savageand and I'm all in! Plus this series was easily one of my favorite reads. Needless to say I'm super excited to own this! I added writer Gerry Duggan's signature in pencil in the margins at Toronto Fan Expo 2024. This scan is from before I added the signature.

The early issues of Savage Avengers were illustrated by Mike Deodato digitally. Same with later issues by Patrick Zircher. The only physical art that exists for the early issues are the main covers and variants. Of those covers only 3 had Conan fighting Wolverine on the cover. The David Finch Conan VS Wolverine cover sold for $17,000 in 2022.

Conan The Barbarian was a big hit for Marvel while they licensed it from 1970 through the early 2000's. Conan was mostly kept within his own universe/ series, but with the magic of the "What If..?" Series Marvel could tell one off stories. Fans of Conan got a hint of "What If" Conan The Barbarian Was Alive Today, Was Stranded In The 20th Century, Battled Wolverine and Battled Thor?

Fast forward to 2019 and Marvel re-obtained the publishing license for Conan through Cabinet Group. This time deciding to introduce Conan to the Marvel Universe of super heroes in the main continuity. Within Avengers No Road Home #5 Scarlet Witch is transported back through time 12,000 years to the Hyborian Age where Conan lives. After a brief adventure with the Avengers Conan is teleported to the Savage Land in present day. There the story of Savage Avengers #1 begins with Conan battling the Hand and then Wolverine! After a draw Wolverine and Conan depart with a mutual resepct for one another. Laying the ground work for the new Savage Avengers team in a 31 issue story arc.

Savage Avengers was popular enough that it continued with Volume 2 in mid 2022. Unfortunately that series is coming to an untimely end in December due to the sale of the rights holder Cabinet Group to Funcom. Funcom has decided to not renew Marvel's contract so that they can publish their own Conan stories. Hopefully Conan will return to Marvel in 2028 when Conan's rights become public domain.