The Outcast

“Valen the Outcast,” the new series from Boom! Studios, has such a wonderfully simple concept it’s a small wonder we haven’t been inundated with it up until now. Take “Conan the Barbarian” and merge it with “The Walking Dead” (to take two obvious properties) and you end up with an undead zombie of a warrior king, determined to stay alive (or is that unalive?) long enough to destroy the necromancer that transformed him. Michael Alan Nelson writes the comic (created by publisher Ross Richie), and it’s a standard opening issue. We get Valen’s origin scene that transforms him into the walking dead, and from there his freedom from the necromancer’s influence so that he can seek revenge. Valen himself is a little bland initially, perhaps because Nelson needs the space to introduce the cast and the setting. He’s got a growly nature, with supporting cast members Zjanna and Alexio feeling like they’re there to lighten the mood a bit (even as they each show off their own inner badass). But the