Conan the Barbarian caught in web of Spider-Man with Savage Avengers #20 variant cover

Savage Avengers #20
(Image credit: Alex Horley (Marvel Comics))

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 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.

(Image credit: Alex Horley (Marvel Comics))

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.

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) goes on sale April 29.

Check out our rundown of all of Marvel's April 2021 releases.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)