Something is thrilling about a story of hard men doing bad things for good reasons, and it’s clear the powers-that-be at Marvel know this already. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t have books like Savage Avengers.

Picking up after Conan--yes, the Barbarian--wound up in the Savage Land at the end of the recently-concluded Avengers: No Road Home miniseries, this debut issue finds Conan crossing paths with Wolverine for the stereotypical superhero fight-then-team-up. Elsewhere, Brother Voodoo is betrayed and falls into Logan’s orbit, as all three deal with a mysterious, mystical threat that might have something to do with Venom, and the final pages promise some Punisher action next issue (even if the reason why is a device stolen wholesale from Mark Waid’s run on JLA).

Writer Gerry Duggan is leaning hard into the pulp origins of Conan the Barbarian, with overwrought captions and cliche after cliche. He is clearly enjoying playing with a character who is unfamiliar with the rest of Marvel’s heroes, as the interaction between Conan and Logan is the most fun part of the issue. That said, something about this issue seems almost paint-by-numbers--two heroes fight and then team up, another is double-crossed and dispatched so quickly that it becomes a joke.

The art by Mike Deodato Jr. also plays up the pulpiness of the book, with moody and ornate stone temples and evocative cross-hatching that sometimes can’t be constrained by panel borders. Frank Martin’s colors add a griminess to Deodato’s line art, and the lettering by VC’s Travis Lanham does good work clarifying the shifting viewpoints of multiple narrators.

Savage Avengers #1 is a gorgeous book, with a story that is entertaining despite (or maybe because of) its predictability. Unfortunately, the issue doesn’t feel like anything substantial--it reads perhaps too quickly, and it feels as though nothing much happens. Indeed, only four of the book’s six-character roster has been introduced yet, and the story feels like it’s over before it’s begun.

Grade: B