Why is Conan the Barbarian leaving Marvel Comics? Licensing deal explored

Conan the Barbarian is one of the most iconic characters in comic book history and has always been a fan favorite. Robert E. Howard is often touted as a genius writer for penning down such a legendary character in the world of sorcery and magic.

The legendary hero originally appeared in a 1932 story written by Robert in an issue called Weird Tales. The sword and shield-wielding Cimmerian first appeared in the 1970s in Stan Lee's Marvel Comic Book Universe, with Dark Horse being the prime publisher from 2003 until Marvel regained the rights back in 2018 to publish Conan themselves.

Back in the 80s, Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger portrayed the hero in a well-received film by the masses and fans of the comics. Aso, later this week, Conan is set to join some famous characters from Marvel in a brand new issue of Savage Avengers.

However, this might not be the time for Marvel Comics to celebrate just yet, as they might lose this iconic character's rights.

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Conan the Barbarian leaving Marvel Comics explained

This past Monday, Marvel announced that Conan the Barbarian would leave the Marvel Universe after the ongoing King Conan series written by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar. It is due to see its conclusion this July.

King Conan #6 will be the last issue to bring a definitive end to the revived batch of new stories about the character at Marvel Comics.

Stories about Conan The Barbarian have been pretty much in the public domain in much of Europe, as Robert E Howard died in 1936. However, the work enters the public domain 70 years after the author's death in this case.

In the United States, there has been a 95-year long rule for anything published after 1922, which is customary law, especially for Robert Howard's Conan, which is covered under this law.

The Conan The Barbarian comic books are created and published using standard Public Domain rules in Europe. A company called Ablaze republishes them in the US under the name The Cimmerian, which doesn't infringe any trademark use.

However, the trademarked rights for Conan and the names of Howard's characters are owned by Conan Properties International and licensed to Cabinet Entertainment. The company's CEO, Fredrik Malmberg, chose not to use Marvel comics to publish their work in the US.

Instead, they chose to publish the Conan comics under the trademarked names subsequently in the United States, thus eliminating the need for Marvel to print the character under The Cimmerian name.

This means it remains unclear what will happen to the character in the Savage Avengers title, but the hope is that the parties can find a way for the character to appear.