Red Sonja

• Title: Legends of Red Sonja #1 (of 5)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writers: Gail Simone, Nancy A. Collins, Devin Kallie Grayson
• Artists: Jack Jadson, Noah Salonga, Carla Speed McNeil

The first issue of the 40th Anniversary four-issue mini-series isn’t quite what I expected. Happily, it’s more. Written and drawn by “the biggest female stars in the worlds of prose, television, gaming and comics” the first issue isn’t a collection of separate tales as usually befits this type of anthology. Instead it is a single story where various other tales are woven into the tale in flashbacks and re-tellings of the adventures of Red Sonja who is pursued by a group of mercenaries and killers known as the Grey Riders.

Legends of Red Sonja #1 introduces the Grey Riders in the main tale by Gail Simone while also offering use separate tales by other artists and writers of past adventures of the She-Devil with a Sword involving her thieving, fighting both a werewolf and giant squid, and defying the gods.

Although it lacks a view of the character herself, this collection of stories is more than enough to sell me on the series and make me to look forward to what the next group of artists and writers have in store. Worth a look.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]

• Title: Red Sonja #4
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Gail Simone
• Artist: Walter Geovani

Hallucinating, blind, and near death, Red Sonja is found by her two young attendants Ayla and Nias in the woods in the shallow grave of her own making. Feeding both her spirit and body, the twin sisters give the She-Devil hope that a cure has been discovered.

Meanwhile, the self-anointed Red Annisia has quarantined the starving plague-infested city allowing no food in and no one to leave (despite the fact that the disease has yet to kill a single person). Red Sonja #4 also offers more flashbacks of Annisia and Sonja’s time as slaves and the first time Annisia saw the She-Devil with a Sword in action.

On their way back to the fallen city with their drunken singing master the young women encounter Mermen servants of Annisia who have been sent out after any who escaped the quarantine. Thankfully for twins, despite her sickness and lack of vision, Red Sonja proves to still be a formidable opponent. Surviving the fight, Sonja is ready to return leading to next month’s battle between former allies turned deadly enemies. Worth a look.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]

• Title: Red Sonja #3
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Gail Simone
• Artist: Walter Geovani

Lost in the mountains, delirious and near death, Red Sonja‘s encounter with a white stag forces the She-Devil with a Sword to cease fighting the plague which is slowly killing her and lay down in the snow to await death. However, it appears the world isn’t quite down with Sonja just yet as Ayla and Nias arrive with news of a cure.

Most of Red Sonja #3 takes place in an extended flashback sequence giving writer Gail Simone her chance to relate Red Sonja’s bloody origins and the young warrior’s first kill (slowly followed by 20 or so more) after being forced to watch her village ransacked and burned and her family and friends killed for no reason other than the boredom of the horde that cuts through them with wicked glee.

In the sequences that follow we see Sonja bury the members of her tribe before setting out for vengeance against those who have wronged them. One-by-one the forest girl hunts down and takes her own bloody vengeance on those who have destroyed everything she loved.

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Red Sonja #3Read More »

• Title: Red Sonja #2
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Gail Simone
• Artist: Walter Geovani

Red Sonja has returned to the lands where she was kept prisoner for months fighting to the death in gladiatorial combat to fight for the King who freed her and battle an old friend only to suffer the greatest defeat of the She-Devil with a Sword’s life.

Although Sonja manages to fight Annisia, the only other survivor of their captivity, to a standstill, the kind is dead and her friend’s broken mind (haunted by the ghosts of those they slaughtered) demands justice from Sonja, and surrender.

The comic’s opening arc takes a dark turn as we learn Sonja has contracted plague from the very people she was trying to protect. As a bargain to keep the citizens quarantined, but living, Sonja surrenders her sword and agrees to banishment in the mountains of the north.

As I doubt Dynamite is willing to kill off the character, Sonja should survive her current situation but it will be interesting to see how long it keeps her in seclusion (the end of this arc or beyond?). Worth a look.

[Dynamite, $3.99]