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Gail Simone’s stint writing the She-Devil with a Sword brought me around to reading RED SONJA. Yes. It surprises me too, as sword-and-sorcery fantasy isn’t exactly my favorite read. However, Simone’s writing and the strong artwork won me over, and I fully intended to give up once Simone’s tenure ended.
Then Dynamite sponsored the SWORDS OF SORROW series this fall, where Simone and other female comics writers took over Dynamite’s pulp princesses in the main series and related one-shots and mini-series.
Just after SWORDS OF SORROW Dynamite announced they’d teamed with Simone and Nicola Scott to redesign Red Sonja, Vampirella, and Dejah Thoris. Their goal wasn’t to modernize and strengthen some of the original bad-ass fictional women they see as the wellspring from whence Buffy and Princess Leia sprang.
Okay. So I’m sticking with RED SONJA (and might even give the other titles a whirl). Don’t judge me.
Two Covers for Issue One:
In the first Bennett-helmed issue of RED SONJA, we find the swordswoman faced with a quandary. Her king is ill. Dying. Despite Sonja scouring the land to find and kill mythical beasts and bring parts of them back as possible curses, the king is still failing. On his deathbed, he worries about the security of his kingdom and offers the throne to Sonja. Who, being Sonja, pictures herself surrounded by nubile and scantily clad men and women. She decides she really isn’t Queen material and is content to continue on as she is.
The king dies. The public mourns and then starts to move on. As Sonja wanders through the kingdom, she finds no brigands who need to meet her blade, no monsters against which she can test her skills, no disruption or discord or disharmony at all. Sonja begins questioning how this can be and if she was wrong in turning down the throne.
This image of the ideal kingdom is shattered in the last pages of the issue when a family who is being pursued by the guard (who is now keeping the order and peace) begs Sonja to help them. Apparently joining the guard is not optional, and running from your place is punished. Severely.
Just as the issue ends, the She-Devil with a Sword throws off her depression at so much peace and harmony and takes up her sword to defend the family.
The story itself has an element of whimsy that isn’t common in other incarnations of Sonja I’ve read, and I’m curious to see how that and the wicked humor plays out. The artwork is lovely, and I particularly like the hood of Sonja’s cloak and its creepy-eye black crescents. Let’s face it, the ending of the issue is the sort of cliffhanger that makes you start reaching for Issue #2, only to remember you have a month to wait to scratch your swordswomanly itch.
The Details:
RED SONJA
Dynamite Comics
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Aneke
Then Dynamite sponsored the SWORDS OF SORROW series this fall, where Simone and other female comics writers took over Dynamite’s pulp princesses in the main series and related one-shots and mini-series.
Just after SWORDS OF SORROW Dynamite announced they’d teamed with Simone and Nicola Scott to redesign Red Sonja, Vampirella, and Dejah Thoris. Their goal wasn’t to modernize and strengthen some of the original bad-ass fictional women they see as the wellspring from whence Buffy and Princess Leia sprang.
Okay. So I’m sticking with RED SONJA (and might even give the other titles a whirl). Don’t judge me.
Two Covers for Issue One:
In the first Bennett-helmed issue of RED SONJA, we find the swordswoman faced with a quandary. Her king is ill. Dying. Despite Sonja scouring the land to find and kill mythical beasts and bring parts of them back as possible curses, the king is still failing. On his deathbed, he worries about the security of his kingdom and offers the throne to Sonja. Who, being Sonja, pictures herself surrounded by nubile and scantily clad men and women. She decides she really isn’t Queen material and is content to continue on as she is.
The king dies. The public mourns and then starts to move on. As Sonja wanders through the kingdom, she finds no brigands who need to meet her blade, no monsters against which she can test her skills, no disruption or discord or disharmony at all. Sonja begins questioning how this can be and if she was wrong in turning down the throne.
This image of the ideal kingdom is shattered in the last pages of the issue when a family who is being pursued by the guard (who is now keeping the order and peace) begs Sonja to help them. Apparently joining the guard is not optional, and running from your place is punished. Severely.
Just as the issue ends, the She-Devil with a Sword throws off her depression at so much peace and harmony and takes up her sword to defend the family.
The story itself has an element of whimsy that isn’t common in other incarnations of Sonja I’ve read, and I’m curious to see how that and the wicked humor plays out. The artwork is lovely, and I particularly like the hood of Sonja’s cloak and its creepy-eye black crescents. Let’s face it, the ending of the issue is the sort of cliffhanger that makes you start reaching for Issue #2, only to remember you have a month to wait to scratch your swordswomanly itch.
The Details:
RED SONJA
Dynamite Comics
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Aneke