Sonja the Clever
Creative Staff:
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Walter Geovani
Letters: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
Gail Simone concludes her epic run on Red Sonja with the most heart-wrenching event in the life of our heroine! Face-to-face with the man she hates and distrusts most in the world, Red Sonja hears – for the first time ever – his side of the story. The last survivor of the craven murderers who wiped out her tribe finally comes clean at the end of Sonja’s blade. But then… something wholly shocking and unexpected happens. Nothing will prepare you for what’s to come, as Sonja’s infamous blood rage comes to a boil!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Once upon a time when I was young and dinosaurs still roamed the earth, I followed characters. When I read a comic, it was because it featured Spider-Man or Wolverine or one of my other favorites (I didn’t become a huge Captain America fan until I got older). I always appreciated the good stories and could discern them from the bad, but it would take extraordinarily bad writing or storytelling to make me give up my titles. Now that I’m older, I find my tastes have changed. I still follow some titles because of that nefarious completionist streak that plagues all collectors, but more and more I follow creative teams. I will always buy Amazing Spider-Man, but it takes a good team to get me to pick up Superman or (surprisingly enough) X-Men anymore. There are some creative teams out there that I will follow no matter what they create: Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips, Matt Fraction and David Aja, and Gail Simone and Walter Geovani.
In 18 issues Simone and Geovani turned a second-tier cheesecake barbarian archetype into an exciting, sympathetic, and endearing character. Chris Beveridge once joked that I was “smitten” with this character, and he wasn’t far off from the truth. It would be more accurate, though, to say that I’m smitten with this version of the character. She’s brash and crude, earthy and stinky, but also brave and loyal, clever and bold. As with all of us, she navigates a nature that often tries to contradict itself, and she does so with more style and bravery than I could ever hope to muster.
This final issue finds Sonja protecting a great library maintained by three nuns. The library exists in the land of a cruel dowager who works to keep women ignorant and powerless. She views the library as an affront to her rule and sent soldiers to burn it to the ground. The nuns hired Sonja, who frankly did not understand why anyone would care about books (they aren’t ale, after all), but still found their plight worthwhile. The Devil with a Sword defeated the soldiers, but now a greater threat looms in the form of the Vipers, three men renowned for their skill at arms and their cruelty. Sonja admits that she might be able to defeat two, but not all three.
I won’t spoil how Sonja fights them—it’s far too much fun to recount second hand—but it’s narratively satisfying and visually exciting. This is one of those titles where the words and the art work together beautifully, seamlessly. There are no wasted moments in this piece, and the action scenes and the quiet moments are equally engaging and compelling.
And the work ends on just the right note. There’s a circuity to it that makes this a satisfying cap to this creative team’s run. On the last page, in the final five panels, one of the nuns writes in a red book titled She-Devil with a Sword: The Adventures of Red Sonja. We see her write on the first page, and the scene she describes is the opening scene from issue one.
Typically, endings like that can come off a bit hokey or forced (Interstellar is my prime example of this) but it works here because this two-issue arc was really about the power of stories and why they need to be preserved, and more broadly, this entire series has been about the impact Sonja has had on others and the birth of her legend. It’s easy to imagine some young girl picking up this book and discovering courage and ideas just as Sonja did when she heard the story of Gravaha the Clever.
In Summary:
When I reviewed issue 16, I thought that it was this creative team’s final story, so 17 and 18 have been like bonus levels, or the whipped cream and cherry on top of a sundae. I do not envy whoever follows Simone and Geovani on this title, as they have redefined and revitalized this character. I hope whoever does follow to be as successful and just plain as good as this team, but it’s very possible that I will drop this title if that’s not the case. All I can say for certain is that if Simone and Geovani work together again, I’ll be right there. Dr. Josh gives this an…
Grade: A
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Dynamite Comics
Release Date: 23 September 2015
MSRP: $3.99
