Thank You, O God of Mean Petty Selfish Prayers.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Aneke
Colors: Jorge Sutil
Letters: Erica Schultz
What They Say:
Through the plains of Hyrkania, a message sweeps through the scattered peoples of the nation. Bells ring, horns blow, voices shout – the King is dying! Red Sonja rides to save the King from his doom as the powers of Hyboria crowd around to strike when the kingdom is weakest. But a dread new power rises from within Hyrkania’s own borders, bent on defending its homeland – no matter the cost, no matter what its people become. A defining chapter of the Red Sonja saga – dark, clever, vicious, and funny – as the She-Devil with a Sword must stop the rise of a brutal new regime… her own people!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Before I go into the review proper, I want to address the elephant in the room. Gail Simone and Walter Geovani had a celebrated run on Red Sonja, updating and refining the character and turning her into more than just a cheesecake heroine. They ended on a high note, leaving some pretty big shoes to fill for the next creative team. Some, myself included, wondered if the comic would be as good under new management. Well, I’m happy to say that it is. It’s different in some ways, but true to the character.
That’s the last I’ll say of Simone and Geovani. This is Bennet, Aneke, Sutil, and Schultz’s comic, and they deserve the spotlight.
The king of Hyrkania is dead, despite the valiant efforts of scholars, sages, wizards, and Sonja. On his deathbed, the king offers Sonja the crown, which she politely but firmly refused, knowing herself enough to realize that she would be a terrible queen. Upon the king’s death, Sonja leaves the country for a year, traveling to far and exotic lands, bludgeoning beasts, tying tyrants, vanquishing villains, and undistressing damsels. She returns to her homeland to find it prospering under the rule of its new king. While she rejoices in the newfound peace and prosperity of her home, she also chafes under it. Some people aren’t made for quiet lives, and that’s certainly true of Sonja.
The majority of the issue devotes itself to establishing the new order in Hyrkania and following Sonja’s gradual descent into boredom, making this largely a setup issue. This type of issue can be quite tricky to pull off, given that it focuses more on the world than it does story and character, and taken alone, can make for an unsatisfying read. Thankfully, that’s largely not the case here. While I do think that the establishment of the newfound peace and prosperity could have been cut down a bit, I can’t deny that it sets up the inevitable complication well.
Bennett does a fine job of capturing Sonja’s voice and character. Her style is wry and bloody and red in all the right places, and Aneke, Sutil, and Schultz bring it to life while at the same time stamping this visually as a new chapter. Sutil’s colors are surprisingly soft and bright, especially in her use of red. Aneke’s style also possesses a soft quality as well in the line work and the shading. The inking is quite minimal (at least to my eyes). Considering the type of comic this is, that should be a problem, but it works. Aneke also updates Sonja’s armor in a way that I like. It looks a little more useable in battle than her traditional chainmail bikini (as nice as it was to look at).
The only other issue I had with this comic concerned a sequence of events that occurred after Sonja falls asleep. She makes camp and ponders her identity. She’s not Sonja the Queen, and there seems to be no need of Sonja the Devil. After that the comic treats us to three different scenarios and I’ll be hanged if I can figure out if they are a flashback or a dream sequence. That could have been made clearer visually. All that being said, though, it didn’t really hamper my enjoyment of the issue.
In Summary:
Although Red Sonja volume 3, issue 1 suffers a bit from first-issue syndrome and an unclear flashback/dream sequence, it still comes out of the gate, swinging. Bennett gets the character right and sets up an interesting antagonist for her, and Aneke, Sutil, and Schwartz do an excellent job of bringing the story to life. Now that the first issue is out of the way, I expect the second to be stronger. Dr. Josh gives this a….
Grade: B+
Age Rating: Teen +
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: January 13th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
