What They Say:
THIS IS IT. Red Sonja gets a fresh new attitude by the dream team of writer GAIL SIMONE (Batgirl, Birds of Prey) and artist WALTER GEOVANI (Prophecy, Witchblade), on the book they were born to create. Sonja pays back a blood debt owed to the one man who has gained her respect, even if it means leading a doomed army to their certain deaths!
This thrilling new series features covers by the top female artists in the industry, including Nicola Scott, Colleen Doran, Jenny Frison, Fiona Staples, Amanda Conner and more. You do NOT want to miss this re-introduction the She-devil with a Sword!
Creators:
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist and co-writer: Walter Geovani
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Letterer: Simon Bowland
The Review:
Three years ago King Dimath of Patra frees the people of Zamora from a bloody and awful tyrant. Included among the newly freed are two prisoners. Alone out of eighty they were the only ones to survive daily slavery and nightly fights to the death. One of those prisoners was the Hyrkania Sonja. Against the advice of his lieutenant, King Dimath frees the prisoners, gives them food, clothes, horses, and their freedom, thus making him the only man the She-devil with a Sword respects. This respect might well earn Sonja her death as the King requests her help. A plague is sweeping Patra and the country stands alone with no true army to protect itself against an invasion by the Zamorans, who possess a terrifying general and an army of sea monsters. Can Sonja teach the farmers and craftsmen of Patra to defend themselves in time, or will she share their fate and be overrun by the invading country?
Red Sonja lives and walks the same countries of Hyborea with Robert E. Howard’s other, more famous creation: Conan. Like Conan she has lived a rich, full life in the comics, but unlike the barbarian, she has not always fared as well in how various writers and artists represent her. It’s easy to write off her character as a one-note joke; a chick in a chainmail bikini who bows to no man lest he can best her at the sword. It certainly didn’t help that there was a pretty terrible movie based on her starring Brigitte Nielsen. Sonja’s representation often flickers between two poles: cheesecake and over-the-top psuedofeminism. Naturally, there are many writers and artists that have treated the character with respect, but for every good one, there’s a Frank Cho drawing Sonja with a huge battle axe and impossibly large, pendulous breasts straining against the leather straps of her chainmail bra.
Thank goodness for Gail Simone and Walter Geovani. Their Sonja is a fully-realized character that talks, moves, and stands like a real, honest-to-goodness women. Offhand I could think of three different routes a writer might take when re-introducing Sonja: 1) she could completely dump the years of history and stories and try for a more “realistic” approach. Put Sonja in real armor, show less flesh, and in general jettison any of the more fanciful and potentially cheesecake-y aspects. 2) She could keep those elements, but present them ironically with tons of nods and winks and “gee whiz, how silly!” asides to the audience, much like in the recent Lone Ranger movie. 3) She could respect what came before and embrace the stories and tropes that have accumulated around the character, but at the same time try to find an honest, human voice underneath the more fantastic elements.
This is essentially what Simone and Geovani have done here and it works brilliantly. Although we see Sonja first in the dungeon, we don’t truly meet her until the next scene where a band of robbers come across her camp. It’s night and Sonja is sleeping off a drunk near the fire, but even hung over she is in complete command of the situation. Two of the three scavengers tries to take her supplies and she deals with them in some fantastic action scenes drawn by Geovani. The third stands back and it’s revealed that he and the others are dying of a plague besetting Patra. She treats the scavenger with kindness and respect and those few pages do a masterful job of establishing her character and making her more than simple eye candy with a sword.
There are also great little moments of humor peppered throughout the story. Simone’s work has always contained a sharp edge of humor and this is no different. The archers sent to relay King Dimath’s request to Sonja constantly hurl superlatives at her, calling her “glorious sword-princess,” “her radiant ladyship,” and (my favorite) “she of the excellent cleavage.” When Sonja arrives at the castle she is dressed in a gown and adorned with jewels for her dinner with the King. Her reaction to it is priceless and it’s sold by Geovani’s excellent body language.
The only quibble I have with the issue is so minor that it almost doesn’t bear mentioning, but I found the speech pattern of King Dimtha’s lieutenant at the beginning of the story too idiosyncratic for the tale. His first line is “Glory comes at a wet, crimson cost, my liege. Sorry, Sire. I does go on a bit after a red morn.” He switches between near Elizabethan prose and a sort of Cockney brogue (“They ain’t no body, ‘at’s certain.”). It’s minor, but in an otherwise excellent issue it stands out all the more.
In Summary:
Red Sonja 1 is an excellent re-introduction to the character. Gail Simone, Walter Geovani, Adriano Lucas, and Simon Bowland do a magnificent job of taking a much-loved but often mishandled character and giving her a strong, unique voice. The issue is full of action, wit, humor, and heart and I can’t wait to see what this team has in store for us next. Highly recommended.
Grade: A
