“You can let them put a ring on you… but never a collar.”
Creative Staff:
Story: Mark Russell
Art: Mirko Colak, Robert Carey
Colors: Dearbhla Kelly
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
“Temple of Ghosts” The first arc of the most exciting series debut of 2019 comes to a stunning conclusion. The dreaded Dragan makes Her Majesty an offer that would end an invasion but sacrifice everything. Sonja The Red must weigh the awful costs, before the decision is no longer hers to make. By MARK RUSSELL (The Flintstones, Second Coming) and MIRKO COLAK (Conan). And be sure to pick up RED SONJA: LORD OF FOOLS, also out this month, which ties directly into the shocking ending of this issue…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This volume of the Red Sonja property continues to delight in how it weaves its tale both in the story and dialogue as well as the artwork. Mark Russell has played well with the invasion storyline of Sonja’s homeland and we’ve seen some good politicking back and forth along with some strong action elements as well. Mirko Colak continues to make this series look as raw and earthy as it should, especially with Dearbhla Kelly’s color work, and this issue he’s joined by Robert Carey to assist on the artwork. It is noticeable in how different some of the pieces are and it doesn’t feel quite as cohesive as the previous issues in some ways, but it’s a solidly good look overall that still captures the right tone that has made this run for the character so engaging.
Sonja’s retreat is one that’s certainly hard to watch but more for the fact that it’s got her people burning their lands in order to make them useless to Dragan and the Zamoran forces. And it is doing just that as Dragan is being informed of low supplies and little that they can get for their horses to eat or for the men as well. Dragan continues to show that he’s not truly soldier material as he’s flippant about how to handle this while not thinking of the long term aspects of it all. But what it does is to get him to try a new angle to end this particularly rough campaign of his, which is the not entirely unexpected marriage proposal approach. It’s comical in how the message is sent and received but also how several of her advisors are instantly keen on it because of how they’ll gain from it. Dragan, for his part, at least comes up with an amusing bit about how he’d deal with his wife and that Sonja would truly become a ruler – even if you know he’ll just find a way to kill her sooner rather than later.
The politics of such a proposal are definitely fun to watch play out, especially as we get Sonja going to Isolde for some sort perspective on all of this. Isolde’s been married multiple times compared to none for Sonja so it’s a helpful moment just for the the variety of Isolde’s life to be listed out as Sonja decides her course of action – which may be decided by other events. The book also gives us more of the storyline from the past in Khitai with the Domo and that gets wrapped up here as we see her impetuousness cause his end when she tries to help him. There’s been a lot of good useful parallels drawn between past and present through the Khitai storyline but it also had the potential for being overused if it goes on for too long – yet I’m hopeful for more flashback of other adventures to fill in more of Sonja’s past. Seeing such stark results of her actions here makes it clear why she acts like she does to some degree but also why, even after all of it, she still retains some of that fearlessness in just doing when the moment calls for it.
In Summary:
The first arc for this volume of the series wraps up some of its key elements here and it feels like it’s ready to move onto the next phase. But there’s uncertainty as to what Sonja will really do here and that’s a big part of the thrill as that unpredictability can go a long way. I like the back and forth through the messenger that we get between her and Dragan but also the greater exploration of Sonja and who she is at this point after all that she’s experienced. She’s lost so much and is in such a stark and difficult position now that each choice feels like there are no truly good ones, just necessary ones. I’m excited to see what Mark Russell has next and hope that he and Colak are on this for a while to really dig into the world that’s being detailed and explored here.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 3rd, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
