A battle well fought.
Creative Staff:
Story: John Layman
Art: Fran Strukan
Colors: Valentina Briski
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
It’s the She-Devil-With-A-Sword vs. the She-Creature-With-A-Saucer! Yes, friends, this issue sees a great and terrible battle between Red Sonja– and Green Sonja! One will triumph, and one will die. Can you guess the victor? We’ll give you a hint: It’s NOT Red Sonja!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
When you get a crossover series you expect things from both properties to stand out well. John Layman has certainly found that balance as things progressed here as we’ve seen all kinds of Martian experiments come to life amid the invasion. And one more kind here toward the end that just makes me grimace, even if it is part and parcel of the property. It’s something that lets Fran Strukan work out a sequence few Red Sonja fans see over the years, and are usually limited to works like this, as she meets her end. Of course, in a science fiction/fantasy series, there are only so many things that really constitute an end, especially in comic book form.
The structure of the book works well to tell the tale as the first half focused on the arrival of Green Sonja on the field of battle as she goes up against Red Sonja. Being a kind of hybrid clone of sorts, The two are well-match against each other and with the narration talking about it as taking place in the past, and playing out in a comic book form here as a tale told for generations since, it has some really good power to it and Strukan really captures the look of it well as the two face off. The back and forth, the bluster, and the sense of power about it all definitely connects. But when you see Green Sonja win by beheading Red Sonja, you’re left wondering where the book will go from here since there’s one more issue past this one. Or, for that fleeting moment, you wonder if this is the last issue.
The back half of the book takes us back before this happened, the night before, and shows the other path that ends in the same place – albeit with a Martian twist that has me cringing but hoping Layman can pull it off. Here, we see Sonja training Meredeen and seeing just how far she’s come in a small space of time. There’s some back and forth about how hard Sonja is pushing her and that Sonja herself needs rest after just being freed earlier that day, but it highlights what it is that drives and motivates her. The catch-up for events here is welcome to give us some character material with the fellowship that’s formed here as it turns into the start of the book with the battle. And those that were lost along the way, such as when the bigger machines started to get involved before ending with Sonja’s end itself.
In Summary:
Mars Attacks Red Sonja is definitely proving to be a fun book. Much more so than I expected even as a mild fan of the Mars Attacks property. I can still see how the final issue is going to go in general but I like the chances it’s taking in moving toward that and changing expectations. The battle between the two Sonja’s is a hell of a lot of fun to watch play out with their skillset and just the dialogue and narration for it all. This is definitely fun to read and it looks great having a big Green versus Red sequence to it with all that it implies.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment (ComiXology | Amazon
Release Date: November 18th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
