A strong and quiet end to the storyline.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mark Russell
Art: Alessandro Miracolo
Colors: Dearbhla Kelly
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
Mark Russell’s epic run on Red Sonja comes to a close. Sonja The Red’s reign is tested as never before, and will set the stage for a new tale, in next month’s Red Sonja #25…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Red Sonja’s story under writer Mark Russell comes to an end here and it’s unfortunate, to say the least, that events played out as they did that has Russell moving on. I’d have loved to have seen many more stories of Sonja either moving forward from here or with other material from different periods in her life. There have been a lot of writers over the years for the character but I think Russell’s run will be one that stands out as the best of the best as the years go on. And in no small part because of the great talent that illustrated it, such as Alessandro Miracolo. I’ve loved their design work on here with how the cast looks, the world-building, and all of the detail that Dearbhla Kelly got to work with in coloring it. It’s been a richly designed and detailed work under a few artists and Miracolo is at the top of the list of great talents working on it.
This installment largely works as an epilogue and it’s pretty much perfect for what it needs to deal with. Cyril, blind and largely comatose at this point, is recovering physically but out of it otherwise. Sonja has decided to make some real changes and work a different path in her life and look for ways to put good into the world after being involved in so much misery. That has her resigning from the role of Queen, leaving that to Isolde who is handling it better in peacetime better than Sonja likely would have. There are some good farewells in Zamora over this as she parts ways and ends up taking the talking boar with her at the request of Cyril’s mother. There’s such a weariness from everything that there’s no more blood left to shed in a sense and everyone is just ready to move on with something new.
While we do see some nice follow-up with Isolde and how she’s going to manage leading her people, the bulk of it follows Sonja on her new quest. The boar is certainly an amusing companion as he talks a million times more than her – as he looks for a vegetarian farmer to stay with – but it highlights an interesting journey. What she’s really after, however, are the wizards from before that caused so much of this to happen with Cyril. I love that she’s trying to find a good end for Cyril in looking for a way for him to have the life he should have had as an innocent child, though this goes against how these beings typically operate. Yet with Sonja having brought so much misery into the world for her they can’t help but to agree to go along with it. The dreamscape we see is disturbing and haunting in a way that could come back to bite her someday, but as closure for this sprawling and engaging storyline, it’s perfect and allows for Sonja to head off into the sunset with a kind of closure she rarely gets.
In Summary:
I’ve been singing the praises of this series, its spinoff, and its specials, for what feels like forever now. I’ve enjoyed a lot of Red Sonja stories over the years but mostly the crossover books with other properties. Mark Russell is the first, for me, to really nail the big picture storytelling that feels like it has what I loved of certain classic Conan books but with its own style and intent. There are so many things going on in this series and each issue worked to build steadily and strongly to the next so that you have what should be a really incredible omnibus to put together sometime that will be one of the best definitive versions of Red Sonja out there. With great storytelling, fantastic character artwork, gorgeous covers throughout, Red Sonja has reached a real pinnacle with this run under Russell’s guiding hand.
Grade: A
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment | Amazon | ComiXology
Release Date: February 24th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
