A trio of tales with a dash of red in all the right places.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mark Russell, Amanda Deibert, Kurt Busiek
Art: Bob Q, Cat Staggs, Benjamin Dewey
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Simon Bowland
What They Say:
KURT BUSIEK (Astro City, Marvels) and BENJAMIN DEWEY (King In Black: Namor) take you to The Mountains Of Night, a foreboding haunt where the She-Devil With A Sword seeks a precious, priceless item…
AMANDA DEIBERT (Wonder Woman) and CAT STAGGS (Smallville) wind you through a mysterious adventure of crimson and ebony…
MARK RUSSELL (Red Sonja) and BOB Q (Red Sonja) return to put their final stamp on their classic Red Sonja series, with a coda that will leave you breathless…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With any number of Red Sonja books out there at a given time, finding ones that really work for you can be hit or miss unless you just consume all things Sonja. I like the variety and attempts at finding new ways to tell tales with the character, so getting an anthology-style book of short stories is definitely up my alley. We get a number of good talents here, and some familiar ones that have worked with the character before, and that results in some solid fun to be had.
The opening tale brings back my favorite creative team of the past decade with Mark Russell and Bob Q. Here, we get Sonja captured by the Sorceror of Shangara and placed into his prison to rot. Naturally, she does her best to escape but discovers along the way that absolutely everyone is beholden to the fear of the sorcerer and that the escapee will eventually be caught. Sonja can’t even get those chained up to join in her fight/flight from the tower and it keeps her moving about on her own. The trick of it all is fun and predictable but the energy of the story and the great artwork with it in black and white with the nice shades of red as needed delivers a story that’s quick and engaging that tells you plenty about Sonja and the world she inhabits.
The second tale from Amanda Deibert and Cat Staggs has a lot going forward as we get a wintry tale with Sonja stalking through the woods when she comes across a couple of locals fooling around a fair distance from their village. She’s dealing with a band of brigands that are causing trouble in the area and offers to keep these two safe on the journey back to their village, and their pub. With it extending into the night, it has a good sense of danger about it with random attacks and Sonja going off into the night itself to hunt. The twist isn’t so much a twist but a basic option for the story but it delivers well in showing off the kind of person Sonja is and the jobs she takes in the world which only reinforces very different aspects of her reputation.
The final tale comes from Kurt Busiek, whose work I haven’t seen in years and years sadly, and the talented artist Benjamin Dewey. Here, Sonja finds herself in the Mountains of Night on a mission she took on from a man named Agarus who has certainly overpromised for what he wants. A simply ruby from a buried building below the sand and rock. That has Sonja wary to be sure and it turns out that she has a history with Agarus and a relative of his from years before that she didn’t know about at first. What we get is the guy boasting above while waiting on his jewel to arrive while Sonja battles it out below with an invisible creature that’s doing some real damage to her. It’s a very fun sequence overall in see how Dewey gets her to move and interact with the space and then to see the blood-soaked creature become more visible over time and become even more frightening because of that than when it was invisible.
In Summary:
I really enjoy Red Sonja as a whole and seeing different takes on the character is what keeps me interested. While I have my favorite creative talents that I want to see spend years crafting long-form stories with her, I’m also thrilled to get short tales with a range of people to tell stories about her. It’s open and limitless and the start of this series showcases some great talent right out of the gate. Each story looks unique and interesting and the tales all work wonderfully in showing different aspects of Sonja. I can’t wait to see what else is in the future here.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 7th, 2021
MSRP: $4.99
