Love in the age of Sonja.
Creative Staff:
Story: Chuck Brown
Art: Jordi Perez, Alessando Miracolo, Moy R., Emiliana Pinna, Lorenzo Tammetta
Colors: Ellie Wright
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
What They Say:
BURNING LOVE! Red Sonja’s temporarily developed fire powers… which is handy, since she’s in a land where warlords possess deadly ice powers. Sonja finds herself amidst a lovers quarrel, in which someone exchanged their heart and soul (quite literally) for overwhelming power. Can Sonja defeat a greedy cherub ogre and restore peace to the freezing lands? By CHUCK BROWN (Aquamen, Bitter Root) and LEE FERGUSON (Daredevil)!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I do admit that I enjoy the various holiday and seasonal specials that Dynamite puts out throughout the year. They’re a chance to do something fun with a cast of characters that doesn’t interfere with any ongoing series and they often get some different than usual talents stepping in to work on it. This was my first experience with writer Chuck Brown and the design of the story has him working with five artists to tell the tale, which is always an interesting way to do things but can be done with the right structure. While this doesn’t use the idea of smaller stories or segments told through different eyes, the team put together a really strong and largely cohesive piece here where I’m sure some will tell the difference in artists easily but a lot won’t, especially since it’s such a fun story.
Taking place in Keen Valley, we’re introduced to newlywed couple Eric and Ambrose as they chop wood together and enjoy young love. But the arrival of some devil cherub types throws everything off as they kidnap Eric and race him back to their master, along with others, so he can consume the tasty hearts of mortals. This incident has a lot of people fleeing the village but Ambrose has weaponed up and has started to head to the hot springs where she believes their king has set up shop. At the same time, Sonja has rolled into the village and found out what’s happening, which she can identify quickly, and makes her demands for money when she returns after solving the problem. She ends up dispatching one group of monsters quickly but keeps one to use as her way to get some intel on what’s to come.
While Sonja and Ambrose don’t fight together for a bit in order to deal with the cherub king and all, we do get to see Ambrose fight. And she’s a freakin’ delight as she’s searching for her true love and going all out in order to do so. When Sonja gets to watch this, she’s mightily impressed by it and rightly so as there’s passion behind some serious skill that makes you want to know more about this couple. Seeing them fight together while her husband is imprisoned but working to escape and help others to do so – knowing his wife will come – is a really fun experience to watch unfold. It goes big and silly in all the right ways because of the creature design but the real story is Eric and Ambrose and what they represent. I’m already ready for a spinoff tale just based on this book alone.
In Summary:
While these kinds of specials do a bunch of shorter stories, this one does a full-length story and it’s an absolute pleasure from start to finish. It’s got the right kind of light and silly aspects to it but it also plays well with emotion and action so that you get a really good story out of it. I’m already set for more adventures in Keen Valley and I wonder if the folks at Dynamite realize the kind of fun potential that is really here to do something Bone-like with the place and characters introduced. Yes, it exists in the Red Sonja world but it doesn’t have to be a grim part of it, for the most part. I really enjoyed the hell out of this thing.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 2nd, 2022
MSRP: $4.99
