A new round of tales by strong creators for the she-devil with a sword.
Creative Staff:
Story:Ron Marz, Phil Hester, Amy Chu
Art: Mirko Colak, Kike J. Diaz, Heidi Blair, Andres Labrada
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
What They Say:
The greatest tales, the best creators, brought to you in beautiful black, white and red! BOB Q (Captain America) creates an impossible task for the She-Devil…defeat the undefeatable giant! SHANNON WATTERS (Lumberjanes) presents a tale of a “hero” who delights and enchants people… which causes Red Sonja to experience a sensation she’s unfamiliar with: Jealousy! DAVID AVALLONE (Elvira) presents a spine-tingling Sonja story that will tease and taunt the senses!
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 comes from writer Ron Marz with artwork by Mirko Colak which definitely delivers a strong experience. It plays out well with a wounded Sonja moving from her pursuers in the snow as she comes across an old abandoned temple high up in the mountain. Her attackers eventually catch up and it leads to some context for it all, which is pretty basic, but it works to allow Sonja to show off her skills while wounded and for what those who worshipped here to surface and provide a little more chaos to the mix. Marz keeps things simple but effective which leads to some great artwork from Colak as the whitespace is natural due to the snow. The designs look great in a raw kind of rough illustration way while the use of red is pretty smartly done overall. It’s definitely a good way to open the book.
The second tale comes from writer Phil Hester working with artist Heidi Blair where we get a disjointed tale that’s telling too many different pieces from different places in time. The overall story works as Sonja is tasked with bringing back a Sister that has died some distance away and she owes it to the Sister who requested it because they grew up together for a while before Sonja left. The trip takes Sonja and the body through the land of the Wolf Clan and it just gets more and more problematic as it goes along for Sonja. I do like how she keeps hearing the body talk to her even though it’s dead, but the shifts in time just don’t work well for me and a smooch as I liked Blair’s artwork in places, it didn’t work for me overall.
The third story from Amy Chu has her paired with Andres Labrada on the artwork where Sonja finds herself playing a game of chess against a woman named Thamyris. What happens, however, is that they enter a world where it’s just the chessboard and other people have been captured to take on the roles where they live or die, which is a fate Sonja must face. It’s fun to watch play out because of the quality of the artwork and to see how they try and work the rules of the game with Sonja changing things up along the way, including with a cute twist at the end. The artwork for this is great and just the opening page visual of Thamryis is striking, which reminds me why I really enjoy black and white artwork so much.
In Summary:
Anthology books are what they are with things that work and things that don’t. Red Sonja has had a mix of that over the run and this issue has two stories that work out well and one that doesn’t click for me all that well. Which is a really good ratio overall when you get down to it. The variety is the real plus here and getting to see so many different things continues to make me happy. I do hope they’ll find more ways to step out of the familiar box and do some completely new takes, but just showing off short-form storytelling for Sonja in her natural habitat is quite a lot of fun and worth the price of admission.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 16th, 2022
MSRP: $4.99
