The life of a pirate is not one for Sonja.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mirka Andolfo, Luca Blengino
Art: Giuseppe Cafaro
Colors: Chiara di Francia
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
Red Sonja and Sitha leave the Isle of Crimson Sands and embark on the last part of the journey to reach their final destination: a remote village on the edge of Kathai, where Sitha was born. It’s a villain of deadly dangers that only women can enter!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Mirka Andolfo, as she writes alongside Luca Blengino, has had a strong run as the series has progressed with their time spent with the character. The story continues to move forward overall but is, supposedly, designed for these good jumping-on points for people to see what’s happening, especially if those gorgeous covers draw in new readers. Giuseppe Cafaro is handling the artwork with Chiara di Francia doing the color design and it’s really great. There’s a really great sense of color to this that gives it an almost film-like feeling at times. It’s richly detailed and immerses you in this engaging world in a really great way. I love the look of the cast and the expressiveness that we get as well.
This storyline with the Crimson Mists has been engaging with just how surreal it is, and beautifully haunting with how the sea has been a character itself. This one opens with Sonja being rescued by Krancher and brought back to the shore they’ve found themselves on, which has Sonja all the more intent on rescuing Sitha. There’s a debt she has to repay to Krancher as well as she doesn’t intend to be in his service so he comes with her on the rescue since there’s a good chance they’re going to die and that affords her the opportunity. It’s an interesting journey and one that shows a kind of weird but engaging dynamic between the two as they deal with making their way to where Sitha should be that the creatures took her.
That shows how the demon inside of Sitha has taken over for the moment to help her out of this situation and I really like that what we get is that this place is basically a dead god with a lingering consciousness that has been activated by an unknown practitioner of magic. There are dark tidings from the demon but the main focus on surviving and dealing with the threat works really well as the visuals provide for a fascinating dead god and the reasoning behind it being disturbed. The mix of characters definitely hits a sweet spot here even if we don’t know most of them as it has that natural ensemble feeling. It does feel a bit rushed in the follow-through from there as we get Sonja and Sitha on their way to Kithai pretty quickly, but it delivers the sequences it needs in order to make it work and it has you enjoying the way the finale for the series is being set up in the next two issues.
In Summary:
This series for Red Sonja continues to deliver strongly issue after issue and this one is no exception. The diversion into one of the stranger sides definitely works well with the Crimson Mists and the dead god that we see Sonja have to deal with here as it’s haunting and beautiful in its own way. The core storyline is moving right along at the same time and the more personality intensity is showing its true face as well as we get closer to the end. I’m really enjoying this and at the same time envious of those that will get to read it as a whole work at once.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: June 29th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
