“Vengeance For Two!”
Creative Staff:
Story: Mirka Andolfo, Luca Blengino
Art: Giuseppe Cafaro
Colors: Chiara di Francia
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
The marauders of Shezem will have their blood. They will capture the She-Devil and the young Sitha, whose power has become extraordinary. Sitha’s revenge will manifest in ways that not even Red Sonja will be able to contain…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Mirka Andolfo, as she writes alongside Luca Blengino, digs deeper with this issue as there’s less focus on the setup that we had earlier that was necessary and now a greater push toward the action and events resulting from it. Here, in the fourth issue, everything is coming together in a clearer and more cohesive way that makes it really easy to engage with and want more of. 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.
Most of the focus in this issue is on Sonja and her group as she’s making it clear that Sitha has to be saved. The discussion over where she’s ended up works out in an interesting way as it comes down to reinforcing Sonja’s belief that she wants revenge. And that’s leading them to the place where Shezem created his base of power years ago that allowed him to capture the region, an old kingdom in a mountain that’s filled with death as its residents were killed ages ago. It’s a lot of fun watching the trio make their way into the building, trying to find a route to it that will keep them hidden for a while, and then to sneak around until they can find Sitha. They know what it is that Shezem will do with her and that she contains a lot of power, so there are definitely places within where keeping her would be obvious.
We do see some events focusing on how Shezem is running the place and that some folks just aren’t all that keen on him at this point, but mostly it turns to full-on action as they find Sitha and she’s confronting and battling her inner demon that’s trying to get her to cut loose. There is some good use of magic in this to shake things up a bit but a lot of it is just Samosh and Sonja going wild with the swords. But Shezem also has his own tricks that allow him to see briefly into the future which provides a brand new challenge for Sonja. But likely just a brief one because you can imagine she’s met swordsmen who have employed similar before just through natural skill and intuition. But it makes for a really good sequence as it unfolds here and as Sitha goes big and powerful here to really change the nature of the story.
In Summary:
This series continues to do some really fun stuff and I love what Andolfo is doing with the story. I like getting to see older places that have been taken over and understand their stories. I really like seeing what Sitha is going through and how she’ll come out the other side. The use of magic is also a nice touch since we don’t really get it too often overall. But in the end, it all comes down to Sonja, her style and personality, and the action. This issue delivers a whole lot of that in spades and it makes for a great read.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: December 8th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
