Review: Red Sonja 1982 One-Shot

I am not sure what the thinking or strategy was when it come to the idea of hosting a Vampi book back in 1992 or even Sonja back in the 80’s. With the pair recently completing an out of time adventure together, I would’ve thought it just a tad too soon to go through the time vortex once again. The mixed reception to the Vampi book (see here), didn’t fill me with any great hope, though the inclusion of one of my favourite Sonja writers in Amy Chu offered some hope.

Killer androids from the future have decided to go back in time to test themselves against the fiercest of warriors in Red Sonja. Somewhere along the way, Sonja and her Terminator’s….. sorry, killer androids end up in Hollywood in 1982, where all sorts fo chaos and shenanigans occur.

I loved Amy Chu’s run on Red Sonja. It s was a well delivered fish out of water series that kind of lost its way when Sonja made it back to her own time. This book, trading on various tropes from the 8o’s, this book has nowhere the characterism as Chu’s previous book. Is it misplaced humour or the over familiarity of the idea within that leave an odd taste in my mouth. Coupled with yet another mistaken idea element serves to diminish Sonja in some way; relegating her to some sort of “just another character” position. The dialogue is a tad expositional in a number of places, which detracts from what enjoyment there is to be had.

The art for the book is provided by Eric Blake who delivers style that is loud and unfortunately is more caricature than character. Some panels work really well, but there is inconsistency with faces and body frames. I like cheesecake as much as the next person but it has be of high quality; odd angles and poor shapes detract from that. Things fare no better through the different timezones, in fact get worse in the “modern day” and downright antiseptic in the far future. Colors are supplied by Adriano Augusto whose work has some great pages; the opening act for an example.. In trying to be garish and loud, Augusto recreates the worst of 80’s color schemes. Taylor Esposito works well with the expositional elements, not let the fonts and word balloons detract from the chaotic flow of the art. Finally, it has to be said, that like the variant cover of the Vampi sister book, the main cover of red Sonja 1982 by Dani is pure perfection and may well be worth the price of admission al by itself!

I don’t know if Dynamite are following in DC’s shoes by saturating the market with their most popular characters. The problem in doing so, as DC may have found out previously, is that the high quality expected is hard to maintain. Maybe of Vampi and Sonja, less could actually be more.

Writing – 2.5 Stars
Art – 2.5 Stars
Colors – 3 Stars
Cover – 5 Stars

Overall – 3 Stars

Written by; Amy Chu
Art by; Eric Blake
Colors by; Adriano Augusto
Letters by; Taylor Esposito
Cover (A) by; Dani
Published by; Dynamite Entertainment

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network