Review: Red Sonja The Superpowers #1

Filed under the title of “hey, this is a great idea, let’s do it again with another character”, Dynamite have apparently taken a leaf from DC’s over use of a good idea policy by adding a Red Sonja The Superpowers book to sister the Vampirella Dark Powers book.

As usual, Sonja is up to her red hair in trouble. Taking on a quest to rid the lands of an evil sorcerer, she has to deal with his minions before, the standard trope of mis-understanding between heroes can occur. If that doesn’t seem like a lot then plot wise, you may be right. However, there is more to Dan Abnett’s writing than the merest, at this point at least, hint of a story.

Dan Abnett has taken the mix of vampire and superheroes and supplanted the savagery of Vampi for the savagery of Sonja the She-Devil. Whilst the pair seem to be a mirror of each other, there are differences. This book shows them readily. It could be thought that Sonja is deficient in someway, but in reality Sonja is the queen of her world, capable and confident. Abnett mixes into her world amalgam heroes, the type you will have seen before, given their Justice Society feel. If the story may seem light, Abnett spends a lot of time setting the scene, which I believe will pay dividends down the line. Abnett has Sonja’s voice down pat and climaxes this books with some really strong action pieces.

Jonathan Lau provides the art of the book in a style that has a level of pace to it. There are some good clean lines with body language also well observed. There are a couple of facial elements that distract; a panel towards the end of the action scene where Sonja is shouting but all that is there is a black circle, for example. It is the sort of thing that distracts from an otherwise sterling effort, both in environment setting, action pieces and the mix of two distinct genres. Lau is helped out by some stellar colors from Andrew Dallhouse who takes a darker than normal hue which gives the book an almost European look. Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou supplies the letters for the book and manages the weight of the wordiness well, not letting the words impact on the pace of the story.

I may sound a tad glib or sarcastic over the use of the same idea; I guess I get a little disappointed in the first instance. Is it that the first attempt wasn’t great and needs a do-over? Part of this is due to the constant re-usage of a theme from the Big Two. With Abnett I tend to think that he maybe looks at an idea and rather than settle, things, how similar situations can be taken down a different route with different characters, giving readers not one, but two great stories.

Writing – 4 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
Colors – 4 Stars

Overall – 4 Stars

Written by; Dan Abnett
Art by; Jonathan Lau
Colors by; Andrew Dalhouse
Letters by; Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
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