Review: Red Sonja Holiday Special 2018

Hot on the heels of the Halloween special comes this almost Christmas story, guaranteed to warm the coldest of winter hearts, especially those who are walking around the snow-covered land in a chain mail bikini!Â Yes, it is that time of year when the saccharin candy coated stories are rolled out with hardly a thought of what the impact is on the characters within this winter’s tale.Â Well, that is until Amy Chu and Erik Burnham give us this Sonja filled fairy tale of New York from Sonja’s own first and last Christmas.

As Sonja continues her wanderings she is beset upon by the idea of “increasing her goodwill, when the snow falls”, which harks back to her time with Max in the big bad city that was the main feature at the start of this most recent volume.Â Through her recollections, we get to see her save a Santa and reunite him with his precious Rudolph.Â I can imagine that this sounds completely and utterly bonkers, but fans of the ongoing series should have a little faith in Chu.

Chu and Burnham avoid the sugary gluttony of the season and actually give us a story that fits with the ongoing series well.Â Setting the majority of the story in New York, allows for the idea of Christmas to be used rather than trying to metaphor the idea into a foreign land.Â After all, in Hyrkania, do they even know its Christmas time at all?Â The pair capture the fish out of water vibe of the over-confident warrior well, as Max tries to sequester her into his time.Â Of course, we know how that worked out for everyone.Â Here the dialogue is as fun as I remembered from the early issues which, and continues to, generate a huge amount of fun to proceedings.

The main story features art by Ricardo Jamie who does his best to carry the style that is the current vibe on show in the regular book.Â To some extent he does well enough; Sonja is her normal confident and curvaceous self, despite the lack of Christmas wrapping that seems to have absolutely no impact on her in either time zone.Â I get that the icon image of Sonja will always be the bikini, but surely just for one issue, as its set in snow, an element of common sense should take over.Â It does remind me of the time that Black Canary went to the North Pole in part of the classic The Nail story, wearing a fleece jacket and fishnets!Â Back to this book, Jamie’s art works well in the action panels, most of which are filled with the usual poses.Â Strong colors are provided by Omi Remalante Jr., with the incomparableÂ Taylor Esposito doing his always fantastic work on letters.

As this is special, an older story from Roy Thomas and Clair Noto with art from Frank Thorne is included for almost prosperity, though truth be told, it does go to show how good a writer Thomas was in his heyday.

I am a big fan of the current run that Sonja is enjoying.Â Moving from New York back to the her more natural elements hasn’t dampened the fun and with the news breaking that we are due for a new writer on this book in the new year, all I can is that all I want for Christmas is Amy Chu, to stay on this book!

Writing – 5 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
Colors – 4 Stars

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Written by; Amy Chu, Erik Burnham & Roy Thomas, Clair Noto
Art by; Ricardo Jamie & Frank Thorne
Colors by; Omi Remalante Jr. & Mike Kellerher
Letters by: Taylor Esposito
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