Review: Red Sonja Vol 5 #1

Honestly, when I heard Amy Chu was leaving this book I was devastated.Â I mean, what was not to like?Â The fish out of water element, the cheesecake art or the fun of every situation Sonja found herself in.Â OK, the last issues, without an arc to plot on, seemed to fall into monster or fight of the month type of stories.Â Yet when they were produced with such gusto, I didn’t mind at all.Â Now, with yet another volume starting, Red Sonja gets a bit of yet another revamp.Â I swear, this character has more re-starts than Carol Danvers!

This first issue looks to reset the balance of Sonja’s world, giving the reader more than a glimpse of the politics of the Zamoran Empire and Hyrkania and how that is going to affect Sonja’s life definitely in the short and possibly long term.Â Ironically, the curse of coincidence strikes again as currently in Conan, he is King at the same time that Sonja becomes Queen.Â As this is Sonja, you can bet that there be sorcery abound, that will no doubt complicate things for our favourite red haired warrior.

Mark Russell may have returned Sonja back to her roots somewhat and even though I am not sure why, I guess that falls within the purview of the editors.Â Be that as it may, Russell works hard to set the book off on the right foot.Â Possibly the introduction is a tad long, yet Russell sticks to his guns in setting the scene, even throwing in some history to create some resonance for Sonja that runs a tad contradictory to the previous run.Â I am not going to hold that against Russell; part of the charm of Sonja, Dejah Thoris and Vampirella is that each volume can give readers different iterations; as such, some will work and some may not work as well.Â If you pay attention to the script you will find some excellent humour and jokes within the numerous word balloons.

Joining Russell on this new volume is Conan artist Mirko Colak, who by his resume at least, shows that he can handle the Hyborian Age well.Â This is further demonstrated by the art on show in this issue.Â Sure there is less cheesecake and yes, the chain-mail bikini isÂ missing replaced with something more utilitarian.Â This will no doubt cause consternation to some fans; I am not going to lie, I do prefer the classic look, but clothes do not make the woman or the warrior.Â There is a level of realism in this used and lived in world that works well in conjunction with the colors by Dearbhla Kelly who give the book a muted almost mustard look.Â Colak mixes up panel designs in an effort to keeping things moving along, a task that is hindered by the sheer volume of verbiage that letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou has to contend with.Â Still Otsmane-Elhaou manages to deliver a range of fonts that serve to effectively break up the volume of words.Â A quick shout out goes to Amanda Conner who produces a gorgeous cover which is one of sixteen variants available.

As mentioned above, I loved the last series of Red Sonja, and whilst this return to a more traditional setting my please many, I for one am disappointed.Â However, if traditional is what the powers that be at Dynamite are looking for, they would be hard pressed to find creators of this calibre to achieve that particular goal.

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

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Written by; Mark Russell
Art by; Mirko Colak
Colors by; Dearbhla Kelly
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