Tag Archives: Red Sonja
Comic Review: Red Sonja/Claw: The Devil’s Hands
Published: January 24th, 2007
Written by: John Layman
Art by: Andy Smith, Jim Lee (cover)
Based on: Red Sonya by Robert E. Howard, Red Sonja by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, Claw the Unconquered by David Michelinie, Ernie Chan
Wildstorm, Dynamite Entertainment, 112 Pages
Review:
Yeesh! This was bad.
I thought a story that brought together Red Sonja and Claw the Unconquered would be pretty damn badass. Well, it should have been but this certainly wasn’t.
The Jim Lee cover was really damn cool, though.
I also thought that Andy Smith’s art throughout the comic was pretty good. There were a few spots in the action sequences that I had to examine, though, as the transition from one panel to the next seemed to be off.
As far as the story, it was pretty schlocky. While I like schlock of a certain caliber, this was just lowest common denominator crossover bait, which is something that companies like Dynamite and IDW have become famous for over the last several years. Granted, this is about fifteen years old now but this is also where I noticed IP crossovers really starting to become far more common.
At least this didn’t bring the characters together through magic portals, which has been a bad trope in stories like these.
Anyway, you can totally skip over this unless you’re a Red Sonja completist. But if you are, maybe read this last after all the other stuff.
Rating: 4/10
Vids I Dig 743: Midnight’s Edge: Sword and Sorcery of the Eighties – Iconicon Online Panel
Vids I Dig 647: Midnight’s Edge: ‘Red Sonja’: After Years of Development Hell, Producers Try Something… Different
Comic Review: Red Sonja: Worlds Away, Vol. 4: The Blade of Skath
Published: June 12th, 2019
Written by: Erik Burnham, Amy Chu
Art by: Carlos Gomez
Based on: Red Sonya by Robert E. Howard, Red Sonja by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith
Dynamite Entertainment, 120 Pages
Review:
I’m not sure why this series is still carrying the Worlds Away banner, as the story of Sonja traveling to modern Earth has been over since the second volume of this series. But whatever, you do you, Dynamite and Amy Chu.
This final volume in the series started out really strong and it was becoming my favorite volume in the series. But then it ended in the middle of the fucking story! What the fuck?! Why?!
I would’ve been infinitely more pissed if I had bought the trade paperback of this and not just bought the digital version during a big Comixology sale.
This started with Sonja discovering that her sword belonged to a great warrior king that lost it after killing a deadly dragon. She then seeks out this hero to return the sword only to find out that he’s a drunk and pretty useless now. As the land she’s in prepares for a big battle, she has to try and get this former king to return to his former glory and win the day. He continues to fail, drinking himself into a coma by the start of the battle. Then I don’t really know what happened because the story got prematurely cut off!
I bought and read through four volumes of this series and this is how it goes out?
Thanks, Dynamite!
Rating: 3/10
Pairs well with: other Red Sonja stories from Dynamite.
Comic Review: Red Sonja: Worlds Away, Vol. 3: Hell Or Hyrkania
Published: September 26th, 2018
Written by: Amy Chu
Art by: Carlos Gomez
Based on: Red Sonya by Robert E. Howard, Red Sonja by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith
Dynamite Entertainment, 144 Pages
Review:
The main selling point of this Red Sonja series was that it took my favorite female hero and put her in the modern world. I like fish out of water stories, especially those that are part of the sword & sorcery genre. However, this third volume in Worlds Away sends Sonja back to her world. So I guess she’s no longer “Worlds Away”.
Each volume in this series has fallen off in quality. Now that the whole premise for its very reason to exist is now wiped away, it just doesn’t work for me anymore.
Additionally, the more cartoony style of narrative especially doesn’t work.
Frankly, this was just pretty weak, overall, and a disappointment after how cool the first volume was. And even though the second volume wasn’t as good as the first, it at least kept Sonja in the modern world and sent her on a cross country road trip, which was kind of cool.
Here, she goes back home and helps the guy from the modern world get back. Also, she finally beats Kulan Gath in this version of the Red Sonja mythos and all seems resolved.
Granted, there’s a little seed planted at the end to extend this series into a fourth volume. It makes me wonder if this was intended to be an ongoing series and that by this point, it kind of faceplanted and got cancelled shortly thereafter, only giving us enough issues for a fourth and final volume.
Rating: 5/10
Pairs well with: other Red Sonja stories from Dynamite.
Comic Review: Red Sonja: Worlds Away, Vol. 2
Published: May 2nd, 2018
Written by: Amy Chu, Erik Burnham
Art by: Carlos Gomez, Tom Mandrake
Based on: Red Sonya by Robert E. Howard, Red Sonja by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith
Dynamite Entertainment, 182 Pages
Review:
This series is pretty fun and this installment, the second out of four, just solidified that for me.
I liked the first volume more but this was cool, as it took Sonja out of New York City and sent her on a road trip across America. With that, she takes down a dangerous drug cartel that stretches across the United States.
Like the first volume, a lot of things that happen are the result of plot convenience. However, it’s bothering me less now and I’ve sort of just brushed it aside, as that seems to be the writing style of this series and to make certain things happen organically and naturally would probably take up more space than this story has. So it’s actually much more fantastical than a typical Red Sonja story but I’m already looking at this with the tone of an edgy adult cartoon more than anything serious.
The art was pretty decent but Dynamite usually has decent art in their Red Sonja titles. At the same time, it’s not great or memorable but it gets the job done.
Thus far, I like this series and since I’m halfway through it, I suspect that I’ll finish it and review the other two volumes as well.
Rating: 6.5/10
Pairs well with: other Red Sonja stories from Dynamite, as well as the Conan comic book stories that put him in the modern world and the second Beastmaster movie that sent the hero to 1990s Los Angeles.
Comic Review: Red Sonja: Worlds Away, Vol. 1
Published: August 9th, 2017
Written by: Amy Chu
Art by: Carlos Gomez
Based on: Red Sonya by Robert E. Howard, Red Sonja by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith
Dynamite Entertainment, 197 Pages
Review:
In the spirit of all those Conan the Barbarian stories that sent the title character into modern times, as well as the awful but enjoyable film Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time, we have finally gotten a Red Sonja tale that sends her into the future a.k.a. our present.
Granted, this did come out in 2017. I just got around to reading it though, as I’ve read through a lot of other Red Sonja runs since I started this site and started reviewing comics.
I liked that this story really just got right into it and sent Sonja to present day New York City pretty much immediately while she was in a major scuffle with the evil sorcerer, Kulan Gath.
For the most part, I enjoyed the story, most of the characters Sonja meets and the art was pretty damn good.
My only real complaint was that there was a lot of things that were done for plot convenience. In comics, I can look away once or twice but there was just too many instances of it that I was like, “Oh, c’mon!”
Still, I liked this in spite of that. I just feel like this would have been a much better experience than it ended up being had those conveniences been less common and figured out within the story in a logical, believable way.
I still plan to read the other volumes in this series, anyway, as I love Red Sonja and this is a fun, fresh take on it.
Rating: 7/10
Pairs well with: other Red Sonja stories from Dynamite, as well as the Conan comic book stories that put him in the modern world and the second Beastmaster movie that sent the hero to 1990s Los Angeles.
Comic Review: Red Sonja and Cub – One-Shot
Published: April 2nd, 2014
Written by: Jim Zub
Art by: Jonathan Lau
Based on: Red Sonya by Robert E. Howard, Red Sonja by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith
Dynamite Entertainment, 40 Pages
Review:
I’ve liked Lone Wolf and Cub stories since first discovering Lone Wolf and Cub as a kid in the ’80s. While the most popular version of the story for modern audiences is the Disney+ show The Mandalorian, Jim Zub wrote a Red Sonja version of the story a half decade prior.
This was written as a digital exclusive one-shot, which kind of sucks, as I’d like a copy in print to go along with my hundreds of other Red Sonja single issue comics.
I also wish that this was more than a double-sized one-shot, as the story really could’ve been beefed up into a miniseries.
Regardless of that, Jim Zub does quite a bit with limited space and I enjoyed this story, nonetheless.
I thought that the art was good and the action flowed really well.
In the end, this was a good, quick read that left me wanting more. For a low-priced digital exclusive, it’s definitely worth the price.
Rating: 7/10
Pairs well with: other Red Sonja stories from Dynamite, as well as other sword and sorcery comics written by Jim Zub.
Comic Review: The Adventures of Red Sonja, Vol. 1
Published: September 6th, 2007
Written by: Roy Thomas, various
Art by: Dick Giordano, Frank Thorne, various
Based on: Red Sonya by Robert E. Howard, Red Sonja by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith
Marvel Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, 137 Pages
Review:
This collects Red Sonja’s first solo stories, which appeared in Marvel Feature before she’d go on to have her own self-titled comic book.
Overall, this is great. I’ve never read these stories and it was nice filling in the blanks between her first appearance in the pages of Conan the Barbarian and the first Red Sonja title. Plus, this also brings her and Conan back together and throws in Bêlit, who has become one of my favorite Conan companions.
Conan and Bêlit don’t come in until the last two chapters of this collection and unfortunately, that story ends on a cliffhanger without the finale in this volume. But it’s still cool seeing them together, as well as seeing Bêlit’s first impression of Sonja.
This is quintessential ’70s Marvel sword and sorcery without Conan as the focal point and it’s just a really cool, energetic read with incredible art and great stories by Roy Thomas, as well as others. It also includes some adaptations of Robert E. Howard’s original literary work.
For fans of ’70s Marvel, sword and sorcery, general fantasy, great writing, great art or all of the above, this should definitely be a pleasing experience.
Rating: 8/10
Pairs well with: other Marvel era Red Sonja comics, as well as other crossovers with Conan.
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