Comic Review: Red Sonja #1

                I read a short preview of Red Sonja about a month ago.  It looked intriguing at the time, so I decided that when it was actually released I would give the whole comic a shot.  While I find it odd that Red Sonja is a Dynamite Entertainment property while Conan the Barbarian is still under the Dark Horse umbrella (meaning the chance of seeing these two characters in the same comic, even though they technically live in the same, area is slim) I did find the premise interesting enough to give it a look.  Any time I can find a comic that takes me out of the traditional superhero realm, or at least the traditional superhero tale, I’ll do so.

Cover:

                I broke my own rule on alternate covers for this one.  Usually if there are multiple covers for one issue, I’ll grab the one on top of the pile so I don’t have any preconceived judgments about the cover other than the fact that it is the first one I see.  For this issue, I knew that there were a multitude of covers and I searched for the one by Amanda Conner.  There are a couple reasons for this.  One, she is a tremendous artist who has only gotten better as her career has progressed.  Two, as a former Kubert School student herself, it’s nice to be able to see someone make good on that “education”.  Three, I met Amanda at a small local convention back when I was going to school at the Kubert School and she was one of the nicest, most accommodating people I have met in the comic business (I met Tom Raney there too and he was just as cool).  So even though me buying that cover probably doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, it’s nice to know that I supported one of the good people in the business in some small way. 

And finally, the cover is just beautiful.  The linework is clean and crisp, and the coloring is expertly crafted to reflect not only the light from the moon above but also the light from the fire behind.  There is so much detail in the cover and each different item has its own feel, its own texture to it.  The hair on her blanket and boots has a different feel than the foliage behind her and the leather of her boots and wine skins.  Not only that, but the hair on her head has a different texture than the other hair in the picture.  The more I look at the cover, the more I notice in terms of little bits and pieces of texture here and there within the piece.  Plus, and this can’t be overlooked, Conner drew a scene from the book itself.  This is not something you usually see from a variant cover as many in the past have tended to stick closer to the spot illustration of the main character kind of formula.  The fact that Conner took the time to craft her cover based on something that happens within the book shows more of a reverence for both the source material and the comic book medium than just simply slapping a figure of Red Sonja on the page and mailing it in.

10/10 – Conner shows why she is so sought after in the business and still (in my opinion) the best female artist working in comics.

Story:

                Gail Simone, mostly known for her DC Comics work, has crafted a story that not only shows how ruthless Sonja is, but how she got to be that way.  Yes, there is plenty of room left to expand upon her history and I am sure that Simone will do that, maybe even as early as issue two, but she does an excellent job of setting up not only the story she is trying to tell, but also the history from which the story is springing from. 

                I am not intimately familiar with the original story of Red Sonja, so I’m honestly not sure how this telling of her origin compares, but I do know that what we have here at this point is a very good story that makes Sonja’s expert swordwork and brutality plausible.  I’m not saying that it’s not a little generic (the woman that has survived the dungeon and the arena as a captive and unwilling combatant only to come out of it a ruthless fighter) but it is well presented.  I think it would have been less effective if we had seen the full story right away, from her capture to her incarceration, release and the immediate aftermath of that release.  Instead, we are shown snippets, only the essential bits to get the story rolling, and that helps to keep everything fresh and not make it seem like a recycled plot.  90% of stories are the same, it’s how they are told that makes the difference, and Simone has found an effective way to tell this one. 

                The dialogue is not the best part about the story in my opinion.  It may be the inflections that Simone tries to give the characters in the way they speak in order to show that they are from a foreign land, but there is very little flow to it.  It clears up a bit when the two women prisoners are released and we get to see what happens in the aftermath, however even then I’m not sold on the dialogue itself.  Also, the twist ending was met (by me at least) with an “of course it is” reaction.  Again, I have no idea if this is following the original story closely or not, but it’s pretty easy to see the cliffhanger coming.

8/10 – Simone does a good job of world-building and progressing the story at the same time.  The issues with the dialogue are minimal at best, and some of the telegraphed plot devices seem like they were mandated from the source material more than Simone’s own personal style (at least I hope).

Art:

                Walter Geovani handles the art duties on this book and he does a fine job at it.  For the most part, the storytelling is good and the anatomy work is spot on.  Anatomy is obviously a big concern when you are dealing with a titular character that wears little clothing, but he handles it well with her and all of the other characters in the book.  His female faces all look incredibly similar, but that’s really one of the only knocks against the artwork.  Geovani does an excellent job of transitioning between a battlefield to a dungeon to a forest to a city and back to a different battlefield while making them all stand on their own in terms of design.  His backgrounds are adequately spaced out, he doesn’t overload the page with panels chock full of background, but he also doesn’t limit the use of backgrounds.  Geovani finds that happy medium that not only tells the reader where they are (and continues to do so throughout the duration of the book) but he also reels it back a bit, allowing the figures to breathe a bit and stand on their own without being cluttered on the page.  This also allows the reader to take a small respite and not be overwhelmed by all of the detail, which could get confusing especially in the battle sequences.

8/10 – The similarity of the female faces is not a huge problem, and hopefully one that Geovani avoids in the future, but I will say one thing, the guy can draw the hell out of a horse.

Overall: 8/10 – This is a good book and looks like it will be a good series.  If you want something a little different than your standard superhero fare than I suggest you give this a shot.