The red haired, scantily-clad warrior known as Red Sonja has been around for quite some time. The character began in the pages of Marvel Comic’s “Conan the Barbarian,” in the ‘70s and was originally based on “Red Sonya of Rogatino,” who was created in a Conan story by original Conan writer Robert E. Howard, which was published in the ‘30s.
I must admit, as a long time comic reader, I perceived the Red Sonja books with a certain “here we go again” mindset. You see, like many industries, the comic industry is one of trends. If one thing is doing well, other companies will come up with their own similar book or character in an attempt to appeal to the larger audience.
Well, in the late ‘90s, comic books, as an industry, started floundering and to revive sales, a wealth of titles were started. Many tried different trends to grab the reader. It seemed readers had bored of the ‘90s notorious vigilante comics.
What I remember seeing next as an emerging trend was a wealth of “Lady Warrior”- style books hitting the market. There was a time when it looked like every title on the shelf at the local comic store was a book about a woman warrior/heroine. The trend had its pros and cons. As any teenaged fan (as I was in the 90s) will tell you, the art was great to look at, but more often than not, the stories were a chore to read. There were some standouts, of course. I kind of liked “Shi,” a book about a female ninja. “Witchblade” was also a popular title at the time, and it even spawned a live-action TV show for a while. These titles had well written stories and heroine female characters who, while being beautifully drawn, were also empowered female heroes in a generally male-dominated superhero world. But, the majority of titles released during this wave of female warrior books were dreck.
The stories were loosely tied together scenarios in which the reader was treated to sexy poses and drawings of the heroine in different outfits, but little else. Books like “Lady Death,” “Barb Wire” or even the relatively well respected “Vampirella,” were books that contained nothing but flashes of skin, with no deeper worth.
Okay, sorry about the history lesson, but I wanted to explain my mindset when I sat down to read the starting point of the current Red Sonja series. Would it be a good sword-and-sorcery revival like Kurt Buziek’s recent run on “Conan the Barbarian,” or would it be another scantily-clad heroine with as much depth as she has clothes on?
Well, honestly, the book, written by Michael Avon Oeming and Mike Carey, is a little of both. It’s a fresh take on the character, and throughout the series, artist Mel Rubi’s work is astounding, but a few chinks in her (albeit small) armor keep this collection from being legendary.
The book tells the tale of Red Sonja as she finds a walled city where the citizens hold a heavy reliance on religious beliefs. The city’s religious leader, the Celestial One, is a mysterious figure who can command magic and the people with ease. Soon after her arrival, Sonja is taken prisoner and murdered as a sacrifice in a ceremony to this city’s god.
Since it’s an ongoing series, it will not ruin the plot to tell you that, through some nifty magic spell, she survives the ceremony and leads an army back into the city to overthrow the Celestial One.
Overall, I think the story felt hollow. The only character who is fleshed out (no pun intended) is Red Sonja herself. The other characters of the book are either generic warriors or they die before they become a real element of the story. This is understandable to a point (she’s supposed to be a lone warrior). But, since so few characters have any motivation, the impact of the (seeming) death of Sonja’s love interest or the betrayal of one of her friends, is dulled because it doesn’t seem to be necessary for the reader to care about the character.
Also, when the identity of the Celestial One is revealed, it’s a let down. This should be the big payoff moment of the story, but it is weak and only leads to questions, like, “If that is who he was, how could he be ‘from the stars’?”
Nitpicking aside, it was a good read, and since this book is just the starting point for an ongoing series, Red Sonja has a long future ahead and a lot of promise. She is much more that a pretty face — she’s also an interesting character.
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