Red Sonja #1

Do you play D&D? C’mon, you can tell me. If you do, then you probably like Red Sonja, Conan fans probably know of her as well. Well, for those of you not in the know, before there was ever Xena: Warrior Princess, there was Red Sonja, and man was she a handful. The daughter of a mercenary in the services of the Hyrkanian army, who was killed for not returning to the battle field, Sonja takes to the way of the sword and never looks back, paving the way for all the sword wielding heroines to come.

Originally featured in the Conan books, she got her own short lived series at Marvel in the mid seventies. It only went to issue twelve, but Marvel tried again two more times throughout the late seventies and the early eighties. Heck even a movie didn’t spur readers on.  But here we are in 2007 and the comic world just might be ready for Red Sonja now, at least let’s hope so for Dynamite Entertainment’s sake. The first issue is compiled in true old school style by using a collection of shorts instead of one book length story.

 The first story titled: ‘Revenge is a Bitch’ is really good, and works as a reintroduction into Sonja’s world through the eyes of her would be assassin. They made no cosmetic changes to Sonja’s costume, which probably works better now than it did in 1975. The story is pretty straight forward and a good starter tale. The artwork is great and features a lot of cool action. The rest of the issue is filled with shorts from her days over at Marvel comics. There’s a cool story drawn by legends Jon Buscema and Dick Giordano, as well as a reprinting of her origin written by original creator Roy Thomas.

 Looking for a strong female character that’s not tied up in a bunch of continuity? Dynamite Entertainment seems to be the publishing house of choice.  And if that doesn’t appeal to you, she also wears nothing more than a silver chainmail bikini. Functional it ain’t.

Dante Maddox uses a level 10 Paladin when he plays D&D. seriously.