Sep 28, 2017
SPOILERS
Hats off to Amy Chu, Carlos Gomez and co here … this is a high water mark of the ‘Red Sonja’ series so far. It fires on all cylinders … as usual, Carlos’ art is exquisite (although he outdoes himself in one panel in particular) and as usual, Amy writes witty dialogue, effortlessly giving different voices to all the characters. So far, so ‘Red Sonja’.
What separates this issue from the majority of the run though is the perfect juggling of a number of plot threads, allocating sufficient time to each without making the comic seem too crowded and without taking anything away from the main thread … Sonja’s own adventures. In the past, there have been occasions when the time spent on a supporting character’s es
capades hasn’t been judged well and when too much space has been wasted on unimportant matters … #3 is the prime example of this. Here, everything is done fantastically well. Two new important characters are introduced, we see what Max is up to in the Hyborian Age, Gath makes his return but the lion’s share of the issue is still given over to Sonja and her beef with Las Aranhas. Another area where Amy’s fallen down in the past is lack of action and combat. ‘Red Sonja’ is, after all, ultimately a comic about action and combat. Here we have a blistering fight scene lasting several pages with Sonja assaulting the evil bikers in their main warehouse and ultimately bringing their activities to an end. We see Sonja’s stealth in infiltrating the warehouse and then the ridiculous ease with which she handles a large group of beefy homicidal gang members wielding uzis. It’s the best combat scene in Amy Chu’s ‘Red Sonja’ run so far by a country mile.
All that and Elvis too.
‘Red Sonja’ #9 … when you absolutely, positively have to read a comic featuring a six-foot redheaded Amazon in a scalemail bra crashing a tractor trailer into a drugs lab … accept no substitutes.
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