Red Sonja #25

There have been a lot of creative teams on this property over the years and I've enjoyed a lot of the spinoff books with crossovers/team-ups a lot. So I always know that no creative team runs forever and I'm not spending my time comparing the past two years of story to what this team is doing here. This work must stand on its own. I do think it's a mistake to pick up as a ten years later thing and reference what came before instead of just starting fresh with a first issue and moving forward from there. That said, Lieberman has put in a decent enough opening idea to bring Sonja back after a while and Moss is a fantastic artist that can really shine on something like this with more time and good story material to work with. The opening pages to this are a little rough to figure out the what's what, but once it gets moving it hits its stride and will have me back for more. It just won't be at the top of my pile " though it has the potential to reclaim that spot. Read Full Review

RED SONJA (VOL. 5) #25, available from Dynamite Comics on March 24th, 2021, plays on the myth of Red Sonja by showing two skeptics her legend is more real than not. The art is good, albeit too muted in the color department. And the backup story is colorful, energetic fun. Read Full Review

Nick

Mar 24, 2021

Not good, unfortunately. Luke Lieberman has latched onto Mark Russell's run but totally ignores his characterisation and writes Sonja as a selfish and hedonistic slob. I get that she's meant to be different from the way Isolde presents her but this is too much of a stretch. Drew Moss' art worked in Vampirella/Red Sonja with all the dark colours and inks but it just looks rushed and bush-league here. The backup by Will Robson is much better, a cute short story featuring a different, much younger Sonja. The backup gets 7/10 but the main gets 3, so 5/10 average.