Thank you to everyone who wished me well after my blog post about being in the hospital. When I sit perfectly still I find I am able to read or write okay, so I wanted ot share my thoughts on a comic! I've read the occasional, "Red Sonja," works over the years. Even though sci-fi generally appeals to me more than fantasy, I can enjoy a good grim-and-violent yarn with barbarians, wizards, and sword-wielders. The, "Red Sonja," IP has been with Dynamite for some time, although she originally was over at Marvel (and first appeared in a Conan comic over at Marvel--his comic-related publishing history is complex, too). Dynamite has published a lot of, "Red Sonja," but this is a brand new series featuring the stellar writing of Christopher Priest and art by Alessandro Miracolo. I know there have been comics before where Red Sonja ended up in modern times, but this has an interesting twist of a modern-day woman named Maggie Sutherland suddenly being transported from 2025 into the wilds of Hyboria.
Maggie is not a heroic individual, with her magical transportation happening whilst she chases another woman she's enraged with--the other lady is named Skye (and a man Maggie loved left her for Skye)--through the subway tunnels, threatening her life. One surreal fall into a portal later, and Maggie isn't sure whether she's hallucinating, knocked out, or something else when she comes to as Red Sonja. While everything seems unfamiliar at first, slowly Maggie gets her bearings, and other parts of the comic hint that this is part of a magical bet between light and dark forces.
Christopher Priest is a stupendous writer who can take a character I don't normally care about and make them amazing (Deathstroke) or characters I enjoy and make them even better (Black Panther). I like Red Sonja just fine, but I'm curious to see how Priest handles this whole time-travel-ish style adventure, especially as the issue's conclusion makes it clear that Maggie isn't the only one who has had magic impact her location/time/form. It's a snazzy debut issue, and I'm quite curious where things go from here!
4 out of 5 Stars.
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