Well, the long awaited Red Sonja has at last hit the shelves with a short, twenty-five cent teaser. (And believe me when I say that there is a lot of teasing going on.) I have to admit that when I first got wind of this upcoming project, I thought things smelled a little lame. I feared for Robert E. Howard’s only slightly less well known creation. From what I could see in the advertising, it appeared that Red Sonja would be yet another scantily clad joke of comic book heroine, who would only be good for looking at and possibly pining upon some wall or other. Yet I could not be more mistaken. Not to say that Sonja is not good for looking at, just the opposite. She might be the hottest comic girl out there (sorry Power Girl and Mystique), but come on. That scale mail bikini is not going to protect anyone from anything, unless she’s going to only fight enemies that constantly slash at her naughty bits. (Which is actually pretty feasible, now that I stare at it, I mean think of it).

Anyway, my first surprise came when I saw the amount of hype and anticipation that was sweatily cramming together like fanboys at a Red Sonja book signing. Then I saw that the cover for this, heh, tease was done by none other than Greg Land and Matt Ryan (Phoenix Endsong). Though they drew her armor painfully opaque on the cover; the same is not so with the interior art. Mel Rubi (artist) did a spectacular job that should earn a hearty nod from even Cary Nord with an extra nod for the coloring by Caesar Rodriguez and Richard Isonov. In fact, Rubi’s art is in much the same style as the current Conan series.

To put it simply, it’s good, real good. In fact, I would say that Nord has met his match. Sonja is so hot that I lament every cell that she isn’t in.

Perhaps the most startling aspect of this comic was the writing by Michael Avon Oeming and Mike Carey (is this Carey perhaps some kind of wizard, or does he perhaps live outside of time? Because he seems to constantly be working on dozens of comics at once, and yet they are all spectacular in both story and dialogue. See: Lucifer, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Hellblazer, etc.). Oeming and Carey masterfully employ a classic style of brilliant narration which creates a solemn yet exciting feel as one reads, when one takes the time to stop looking at Sonja and read, that it.

This is going to be big stuff, kiddos. Keep your eyes peeled and your magnets handy, because Sonja’s come’n to comic town. Just be ready to run screaming if that magnet thing works, she’s a tough one.

 

Come on, that’s flippin sweet!

-Fumanchu