The Complete Gail Simone Red Sonja review

    Red Sonja is one of the most influential characters of fantasy literature, having hit like a bolt of lightning during her first appearance in the Conan: The Barbarian comics by Roy Thomas. Based on non-Hyborian Age characters created by Robert E. Howard (Red Sonya of Rogatina and Dark Agnes respectfully), she helped usher in the age of many other fierce uncompromising action hero

    However, the character has also become something of a walking punchline due to her infamous chainmail bikini attire. Roy Thomas mentioned the somewhat sexist double standard here as Conan the Barbarian walked around in a loincloth with no one commenting on it but, then again, not every panel was as lovingly focused on the She-Devil of Hyrkania's musculatar as her either.

    Birds of Prey and Secret Six creator Gail Simone was one of the female fans of Red Sonja in her youth, seeing past (or not caring) about the fanservice element to embrace the fabulous character within. When Dynamite Entertainment acquired the rights to the character, they had an uphill battle for sharing the character to modern audiences, though they never lacked for a fanbase entirely. So, when they offered her the chance to write it, Gail Simone jumped at the task but was left with the question: How does one update Red Sonja to the 21st century?

    THE COMPLETE GAIL SIMONE RED SONJA OMNIBUS answers that question in its collected eighteen issues plus one bonus story.  Its a short but still-respectable run that rebooted the character's origins, changed some fundamental elements about her presentation, and also put her through some incredibly entertaining adventures.  

    Whether these changes were for the best or will stick is always a question of comic books but I had an immensely fun time with them and believe fans of fantasy will greatly enjoy. I also believe Red Sonja is a character worthy of reading and has plenty to appeal to audiences both man or woman alike. But do I think Gail Simone's Red Sonja is the best take on the character? No, but it's up there.

   The first of the assembled story arcs is "Queen of Plagues" where Red Sonja is recruited by a pair of archer girls to rescue a kingdom from conquest. A murderous warlord named Dark Anissia has raised an army to conquer all cities that are afflicted with a terrible plague. They murder men, women, and children alike to try to contain it with no regard to those who might or might not be affected. She is also a former friend to Red Sonja. Sonja goes through a horrible experience that reminds her of how she became the terror she is.

    The big changes to Sonja's character are manifold. The original Red Sonja origin was that her family was slain, she was a victim of sexual assault, and she was blessed by the deity Scathach with superhuman strength. However, the price for this was that Red Sonja was forbidden to lie with a man unless she was defeated in battle first. Gail Simone ditches everything but her family being massacred and instead has her avenge her family on her as well as becoming openly as sexual as Conan. Indeed, this version of Sonja is bisexual, which is interesting given the character's checkered history with queer representation.

    "The Art of Blood and Fire" is a sharp change from "Queen of Plagues", being a comical farce that is one of the best comics I've ever read in my life. Red Sonja is given a task by a Stygian pharaoh: find six of the greatest craftsmen in the world in order to entertain at his death-day party. If she does so, he will free one thousand of his slaves instead of putting them to death for his funeral. What follows is a hilarious tale of Sonja going from place to place and dealing with everything from cannibal bogmen to a swordsman who refuses to be bedded unless it's by a woman who can defeat him in battle. There's also the hilarious subplot that Sonja is feeling frisky and despite looking like, well, Red Sonja, she's unable to get laid by man or woman.

    The final story arc in the collection is "The Forgiving of Monsters" which is the only one I feel is a dud. Basically, Red Sonja gets cursed after killing a wizard and loses her ability to forgive. This comes at the spectacularly bad timing of finding the surviving bandit who helped kill her family. If you think the story is going to involve her coming to forgive the man then you would be correct. It's the Spider-Man 3 paradox. Spider-Man 3 is all about the importance of forgiveness but has an enemy (Sandman) who is still actively committing the kind of crimes that got Uncle Ben killed as well as willing to kill Peter Parker in order to survive. Forgiveness of someone who continues to threaten people is something that is a pretty messed up moral, particularly when it requires a man to escape justice.

    There are a pair of single stories to go along with the three main arcs with the first being an objectively terrible (but funny) story about Sonya having to deal with a fanboy of hers who has lied about them being married. Having made Sonja his waifu, he has used their nonexistent relationship to run up debts and get laid when he pretends she was killed. I just couldn't get into it and it struck me as a takedown of certain kinds of comic book fans. The final story is a much better one about Sonja protecting priestesses of a goddess of knowledge who are being threatened by an evil Empress.

    The action, art, and storytelling of Gail Simone's Red Sonja is tremendous. Walter Geovani brings forth Sonja and the other characters in a way that makes me want to check out all his other works. Jack Jadson is also someone I'm going to investigate just because of this volume. While I have all of Dynamite's Red Sonja and even like some other authors' takes better (Amy Chu for example), this is still a fantastic run and fans would be remiss if they didn't pick it up. Especially since it's available on Kindle Unlimited to read.

Available here