Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Amy Chu, barbarians, Carlos Gomez, Dynamite Entertainment, Erik Burnham, red sonja, swords and sorcery

Red Sonja #12 Review: Chopping Heads and Getting Mead

Red Sonja and Wallace find an open portal possibly created by Wallace, and he may have created copies of himself and Red Sonja on the other side of the portal. The two go through the portal and find themselves in an unfamiliar desolate wasteland.

After much walking and convincing a merchant to lead them, the two find a village. There a priest requests a group of warriors for a trip, and Red Sonja volunteers herself and Wallace.

Having just admittedly stepped in on this book, what stuck out immediately is how of a consummate badass Red Sonja still is. She's belligerent, hard-drinking, aggressive, and driven, not unlike Hawkman.

Wallace is a cowardly little guy who is an unfit partner for Red Sonja and the kind of journeys she tends to embark upon. He mostly seems to be there as a character for Red Sonja to abuse on the regular. It's not really funny, but you don't feel bad for Wallace either. You just wonder why he's not anywhere else. There's no expressed devotion to Sonja or thirst for adventure with Wallace (I did do some research on this character with help from Jude Terror). Admittedly, he may still be playing a part, but he does just feel like he's only there because he has the magic touch.

Beyond that, the story has a nice flow to it. It knows where to abbreviate things; there's no lengthy sequences of them walking across the desert with aimless dialogue to pass the runtime. There is an action sequence towards the end where Sonja gets to continue being a major badass and chop up some baddies.

It is a little aimless. Sonja and Wallace just seem to be interested in wandering the wasteland without much reason.

Carlos Gomez's art is quite good. The characters have good facial expressions. The action scene looks quite cool. I know talking about the T&A factor in a Red Sonja book seems redundant, but—yeah, her "proportions" are definitely designed to get some rocks off.

To the credit of the book, most panels aren't distinctly angled to focus on her boobs or ass. Also, I can buy that Sonja just likes to dress this way. It's like Conan the Barbarian; extensive armor would just get in the way of all the stabbing.

Mohan's color art is really good. The comic is very bright and colorful. It looks great.

Despite a couple of issues, Red Sonja #12 was a lot of fun. Sonja herself is a really fun character. The story is entertaining, even if not much seems to be going on. The action sequence towards the end is fun and well-constructed. I can recommend this one. Give it a try.

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