Red Sonja #1
Written by: Amy Chu
Art by: Carlos Gomez
Colored by: Mohan
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Having never read an issue of Red Sonja I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this latest chapter and jumping on point from Dynamite Entertainment. Having looked over the solicitation I decided to give this new #1 read. After all it is written by Amy Chu whose career I’ve been following for about 4-5 years now and it has a killer Nick Bradshaw cover.
Through pop culture, I know enough about the character and the fantasy sword and sorcery world she exists in that I figured I could get by without reading any back material. The solicitation revealed that the new twist for this 6 foot warrior is that she would be transported to modern New York City. This got me pretty excited since I love a good fish out of water story involving time travel!
For the most part I was right about not having to read any previous issues. The creative team have put together a fairly easy to follow jumping on point. I do have a few questions with the real biggie being what led to her being transported to modern times. Through some inner monologue we find out she was in the midst of battle when she suddenly found herself in this unfamiliar land. I’m hoping we get a little more explanation as the story unfolds. Overall I quite enjoyed the story and didn’t feel lost at all when reading it. I thought Chu wrote some great dialogue and had a real feel for the pretty vast cast of characters the issue introduced. The modern day characters acted and spoke like one would expect they would if suddenly a sword wielding bikini clad warrior showed up in the middle of time square. Comparably, Red Sonja also acted and spoke in a manner becoming of someone from the ancient past suddenly being in present day NYC. She marveled at the noise and technology. You could get a real sense of confusion from her. One bit of contention I have is that the rookie police officer, who seems likely to be a main character for this run, can speak the ancient language spoken by Red Sonja. This may be better explained later on but for now we simply have to accept that for whatever reason his deceased mother taught it to him.
The artist for the issue is Carlos Gomez. I’m unfamiliar with his previous work but I found he did a very nice job in this issue. I’m sucker for big city backdrops and he did a formidable job of portraying New York City. He laid out some classic settings and really paid attention to city conditions. If you study the panels you can note construction and street vendors among the finer background details. He gave the reader a real feeling of being in NYC during a big snow storm. His work on the characters was equally as good. With a fairly big cast you can sometimes get confused between similar characters but Gomez managed to give each one their own look. I never once got lost on who was speaking and or who was driving the action. One thing I did have to get used to was this giant, red-headed, bosomy lady parading around town in an iron-clad bikini. Not being an avid fantasy reader this did take some getting used to.
Overall this was a nice balance of action and character building which is always needed in a first issue. Having never delved into the world of Red Sonja I wasn’t sure if I’d be lost but the creative team did a great job introducing me to the characters. They made me feel right at home so to speak which is exactly what all new readers ask for when trying out something new.
Art by: Carlos Gomez
Colored by: Mohan
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Having never read an issue of Red Sonja I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this latest chapter and jumping on point from Dynamite Entertainment. Having looked over the solicitation I decided to give this new #1 read. After all it is written by Amy Chu whose career I’ve been following for about 4-5 years now and it has a killer Nick Bradshaw cover.
Through pop culture, I know enough about the character and the fantasy sword and sorcery world she exists in that I figured I could get by without reading any back material. The solicitation revealed that the new twist for this 6 foot warrior is that she would be transported to modern New York City. This got me pretty excited since I love a good fish out of water story involving time travel!
For the most part I was right about not having to read any previous issues. The creative team have put together a fairly easy to follow jumping on point. I do have a few questions with the real biggie being what led to her being transported to modern times. Through some inner monologue we find out she was in the midst of battle when she suddenly found herself in this unfamiliar land. I’m hoping we get a little more explanation as the story unfolds. Overall I quite enjoyed the story and didn’t feel lost at all when reading it. I thought Chu wrote some great dialogue and had a real feel for the pretty vast cast of characters the issue introduced. The modern day characters acted and spoke like one would expect they would if suddenly a sword wielding bikini clad warrior showed up in the middle of time square. Comparably, Red Sonja also acted and spoke in a manner becoming of someone from the ancient past suddenly being in present day NYC. She marveled at the noise and technology. You could get a real sense of confusion from her. One bit of contention I have is that the rookie police officer, who seems likely to be a main character for this run, can speak the ancient language spoken by Red Sonja. This may be better explained later on but for now we simply have to accept that for whatever reason his deceased mother taught it to him.
The artist for the issue is Carlos Gomez. I’m unfamiliar with his previous work but I found he did a very nice job in this issue. I’m sucker for big city backdrops and he did a formidable job of portraying New York City. He laid out some classic settings and really paid attention to city conditions. If you study the panels you can note construction and street vendors among the finer background details. He gave the reader a real feeling of being in NYC during a big snow storm. His work on the characters was equally as good. With a fairly big cast you can sometimes get confused between similar characters but Gomez managed to give each one their own look. I never once got lost on who was speaking and or who was driving the action. One thing I did have to get used to was this giant, red-headed, bosomy lady parading around town in an iron-clad bikini. Not being an avid fantasy reader this did take some getting used to.
Overall this was a nice balance of action and character building which is always needed in a first issue. Having never delved into the world of Red Sonja I wasn’t sure if I’d be lost but the creative team did a great job introducing me to the characters. They made me feel right at home so to speak which is exactly what all new readers ask for when trying out something new.
A Look Inside
