Red Sonja #9 Review

Our scarlet heroine continues to fight, but should you care what happens next? Read on to find out.

The official description from Dynamite:

The She-Devil continues her quest to find and capture the greatest artisans of the Hyborian Age, with hundreds of lives in the balance. In this saucy issue, she is on the trail of the land’s greatest (and most dangerous) courtesan, in a world she has never before experienced! The epic run by Gail Simone and Walter Geovani continues!

I have to say that when I closed this issue I was grinning ear-to-ear. Because through the strength of this team, with see a story that continues to push and pull our classic protagonist in all the right ways.

The script is where this jaunt gains some depth. Gail Simone tackles the She-Devil with sword while focusing on a few very simple traits: desire and jealously. We all see people who we look at and wish to be like.  Thoughts roll through our head that, given the right circumstances, we might just have more in common with them. And then we’re faced with an introspection that says that if just a few details of our past were altered we could change our stars. And as the scribe toys with these emotions we get an action packed yarn that proves to be worthwhile on its own merits.

Walter Geovani is the talent that makes this comic into a must own. Smart text only goes so far in a visual medium, and the pencil strokes by this illustrator highlight the strengths of this franchise without hindering this volume’s momentum. Each panel is a reflection of a soft but consistent cadence that easily melds with a world full of danger and beauty. But when the colors by Adriano Lucas combine with this component, we’re left with a release that’s worth your money even without the words it carries.

Red Sonja #9 is not ground breaking, but it’s a smartly realized and human journey that speaks volumes of this protagonist as it proves there’s more narrative meat to gather in her journey. Highly recommended.