Red Sonja II The Art of Blood and Fire By Gail Simone Art by Walter Geovani

Red Sonja II The Art of Blood and Fire

By Gail Simone

Art by Walter Geovani

“You...You Put... You Put food. In a barrel of delicious Cimmerian Beer? You Monster!”

Red Sonja​

I've discussed Red Sonja and Gail Simone in a prior review, many many moons ago (Frigid Reads, book reviews. : Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues by Gail Simone). I’ve already covered the long winding road from Howard's first inception of the character to the Red Devil that graces comic books today and I've talked about Ms. Simone's long and celebrated career from unlikely origins (Two lessons from Ms. Simone: never turn around to a fan and say “You think you can do better?” because they just might be able to; and never assume someone's writing talent from their prior careers). Let me instead talk about Dynamite Entertainment for a minute. Dynamite Entertainment is an imprint for Dynamic Forces, which produces collectibles. Dynamite started by producing the Army of Darkness comic in 2005. They added Red Sonja and Xena comics two years later, with issue one of Red Sonja selling over 100,000 copies. Today they are mostly known for comics that are adaptations of existing properties (the Barsoom comics, Terminator, Robocop and of course Red Sonja, to name a few). While it's nowhere near the big two in it's reach, it’s carved out a respectable market share and will likely continue to do so. Now having covered that, let's go into the comic itself.

There's an emperor who rules from a golden city. The slaves of that city labor night and day to fulfill his commands to build a tomb greater than any that has come before, because this emperor is dying and has one final wish: he wants to throw the party to end all parties before he passes into eternity. Of course to throw a proper party, you need the proper professionals. So Red Sonja is hired to track down and bring back six people. The greatest chef in the world, the greatest courtesan, the greatest beast master, the greatest dancer, the greatest swordmaster, and the greatest star gazer. The emperor will pay these people any price they desire, after all there's only so much that will fit into even the greatest of tombs. As for what he will pay our heroine? If she succeeds, the Emperor will free a thousand slaves. More than anyone has ever freed before. If she fails? Those thousand slaves will be buried alive in the tomb with the Emperor, doomed to die horrible deaths so they may eternally serve. Red Sonja has one month to track down these people across the ends of the known world, and bring them back, in order to bring not just freedom but a chance at survival to a thousand people. The great thing about this is that the motivation flows fairly well. This version of Red Sonja spent years in a slave pit having to fight for her life every day as cheap entertainment for the crowd. It's no shock that she might have some strong feelings towards slavery. As such she'll go diving into a swamp inhabited by inbred cannibals, or fight her way through a fortress monastery if that's what it takes to get the job done. What she's not expecting is what she'll learn and what she'll accomplish along the way.

Ms. Simone shows us a very interesting and different version of Red Sonja, one I would honestly call more human and in some ways all the more heroic for it. While in the Marvel comic version Red Sonja was sworn to celibacy, except with people who defeated her in battle (which... let's admit is kinda creepy), Ms. Simone's version has no such vows holding her down. So in this version she is a woman of powerful if at times odd appetites. This provides a hell of a weakness for Red Sonja but again makes her a person. Ms. Simone is clearly unafraid to show us Red Sonja afraid, humiliated, pouting or even just outright horny. At the same time we see her act heroically and capable of treating people with respect and when she’s sure no one will notice, with kindness. To be honest this version of Red Sonja reminds me a lot of the Marines I served with, making it my favorite so far. To illustrate the oddness of her appetites, for example Sonja doesn’t care one bit about cooking. Carefully seasoned and prepared food moves her as much as barely cooked food, which is to say not at all. At the same time she clearly enjoys a large mug of booze but is incredibly not-picky about things like vintage or age. It's enough that it's wet and will get her drunk. Pairing her with a artist of a chef, whose greatest joy is cooking the perfect dish is honestly as hilarious as it sounds. Although Ms. Simone is careful not to overdo the humor. Of the six people she chases down and drags off to luxury and celebration five of them are given their own character arcs that almost take the form of small morality plays While almost none of them can fight worth a damn, they are all shown to be people of character and worth. Whether it's Gribaldi the chef’s stubborn refusal to abandon Red Sonja even as her compassion for a dying bear lands them in a dungeon, or Aneva the courtesan's desire to provide some level of protection to her fellow sex workers against abuse and exploitation. The characters work together very well and I find I enjoy the byplay. This version of Red Sonja works best when she has a companion to play off of and contrast against.

That said it wasn't all fun and games. I found myself rolling my eyes when Ms. Simone decided to do yet another version of the pop culture version of Galileo. Never you mind that he wasn't arrested for suggesting the Earth revolves around the Sun but for printing a book where he calls the Pope a moron, a Pope who was openly supporting him at the time. I will remind you my dear readers, that got Galileo a trail and very comfortable house arrest. If he’d called one of the secular monarchs of the time those kinds of names, he would have lost his head! For that matter Copernicus, who actually came up with the model was never tormented by the church either. He died at the age of 70 years old from apoplexy. There were certainly many people who were tortured and otherwise terribly abused by the Church but neither Galileo or Copernicus were one of them. To be honest I found the treatment of religion in the story rather heavy handed and it just had me rolling my eyes throughout.

That said it was an enjoyable story-line and I wasn't disappointed. I should note because someone will ask that while the metal bikini does make some appearances for the most part Sonja wears practical gear while adventuring or expecting to fight. Ranging from a leather suit for swamp work to a full chain shirt that does leave her legs exposed but is hardly the worst thing I've seen a lady character wear. The art is good and the action easy to follow and well drawn; the dialogue is snappy and fun and the characters are interesting and well rounded. Red Sonja II The Art of Blood and Fire by Gail Simone comes in for a B+. A well done graphic novel.

Next week, we remain in Howard's world for the next volume of Red Sonja. Keep Reading!

This review edited by Dr. Ben Allen.