A comiXologist Recommends (Epic Stabbiness)

Red Sonja Vol. 3 #1

By Marguerite Bennett and Aneke

If your thing is scary, sword-wielding redheads in metal bikinis (and let’s face it, that’s everyone’s thing) Marguerite Bennett ( @evilmarguerite ) is your lady.  She’s been doing pretty great things with Angela over at Marvel, so I knew Red Sonja was in good hands when Gail Simone passed the torch.  This first issue of the new run seems to be asking if the world still even needs Red Sonja. Is there a place for her stabby, sexy, swearing, stinky, She-Devil self in a new regime?  

Rest assured that things may change but Red Sonja is here to stay, and that a new creative team and a little wardrobe update doesn’t cancel out what fans of Red Sonja have come to love about her.  Artist Aneke pays homage to the chainmaille bikini with Sonja’s new look.  But now she has a shirt!  Like, a whole one!  That covers some visceral organs! It gives the creative team room to explore other facets of Sonja’s character, so when she does have sexy moments (spoiler alert, she does!) they don’t have to define her.

Bennett’s tone is equal parts lyrical and butt-kicking.  Sometimes all at once.  One of my favorite moments is the epic Sonja-stabbiness brought to life by the delightful onomatopoeia “thwk-quelch.”  I’ve never stabbed a monster with a sword, but I somehow know exactly what that sounds like.  I maintain that it is truly an art form to evoke sounds with text, and if anyone can properly evoke epic stabbiness, my money is on Bennett every time. I can’t wait to see what kind of adventures Sonja gets up to with this team at the helm.

Tia Vasiliou is a digital editor at ComiXology, where they unfortunately frown on wearing a sword and a metal bikini to the office.