Adriano-Lucas

With the second story arc in her Red Sonja run, Gail Simone unifies what could easily be a series of six one-offs by creating a fetch quest. In this case, Sonja is asked by the nearly-dead King of Not-Egypt to find him six gifted people to play key parts in his death party. In order to raise the stakes, the king promises her that he will let his slaves free if she fulfills the request. Just as before, Simone leans hard into the tropes and proves that tropes are not inherently bad. Red Sonja continues to be a warrior woman who doesn’t quite understand why everyone objects to her stench. She starts off hungry, parched, and horny and is only ever able to quench the first. Sonja can never have enough alcohol and Simone makes a mighty fine brick joke out of Sonja’s inability to get laid during this arc. Besides making a great running gag out of all the reasons she’s denied, I think Simone is also subtly making a commentary on how Red Sonja’s often considered hot stuff that any reader inclined to find ladies hot would want to get with, but in reality might be quite off-putting.

Dynamite is in an interesting place in the comic book marketplace. While Marvel and DC are constantly striving to update their characters, Dynamite embraces the pulpy past of comics. So they publish titles like Green Hornet, The Shadow, Vampirella, Jungle Girl, and Red Sonja. It was this pulp that contributed to the comics code back in the 50s. And it certainly is an aesthetic that aims to please the male gaze. It’s for this reason I never cared to check out Red Sonja before. Look at her, does this look like a heroine that will have stories worth reading or will, like porn, be all visuals with no substance.