Red Sonja #01

Red Sonja #01

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Mirka Andolfo & Luca Blengino

Illustrated by Giuseppe Cafaro

Coloured by Chiara Di Francia

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

MOTHER, PART ONE.

Industry icon MIRKA ANDOLFO presents an all-new vision for the She-Devil With A Sword, in a thrilling new ongoing series! Our story begins in a village on fire, set by members of the dreaded Three-Eyed Shezem. When Red Sonja arrives, the only survivor of the flame is a lively child with curious white tattoos. The child will become Sonja’s travel companion, on a journey from hardened ice to imposing forests, where dangerous secrets wait to be revealed…

One of the greatest things about the world Red Sonja lives in is that you never know what kind of story you are going to be getting. Sword & Sorcery indeed for we all know she’s the she-devil with a sword and there’s magic in this world that usually comes with her swearing in a number of ways that would make grown pirates blush a few shades of pink. So what we get here is a first issue mired in mystery that leaves us with one hell of a cliffhanger ending and if this run from Mirka is going to be anything like this issue then we are in for one hell of a grand ole time.

I am a fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter brings their personalities to the forefront. How they are so easily recognisable is fantastic stuff. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing the story, the characters and this part of the world they are in is beyond exciting and it really does light up the imagination.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow are absolutely magnificent to see. I love seeing how the layers open up the avenues that will be explored or those that won’t but regardless, they bring some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceedingly well.

The interiors here are lovely. There is almost something about this that almost blends traditional comic book style with manga to really create something sleek, new and different. There’s some really beautiful linework happening here and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work that we see throughout the issue is amazingly well rendered. Because of the way we see the composition within the panels and how backgrounds are being utilised they bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story extremely well. I wouldn’t mind sharper backgrounds but I'm not going to quibble because how we see the pages is super strong. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is expertly laid down.

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There are so many great and unexpected moments that we see throughout the book, including what brings Sonja to this part of the world. This young girl with who and what she represents is going to make for one heck of an exciting debut arc for Mirka and company. With strong intelligent writing and witty characterisation along with these beautifully illustrated interiors I’m looking forward to seeing where this is going to go next.