Red Sonja #3 – Review

by Gail Simone (Writer), Walter Geovani (Artist), Adriano Lucas (Colorist)

The Story: Becoming delirious thanks to the plague, Red Sonja remembers her childhood and how she lost her family.

The Review: Big writers bring their readers with them. When an author has accomplished some very well-received work on a title, usually a popular one, they generally receive a certain following. There are reasons why creators like Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder, Jonathan Hickman and the such always seems to receive high gigs and create their own stuff all the while, as they have an audience that are fully willing to try whatever they will receive from these giants of the industry.

Sometimes, it can lead to people trying new stuff that they perhaps weren’t willing to even touch before said creator decided to write said concept, team or character to begin with. I have no shame in saying that I began to read this title solely because of Gail Simone, who kept me highly entertained with titles like Secret Six and Birds of Prey (the first volume). While I was not a newcomer to the sword and sorcery genre, I had close to no actual desire to read any Red Sonja comics before she even announced that she’d be writing the title from now on. Willing to try the comic, it was with a bit of scepticism that I went along, only to be fairly impressed by what I had read. However, consistency in quality needs to be upheld if the book has to survive beyond the mere mention of Gail Simone’s name. Does this issue provide the quality the first two issues had?

In many ways, this issue does give the readers a lot of good moments, as Simone takes a good chunk of the issue in telling parts of the origins of the character. After all, no strong character actually begins its life with a sword in hand, as the story of Sonjita is told as the character continues to be affected by the plague. While it is not exactly the most original origin for a character to have, to have her family being slaughtered by barbarians, Simone do try to make the most of it as she adapts and deepens some of the lousiest part. It does not lessen the lack of innovation, yet it is competently told nonetheless.