Some, if not most, of you will be familiar with Red Sonja as a character portrayed by Brigitte Nelson in what wound up being a Conan knock-off due to rights issues at the time. That is a shame because the character is much more than that.
The history or Red Sonja is fairly complex with an origin that spans back to a short story by Conan creator Robert E. Howard, though in a much different incarnation. It wasn’t until the 1970s when she was placed in comic form that she became the character we think of today.
Now comic publisher Dynamite has been publishing Red Sonja for a while now and noted writer Gail Simone has taken a run at the character part of which has been turned into an animated comic by Shout Factory.
Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues takes this heroic female character and gives her a bit of a new spin.Her origin is redone, told in either flashbacks or framing the main story, but essentially this is all the same ass-kicking sword-wielding woman we have all come to know and love.
That main story starts off with Sonja being summoned to serve a king who treated her well, freeing her from forced slavery. It is a debt of honor she repays, but in doing so sets off events that take a much darker turn than expected.
In keeping with the tone of the story the artwork is gritty and dark but there is no loss of detail. Truly this is some great artwork. And the animation process is very well done. Taking each panel of the comic and given them life is only part of what is done here. The camera swoops and pans about giving a full sense of motion to events.
And the voice acting is damn good as well.
The lone special feature is a not quite 20 minute featurette on the making of this story and animated comic. It is a decent look at what we have here, but there is no real discussion about the character’s history which is a major shame.
Red Sonja: Queen Of Plagues is a much better story than I expected, and I’m sure it has to do with Gail Simone’s writing. She takes the character, makes her realistic, strong, relatable, and wraps a story around her that is a great showcase.
If you are a fan in any way of Red Sonja or the sword-wielding barbarian type of characters you owe it to yourself to check this out.