Review – Red Sonja: Vulture’s Circle #1 (Dynamite)

Publisher: Dynamite
Writer(s): Nancy A. Collins & Luke Lieberman
Art: Fritz Casas
Release Date: 7th January, 2015

So this week I chose to take a bit of risk by opting for three “wildcards” for my reviews, meaning the were chosen for me, as opposed to being books I normally read myself. I’m only slightly ashamed to admit I’ve had no previous exposure to the character of Red Sonja. I mean, I knew she didn’t wear a lot of clothes, was over sexualised and Gail Simone wrote it recently but apart from that, I went in blind.

From the first few pages I was worried that it was going to be the misogyny filled boobie fest I feared, with talk of virgins, giant snakes and phallic symbolism a go-go. There’s initially a bit of a ‘Tales from the Crypt’ feel about this particular story that screams 80’s B-movie but then something strange happens a few pages in, right before I was going to put the book down. The book jumps forward and we find ourselves confronted with an older, albeit still scantily-clad Sonja, who proceeds to not only put more clothes on, but also provides some depth to the story that isn’t all magic and metal bikini’s. Sonja now runs a school where she trains young girls up to be Warrior Princesses and appears to actually adopt a strong female role model position!

Whether it was Collins or Lieberman’s decision to go against the grain and actually give us a well thought out, and strong progression of the character isn’t important, just the fact that it has is enough. We now have a Sonja that has flaws, and age isn’t on her side, nevermind the fact that she’s fully clothed for he majority of the issue! The story itself is fairly run of the mill with an evil demon wanting to dominate and destroy (back to that phallic snake form again) but hopefully with later issues we’ll get more meat when it comes to the expanding cast of warriors, and a further look into this (as far as I’m aware) brand new direction for the character.

Casas manages to bring something fresh to the story as well with his female forms actually looking like warriors as opposed to top heavy bimbos. Whether the use of shadows was an editorial decision or not, it actually does the art the world of good. There’s a really good dynamic feel to the panels as well that makes the story flow nicely and gives it a sense of pace in the action scenes. Speaking of which, the brief dream/flashback battle looks absolutely beautiful!

As a new reader, it was easy to get into, sucked me along, and made me want more. Everything you could want from a first issue, nevermind the fact that it managed to prove me wrong when it came to my assumptions of whether or not they would leave the character stuck in the past.

Rating: 4/5.

PREVIEW ARTWORK.
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