Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Red Sonja: Travels Volume Two

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Todd Jordan
    Smut is good.

  • Red Sonja: Travels Volume Two



    Published by: Dynamite Entertainment
    Released on: Apr. 22, 2015
    Writer: various
    Artist: various
    Cover Artist: Joseph Michael Linsner
    Purchase at Amazon

    This second volume in the “Travel” collection assembles various Red Sonja one-shots and annuals as published by Dynamite over the last few years and there's some pretty good reading to be had, especially if you're looking for some self-contained stories. When you need a shot of the raven-haired warrior but you don't want to get tied up in a 6-issue story, something like this book fills the bill quite nicely. Each tale starts with a reproduction of the cover of that issue in its “virgin” state and the back of the book has some additional cover pieces, but otherwise the collection is cover-to-cover Sonja goodness.

    “Masks” (Red Sonja Annual #1), by Michael Avon Oeming, art and cover by Stephen Sadowski. A bar wench named Myria the Buxom puts up with her husband's verbal abuse as owner of the inn and with the crummy nature of her job. One day she finds an opportunity to wear a magic mask that can channel the spirit and tenacity of Sonja, and with that newfound power Myria the Buxom takes care of her hubby and any other piece of garbage male in the place, and sets out to establish her own tavern with her own whores.

    “Revenge is a Bitch” (Giant Size Red Sonja #1), by Michael Avon Oeming, art by Ron Adrian with a Mel Rubi cover. A woman named Jessa is bent on revenge against Red Sonja for killing everyone Jessa knew and then buring down her town. The fact that the townspeople, Jessa included, plotted to kill the red-haired warrior doesn't matter to the woman and she devoted all her waking moments since the slaughter plotting her moves. It ends in a blink.

    “Crimson Katherine” (Giant Size Red Sonja #2), by Christos Gage, art by Adriano Batista. Unbeknownst to Sonja she has a near-double running around with a similar story, a woman named Crimson Katherine. The two join up to become an unstoppable force and sell their swords or steal their way across the land doing what they do best, but Sonja is wary of this other red-haired beauty. The two have a difference in opinion over what to do with the children of a warlord they just took down, and it causes a fight to break out between the buxom babes. As you can guess, Sonja gets the best of Katherine, but lets her live. Bet on seeing Crimson Katherine later on down the road.

    “Dragons” (Red Sonja Annual #2), by Christos Gage, art by Pablo Marcos. Two wizards duke it out of the last remaining dragons in the world, that are all hiding in a secret valley. Rovan, the bad guy wizard, wants them for purposes of evil (of course) while Verdius has something else intended for them. He hires Red Sonja to lead him to the hidden valley, but Rovan follows and calls up a bunch of dead soldiers to take care of the old man and his sell-sword lady friend. A big dragon has something in mind for Rovan and after he's taken care of Verdius does what he came to the valley to do. Sonja will be leaving the valley alone.

    “Red Sonja and the Lonely King” (Red Sonja Annual #3), story and art by Dan Brereton with additional art by Adriano Batista and Chris Bolson. Sonja takes a job that puts her within a stone's throw from a bunch of trolls, also called Troglodytes. She dispatches a few, but they make their way back to where they came from once a gigantic and malevolent spirit shows up, and then disappears again. When she gets to her castle destination she learns what the spirit was about and there's more than one. She also learns more about the trolls too and what she needs to do to earn her gold.

    “Deluge” (Red Sonja: Deluge one-shot), story Dan Brereton, art by Chris Bolson. A news-worthy rain storm has everyone congregating to the closest inn, and Red Sonja is no different. But before she learns of the inn being close, she loses her horse and almost her life down a giant, muck-filled sink hole. And she meets an old man who mutters some cryptic baloney and disappears, but not before showing her the direction of the inn. Once there she has a run-in with an asshole, and then his brothers all show up. After she shows them a thing or two, she meets someone from earlier in the story and gets back that which she lost.

    “Break the Skin” (Red Sonja: Break the Skin one-shot), by Jan Van Meter, art by Edgar Salazar. In order to appease a giant and angry monkey-god, the leader of a certain peoples must wear an ornamental hand which carries both a legend and a burden. The time has come for a new leader to take on that burden, and the old guy on his way out doesn't want it to be his daughter. That apparently is not up to anyone but the monkey-god, and that becomes quite clear to those who try to wear the hand but don't deserve it.

    “Raven” (Red Sonja: Raven one-shot), by Marc Mason, art by Lui Antonio. A black haired warrior lady named Raven thinks she is the one chosen by the Goddess to do what Sonja does. Raven has Sonja held prisoner and is waiting to decide her fate, which she will reveal to her followers at some point soon. Raven has a group of other fed-up females on her man-hating crusade, and one is but a child whose name is Eleanor. Sonja of course breaks loose and later finds a village destroyed by Raven and her group, having slaughtered all the males including little boys and that just doesn't sit well with her. After the ass-kicking is over, Raven is left with only little Eleanor to raise. Hopefully she does right by the girl and steers clear of any further mayhem. We'll see…later in this book.

    “Dog Years” (Red Sonja Annual #4), by Scott Beatty, art by Edu Mena. A wolf-humanoid makes a deal with a demon, but per usual demon deals only benefit the demon and the guy gets rooked. He's cursed to age at the speed a dog does and his quest for long life and the wisdom that comes is a failure. In order to hopefully satiate the demon he dealt with, he captures Sonja and has her up for sacrifice, but she'll have none of it. And that demon will have none of her. She too gets cursed in the process of taking down the baddies, but she can break the curse. Just lock her in the room with the wolf guy who kidnapped and bit her, and she'll reverse the curse on her in mere moments. She'll fix his curse too, be sure of it.

    “Berserker” (red Sonja: Beserker one-shot), by Nancy A. Collins, art by Fritz Casas. Red meets up with some piece of shit poachers chasing a bear cub and when their zest for death turns into a fetish to torture the poor animal, Sonja takes exception to it. She befriends the cub, hunts with it as is matures, and then when she leaves the frozen winter land they're in (she was hiding out) the beast and the babe part ways. Years later they meet again, and in the most unpleasant of circumstances, but their friendship is still there. They work together once more, but things don't come out all rosy in the end for the poor bear (now a giant Polar bear, or whatever they call them there). But you just know Red Sonja will avenge the bear and punish the wrong-doers. And she gets a nice fur coat out of the deal too.

    “Honor Bound” (red Sonja and Cub one-shot), by Jim Zub, art by Jonathan Lau. Sonja happens along a crime in progress: the slaughtering of a young girl's mother and almost the young girl had the barbarian not stepped in and cut up the would-be killers. The little girl is betrothed to marry a man from a warring tribe in the hopes of stopping the ages-old feud between the two parties, but not everyone wants the union to go down. But the little girl is smart and she knows that she HAS to make this happen, even if old Grandpa isn't into it.

    “Sanctuary” (Red Sonja: Sanctuary one-shot), by Marc Mason, art by Noah Salonga. A sequel to “Raven” (three or four stories back), Sonja makes her way to a walled village, based on a message she received at a tavern. Living at the village, and somewhat running the show, is the young woman named Eleanor that was left in the care of Raven after Sonja beat the bejeebis out of her. Well Raven is there too, and this village is a refuge for women. They are self-sustaining and Raven has denounced all violence and wants nothing more than peace with the Hykanian warrior. The two women want Sonja to stay there and live in the community and leave her sell-sword, wandering life behind. But before she can decide, the decision is made for her by a bounty hunter after Raven's head. The oath of pacifism Raven has sworn to uphold goes out the window, and she blames Sonja for a series of events that destroys all she loved. So much for that alliance; Raven wants vengeance.

    It's a real hodgepodge of stories told by a host of creators, and none are connected other than “Raven” and “Sanctuary”. So don't think continuity, don't think story arc; just take each story as its own piece and know that some stories fare better than others. The story of her with the giant white bear, “Berserker”, is one that has some sadness in it if you love animals, but the resolution at the end is a good one. Anyone who abuses animals deserves it back ten-fold. The artists on “Honor Bound” and “Deluge” make really good use of the space on the page, producing some of the most satisfying images in the collection, mostly due to the high level of detail they display. Some of the story content steers toward a “men bad, women good” flavoring, but it is never anything overtly message-driven or heavy-handed. It just gives some depth to a character that is much more than just a hack-and-slash barbarian so unless you have a real issue with feminist undertones, it's nothing to get your panties all in a bunch over. This is a fine collection of stories that'll make for good reading in spurts or for a marathon session and if you've never read a Red Sonja story, this is a really good place to start.






      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    Working...
    X