Broken Frontier

Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, not quietly content with just recently telling a Conan story, decide that they want to dip into the waters of Red Sonja.

In this one-shot tale, we first catch up with Sonja as she is on the trail of the barbarian Graven Sul. Sul and his warriors have been traveling throughout the country, leaving death and destruction in their wake. All the men and children he kills, all the women he and his men take to be their rape slaves. And he is on his way to the kingdom of Varick. Sonja happens upon the King’s request for help and makes her way to the camp to prove her worth and lead the king’s armies to victory.

It’s not hard to wonder why people would flock to the chance to write Red Sonja. She is a gigantic scantily clad Amazon warrior, who stands face to face with men on the battlefield. Her stories are always bloody and awash in sexual tension. Palmiotti and Gray don’t try to break new ground here. Sonja’s dialogue carries the same sharp wit and bite. Her opponent in the story, Graven Sul, is a ruthless killer who gives a very evil performance. And of course, there are the men that Sonja aims to help, the same ones who are as dismissive of a woman in battle as they are surprised at her skill.

The one place that this one-shot stands out against the regular series is with Liam Sharp’s artwork. The regular series drawn by Mel Rubi maintains a painted look, which serves to highlight the romanticism of the stories told. Liam Sharp’s work is in sharp contrast to that. It is darker and each figure has a real edge to them. Known more for horror stories, Sharp’s artwork highlights the violence and gore of this particular tale. His Graven Sul is unquestionably evil incarnate. And while sometimes he takes a few too many liberties with Sonja’s body (one particular scene will make you question where she hides her internal organs), he knows what makes her special. The only problem is that there isn’t a wide variety of facial expressions, but it’s doubtful anyone will be looking at those scenes for long anyway.

The only real questionable thing about this book is its release date. The regular Red Sonja series has not yet made it to issue #3, and already they’ve put out a one-shot. It might have been better to get through the first arc on her main series before starting with the one-shots. Not that it’s like me to complain about getting an extra book with Sonja killing people.