Red Sonja

As far as warnings go, lots of graphic violence and (while no actual sex) lots of sexualized images. Not the most ever, but a mature action adventure starring a woman who gives zero fucks.

Skipping over the creator bios (see volume 1 review), let's talk plot. Like with the Batgirl series, Gail Simone is skilled at organizing runs so that each story builds on the last, expanding the world of the protagonist in ways that flow effortlessly to the finale. Even better in this case because there was no cross DC events, and temporary firings, to interrupt the flow. This structure also seems to generally involve us in a development arch that takes the "strong female character" from what we expect pre-Gail Simone into a much more pro-women space - in the most expansive way possible. Including, specifically in Batgirl a transgender best friend for Bab's, a anti-TERF stance that is backed up by Gail Simone's twitter presence.

In contrast to Babs, however, Red Sonja offers some more interesting feminist potential in how much more sexual she is. And I'm not just talking about the chain-mail bikini! Because one of the issues that I discovered in my initial study of the patriarchal gaze of the "idealized female body" was that creators were not satisfied with the sexualization of CIS woman characters who enjoyed their sexuality, they wanted to deliver the forbidden. The virgin part of the virgin whore dichotomy. This ran headlong into my growing understanding of consent culture and struck me as pretty disgusting, considering how much power the creators of these comics had over how willing/unwilling their woman characters were. This is why Barbara's steady de-sexualization is important to the Batgirl run but not important to Red Sonja, a woman who gives herself over to all things physical with a lot of gusto!

Going through the complete trilogy in digital form, I did want to highlight some of the different ways in which Red Sonja is portrayed. Honestly, generally not in the chainmail bikini (gasp). Unlike in the Conan/Red Sonja short series that Simone did with Jim Zub, Red Sonja remains a rather traditionally attractive hour glass figure, sans a brief period where her hands were reduced to rotting skeleton digits via an evil curse. Oh yes, and the plot at the very end where she she swaggers in looking super bad ass in her bikini with all of her hair chopped off. I only wish the series could have continued, but such is life.

Otherwise, it's a bit hard to talk about the way the way that Red Sonja is presented because it's more about what is not there then what is in there. At least as far as the inside art is concerned. So there's going to be a few more mentions of the New 52 Batgirl. One of the keys to how disgusting I feel reading a comic that includes people presumed to have vaginas is artists like to create sight lines that point directly to them. Perhaps it was just the fact that's Barbara is jumping around through the air all the time, but this literally happened all the time in the first couple of volumes of the New 52 Batgirl. I sometimes wonder if it's just my prudish upbringing behind this, and I kind of wish I had a discussion group to talk over my ideas with, but I think the patriarchal gaze is just that simple. Draw attention to orifices that the presumed cit male audience can stick their dick into. Reviewing all of my snapshots of Red Sonja, maybe it was just dumb luck because she's standing on the ground, but her legs (and those of the other women in the comic) are generally only an ordinary amount apart. Clothing, or even just bent knees, are often used to disrupt the way our eyes might move up Sonja's body to her crotch.

Another interesting switch from what I've come to expect for women in comics is the way Red Sonja's relaxing body is presented. After all, it would be very easy to use these scenes of luxury, often including well earned baths, to serve up Red Sonja on a platter to readers. And while these scenes may be arousing to some, I would argue the way that Red Sonja is being presented is on her own terms. For one, while I don't think it would have been the end of the world if they had been, these scenes are not composed to tease or titillate. Sonja is not making eye-contact with the reader, or contorted in any odd looking way that would clearly be drawing the reader in. She is also surrounded by other people. Because another issue I take with much female sexuality as presented by the patriarchal gaze is often it includes scenes where the character themselves is in private. Literally placing readers in the position of peeping toms.

The covers by Jenny Frison felt like a bit more of a mixed bag. The majority of them certainly fall along the lines of a sexuality that is powerful and not submissive - even with the more pin up quality of the work. That said, the issue 7 cover where Sonja is being circled by crocodiles and Issue 13 where she's just standing next to a horse as kind of silly and submissive. With Issue 3 being the worst IMHO, not only using the unnatural body twist to present both boobs and ass at the same time, but also using clothing to make her appear even skinnier then this unnatural pose usually suggests. The anatomy on that alone is literally the worst.

And to wrap things up with a nice little bow, the way my analysis of these things work, cleavage is almost always a powerful sexual energy, in contrast to the submissive feeling that drawing attention to bodily orifices gives me. Especially since none of it happened on set, it was nice of Simone to include several short snip-its of dialog where Sonja is talking about her desire to have sex. Sonja also struggles a bit with her gender presentation which was a very interesting sub plot that continued through the entire series. Sadly the series did not really take it the extra mile and really include a lot of sexy male presenting people, which breaks up the male-consumer female-consumed binary. That said, there was guy with a giant dick bulge in a way that did strike me as out of the ordinary, so yay?

Race representation continues to be pretty dubious throughout the series. While there is an uptick in the number of obviously none white characters, it still remains within the boundaries of tropes of the swords and sandals genre. Disability vs ability is not touched on at all. You are either fully able bodied or at death's door.

Class I suppose is decently represented in a genre sort of way, since Red Sonja is almost always working for the most underdog. At least once she admits she's wrong and often changes her mission to side with the most oppressed people in any given situation.

So yeah, not a read for absolutely everyone, but a fun genre romp that gives us a glimpse into what pro-white-woman representation could look like.