Red Sonja

And today I'm looking at a series I wanted to pick up since publication, and finally did receive as a gift this past year, but only just read because procrastination! This is just how things shake out some times. But without any further delay, let's dig into the meat at hand - namely Red Sonja with words by Gail Simone, illustrated by Walter Geovani, colored by Adriano Lucas, and lettered by Simon Bowland. Published by Dynamite Comics (maybe my first read from the well-known and very active publisher) starting in 2014 and wrapping up in 2015.

Even with only a couple of videos up so far, if you've watched almost any of them you may have noticed I love Gail Simone. So bias alert. That aside, she is described on goodreads (my go to source for all knowledge apparently) is "Gail Simone is a comic book writer well-known for her work on Birds of Prey (DC), Wonder Woman (DC), and Deadpool (Marvel), among others, and has also written humorous and critical commentary on comics and the comics industry such as the original "Women in Refrigerators" website and a regular column called "You'll All Be Sorry"." Moving on to the Awards and Recognition section on her wikipedia page I will also add "Simone has been noted as being one of the most influential women in the comic book industry. Her blog, Women In Refrigerators, is noted for raising awareness of the representation of women in comics. Simone stated that the blog was not created to condemn the industry for its use of women, but to raise awareness of the tendency for female characters to be used as mere plot devices. Simone has stated that most female characters are targeted at male audiences through oversexualization and advocates the creation of female characters that are equals to male characters, a practice in which Simone herself has been recognized for engaging. In 2009, she was inducted into the Friends of Lulu's Female Comic Creator's Hall Of Fame. In 2010 and 2012, Simone was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book through her work on Secret Six. In July 2014, Simone was awarded the first ever True Believers Comic Award for Roll of Honor/Comic Excellence at London Film and Comic Con"

A bit harder to get a feel for (online on demand) Walter Geovani is apparently a brazilian artist who also worked with Simone on some books about the public domain character who eventually became Marvel's Daredevil.

Otherwise I gather that the letterer, Simon Bowland, lives in England and has worked on 2000 AD, Judge Dredd Megazine and the Boys etc. and like the artist, he colorist, Adriano Lucas, is also in Brazil and has worked on titles such as birthright, detective comics, thief of thieves, and suicide squad among other titles.

Moving along to the official book synopsis, as I am want to do, Red Sonja volume 1 is described as follows: Gail Simone gives the iconic fantasy heroine a fresh new attitude! Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, intends to pay back a blood debt owed to the one man who has gained her respect... even if it means leading a doomed army to their certain deaths! Who is Dark Annisia, and how has this fearsome warrior accomplished what no god nor demon has been able to do: force Sonja to her knees in surrender? An epic tale of blood, lust, and vengeance, Queen of the Plagues takes Red Sonja from the depths of her own grave to the heights of battlefield glory.

Unlike many of friends on goodreads who read and reviewed this book I actually used to have a thing for Conan the Barbarian, and I did decide to watch the Red Sonja movie with good old Arnold definitely not playing Conan the Barbarian. I only bring this up because I feel like that does impact how one feels about the plot line of this volume. While I did feel there was a bit of unnecessary location jumping around in the plot, the fact is this is pulp swords and sandals and if you like that sort of thing (as Gail Simone seems to based off of her introduction) while you may play with some plot elements, you are going to still produce something pretty pulpy. I was glad to see the rape revenge origin story changed, even if the force Red Sonja to wear a dress plot beat felt unnecessary.

But we haven't even touched on the chain mail bikini! As someone who transitioned from a more victim shaming background to a feminist far left sort of stance, one of the things that inspired that change is the incredibly basic idea that people of all genders should be allowed to wear whatever they want. So while I often harp on the way that female presentation is often overly sexualized, this is not to say that I think women (or any other gender of people) can never be sexual. It could be argued that, in contrast to how many time women find themselves exposed to be objectified, in order for our full spectrum of diversity to be complete I do think there should be a fierce female swords woman in a chainmail bikini. What I would not have accepted, even from this female centred story, is if there were shots where the primary lines centered the eye on Sonja's bairly covered twat and/or illicit scenes where Sonja is in some state of undress out of the view of anyone but the reader. The idea of Red Sonja as the strong heroin of this story never falters because maybe she's just really a dumb bimbo still in need of a man's help anyway.

Besides the fairly standard failure of only presenting cis male and cis female characters, and the villain being queer coded, the one political issue I took with this book (and likely applies to much of the franchise) was the lack of people of colour. The idea that there was ever a time where white people only lived around other white people and had some sort of purity and set apartness has only become more contentious in recent years and is tacitly false. And the odd racist characture is perhaps not really what we need either. If you've read anything that you think solves this sort of problem well, feel free to let me know, I'll certainly be keeping an eye out.