I've been on a binge lately where I reread comics and novels from the past that I didn't like, or at least wasn't that impressed by, or had given up on and forgotten about, basically to give them another chance to change my mind about them, based on how much my perspectives and tastes have changed over the years. I wanted to be more openminded and fair to them; to any artform.
Because the sequel to 'Red Sonja, Vol. 1: Queen of Plagues', in Gail Simone's own 'Red Sonja' comic run, is fun and funny as hell. It is raw, ructious, eager, creative, intelligent, furious, passionate entertainment in comic book form. It is a pulpy, sword and sorcery delight. Unclean in the best way.
The art is amazing. The action and humour are brilliantly and cleverly done. The dialogue is solid, snappy, and stellar.
Like with the first volume, I like the cover art, too.
Simone's take on Red Sonja - Sonja the Hunter, the Red Devil, or the Devil, the She-Devil with a Sword, the scourge of men - is even more rambunctious, vulgar, indecent, sloven, given to vice, self-indulgent, drunk, deadpan, hilarious, fed-up, ornery, horny, smelly, and all around fucking badass than ever before. She's the star here, even with all the new side characters she meets and (reluctantly) befriends along her quest this time.
She's both blunt and sharp in her words and blades. There are so many sides to her, aspects to explore, about her character and backstory - she is not just a chainmail bikini barbarian sidepiece and wank fodder, like she was originally conceived to be. She is a believable, three-dimensional human.
Red Sonja is a good person, a justice seeker, but she is not a "conventional" heroine. Fuck that. She will cut any evil man down to size, sometimes literally, and she will sleep with any man and woman. By her terms. By her pleasures. Her desires.
'I'm Red Sonja. I'm everybody's type.'
She is doing everything in her power to be a free woman, as well as set other downtrodden, underappreciated, underestimated, undervalued, and exploited and abused people free, and she should be admired for that. Loved as the free human woman she is for that.
Whatever her state of mind and body, she is a fierce, unstoppable force when need be.
Another type of fierce she is is fiercely loyal, and honest and trustworthy. She never goes back on her word.
One of the major developments to Sonja's character added in this volume is that bravery doesn't come naturally to her, and she still has much to learn, about the world and herself. She realises she is only undefeatable when she is in life and death situations. She hates games. She reflects on the word "savage", and what it means exactly, and how it applies to her and everybody else, and what makes a "civilisation".
She didn't become who she is out of nowhere. A lone survivor of a massacred village as a child, and a former slave, she came from the lowest of the low, from literal dirt and mud. She was like a caged animal, beaten and starved, made to die in her own filth. Now look at her.
'Red Sonja, Vol. 2: The Art of Blood and Fire' (wow that subtitle is generic and needs work) has swamps, cannibals, cooks, giant reptiles, animals, beastmasters, courtesans, swordfighting, female friendship, bandits, stargazers, flat earth debunking, dressing up, makeup, churches, cults, and the freeing of slaves. So what if not every character receives as much development as they ought, and the ending is a level below mightily abrupt; it shouldn't detract from its entertainment value. It is like 'Xena: Warrior Princess' - campy, fun, and not above being thoughtful. It also nicely reminds us that all men in power are cowards.
'So I say, with a peasant's heart--the emperor can go &^%$ himself.'
What more could you want?
Oh, and there's a little story at the end of the volume, that I don't particularly care for. At least its "star", a repulsive, manipulative man who won't take a woman's no for an answer, who ruins people's lives for his own misguided sense of self-worth, and who deserves little to no sympathy, has the decency to die at the end. And it is funny in its own way, I suppose. I like its cartoony violence.
'Red Sonja, Volume 2' - How could I have ever thrown you away? You deserve to be read over and over again.
Gail Simone's revamping of Red Sonja is a beacon, a breath of fresh air, a gift to the world. What a barbarian. A leagues' bound real woman.
My review of the first volume, 'Queen of Plagues', can be found here.
Final Score: 4/5
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