Red Sonja #21 Review

Story by: Amy Chu & Erik Burnham

Script by: Erik Burnham

Illustrated by: Carlos Gomez

Colored by: Mohan

Lettered by: Taylor Esposito

Published by: Dynamite

Jumping into a comic in the middle of an arc is never good. Jumping into a comic on the concluding issue? Really not recommended. But, that’s the case here and wasn’t as lost as I thought I would be now that I’ve had the time to think on it.

The most jarring part of this issue is less my own complete sense of not knowing what is happening, but mostly a couple of weird jumps in the issues that taken even in the context of the entire arc may still be confusing. As far as I can tell, Red Sonja and her band confronted an old hero of the town she’s in previous to this issue and asked for his help. Which seems to have been denied. Maybe? The first page seems to act as a callback possibly, but then the next page jumps forward. It’s a little off putting, but nothing too bad.

Probably the worst offender is the return of an old foe that looks exactly like Red Sonja (only with daisy dukes on?) which really confused me and only because I am a new reader. This could have been avoided with even just one character making mention of who this new Sonja was, but it isn’t until a few pages later that we get an explanation.

Having said all that, the issue is quite enjoyable in the sense that it’s a fun battle to reclaim a city from a pretty cartoony looking villain. How they go about recapturing the town is also well done (who knew that some lackeys had a moral code?). The rest of the issue after the battle is spent setting up Red Sonja’s next adventure and I’m curious to see where it goes from here.

The art, I have absolutely no complaints about. I’m unfamiliar with Carlos Gomez, but he has made a fan of me with this issue. I love the fact that everything he draws seems to have such a nice flow to it throughout the issue. His style is very reminiscent of Amy Reeder who is a favorite of my mine, so I was instantly hooked.