HELL SONJA #3, from Dynamite Comics on March 2nd, 2022, sets the Sonja Squad onto their next bounty – a malicious hacker who invaded digital Heaven where souls live out eternity in a private paradise.
The Details
- Written By: Christopher Hastings
- Art By: Pasquale Qualano
- Colors By: Ellie Wright
- Letters By: Jeff Eckleberry
- Cover Art By: Lucio Parrillo
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: March 2, 2022
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Was It Good?
HELL SONJA #3 is the weakest entry in the series so far for one primary reason – Hastings puts so much effort into coming up with technobabble and jargon to describe the digital Heaven and how it works, that the descriptions sometimes devolve into confusing gibberish.
To be fair, an off issue from Dynamite is still better, on average, than anything Marvel or DC puts out, so good or bad is a matter of perspective. And to be fair again, the concept, ideas, and eventual resolution of this issue (including the cliffhanger ending) make for imaginative storytelling. The ideas are there, even if the execution is a bit bumpy.
Despite the overly-complicated language, the story is straightforward. As with previous issues, the Sonja Squad arrives in answer to a prayer to stop a bad guy as both public service and to keep Hell fed so that the multiverse doesn’t collapse. As a positive, Hastings uses the same model over and over but the diversity of locations and challenges is so creative that you don’t feel like the series is getting repetitive. Some nuggets are dropped to indicate an over-arching work is happening behind the scenes, but so far, the formula works.
We’re generally positive about Qualano’s art, but he deserves extra credit in this issue. Qualano took the technobabble concepts the characters are spouting and translated them into visuals that help give readers something to hold onto. The visuals are imaginative, eye-catching, and solid enough to help translate the story in a relatable way.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
If you’re interested in the last Sonja Squad bounty before they came knockin’ on (digital) Heaven’s door, first read our HELL SONJA #2 review.
We begin with a knock on Heaven’s door. The Sonja Squad has arrived to answer a unique prayer, a young boy asked that his paradise not be ruined by a scary man. The paradise in this digital Heaven is a planet-sized server where the dearly departed are uploaded and placed into a paradise of their choosing to live out eternity in bliss. Unfortunately, an unsavory hacker named Root Rot has infiltrated the server for selfish reasons.
After a brief amount of resistance from the angels guarding the server, the Sonja Squad is allowed to pass and upload their minds into Heaven to find the culprit and send him to Hell. Root Rot quickly learns that unfettered access to a digital paradise gives him the ability of God and he uses his newfound divinity to start hunting the Sonja Squad in the hopes that killing their minds will kill their bodies.
We conclude the issue with digital trickery and a clue that the bounties sent to Hell are not content to stay down forever.
Final Thoughts
The concepts and ideas behind HELL SONJA #3 are creative, but the technobabble speak eventually started to sound like gibberish, making it hard to follow what’s going on. Regardless, you eventually figure out where the story is going, and the epilogue ending promises interesting challenges are coming together in the background. Big kudos go to the art team for grounding the story when the dialog is off into left field.
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