RED SONJA: BLACK, WHITE, RED #2 – Review

RED SONJA: BLACK, WHITE, RED #2, available from Dynamite Comics on August 11th, 2021, Red Sonja battles monsters, mushrooms, and men in three tales stained with the color of blood.

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The Details

• Written By: Jonboy Meyers, Jeff Parker, David F. Walker
• Art By: Jonboy Meyers, Natalie Nourigat, Will Robson
• Letters By: Pat Brosseau, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
• Cover Art By: Lucio Parrillo (cover A)
• Cover Price: $4.99
• Release Date: August 11, 2021

Was It Good?

It’s not bad, and a little bit better than the first anthology. So far, this series is becoming more enjoyable as it goes along.

In the first issue, we got one great story, one so-so story, and one awful story. Here we get one great story, one story we thought wouldn’t land but turned out better than it looked, and one story that was just okay.

I’ll cover each story in more detail in the section, but it’s safe to say the writers are starting to hit their stride with this character in terms of finding new adventures that feel authentic to the character in new and exciting scenarios.

There’s something to like about each story in terms of tone and art combined. Edible has the weakest art because its children’s book style feels out of place with the rest of the anthology. Of the three, Listen Close is the weakest story for its on-the-nose, hit-you-over-the-head message about saving women from awful men.

Overall, it’s a fun reading experience and a step up in terms of art and writing over the previous issue.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

We touched on how we felt about the first issue, but you can’t get the dirty details by reading our RED SONJA: BLACK, WHITE, RED #1 review first.

As with every anthology we review, we’ll cover each story separately and rank them based on what worked or didn’t.

Proelium Finalis

Red Sonja leads her army as Queen of the Hyborian Age against the savage Lemurians and the evil wizard leading them.

By far, this story is the best of the three. The art is savage and powerful. The writing is as authentically close to Robert E. Howard as you can get.

Edible

Red Sonja, the wandering warrior, is summoned to a settlement to help rescue a little girl who disappeared into a small area of the forest covered in perpetual mist. The horrors waiting underneath the covered area will make you rethink your love of mushrooms.

This is a better-than-decent story with a short, clean adventure. The story is kid-friendly in tone but looks like a children’s book, which is a jarring transition from Proelium Finalis. Because the story looks so out of place, that’s why it doesn’t work as well as the writing behind it.

Listen Close…

Red Sonja is hired by a distasteful brute of a king to retrieve his bride-to-be from a Medusa-like monster. When Sonja discovers the monster is more protector than a kidnapper, Sonja devises a plan to set things right.

The art is better than Edible but not as strong as Proelium Finalis. However, the anti-men message as a father’s bedtime story to his little girl is just too on the nose. If you’re telling your daughter a fable about protecting yourself from men who mistreat you, maybe using a Red-Headed She-Devil who runs around in a chainmail bikini is not the best avatar for that type of story. It’s a down for missing the point of the character, but credit for writing the story well in terms of pacing and structure.

Final Thoughts

RED SONJA: BLACK, WHITE, RED #2 continues the trend of diverse stories and art styles to give readers an anthology that has a little something for everyone. While some stories are stronger than others in terms of both writing and story, the end result is an improvement over the first issue.

Score: 8/10