RED SONJA: THE SUPERPOWERS #4 – The Honest Review

In RED SONJA: THE SUPERPOWERS #4, available from Dynamite Comics on April 14th, 2021, Red Sonja is awkwardly introduced to life as a prospective member of The Project, with amusing results.

The Details

• Written By: Dan Abnett
• Art By: Jonathan Lau
• Colors By: Andrew Dalhouse
• Letters By: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
• Cover Art By: Lucio Parrillo
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Release Date: April 14, 2021

Was It Good?

It was better than good. It was exceptionally entertaining.

Fish-out-of-water stories are fertile ground for humor, and Abnett takes full advantage of this issue to land all the jokes. From the obvious language and cultural gaps in translation to Red Sonja’s comfort with nudity, the awkward humor flows copiously here.

As for the art, Jonathan Lau can do no wrong from what we’ve seen. Lau’s art, coupled with Dalhouse on colors, encapsulates a pitch-perfect tone and spirit for this story. This is easily our Dynamite book of the week (so far).

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

We pick up after the conclusion of the previous arc with Red Sonja accompanying the Project’s Blue Team back to the nexus of the multiverse as a potential recruit (read our RED SONJA: THE SUPERPOWERS #3 review to get caught up).

At first, Black Venus tries to explain what a multiverse is, and it goes about as well as you’d expect for an Ancient Warrior to comprehend. When digging into the details of interdimensional existence fails, the Project team members move on to gifting Red Sonja a new suit. Her current outfit is deemed a bit too revealing to be professional.

The amusing back-and-forth over Red Sonja’s bikini underscores an interesting conflict within the Project. It’s an organization of technologically advanced superheroes, and yet, their concepts of dress and modesty are a closer fit to our Earth during the 1950s. Their technology is advanced, but their ideas about body image and modesty are definitely old-fashioned. In a way, Red Sonja’s lack of modesty presents a more advanced and progressive attitude that some of the Project’s veterans lack.

The discussion about her bikini leads to a gift of new armor, complete with all kinds of tricks and gadgets like adaptive shielding and flight. Sonja changes into the armor on the spot, much to the shock of most of the Project’s members, except The Sword (whose a bit immature). Unsurprisingly, Red Sonja takes to the armor and weaponry like an expert without the need for any training. In particular, she’s practically giddy over now being able to fly.

The Project members are shocked at how well Red Sonja adapts and how handily she defeats the training drones inside their training simulator. Again, it’s another example of how much the Project underestimates Red Sonja due to the primitive state of her Earth but she winds up exceeding even the most seasoned Project member in terms of skill and adaptability.

Over a commissary mean with the Sword and Vana, they ask if she’s onboard joining the Project officially. Sonja is interested, especially when she considers access to the advanced tach, but she wonders why they weren’t able to defeat the wizard in the last issue (again, see our review of issue #3). What follows is another back and forth about the acceptance of magic as real or not. Vana dogmatically insists magic is simply misunderstood tech. The Sword is not so sure.

Later as Red Sonja rests in her room, the Sword wakes her to come to the status room for an alert. The issue concludes with a new mission, a revelation, and a threat.

How Does It End?

The Swords immature ogling hasn’t gone unnoticed. Threat alerts come in multiple sizes, and this is a big one. The new threat is an old ally.

Final Thoughts

RED SONJA: THE SUPERPOWERS #4, available from Dynamite Comics on April 14th, 2021, is a near-perfect blend of exceptional art, cool science fiction, exciting action, and perfectly timed jokes.

Score: 9/10