In SONJAVERSAL #4, available from Dynamite Comics on May 19th, 2021, Red Sonja joins with a small band of Sonjas to escape Hell and attack the source of all their power, the gods themselves.
The Details
- Written By: Christopher Hastings
- Art By: Pasquale Qualano
- Colors By: Kike J. Diaz
- Letters By: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
- Cover Art By: Jae Lee, June Chung
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: May 19, 2021
Was It Good?
It was promising.
Red Sonja’s oath is the source of her prowess and skill as a warrior. Prior to this series, the oath was treated as any other mystical vow you’d find in innumerable sword and sorcery stories, but this time it’s a little different. The buildup into the conclusion of this issue promises to reveal there’s something fundamental behind the god who grants power, and we’re about to find out what it is.
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The art is good to very good. At times, the use of pastel oranges and pinks tends to wash out the overall look of each page, but this is supposed to be “Hell.” Maybe that’s what Hell is supposed to look like.
Have a look at our SONJAVERSAL #4 preview to take a peek inside.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Lacrosse Sonja and Bleez Sonja (sorry, DC fans) are having a little chat on the battlefield. Bleez Sonja is racking up heads to be the winner of this tournament, but Lacrosse Sonja tries to convince her the tournament is over since Red Sonja and her allies took off. “Lacrosse Sonja?!? What madness is this???” you say. Ahh, you must be new here. Read our SONJAVERSAL #3 review to get the straight scoop.
Their chat is cordial enough before Bleez Sonja decides she needs more heads and charges for Lacrosse Sonja’s. Before she makes it to her next trophy, Purple Sonja blasts her with a pistol. It’s time to get in the fight or get got, Lacrosse Sonja.
Meanwhile, Red Sonja and friends rush to Silver Sonja’s spaceship when they’re intercepted by Hell Sonja riding a giant scorpion. We think Hell Sonja is getting to throw down, but she is equally sick of this tournament and wishes the escapees well… for now.
They plan to make it to the next moon where the god(s) that have granted each of them their power reside to put an end to Saint Sonja’s mad tournament. When the ship departs, each Sonja gives their tale of how they came to be their world’s champion. Each story starts with loss and sacrifice, followed by prayer and then a blessing. Each Sonja is different, the details of how they came to be in their lowest point vary, but in the end, a prayer to a faceless god for the power to be a killing machine in exchange for survival is what binds them in commonality.
If you’re at all familiar with Red Sonja’s canon, you know she holds an oath to her god in exchange for her strength and fighting ability. It would be easy to chalk the power up to generic mysticism, but now we see there may be something more, something bigger, something deeper that spans the multiverse.
As each Sonja tells their tale, Silver Sonja’s seems to be a bit different. Her “god” is a tentacled force of destruction, and her death oath is not to feed it the death of villains but of whole worlds. Silver Sonja holds the key to breach parallel universes, and she’s been hopping from one dimension to the next to keep her god fed.
We get a few flashbacks to Warrick as it seems Red Sonja’s oath takes on new meaning for her after hearing how the other Sonjas received their power. She realizes each oath has one thing in common related to the end of her relationship with Warrick – turning a Sonja into a killer to feed its god death.
As the spaceship nears the moon of their respective gods, we conclude the issue with one more Sonja that we’ve never seen before.
How Does It End?
Warrick doesn’t understand what Red Sonja is doing. Saint Sonja gives a wake-up call. The spaceship encounters a very large obstacle.
Final Thoughts
SONJAVERSAL #4, available from Dynamite Comics on May 19th, 2021, mixes great art with unique action (a green dinosaur attacking a Hell demon?), and a revelatory story that promises to expand Red Sonja’s lore in promising ways.
Score: 8.5/10
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