RED SONJA: SHE DEVIL WITH A SWORD #1  / Script by RORY MCCONVILLE / Art by PABLO DE BONIS / Colors by SALVATORE AIALA NETO / Letters by CARLOS M. MANGUAL / Published by DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

A new menace threatens the nations of the Hyborian Age. This time, however, it is not some fell demon or dark wizard. It is a new group called the Rising Sun. Some call them a cult. Others call them heroes. In either case, their goal is violent revolt against all nobles who feast and drink while their subjects starve.

This is of little concern to Red Sonja, who has seen far too many liberators become tyrants. However, the call of one of the few nobles worthy of the name sees her playing bodyguard to the last scion of a famous wizard’s line. The Rising Sign seek the girl to further their own goals, but are they truly as dangerous as the noble class claim?

I’ve read a great many Red Sonja series and mini-series over the years. Most of the time, they seem to be more focused on art than story. This might be fair given the number of fantasy fans whose chief concern is how much skin is revealed by the title heroine (and the cosplayers portraying her) on various covers.

The 2026 Red Sonja She Devil With A Sword series is another kettle of fish altogether.

Writer Rory McConville presents an interesting threat through the Rising Sun. Peasant revolts are nothing new in sword-and-sorcery. (Indeed, there was one occurring among all the other events in Robert E. Howard’s Rogues in the House.) Yet they are rarely treated as a threat unto themselves amid all the lusty warlords, slathering monsters, and evil witches that usually serve as the antagonists in Red Sonja stories.

That alone would mark this series as something unusual even without the way McConville writes Sonja herself. Far too many authors write Sonja as a cliched man-hating amazon or a generic action hero. There is humor and boldness in equal measure with this Sonja, yet also a softer side rarely seen as she mentors a scared teenage girl thrown into the fire – a circumstance Sonja knows all too well.

Would that the artwork showed such depth! Pablo De Bonis is not a bad artist. Indeed, his close-ups and action scenes are reminiscent of the classic Prince Valiant comics. The problem comes whenever he is required to draw crowd scenes or anything beyond the middle distance.

There are many pages in this comic that look like preliminary sketches that never got finished. This is particularly problematic in the panels where the characters in the foreground are fare more detailed than the ones standing immediately behind them. Colorist Salvatore Aiala Neto has similar issues, shading foreground characters in shadowy palettes while highlighting the undefined characters in the background! The letters by Carlos M. Mangual are competent, but there’s nothing outstanding and a curious absence of sound effect balloons.

The new Red Sonja: She Devil With A Sword is sure to please most fans of the franchise. The story is truly unique and this take on Sonja harkens back to the salad days of her introduction. With stronger art, this could be the beginning of something legendary. Alas, it all balances out to be merely adequate.