Comics Review: SONJAVERSAL #9

SONJAVERSAL, VOLUME 1 #9
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

STORY: Christopher Hastings
ART: Pasquale Qualano
COLORS: Kike J. Diaz
LETTERS: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
EDITOR: Nate Cosby
COVER: Lucio Parrillo
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Joseph Michael Linsner; Jae Lee with June Chung; Jung-Geun Yoon; Lucio Parrillo; Gracie the Cosplay Lass (cosplay)
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (November 2021)

Rated Teen+

Based on the characters and stories created by Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Robert E. Howard

Conan the Barbarian #23 (cover dated: February 1973) saw the debut of a high fantasy, sword and sorcery heroine, Red Sonja.  Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith, Red Sonja was loosely based on “Red Sonya of Rogatino,” a female character that appeared in the 1934 short story, “The Shadow of the Vulture,” written by Robert E. Howard (1906-1936), the creator of the character, Conan the Cimmerian.

Red Sonja remained a fixture in comic books from then until about 1986.  In 2005, Dynamite Entertainment began publishing comic books featuring differing versions of the character.  One of those is a spin-off title, Sonjaversal, which sees Red Sonja battle parallel versions of herself from parallel universes.  Sonjaversal is currently written by Christopher Hastings; drawn by Pasquale Qualano; colored by Kike J. Diaz; and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

Sonjaversal #9 opens on the world of Blue Sonja.  “Mantis,” “Scorpio,” and “Legion” are the names of the preeminent criminal organizations on this world.  Blue Sonja lures them to what they call the first summit of “The New World Order,” where she blows them all to Hell.  Now, authorities say everything may not have turned out the way they thought.  So Sonja returns to her spot of conquest with new comrades, Warrick and Dr. Moore.

Behold...Blue Sonja!  She wears leather, rides a motorcycle, and shoots guns.  She beats the hell out of every villain that gets up in her grill!  But nothing can prepare this bad-ass champion for what she will find at the end of her search.

THE LOWDOWN:   Dynamite Entertainment's marketing department recently began providing me with PDF review copies of some of their titles.  One of them is Sonjaversal #9, which is the fourth issue of the title that I have read.

Sonjaversal #8 is my favorite issue of the series … so far.  Issue #9 looks like it could be pretty good to me, and it will have the advantage of being a two-parter.  As usual, writer Christopher Hastings has a knack for delineating the adventures of these parallel Sonjas, whether they are supernatural detectives, vampire hunters, mech warriors, or bad girl types.  His scripts are interesting, quite entertaining, and offer some nice twists

The art team of illustrator Pasquale Qualano and colorist Kike J. Diaz once again offers an interesting new world of Sonja.  Qualano turns in some really good anime-inspired art, and Diaz's coloring is a purple and purple-hued sci-fi and horror wonderland.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Red Sonja will want to try Sonjaversal.

B

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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