All Hail Queen Sonja!

Dynamite Entertainment's "Red Sonja" is reaching the end of an era.

Brian Reed and Walter Geovani's run on the book is coming to an end, as is the series itself. But as one chapter in Sonja's life comes to close, another begins. After "Red Sonja" wraps up with October's issue #49, Joshua Ortega and Mel Rubi are taking the reins with November's "Queen Sonja" #1. CBR News caught up with Reed and Ortega to get the details on Red Sonja's ascension.

REST AT :
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=22089

[Tireen]

I'm definitely looking forward to Mel Ruby's art!

[Guest]

I am sooo into this!!!

[booziehand]

looks like a good jumping on point for me

[MarsNeedsBowlers]

QUEEN Sonja? And Rubi is back?

YOWZAH!

[Raymar3d]

Interesting development.... *raises eyebrow*

I've been along for the ride so far, so I'll give this one a try.

If you finish Savage Tales in the Queen Sonja title as a backup, that might be kinda nice, too. Just a thought. But DO NOT shortchange the Sonja stories to do it, if you do it. That's what killed Savage Tales to begin with. Sonja is your star, keep her that way.

Ken

[estee]

I'm looking forward to this.

To me this is a logical progression of the character. From Barbarian. To 'saviour'. To Queen.

I like it.

[terryallenuk]

Joshua Ortega talks Queen Sonja

Joshua Ortega is the writer of such books as DC/WildStorm’s Gears of War and Image’s Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer. This month, his new project, Queen Sonja, comes to you from Dynamite Entertainment. Westfield’s Roger Ash recently contacted Ortega to learn more about the book.

REST AT : http://westfieldcomics.com/blog/inte...s-queen-sonja/

Terry

[Mason Cain]

Red Sonja started out so well with DE.

The first 12 issues were some of the best comics I had read, with stunning art. It was a work of love and talent.

Since then there have been some good stuff, but never as good as that. Kulan Gath is such a horrible hammy old fashioned villain it brought the whole tone down.

The storylines ran themselves and the world into thr ground, and was kinda tragic the only solution was to kill her off and start over with this rebirth story, followed by her becoming queen!

I am not holding out much hope for this being as good as it needs to be to get any fans to hop on board or even keep old fans from leaving.

RS has such potential. Maybe someone like Marvel needs to have her, someone with drive and money.

[Red Bryan]

Yeah, she would have won the Civil War and dressed as Mrs. Marvel she had been pulverized the Skrulls. But I would not have read that, as I don't feel very well with all the Marvel Comics anymore.

[Mason Cain]

Well someone needs to save her. I dont think DE can do it.

[Olde Sonja Fan]

Well someone needs to save her. I dont think DE can do it.

Neither do I. One advantage to being new to the DE version is getting a huge block of stories at once to see it as a whole, and the whole is disturbing. For one thing, the first 30 issues were essentially a KG story, with Red simply one of the players. That will bore a lot of folks very quickly, especially those who remember her from the old days.

Second they made several serious deviations from her historical character, one of them against one of the primary elements of her being. A sure way to anger the old guard and those new folk who see her as a woman of nobility (and I don't mean blue blood here) and purpose.

Even the artwork often hindered. While certainly graphic and colorful, there were too many occasions, often issues, where she looked half asleep/bored with the whole thing. Red is alert, vibrant and alive; eyes that are half shut do not convey that vitality.

In short, they have failed to keep Red Sonja Red Sonja, and so lost her uniqueness, thus loosing the reader base.

What Red needs is someone who truly understands her as a 'person', not just a character to sell magazines, someone who knows her background and prior adventures and is willing and able to pick up her story in that vein. Perhaps Disney could take up the cause. It certainly has the talent, and the cash, all it needs is the heart.

[Mason Cain]

I imagine Queen Sonja will have maybe 6 or 12 good starting issues again, but degenerate fast.

I just read all the DE RSs again... they really have been awful for a while, especially this whole rebirth segment. Generic monsters, plot, ninjas... it is painful. A cobbled together few comics from some stock ideas to nail the coffin.

Sad for Sonja. She used to rock.

[Warhammer3025]

It almost makes me wonder how she'll transition into the queen thing. I mean she's always been at heart an adventurer who does the vicious business of hacking her foes apart herself. As a queen, you dont exactly go traveling around looking for adventure and you sure as heck dont fight much since that's what your army is for. The whole King Conan thing was pretty meh to me, he's no king, he's a roaming berzerker, just like our beloved Sonja, except supposedly with a bit more nobility.

She's been offered queenship so many times and NOW she's gonna accept it. Well, at least from the initial preview scans we got of Queen Sonja #1 still has her hacking folks up in the most gruesome way possible, so maybe this "Queen" thing might just be a naming convention (ya know like Queen of Blades or Queen of Ass Kicking) instead of the real thing... but those those regal photos of her in royal attire dont inspire much confidence in me in that being the case.

Oh btw i stopped pulling Red Sonja around the time she had the whole rebirth episode. All the reviews were bad and folks here didnt take kindly to the slow pacing of her "becoming" herself again too well. Anything interesting happen from 30ish to the conclusion? All i did was skim through those comics whenever i was at my local store just to check out the art, but it never really drew me in.

Heh although i did get a hoot from seeing that massive army of the folks she'd slain. Man, i wonder what her kill count is up to now, it seems like everyday she's always hacking a bunch of folks up, no wonder she's in GREAT shape

[Red Bryan]

I will judge the book after issue 49, because I think there is a development I have to see before judging the book. Meanwhile, I enjoyed reading the whole story since 36, even when it was not nearly as good as the issues before that. And it was not THE Red Sonja we all know and want to read. BUT: There are many, many heroines out there. I could switch to another series like Athena, Fathom, Supergirl etc. But I read Red Sonja, so there must be something in it I don't want to miss.