Red Sonja: The Ballad Of The Red Goddess Review

Comic book fans you'll know doubt know that i'm a bit of a comic book fans i'm not going to say that i'm a die hard fan but if something has her name on it i'll be interested. So imagine my intrigue when I found out that there was a new graphic novel released about the character and i'm going to be freaking blunt it's a really good read and so here is my review of Red Sonja: The Ballad Of The Red Goddess.

To put it simply the plot of this book is pretty much the exact same plot as that of I Spit On Your Grave (don't watch that movie by the way) in that a woman gets "attacked" and she ends up getting revenge only tho here the girl is Red Sonja and she swears to kill all of the men who have wronged her. If your on certain apps you'll know why I put the word attacked in brackets because it goes back to my review of I Spit On Your Grave and I have to say that the plot really does work for this character.

I know it looks like i'm being lazy just by using the second page of this graphic novel and you'd be right. This novel was published by Dynamite who have killing it with there Sonja output and it's the same here this book is so freaking good i;m not going to say that it's a must read since it's an origin story and just by that you know how the story is going to end but how the book gets us there that for me is the interesting part.

Now this is book was actually first published in Spain some time ago but this is the first time that it's been published in English. I'm honestly all for English speaking characters getting stories published outside of English speaking countries since characters can speak to anyone no matter what the language is and given how good this book is i'm glad that it's finally made it's way to English speaking countries.

They don't really name that many characters in this book in fact only two characters are named and of course one of those is the titular Red Sonja with the other one being Morrigan. To me that's really odd since in any book regardless if it's a graphic novel or not there's alot more characters named and so to only have two of them named in this book does seem odd and I know that it's a strange thing to talk about but one of the unnamed characters is also the villain and so you'd have thought they would have gave the villain a name.

The writer for the book is Roy Thomas who's mostly written stuff for Marvel with things like the 1968 Captain Marvel series to name but one of the many things he's written for. If you think he's worked with high profile Marvel characters you'd be right because he's written for The Hulk , Captain America and Iron Man. That said tho for me his writing seemed very lack luster which is a shame because he's also written for Red Sonja back in the seventies when the character was at Marvel.

In my opinion Red Sonja is a great example of a strong female character since she's not only able to kick anyone's a*s but she's also a flawed character. For some reason people think that strong female characters need to be physically strong but that's not the case at all the only thing they need to be is a good character and that's what Sonja is she's a good character she can kick your a*s and yet she can still fall in love. 

In terms of who did the artwork it was Esteban Maroto who's a mostly unknown Spanish artist and i'd say he's highest profile character was the 1993 Zatanna series. Which is a shame because the guy does have some talent but his work here seemed to be very minimalistic because as you can see by the above picture apart from the colour red it's all black and white and it's an interesting style choice and I think that it works for this book.

While this book is basically an origin story for Sonja it tells that part of the story in what i think is an interesting way. It's not due to what we see play out on the page but rather the language they use which to me read like it was very Shakespearean and that was interesting to me because all of the other RS books that i've read it's like there speaking medevil english i'm not sure if anyone else has thought of that but it was something that I noticed while reading this book.

Now I never talk about the designs when I review a comic book and well i'm going to change that right now because I liked the design that they went with for Sonja. She still looks alot like the character so you know that it's her but she looks like a version of the character from the eighties with the big hair and that to me was an interesting way to go with her at least design wise since I cannot think of a time where the character has had big hair so to me it just screams eighties.

I will say that unlike I Spit On Your Grave which shows the "attack" on the girl in alot of detail (i'm not kidding the whole thing goes on for thirty minuets) this book goes over it in about a page which freaking honestly suits me because the "attack" scene in I Spit On Your Grave is so disturbing so anything that has that kind of scene for alot less then what I Spit On Your Grave does gets a huge thumbs up in my opinion.

I will say that it honestly seems right the kind of attack i'm talking about helps make Sonja the vengeful hero that we know her to be. I;m sorry that I keep bringing this up but unlike I Spit On Your Grave there's little doubt in anyone's mind that Sonja is the hero and they don't try and flip convention by having the main hero be a killer which was what they did with I Spit On Your Grave. 

Here Sonja was already pretty handy with a sword prior to the attack so we know that she can kick some a*s even tho she's still learning. Now I wouldn't go as far to say that that's any gore in this book inf act the most gore you see comes in the word bubbles when they describe what she's going to do with the sword however it's still not for the faint hearted since there is the "attack" scene and yes I will explain what I mean by that at the end of the review so it will all make sense then.

There's a ton of action in this book and when I say a ton I really do mean it since like 90% of the book is all action. I have to admit i'm not quite sure how I feel about that since it does leave very little room for story and in my eyes that matters more then having a great looking action scene but tho the action seen in here is honestly pretty cool and it does lead to some cool looking images most of which you can see in this review.

Overall this is a really cool book with some interesting art choices but due to how many action scenes there are that does leave very little room for the story and so the book gets an 8 out of 10 for me. Now as I promised the reason why I out attack in brackets is because what really happens is a word that i'm not comfortable with but if you really want to know it's ape with an R infront of it. 

   

Some Comic Books I'm Going To Review

Comic book fans I thought that i'd do something a bit different today because honestly I couldn't think of a single thing to review. So I thought that i;d tell you some of the comic books that I intend on taking a look at at some point in the future please note that this will include books from alot of different comic book companies so your not just going to find Marvel stuff or DC stuff your going to find stuff from alot of companies so alot of books will be ones that you've never heard of so here we go.

The Jetsons (DC)

Now i've been meaning to read alot more stuff from the Hanna-Barbera beyond line since i', a fan of there work and I did read this when it was coming out. The only thing stopping me from doing it is the fact that I was never that much of a fan of this book I only picked it up to see how they did the characters but it is something that is quite high on my list of comic books to review but it's not something i'll be getting to any time soon.

A Clash Of Kings (Dynamite Entertainment)

Not only am I a huge Game Of Thrones (your talking to a guy who owns all the books plus alot of seasons from the show and have played the dreadful XBOX 360 game) but i've also reviewed the original Game of Thrones comic book. So of course i'm going to be taking a look at this why I havn't done it now is simply because i'm waiting until they've finished the whole book before I even read a single of it.

Elvira: The Shape of Elvira (Dynamite Entertainment)

I read the recent and reviewed the recent Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark comic book which I loved and i've read the first issue of this book and if you've seen the cover and the title you'll have a fair idea of recent film there spoofing. I will say using Elvira to spoof this film to me is pure genius because no one spoofs films better then her and the best thing this series is only four issues long so when ever im able to see the remaining issues the review will be going live.

Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor (Titan Comics)

You comic book fans won't know this but i'm also a huge Doctor Who fan and i'll admit i've not read the comics or heard the audio plays but i've seen the show both classic and recent and i've seen all of the films and spin off shows. I was actually one of the few people excited to be getting a female doctor granted I had to watch something that Jodie Whittaker was in to see if she was any good at drama but she's not let me down so far and as soon as they finish the first story for this run i'll be posting the review.

The Flintstones (DC)

Not only are we heading back to DC but also back to the stone age because just like with The Jetsons recent comic book I read the awesome Flintstones book as it was published. Guys and girls this is a book that i'm dying to revuew for you guys but with it being twelve issues long and the fact that I have many other reviews and stuff to write per day this one might take a few billion years but it will get here that much I promise.

Avengers Standoff: Assault on Pleasant Hill (Marvel)

Now then Marvel fans i've not forgotten about you guys this is a title that i've honestly not seen that many people talking about. I figure tho that with the next Avengers movies coming out soon this would be a great year for me to take a look at it the only issue i'd have is there's so many issues to read and the collected edition is rather expensive so I might have to wait until it drops down in price before I even consider reviewing this one.

A-Force 2015 (Marvel)

I'm not even going to try and lie here the only reason i'd even consider reading and reviewing this book is that it has Captain Marvel on the cover and I could tie it in the new Captain Marvel movie that's coming out. It might be a shameless reason to do a review but it's better then doing a review for no reason at all plus we all know that when that movie comes out any book featuring her is going to sell and sell fast.

Batman/Catwoman: The Wedding Album: The Deluxe Edition (DC)

When this storyline was first announced alot of people couldn't believe that it was finally going to happen Bruce Wayne was finally going to get married to Catwoman it just seems insane right. Well as we all know things didn't exactly go that way and that's why I want to review it so I can see if it makes sense in terms of both the story and the characters or not because it would be so easy for me to say that the storyline sucks but it would be more of a challenge if I sat down and read it and then gave you my thoughts on it.

Any Hellboy Comic

I'm not going to name just one title here because there's so many just for this one character so i;m saying that I want to review any of the Hellboy comics because I honestly like the character. It also helps that he has a new movie coming out and so any review I could do I could then tie it in to the new m movie in shape or form so it would be a really easy for me to get alot clicks or likes just due to that fact.

The Rest Of Red Sonja Worlds Away (Dynamite)

I know that i've just reviewed the first volume but my task is to finish the whole storyline now i'm going to tell you right now i'm not working on this as of this moment because there is such a thing as to much of a good thing. So i'm aiming to finish that whole storyline by the end of the year so that way I myself can take a break from the character and whoever publishes the collected editions can finish releasing it.

Red Sonja: Worlds Away Volume 1 Review

Comic book fans you've seen me review alot of stuff from both Marvel and DC but I thought that I would review something a little bit different oh it's still a comic book just not from either of those two companies. The character of Red Sonja was technically a Marvel creation but she was based on both Red Sonya of Rogatino and Dark Agnes de Chastillon so if you see author Robert E. Howard get credited there technically not wrong but anyways here is my review of Red Sonja: World's Apart Volume 1.

The story is Sonja is in the middle of a fight with villain Kulan Gath who as far as I can tell is someone who can use magic but anyways both he Sonja and a little boy suddenly find themselves in modern day New York and Sonja has to find a way to not only defeat Gath but find her way home. As you might have worked out by the name of this post this story is so huge that when the omnibus came out it got split into three volumes and so the story isn't fully resolved yet. I can say tho that taking these characters and putting them in a more modern setting to me is never a good idea all you have to do is look at the live action Smurfs movie to see how bad of an idea that is but it oddly works in this volume.

Volume 1 collects the first seven issues in this recent storyline and honestly I think that kicking this story of with an issue 0 to me makes sense. It makes sense because you can hook in new readers who might not want to go back and read several other series just understand this one page so by effectively rebooting this world you can get new readers in there and for me issue 0 does a good job of that because it gives you pretty much all of things that you'd expect from a Red Sonja book and it does kind of add a mystery for new readers because it doesn't explain her backstory.

You comic book fans won't no this but i'm kind of a Red Sonja fan I won't like go and buy every issue when it comes out. I will however check out several issues if i'm bored and I do know that one of the best Red Sonja writers is one Gail Simone. So for me reading these issues is odd because of the fact that i'm hearing a new writers take on the character and thus there voice is the one that comes across when I read it.

The new writer in question is one Amy Chu who really hasn't written anything of note but i'm sure she will in the future. At least she will if the writing in this volume is anything to go by because it's honestly really good Sonja is still the strong willed character that we remember but now there's kind of an added innocence to her which while it can be annoying at times and seem out of place for this kind of story it does work.

The artwork for this volume was done by Carlos Gomez who's work can also be seen in the recently released Star Wars: Age of Republic Special. Now here I would usually say that the artwork is bad but it's honestly not if anything it's alot better then the artwork seen in alot of comic books today and to me that's a really refreshing thing to say because I do hate saying that someone's artwork is bad so to see a book where the art is actually good is for me a great thing to say.

One of the things that I actually really hate about this book is that we have a lot of fish out of water scenes with Sonja. Which do make sense in terms of the story but they also don't need to do that many scenes one or two of those scenes would have worked but here they do it quite alot of times and ti got to the point where I would just skip those panels because I knew what the punchline would be because i'd seen it a few pages earlier.

It's scenes like those why taking characters that are from medevil times and placing in modern day is always a bad idea. Those kind of stories never work at least in my opinion because all they do is come across like your trying to be cool by referencing things that a modern day reader would understand instead of doing what's best for the actual character. Like I said before tho this idea does work for this character but they still use the fish out of water stuff way to much and it would have been better served if they didn't do it.

This volume does do something interesting and that's tell us that Sonja is never speaking English or at least what we'd say is English. To me that's a really interesting idea even tho it's something so small and gives Max one of the new characters this world a way into the world of Red Sonja because for a huge portion of this volume he's the only one that can understand her and it also gives the new character Holly who works at a museum a way into the world for the exact same reason.

We also get another new character called Spike and that pretty much rounds out all of the new characters for this volume there is a character called Jay but plot wise she adds nothing. It's also thanks to Spike that we get a less revealing outfit for Sonja which you can see in the above picture the only thing is she literally only wears this outfit for that one panel so it kind of makes that reveal pointless since she goes back to her regular outfit in the very next page and that's a shame because this new outfit actually looks good on her.

I have to admit that the action in this book is honestly really good it's alot better then what I thought it would have been. Yes the action does boil down to who can hit who the hardest but with the magic aspect that really does make things seem more fresh because if it was just Sonja hitting someone that could get boring pretty fast but because they mix it up by adding in the magic element it stops the action from feeling boring at least in my opinion.

Overall this wasn't a bad volume the story does show alot of promise and considering that I just watched and reviewed the freaking dreadful Barb Wire movie I really needed to watch or read something good. That said tho there are alot of issues that keep this volume from being perfect so it gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

Some Comic Books That I Would Love To See Get An Animated Series

Comic Book fans it's very common for someone to turn a comic book character into an animated series just look at Disney as prime examples but for every one that does get made there are a dozen or so that don't even get looked at and so i'm going to list of the comic books that I want to see turned into an animated series.

Grimm Fairy Tales

This series presents a take on classic fairy tales that is more inline with there original source material so this could make for a really exiting adult animated show heck one of the characters was so popular that she got her own Syfy show Van Helsing but just imagine if the whole Grimm universe was adapted for this series we could see Cinderella interact with Snow White and Alice and we could see Robyn Hood (that's how they spell it in this series) interact with Dorothy Gale you could do pretty much anything and it would work.

Suicide Squad

Yes I know that Harley Quinn is getting her own animated series but this one could also work as a series again the only way this could work for me is if you make it an adult series since the team is mostly made up of villains that would make the most sense and heck the recent animated movie Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay proved that the team can look good in animated form and if you wanted to tie this into the new Harley Quinn series then make this one a spin off.

Any 2000 AD Character

2000 Ad has such a great selection of characters some have already been seen in movies but none have been turned into an animated series and to me that's just wrong Judge Dredd has proven himself popular twice at the box office and you wouldn't have to stick to one genre of show Dredd could be a cop show , Slaine could a violent fantasy epic and Survival Geeks could be a Sci-Fi comedy there are so many genres you could do if these characters were adapted into an animated series.

Hellboy

Like Suicide Squad Hellboy has not only appeared in live action but also in animation and also like Suicide Squad he has never gotten an animated series despite how popular he became after the 2004 movie perhaps the reason why he's not been given his own animated series is the fact that the series does focus alot on supernatural elements but the way I see it is if Supernatural can get an anime then why can't Hellboy get his own animated series.

Vampirella

She's pretty much a vampire freaking superhero how in the hell is this not been turned into an animated series already the series pretty much writes itself and since this is a horror character you can really go all out in terms of the story and the things you can get away with all you need to do is get somebody like Adult Swim to air the show and the shows golden.

Deadpool

This was honestly one of the few things I was really excited for when it first announced and then they announced that the glover brothers were going to be behind it and I got even more excited and then they cancelled it which is a shame because Deadpool IS a cartoon character so all they had to do was put that character on the small screen that was it and yes I still believe that one day this character will get his own animated series.

Red Sonja

This character kinda got an animated film but it's really more of a motion comic but the character has never been given an animated series which is a shame because if you make the show in the vain of Xena mixed in with Game Of Thrones it could really work I really cannot be the only one who sees the potential in an animated Red Sonja series even today she's still popular this is a series that's just begging to happen.

Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues Review

Hello there comic fans i'm going to do something i havn't done before and depending on how many i can find and how well this goes down there will be more of i'm going to review the motion comic Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues.

Now this is my first time watching a motion comic and i admit i never saw the original Queen Of Plagues Arc so i have no idea if this is faithful or not but i can tell you that the film does a good job of telling it's story which is Red Sonja the She-Devil with a Sword, intends to pay back a blood debt owed to the one man who has gained her respect even if it means leading a doomed army to their certain deaths! Who is Dark Annisia, and how has this fearsome warrior accomplished what neither god nor demon has been able to do: force Sonja to her knees in surrender? An epic tale of blood, lust, and vengeance, Queen of the Plagues takes Red Sonja from the depths of her own grave to the heights of battlefield glory.

The cast do a great job with there roles i really liked Misty Lee as Red Sonja she really adds emotion to the character and her yelling her name in a fit of rage is truly something to behold. Sadly tho most of the dialog isn't that good and it could have done with a quick rewrite just to make sure it didn't sound so clunky which is a shame because the writer Gail Simone usually gives us good dialog.

The artwork does look really good and is really stunning to look at the artwork looks like it was ripped straight out of the books which was something i really liked and i know they didn't really have to do this but i loved that they animated things like people's hair or even the hair on the horse it was a small touch but it's something i'm glad that they did.

The animation in the film/motion comic looked really good like i just said they animated not only people's hair but also hair in the horses but they also animated transitions between what i think were the panel pages which was a great way to get from one panel to the other. The lip movements also synced up really well with the actors performance.

The action scenes looked really good and were really freaking brutal i had an idea going into this of how brutal it would be but even i was shocked at how much blood and violence they some how managed to get away with. I'm glad that in most of the action scenes Red Sonja has to use her wits to kill her opponent because she does have a huge sword so it would have been very freaking easy just to have swing the word a few times and end the battle there.

Overall if you want to watch something with a strong female lead who takes no bs from anybody then i suggest you watch this i give Red Sonja: Queen Of Plagues a solid 7 out of 10 because it does have some pacing issues that i can't ignore.