Immortal Red Sonja #1 Review

Writer: Dan Abnett
Art: Alessandro Miracolo, Ellie Wright, Jeff Eckleberry, and Nate Cosby
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 13th, 2022

A cursed chain mail shirt leads Red Sonja on a new quest in Immortal Red Sonja #1, where she travels to the home of King Arthur, seeking a cure for the chain mail that she can’t remove. In the snow-drenched mountains of King Arthur, Sonja desperately searches for a release from the cursed chain mail that’s grafted to her skin, as the ghosts in the chain mail slowly driving her mad.

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The Story

Immortal Red Sonja #1 begins with Sonja coming across a large cabin (and the old man living within) after wandering for days, lost in snowy mountains. From there, the rest of the issue reminded me of the film “The Hateful Eight”, because most of the issue takes place inside the cabin, where Sonja and the old man talk, and Sonja tells him about the curse inflicted on her.

Her whole tale of woe comes off as surprisingly insipid, and even the mental chess match she’s waging against the old man (who’s harboring secrets also) seems very bland and predictable.

By the end of the issue, we get a battle between Sonja and a demonic being. The whole book feels like a “paint by numbers” style story, with the only interesting facet of the story being Sonja dealing with the ghosts ingrained in the chain mail, who she argues with constantly as they nag and pester her in her mind. It’ll be interesting to see how she copes as she presses on. Seeing a near-insane Sonja battling demon hordes would be pretty amazing, it would add a level of horror to the book that’s been missing from most of the Red Sonja books lately.

Hopefully, now that we’re past the prelude of the story, the next issue will pick up a bit. I’m intrigued to see Sonja interact with various characters from the Arthurian myths, which are some of my favorite stories.

The Art

Alessandro Miracolo has a sketchy style on Immortal Red Sonja #1, with not a lot of detail, but good facial expressions, and when the battle scenes come, they’re handled in epic fashion.

Since most of the issue takes place inside a cabin, there’s no need for drawing huge vistas and landscapes, but the cabin interiors look suitably earthy and are a good backdrop for the story.