Beating Cultists With A Mutton Leg In Red Sonja Halloween Special
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
An old village woman asks Red Sonja to find her missing son. The woman believes her son to be in the grip of a monster. The Valahiei Festival has come to the village, and all adventurers and warriors are afraid to strike out on a quest. Unfortunately, the old woman believe that her son will be dead by then. Sonja takes up her cause, and she even has a guide to take her to the location of the monster.
In a back-up story, Red Sonja stops a little girl from being sacrificed by a cult.
The Red Sonja Halloween Special finds our hero on a mission of mercy during a Halloween-style festival of the dead. It’s an enjoyable tale; we get to see Sonja show up some braggarts as well show her compassionate side.
The twist of the story is easy to see coming–especially when you figure out what kind of monster Sonja faces.
The second story is short but enjoyable. Sonja beats up some cultists, saves a little girl, and does most of this wielding nothing but a leg of mutton as a weapon.
The art for the first story, contributed by Tom Garcia and colorist Morgan Hickman, is quite good. It’s textured, Sonja is quite muscular and imposing, and the monster looks good, too. The drawback is the emphasis on T&A that both her character design and posing bring. The art in the second tale is also excellent and has less trouble in this regard. Anthony and Avery Marques bring a style that focuses on large panels with extreme close-ups and a drawing style reminiscent of the late, great Darwyn Cooke. The color work of Dee Cunniffe in this section adds to that classic comic aesthetic that the Marques’ build with their linework.
Red Sonja Halloween Special is an entertaining pair of stories that show the consummate badass that we all know Red Sonja to be. Both tales are well-paced and rendered well, and the overall comic is worth a recommendation. Feel free to check it out.
Red Sonja Halloween Special comes to us from writers Erik Burnham, Tom DeFalco, Anthony Marques, and Liam Marques, artists Tom Garcia, Anthony Marques, and Avery Marques, color artists Morgan Hickman and Dee Cunniffe, letterer Taylor Esposito, and cover artist Reilly Brown with Jim Charalampidis.
