Uniting The Demonic With Red Sonja: Age Of Chaos #1
by Josh Davison
Mild Spoilers Ahead
We join Red Sonja at the end of another war against Kulan Gath as Sonja kills the sorcerer once again. To prevent another resurrection from Gath, Sonja takes his amulet out to sea and drops it in the water. In the far future, Mistress Hel informs three beings of the amulet’s whereabouts: Evil Ernie, Jade, and Purgatori. She tells them that the amulet will grant them great power and the trio are enticed. The three monsters separately go to the museum in which Gath’s amulet lies, and they fight for mastership over the artifact. However, they aren’t alone: Chastity the vampire hunter and Bad Kitty arrive to kill these monstrosities.
Red Sonja: Age of Chaos #1 brings the warrior onto a collision course with the characters of Chaos! Comics. Sonja attempted to put a permanent end to Kulan Gath (who has also, confusingly, been in Marvel’s Savage Avengers series), but it seems that the sorcerer will forever plague Sonja and the Hyborian Age.
Chaos! Comics are another realm with which I’m not particularly familiar. I read the first issue of Dynamite’s current Chastity series, but I’ve had no experience with Jade, Evil Ernie, Purgatori, or Bad Kitty. It’s a gruesome menagerie and there’s something charming about that. Evil Ernie is particularly entertaining in a Twisted Metal kind of way. The big brawl between the five of them is entertaining and it’s fun watching each character drop in one at a time.
The Chaos! Comics crew don’t encounter Red Sonja in this issue, but their meeting seems imminent at the end of the issue.
Jonathan Lau’s artwork brings us a particularly ragged and wild-looking Red Sonja and it looks quite good. His rendition of the Chaos! Comics monsters is damn appealing too. Celeste Woods’ color art is strong and it keeps the book lively throughout.
Red Sonja: Age of Chaos #1 is a fun, frenetic, and fittingly chaotic comic that brings a quintet of monsters and monster hunters to the Hyborian Age through a bunch of mystical nonsense. It’s an entertaining read and it earns a recommendation. Feel free to give it a read.
Red Sonja: Age of Chaos #1 comes to us from writer Erik Burnham, artist Jonathan Lau, color artist Celeste Woods, letterer Carlos S. Mangual, cover artist Lucio Parillo, and variant cover artists Alan Quah with Komikaki Studio; Cian Tormey with Rico Renzi; and Ale Garza with Mostaffa Moussa, and Nei Ruffino.
Final Score: 8/10
